Reference layer adaptive filtering (RLAF) for EEG artifact reduction in simultaneous EEG-fMRI

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Steyrl, David; Krausz, Gunther; Koschutnig, Karl; Edlinger, Günter; Müller-Putz, Gernot R.

2017-04-01

Objective. Simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) combines advantages of both methods, namely high temporal resolution of EEG and high spatial resolution of fMRI. However, EEG quality is limited due to severe artifacts caused by fMRI scanners. Approach. To improve EEG data quality substantially, we introduce methods that use a reusable reference layer EEG cap prototype in combination with adaptive filtering. The first method, reference layer adaptive filtering (RLAF), uses adaptive filtering with reference layer artifact data to optimize artifact subtraction from EEG. In the second method, multi band reference layer adaptive filtering (MBRLAF), adaptive filtering is performed on bandwidth limited sub-bands of the EEG and the reference channels. Main results. The results suggests that RLAF outperforms the baseline method, average artifact subtraction, in all settings and also its direct predecessor, reference layer artifact subtraction (RLAS), in lower (<35 Hz) frequency ranges. MBRLAF is computationally more demanding than RLAF, but highly effective in all EEG frequency ranges. Effectivity is determined by visual inspection, as well as root-mean-square voltage reduction and power reduction of EEG provided that physiological EEG components such as occipital EEG alpha power and visual evoked potentials (VEP) are preserved. We demonstrate that both, RLAF and MBRLAF, improve VEP quality. For that, we calculate the mean-squared-distance of single trial VEP to the mean VEP and estimate single trial VEP classification accuracies. We found that the average mean-squared-distance is lowest and the average classification accuracy is highest after MBLAF. RLAF was second best. Significance. In conclusion, the results suggests that RLAF and MBRLAF are potentially very effective in improving EEG quality of simultaneous EEG-fMRI. Highlights We present a new and reusable reference layer cap prototype for simultaneous EEG-fMRI We introduce new algorithms for reducing EEG artifacts due to simultaneous fMRI The algorithms combine a reference layer and adaptive filtering Several evaluation criteria suggest superior effectivity in terms of artifact reduction We demonstrate that physiological EEG components are preserved

Evaluation of the structural, physicochemical, and biological characteristics of SB4, a biosimilar of etanercept

PubMed Central

Cho, Ick Hyun; Lee, Nayoung; Song, Dami; Jung, Seong Young; Bou-Assaf, George; Sosic, Zoran; Zhang, Wei; Lyubarskaya, Yelena

2016-01-01

ABSTRACT A biosimilar is a biological medicinal product that is comparable to a reference medicinal product in terms of quality, safety, and efficacy. SB4 was developed as a biosimilar to Enbrel® (etanercept) and was approved as Benepali®, the first biosimilar of etanercept licensed in the European Union (EU). The quality assessment of SB4 was performed in accordance with the ICH comparability guideline and the biosimilar guidelines of the European Medicines Agency and Food and Drug Administration. Extensive structural, physicochemical, and biological testing was performed with state-of-the-art technologies during a side-by-side comparison of the products. Similarity of critical quality attributes (CQAs) was evaluated on the basis of tolerance intervals established from quality data obtained from more than 60 lots of EU-sourced and US-sourced etanercept. Additional quality assessment was focused on a detailed investigation of immunogenicity-related quality attributes, including hydrophobic variants, high-molecular-weight (HMW) species, N-glycolylneuraminic acid (NGNA), and α-1,3-galactose. This comprehensive characterization study demonstrated that SB4 is highly similar to the reference product, Enbrel®, in structural, physicochemical, and biological quality attributes. In addition, the levels of potential immunogenicity-related quality attributes of SB4 such as hydrophobic variants, HMW aggregates, and α-1,3-galactose were less than those of the reference product. PMID:27246928

GAGES: A stream gage database for evaluating natural and alteredflow conditions in the conterminous United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Falcone, James A.; Carlisle, Daren M.; Wolock, David M.; Meador, Michael R.

2010-01-01

In addition, watersheds were assessed for their reference quality within nine broad regions for use in studies intended to characterize stream flows under conditions minimally influenced by human activities. Three primary criteria were used to assess reference quality: (1) a quantitative index of anthropogenic modification within the watershed based on GIS-derived variables, (2) visual inspection of every stream gage and drainage basin from recent high-resolution imagery and topographic maps, and (3) information about man-made influences from USGS Annual Water Data Reports. From the set of 6785 sites, we identified 1512 as reference-quality stream gages. All data derived for these watersheds as well as the reference condition evaluation are provided as an online data set termed GAGES (geospatial attributes of gages for evaluating stream flow).

The Librarian's Internet Survival Guide: Strategies for the High-Tech Reference Desk.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDermott, Irene E.; Quint, Barbara, Ed.

This guide discusses the use of the World Wide Web for library reference service. Part 1, "Ready Reference on the Web: Resources for Patrons," contains chapters on searching and meta-searching the Internet, using the Web to find people, news on the Internet, quality reference resources on the Web, Internet sites for kids, free full-text…

Ensuring Quality Assurance in Vocational Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Idialu, Ethel E.

2013-01-01

Vocational education emphasises skill acquisition. Quality assurance in vocational education is a concept that is concerned with high performance involving activities with vocational education such as teaching, learning, infrastructures, students' behaviour and the entire academic process. Quality vocational education refers to input and output of…

Teacher’s sleep quality: linked to social job characteristics?

PubMed Central

KOTTWITZ, Maria U.; GERHARDT, Christin; PEREIRA, Diana; ISELI, Lionel; ELFERING, Achim

2017-01-01

Besides dealing with high workload, being a teacher is challenging with respect to the social context. There is increasing evidence that adverse social job characteristics challenge sleep quality. The current study tests whether restraint sleep quality (defined as worse sleep quality before than during vacation) is related to time-related job stressors, job resources, and social job characteristics. Forty-eight elementary school teachers (42% women) participated both during the last week before and the first week after vacation. Before vacation, teachers were asked for demographics and working conditions with reference to the last 30 d, and sleep quality with reference to the last 7 d. After vacation sleep quality during vacation was assessed and used as reference for working time sleep quality. Results showed mean levels of sleep quality increased during vacation. In teachers with restrained working time sleep quality (38%), experiences of failure at work, social exclusion, and emotional dissonance were more frequent than in teachers with unrestrained working time sleep quality (Ps<0.05). Groups did not differ in time-related stressors, time control and social support from supervisors. Emotion work, social exclusion and individual experience of failure seem to challenge sleep quality in teachers. PMID:28804097

Teacher's sleep quality: linked to social job characteristics?

PubMed

Kottwitz, Maria U; Gerhardt, Christin; Pereira, Diana; Iseli, Lionel; Elfering, Achim

2018-02-07

Besides dealing with high workload, being a teacher is challenging with respect to the social context. There is increasing evidence that adverse social job characteristics challenge sleep quality. The current study tests whether restraint sleep quality (defined as worse sleep quality before than during vacation) is related to time-related job stressors, job resources, and social job characteristics. Forty-eight elementary school teachers (42% women) participated both during the last week before and the first week after vacation. Before vacation, teachers were asked for demographics and working conditions with reference to the last 30 d, and sleep quality with reference to the last 7 d. After vacation sleep quality during vacation was assessed and used as reference for working time sleep quality. Results showed mean levels of sleep quality increased during vacation. In teachers with restrained working time sleep quality (38%), experiences of failure at work, social exclusion, and emotional dissonance were more frequent than in teachers with unrestrained working time sleep quality (Ps<0.05). Groups did not differ in time-related stressors, time control and social support from supervisors. Emotion work, social exclusion and individual experience of failure seem to challenge sleep quality in teachers.

Exploiting long read sequencing technologies to establish high quality highly contiguous pig reference genome assemblies

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The current pig reference genome sequence (Sscrofa10.2) was established using Sanger sequencing and following the clone-by-clone hierarchical shotgun sequencing approach used in the public human genome project. However, as sequence coverage was low (4-6x) the resulting assembly was only of draft qua...

High-quality mtDNA control region sequences from 680 individuals sampled across the Netherlands to establish a national forensic mtDNA reference database.

PubMed

Chaitanya, Lakshmi; van Oven, Mannis; Brauer, Silke; Zimmermann, Bettina; Huber, Gabriela; Xavier, Catarina; Parson, Walther; de Knijff, Peter; Kayser, Manfred

2016-03-01

The use of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) for maternal lineage identification often marks the last resort when investigating forensic and missing-person cases involving highly degraded biological materials. As with all comparative DNA testing, a match between evidence and reference sample requires a statistical interpretation, for which high-quality mtDNA population frequency data are crucial. Here, we determined, under high quality standards, the complete mtDNA control-region sequences of 680 individuals from across the Netherlands sampled at 54 sites, covering the entire country with 10 geographic sub-regions. The complete mtDNA control region (nucleotide positions 16,024-16,569 and 1-576) was amplified with two PCR primers and sequenced with ten different sequencing primers using the EMPOP protocol. Haplotype diversity of the entire sample set was very high at 99.63% and, accordingly, the random-match probability was 0.37%. No population substructure within the Netherlands was detected with our dataset. Phylogenetic analyses were performed to determine mtDNA haplogroups. Inclusion of these high-quality data in the EMPOP database (accession number: EMP00666) will improve its overall data content and geographic coverage in the interest of all EMPOP users worldwide. Moreover, this dataset will serve as (the start of) a national reference database for mtDNA applications in forensic and missing person casework in the Netherlands. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

A proteome-scale map of the human interactome network

PubMed Central

Rolland, Thomas; Taşan, Murat; Charloteaux, Benoit; Pevzner, Samuel J.; Zhong, Quan; Sahni, Nidhi; Yi, Song; Lemmens, Irma; Fontanillo, Celia; Mosca, Roberto; Kamburov, Atanas; Ghiassian, Susan D.; Yang, Xinping; Ghamsari, Lila; Balcha, Dawit; Begg, Bridget E.; Braun, Pascal; Brehme, Marc; Broly, Martin P.; Carvunis, Anne-Ruxandra; Convery-Zupan, Dan; Corominas, Roser; Coulombe-Huntington, Jasmin; Dann, Elizabeth; Dreze, Matija; Dricot, Amélie; Fan, Changyu; Franzosa, Eric; Gebreab, Fana; Gutierrez, Bryan J.; Hardy, Madeleine F.; Jin, Mike; Kang, Shuli; Kiros, Ruth; Lin, Guan Ning; Luck, Katja; MacWilliams, Andrew; Menche, Jörg; Murray, Ryan R.; Palagi, Alexandre; Poulin, Matthew M.; Rambout, Xavier; Rasla, John; Reichert, Patrick; Romero, Viviana; Ruyssinck, Elien; Sahalie, Julie M.; Scholz, Annemarie; Shah, Akash A.; Sharma, Amitabh; Shen, Yun; Spirohn, Kerstin; Tam, Stanley; Tejeda, Alexander O.; Trigg, Shelly A.; Twizere, Jean-Claude; Vega, Kerwin; Walsh, Jennifer; Cusick, Michael E.; Xia, Yu; Barabási, Albert-László; Iakoucheva, Lilia M.; Aloy, Patrick; De Las Rivas, Javier; Tavernier, Jan; Calderwood, Michael A.; Hill, David E.; Hao, Tong; Roth, Frederick P.; Vidal, Marc

2014-01-01

SUMMARY Just as reference genome sequences revolutionized human genetics, reference maps of interactome networks will be critical to fully understand genotype-phenotype relationships. Here, we describe a systematic map of ~14,000 high-quality human binary protein-protein interactions. At equal quality, this map is ~30% larger than what is available from small-scale studies published in the literature in the last few decades. While currently available information is highly biased and only covers a relatively small portion of the proteome, our systematic map appears strikingly more homogeneous, revealing a “broader” human interactome network than currently appreciated. The map also uncovers significant inter-connectivity between known and candidate cancer gene products, providing unbiased evidence for an expanded functional cancer landscape, while demonstrating how high quality interactome models will help “connect the dots” of the genomic revolution. PMID:25416956

Improving production efficiency in the presence of genotype by environment interactions in pig genomic selection breeding programmes.

PubMed

Nirea, K G; Meuwissen, T H E

2017-04-01

We simulated a genomic selection pig breeding schemes containing nucleus and production herds to improve feed efficiency of production pigs that were cross-breed. Elite nucleus herds had access to high-quality feed, and production herds were fed low-quality feed. Feed efficiency in the nucleus herds had a heritability of 0.3 and 0.25 in the production herds. It was assumed the genetic relationships between feed efficiency in the nucleus and production were low (r g  = 0.2), medium (r g  = 0.5) and high (r g  = 0.8). In our alternative breeding schemes, different proportion of production animals were recorded for feed efficiency and genotyped with high-density panel of genetic markers. Genomic breeding value of the selection candidates for feed efficiency was estimated based on three different approaches. In one approach, genomic breeding value was estimated including nucleus animals in the reference population. In the second approach, the reference population was containing a mixture of nucleus and production animals. In the third approach, the reference population was only consisting of production herds. Using a mixture reference population, we generated 40-115% more genetic gain in the production environment as compared to only using nucleus reference population that were fed high-quality feed sources when the production animals were offspring of the nucleus animals. When the production animals were grand offspring of the nucleus animals, 43-104% more genetic gain was generated. Similarly, a higher genetic gain generated in the production environment when mixed reference population was used as compared to only using production animals. This was up to 19 and 14% when the production animals were offspring and grand offspring of nucleus animals, respectively. Therefore, in genomic selection pig breeding programmes, feed efficiency traits could be improved by properly designing the reference population. © 2016 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.

Influence of the Pixel Sizes of Reference Computed Tomography on Single-photon Emission Computed Tomography Image Reconstruction Using Conjugate-gradient Algorithm.

PubMed

Okuda, Kyohei; Sakimoto, Shota; Fujii, Susumu; Ida, Tomonobu; Moriyama, Shigeru

The frame-of-reference using computed-tomography (CT) coordinate system on single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) reconstruction is one of the advanced characteristics of the xSPECT reconstruction system. The aim of this study was to reveal the influence of the high-resolution frame-of-reference on the xSPECT reconstruction. 99m Tc line-source phantom and National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) image quality phantom were scanned using the SPECT/CT system. xSPECT reconstructions were performed with the reference CT images in different sizes of the display field-of-view (DFOV) and pixel. The pixel sizes of the reconstructed xSPECT images were close to 2.4 mm, which is acquired as originally projection data, even if the reference CT resolution was varied. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the line-source, absolute recovery coefficient, and background variability of image quality phantom were independent on the sizes of DFOV in the reference CT images. The results of this study revealed that the image quality of the reconstructed xSPECT images is not influenced by the resolution of frame-of-reference on SPECT reconstruction.

21 CFR 900.2 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... a scientific study conducted in accordance with FDA's investigational device exemption regulations..., regardless of whether the person is referred by a physician or is self-referred. (jj) Phantom means a test..., instructors in a post-high school training institution and manufacturer's representatives. (pp) Quality...

A Regression-Based Family of Measures for Full-Reference Image Quality Assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oszust, Mariusz

2016-12-01

The advances in the development of imaging devices resulted in the need of an automatic quality evaluation of displayed visual content in a way that is consistent with human visual perception. In this paper, an approach to full-reference image quality assessment (IQA) is proposed, in which several IQA measures, representing different approaches to modelling human visual perception, are efficiently combined in order to produce objective quality evaluation of examined images, which is highly correlated with evaluation provided by human subjects. In the paper, an optimisation problem of selection of several IQA measures for creating a regression-based IQA hybrid measure, or a multimeasure, is defined and solved using a genetic algorithm. Experimental evaluation on four largest IQA benchmarks reveals that the multimeasures obtained using the proposed approach outperform state-of-the-art full-reference IQA techniques, including other recently developed fusion approaches.

Associations between social understanding, sibling relationship quality, and siblings' conflict strategies and outcomes.

PubMed

Recchia, Holly E; Howe, Nina

2009-01-01

Sibling relationship quality and social understanding (second-order false belief, conflict interpretation, and narrative conflict perspective references) were examined as unique and interactive correlates of sibling conflict behavior in 62 dyads (older M age = 8.39 years and younger M age = 6.06 years). High-quality relationships were associated with positive conflict processes. Younger siblings' second-order false belief scores were negatively associated with constructive conflict strategies, and older siblings' narrative self-referential focus was negatively associated with compromise. Associations between younger children's social understanding (conflict interpretation and narrative perspective references) and siblings' dyadic conflict behavior were moderated by relationship quality. Results suggest that links between social understanding and conflict behavior should be considered in conjunction with the quality of children's relationships.

Development of a reference material of a single DNA molecule for the quality control of PCR testing.

PubMed

Mano, Junichi; Hatano, Shuko; Futo, Satoshi; Yoshii, Junji; Nakae, Hiroki; Naito, Shigehiro; Takabatake, Reona; Kitta, Kazumi

2014-09-02

We developed a reference material of a single DNA molecule with a specific nucleotide sequence. The double-strand linear DNA which has PCR target sequences at the both ends was prepared as a reference DNA molecule, and we named the PCR targets on each side as confirmation sequence and standard sequence. The highly diluted solution of the reference molecule was dispensed into 96 wells of a plastic PCR plate to make the average number of molecules in a well below one. Subsequently, the presence or absence of the reference molecule in each well was checked by real-time PCR targeting for the confirmation sequence. After an enzymatic treatment of the reaction mixture in the positive wells for the digestion of PCR products, the resultant solution was used as the reference material of a single DNA molecule with the standard sequence. PCR analyses revealed that the prepared samples included only one reference molecule with high probability. The single-molecule reference material developed in this study will be useful for the absolute evaluation of a detection limit of PCR-based testing methods, the quality control of PCR analyses, performance evaluations of PCR reagents and instruments, and the preparation of an accurate calibration curve for real-time PCR quantitation.

[Maintainance of a research tissue bank. (Infra)structural and quality aspects].

PubMed

Schmitt, S; Kynast, K; Schirmacher, P; Herpel, E

2015-11-01

The availability of high quality human tissue samples and access to associated histopathological and clinical data are essential for biomedical research. Therefore, it is necessary to establish quality assured tissue biobanks that provide high quality tissue samples for research purposes. This entails quality concerns referring not only to the biomaterial specimen itself but encompassing all procedures related to biobanking, including the implementation of structural components, e.g. ethical and legal guidelines, quality management documentation as well as data and project management and information technology (IT) administration. Moreover, an integral aspect of tissue biobanks is the quality assured evaluation of every tissue specimen that is stored in a tissue biobank and used for projects to guarantee high quality assured biomaterial.

Quality evaluation of no-reference MR images using multidirectional filters and image statistics.

PubMed

Jang, Jinseong; Bang, Kihun; Jang, Hanbyol; Hwang, Dosik

2018-09-01

This study aimed to develop a fully automatic, no-reference image-quality assessment (IQA) method for MR images. New quality-aware features were obtained by applying multidirectional filters to MR images and examining the feature statistics. A histogram of these features was then fitted to a generalized Gaussian distribution function for which the shape parameters yielded different values depending on the type of distortion in the MR image. Standard feature statistics were established through a training process based on high-quality MR images without distortion. Subsequently, the feature statistics of a test MR image were calculated and compared with the standards. The quality score was calculated as the difference between the shape parameters of the test image and the undistorted standard images. The proposed IQA method showed a >0.99 correlation with the conventional full-reference assessment methods; accordingly, this proposed method yielded the best performance among no-reference IQA methods for images containing six types of synthetic, MR-specific distortions. In addition, for authentically distorted images, the proposed method yielded the highest correlation with subjective assessments by human observers, thus demonstrating its superior performance over other no-reference IQAs. Our proposed IQA was designed to consider MR-specific features and outperformed other no-reference IQAs designed mainly for photographic images. Magn Reson Med 80:914-924, 2018. © 2018 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2018 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Effects of Military activity and habitat quality on DNA damage and oxidative stress in the largest population of the Federally threatened gopher tortoise.

PubMed

Theodorakis, Christopher W; Adams, S Marshall; Smith, Chandra; Rotter, Jamie; Hay, Ashley; Eslick, Joy

2017-12-01

Department of Defense lands are essential for providing important habitat for threatened, endangered, and at-risk species (TER-S). However, there is little information on the effects of military-related contaminants on TER-S on these lands in field situations. Thus, this study examined genotoxicity and oxidative stress in gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) on Camp Shelby, MS-the largest known population of this species, which is listed as an "endangered species" in Mississippi and a "threatened species" by the U.S. government. Blood was collected from tortoises at 19 different sites on the base with different levels of habitat quality (high-quality and low-quality habitat) and military activity (high, low, and no military activity). Oxidative stress was quantified as lipid peroxidation and GSSG/GSH ratios, while DNA damage was determined using flow cytometry. Our results suggest that: (1) for tortoises residing in low-quality habitats, oxidative stress and DNA damage increased with increasing military activity, while in high-quality habitats, oxidative stress and DNA damage decreased with increasing military activity; (2) in the absence of military activity, tortoises in high-quality habitat had higher levels of oxidative stress and DNA damage than those in low-quality habitat, and (3) there were interactions between military activity, habitat quality, and landuse in terms of the amount of observable DNA damage and oxidative stress. In particular, on high-quality habitat, tortoises from areas with high levels of military activity had lower levels of oxidative stress and DNA damage biomarkers than on reference sites. This may represent a compensatory or hormetic response. Conversely, on low-quality habitats, the level of oxidative stress and DNA damage was lower on the reference sites. Thus, tortoises on higher-quality habitats may have a greater capacity for compensatory responses. In terms of management implications, it is suggested that low quality habitats should be a higher priority for remediation, and lower priority for conducting military activities.

Population-Based Pediatric Reference Intervals in General Clinical Chemistry: A Swedish Survey.

PubMed

Ridefelt, Peter

2015-01-01

Very few high quality studies on pediatric reference intervals for general clinical chemistry and hematology analytes have been performed. Three recent prospective community-based projects utilising blood samples from healthy children in Sweden, Denmark and Canada have substantially improved the situation. The Swedish survey included 701 healthy children. Reference intervals for general clinical chemistry and hematology were defined.

GEOdetic Data assimilation and EStimation of references for climate change InvEstigation. An overall presentation of the French GEODESIE project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nahmani, S.; Coulot, D.; Biancale, R.; Bizouard, C.; Bonnefond, P.; Bouquillon, S.; Collilieux, X.; Deleflie, F.; Garayt, B.; Lambert, S. B.; Laurent-Varin, S.; Marty, J. C.; Mercier, F.; Metivier, L.; Meyssignac, B.; Pollet, A.; Rebischung, P.; Reinquin, F.; Richard, J. Y.; Tertre, F.; Woppelmann, G.

2017-12-01

Many major indicators of climate change are monitored with space observations. This monitoring is highly dependent on references that only geodesy can provide. The current accuracy of these references does not permit to fully support the challenges that the constantly evolving Earth system gives rise to, and can consequently limit the accuracy of these indicators. Thus, in the framework of the GGOS, stringent requirements are fixed to the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) for the next decade: an accuracy at the level of 1 mm and a stability at the level of 0.1 mm/yr. This means an improvement of the current quality of ITRF by a factor of 5-10. Improving the quality of the geodetic references is an issue which requires a thorough reassessment of the methodologies involved. The most relevant and promising method to improve this quality is the direct combination of the space-geodetic measurements used to compute the official references of the IERS. The GEODESIE project aims at (i) determining highly-accurate global and consistent references and (ii) providing the geophysical and climate research communities with these references, for a better estimation of geocentric sea level rise, ice mass balance and on-going climate changes. Time series of sea levels computed from altimetric data and tide gauge records with these references will also be provided. The geodetic references will be essential bases for Earth's observation and monitoring to support the challenges of the century. The geocentric time series of sea levels will permit to better apprehend (i) the drivers of the global mean sea level rise and of regional variations of sea level and (ii) the contribution of the global climate change induced by anthropogenic greenhouse gases emissions to these drivers. All the results and computation and quality assessment reports will be available at geodesie_anr.ign.fr.This project, supported by the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) for the period 2017-2020, will be an unprecedented opportunity to provide the French Groupe de Recherche de Géodésie Spatiale (GRGS) with complete simulation and data processing capabilities to prepare the future arrival of space missions such as the European Geodetic Reference Antenna in SPace (E-GRASP) and to significantly contribute to the GGOS with accurate references.

Associations between Social Understanding, Sibling Relationship Quality, and Siblings' Conflict Strategies and Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Recchia, Holly E.; Howe, Nina

2009-01-01

Sibling relationship quality and social understanding (second-order false belief, conflict interpretation, and narrative conflict perspective references) were examined as unique and interactive correlates of sibling conflict behavior in 62 dyads (older M age = 8.39 years and younger M age = 6.06 years). High-quality relationships were associated…

Pasta production: complexity in defining processing conditions for reference trials and quality assessment models

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Pasta is a simple food made from water and durum wheat (Triticum turgidum subsp. durum) semolina. As pasta increases in popularity, studies have endeavored to analyze the attributes that contribute to high quality pasta. Despite being a simple food, the laboratory scale analysis of pasta quality is ...

Evaluation of Reference Services--A Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuruppu, Pali U.

2007-01-01

Understanding the inherent deficiencies in reference service as provided is critical to providing effective, high quality service. Quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, as well as a combination of both, are being used to evaluate these services. The identification of appropriate research methodology is critical to an effective…

Geodetic glacier mass balances at the push of a button: application of Structure from Motion technology on aerial images in mountain regions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bolch, T.; Mölg, N.

2017-12-01

The application of Structure-from-Motion (SfM) to generate digital terrain models (DTMs) derived out of images from various kinds of sources has strongly increased in recent years. The major reason for this is its easy-to-use handling in comparison to conventional photogrammetry. In glaciology, DTMs are intensely used, among others, to calculate the geodetic mass balances. Few studies investigated the application of SfM to aerial images in mountainous terrain and results look promising. We tested this technique in a demanding environment in the Swiss Alps including very steep slopes, snow and ice covered terrain. SfM (using the commercial software packages of Agisoft Photoscan and Pix4DMapper) and conventional photogrammetry (ERDAS Photogrammetry) were applied on archival aerial images for nine dates between 1946 and 2005 the results were compared regarding bundle adjustment and final DTM quality. The overall precision of the DTMs could be defined with the use of a modern, high-quality reference DTM by Swisstopo. Results suggest a high performance of SfM to produce DTMs of similar quality as conventional photogrammetry. A ground resolution of high quality (little noise and artefacts) can be up to 50% higher, with 3-6 times less user effort. However, the controls on the commercial SfM software packages are limited in comparison to ERDAS Photogrammetry. SfM performs less reliably when few images with little overlap are processed. Overall, the uncertainty of DTMs from the different software are comparable and mostly within the uncertainty range of the reference DTM, making them highly valuable for glaciological purposes. Even though SfM facilitates the largely automated production of high quality DTMs, the user is not exempt from a thorough quality check, at best with reference data where available.

Validation of no-reference image quality index for the assessment of digital mammographic images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Oliveira, Helder C. R.; Barufaldi, Bruno; Borges, Lucas R.; Gabarda, Salvador; Bakic, Predrag R.; Maidment, Andrew D. A.; Schiabel, Homero; Vieira, Marcelo A. C.

2016-03-01

To ensure optimal clinical performance of digital mammography, it is necessary to obtain images with high spatial resolution and low noise, keeping radiation exposure as low as possible. These requirements directly affect the interpretation of radiologists. The quality of a digital image should be assessed using objective measurements. In general, these methods measure the similarity between a degraded image and an ideal image without degradation (ground-truth), used as a reference. These methods are called Full-Reference Image Quality Assessment (FR-IQA). However, for digital mammography, an image without degradation is not available in clinical practice; thus, an objective method to assess the quality of mammograms must be performed without reference. The purpose of this study is to present a Normalized Anisotropic Quality Index (NAQI), based on the Rényi entropy in the pseudo-Wigner domain, to assess mammography images in terms of spatial resolution and noise without any reference. The method was validated using synthetic images acquired through an anthropomorphic breast software phantom, and the clinical exposures on anthropomorphic breast physical phantoms and patient's mammograms. The results reported by this noreference index follow the same behavior as other well-established full-reference metrics, e.g., the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity index (SSIM). Reductions of 50% on the radiation dose in phantom images were translated as a decrease of 4dB on the PSNR, 25% on the SSIM and 33% on the NAQI, evidencing that the proposed metric is sensitive to the noise resulted from dose reduction. The clinical results showed that images reduced to 53% and 30% of the standard radiation dose reported reductions of 15% and 25% on the NAQI, respectively. Thus, this index may be used in clinical practice as an image quality indicator to improve the quality assurance programs in mammography; hence, the proposed method reduces the subjectivity inter-observers in the reporting of image quality assessment.

Quality of drug information on the World Wide Web and strategies to improve pages with poor information quality. An intervention study on pages about sildenafil.

PubMed

Martin-Facklam, Meret; Kostrzewa, Michael; Martin, Peter; Haefeli, Walter E

2004-01-01

The generally poor quality of health information on the world wide web (WWW) has caused preventable adverse outcomes. Quality management of information on the internet is therefore critical given its widespread use. In order to develop strategies for the safe use of drugs, we scored general and content quality of pages about sildenafil and performed an intervention to improve their quality. The internet was searched with Yahoo and AltaVista for pages about sildenafil and 303 pages were included. For assessment of content quality a score based on accuracy and completeness of essential drug information was assigned. For assessment of general quality, four criteria were evaluated and their association with high content quality was determined by multivariate logistic regression analysis. The pages were randomly allocated to either control or intervention group. Evaluation took place before, as well as 7 and 22 weeks after an intervention which consisted of two letters with individualized feedback information on the respective page which were sent electronically to the address mentioned on the page. Providing references to scientific publications or prescribing information was significantly associated with high content quality (odds ratio: 8.2, 95% CI 3.2, 20.5). The intervention had no influence on general or content quality. To prevent adverse outcomes caused by misinformation on the WWW individualized feedback to the address mentioned on the page was ineffective. It is currently probably the most straight-forward approach to inform lay persons about indicators of high information quality, i.e. the provision of references.

Dosimetry for Small and Nonstandard Fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Junell, Stephanie L.

The proposed small and non-standard field dosimetry protocol from the joint International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and American Association of Physicist in Medicine working group introduces new reference field conditions for ionization chamber based reference dosimetry. Absorbed dose beam quality conversion factors (kQ factors) corresponding to this formalism were determined for three different models of ionization chambers: a Farmer-type ionization chamber, a thimble ionization chamber, and a small volume ionization chamber. Beam quality correction factor measurements were made in a specially developed cylindrical polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) phantom and a water phantom using thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) and alanine dosimeters to determine dose to water. The TLD system for absorbed dose to water determination in high energy photon and electron beams was fully characterized as part of this dissertation. The behavior of the beam quality correction factor was observed as it transfers the calibration coefficient from the University of Wisconsin Accredited Dosimetry Calibration Laboratory (UWADCL) 60Co reference beam to the small field calibration conditions of the small field formalism. TLD-determined beam quality correction factors for the calibration conditions investigated ranged from 0.97 to 1.30 and had associated standard deviations from 1% to 3%. The alanine-determined beam quality correction factors ranged from 0.996 to 1.293. Volume averaging effects were observed with the Farmer-type ionization chamber in the small static field conditions. The proposed small and non-standard field dosimetry protocols new composite-field reference condition demonstrated its potential to reduce or remove ionization chamber volume dependancies, but the measured beam quality correction factors were not equal to the standard CoP's kQ, indicating a change in beam quality in the small and non-standard field dosimetry protocols new composite-field reference condition relative to the standard broad beam reference conditions. The TLD- and alanine-determined beam quality correction factors in the composite-field reference conditions were approximately 3% greater and differed by more than one standard deviation from the published TG-51 kQ values for all three chambers.

?he Effect of a Traditional Dance Program on Health-Related Quality of Life as Perceived by Primary School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Georgios, Lykesas; Ioannis, Giosos; Olga, Theocharidou; Dimitris, Chatzopoulos; Maria, Koutsouba

2018-01-01

Physical exercise is acknowledged to play a highly significant role in human health and life quality. The concept "Quality of Life" (QoL) refers to many parameters, including the individual's physical condition, psychological status, level of independence, social relationships and interaction with the environment. Participating in dance…

Reduced reference image quality assessment via sub-image similarity based redundancy measurement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mou, Xuanqin; Xue, Wufeng; Zhang, Lei

2012-03-01

The reduced reference (RR) image quality assessment (IQA) has been attracting much attention from researchers for its loyalty to human perception and flexibility in practice. A promising RR metric should be able to predict the perceptual quality of an image accurately while using as few features as possible. In this paper, a novel RR metric is presented, whose novelty lies in two aspects. Firstly, it measures the image redundancy by calculating the so-called Sub-image Similarity (SIS), and the image quality is measured by comparing the SIS between the reference image and the test image. Secondly, the SIS is computed by the ratios of NSE (Non-shift Edge) between pairs of sub-images. Experiments on two IQA databases (i.e. LIVE and CSIQ databases) show that by using only 6 features, the proposed metric can work very well with high correlations between the subjective and objective scores. In particular, it works consistently well across all the distortion types.

Phase-shifting point diffraction interferometer

DOEpatents

Medecki, H.

1998-11-10

Disclosed is a point diffraction interferometer for evaluating the quality of a test optic. In operation, the point diffraction interferometer includes a source of radiation, the test optic, a beam divider, a reference wave pinhole located at an image plane downstream from the test optic, and a detector for detecting an interference pattern produced between a reference wave emitted by the pinhole and a test wave emitted from the test optic. The beam divider produces separate reference and test beams which focus at different laterally separated positions on the image plane. The reference wave pinhole is placed at a region of high intensity (e.g., the focal point) for the reference beam. This allows reference wave to be produced at a relatively high intensity. Also, the beam divider may include elements for phase shifting one or both of the reference and test beams. 8 figs.

Phase-shifting point diffraction interferometer

DOEpatents

Medecki, Hector

1998-01-01

Disclosed is a point diffraction interferometer for evaluating the quality of a test optic. In operation, the point diffraction interferometer includes a source of radiation, the test optic, a beam divider, a reference wave pinhole located at an image plane downstream from the test optic, and a detector for detecting an interference pattern produced between a reference wave emitted by the pinhole and a test wave emitted from the test optic. The beam divider produces separate reference and test beams which focus at different laterally separated positions on the image plane. The reference wave pinhole is placed at a region of high intensity (e.g., the focal point) for the reference beam. This allows reference wave to be produced at a relatively high intensity. Also, the beam divider may include elements for phase shifting one or both of the reference and test beams.

Effects of Patient-Centered Medical Home Attributes on Patients’ Perceptions of Quality in Federally Supported Health Centers

PubMed Central

Lebrun-Harris, Lydie A.; Shi, Leiyu; Zhu, Jinsheng; Burke, Matthew T.; Sripipatana, Alek; Ngo-Metzger, Quyen

2013-01-01

PURPOSE We sought to assess patients’ ratings of patient-centered medical home (PCMH) attributes and overall quality of care within federally supported health centers. METHODS Data were collected through the 2009 Health Center Patient Survey (n = 4,562), which consisted of in-person interviews and included a nationally representative sample of patients seen in health centers. Quality measures included patients’ perceptions of overall quality of services, perceptions of quality of clinician advice/treatment, and likelihood of referring friends and relatives to the health center. PCMH attributes included (1) access to care getting to health center, (2) access to care during visit, (3) patient-centered communication with health care clinicians, (4) patient-centered communication with support staff, (5) self-management support for chronic conditions, (6) self-management support for behavioral risks, and (7) comprehensive preventive care. Bivariate analysis and logistic regressions were used to examine associations between patients’ perceptions of PCMH attributes and patient-reported quality of care. RESULTS Eighty-four percent of patients reported excellent/very good overall quality of services, 81% reported excellent/very good quality of clinician care, and 84% were very likely to refer friends and relatives. Higher patient ratings on the access to care and patient-centered communication attributes were associated with higher odds of patient-reported high quality of care on the 3 outcome measures. CONCLUSIONS More than 80% of patients perceived high quality of care in health centers. PCMH attributes related to access to care and communication were associated with greater likelihood of patients reporting high-quality care. PMID:24218374

The National Library of Medicine Pill Image Recognition Challenge: An Initial Report.

PubMed

Yaniv, Ziv; Faruque, Jessica; Howe, Sally; Dunn, Kathel; Sharlip, David; Bond, Andrew; Perillan, Pablo; Bodenreider, Olivier; Ackerman, Michael J; Yoo, Terry S

2016-10-01

In January 2016 the U.S. National Library of Medicine announced a challenge competition calling for the development and discovery of high-quality algorithms and software that rank how well consumer images of prescription pills match reference images of pills in its authoritative RxIMAGE collection. This challenge was motivated by the need to easily identify unknown prescription pills both by healthcare personnel and the general public. Potential benefits of this capability include confirmation of the pill in settings where the documentation and medication have been separated, such as in a disaster or emergency; and confirmation of a pill when the prescribed medication changes from brand to generic, or for any other reason the shape and color of the pill change. The data for the competition consisted of two types of images, high quality macro photographs, reference images, and consumer quality photographs of the quality we expect users of a proposed application to acquire. A training dataset consisting of 2000 reference images and 5000 corresponding consumer quality images acquired from 1000 pills was provided to challenge participants. A second dataset acquired from 1000 pills with similar distributions of shape and color was reserved as a segregated testing set. Challenge submissions were required to produce a ranking of the reference images, given a consumer quality image as input. Determination of the winning teams was done using the mean average precision quality metric, with the three winners obtaining mean average precision scores of 0.27, 0.09, and 0.08. In the retrieval results, the correct image was amongst the top five ranked images 43%, 12%, and 11% of the time, out of 5000 query/consumer images. This is an initial promising step towards development of an NLM software system and application-programming interface facilitating pill identification. The training dataset will continue to be freely available online at: http://pir.nlm.nih.gov/challenge/submission.html.

A universal reference sample derived from clone vector for improved detection of differential gene expression

PubMed Central

Khan, Rishi L; Gonye, Gregory E; Gao, Guang; Schwaber, James S

2006-01-01

Background Using microarrays by co-hybridizing two samples labeled with different dyes enables differential gene expression measurements and comparisons across slides while controlling for within-slide variability. Typically one dye produces weaker signal intensities than the other often causing signals to be undetectable. In addition, undetectable spots represent a large problem for two-color microarray designs and most arrays contain at least 40% undetectable spots even when labeled with reference samples such as Stratagene's Universal Reference RNAs™. Results We introduce a novel universal reference sample that produces strong signal for all spots on the array, increasing the average fraction of detectable spots to 97%. Maximizing detectable spots on the reference image channel also decreases the variability of microarray data allowing for reliable detection of smaller differential gene expression changes. The reference sample is derived from sequence contained in the parental EST clone vector pT7T3D-Pac and is called vector RNA (vRNA). We show that vRNA can also be used for quality control of microarray printing and PCR product quality, detection of hybridization anomalies, and simplification of spot finding and segmentation tasks. This reference sample can be made inexpensively in large quantities as a renewable resource that is consistent across experiments. Conclusion Results of this study show that vRNA provides a useful universal reference that yields high signal for almost all spots on a microarray, reduces variation and allows for comparisons between experiments and laboratories. Further, it can be used for quality control of microarray printing and PCR product quality, detection of hybridization anomalies, and simplification of spot finding and segmentation tasks. This type of reference allows for detection of small changes in differential expression while reference designs in general allow for large-scale multivariate experimental designs. vRNA in combination with reference designs enable systems biology microarray experiments of small physiologically relevant changes. PMID:16677381

Estimating reliable paediatric reference intervals in clinical chemistry and haematology.

PubMed

Ridefelt, Peter; Hellberg, Dan; Aldrimer, Mattias; Gustafsson, Jan

2014-01-01

Very few high-quality studies on paediatric reference intervals for general clinical chemistry and haematology analytes have been performed. Three recent prospective community-based projects utilising blood samples from healthy children in Sweden, Denmark and Canada have substantially improved the situation. The present review summarises current reference interval studies for common clinical chemistry and haematology analyses. ©2013 Foundation Acta Paediatrica. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Sci-Thur PM: YIS - 07: Monte Carlo simulations to obtain several parameters required for electron beam dosimetry.

PubMed

Muir, B; Rogers, D; McEwen, M

2012-07-01

When current dosimetry protocols were written, electron beam data were limited and had uncertainties that were unacceptable for reference dosimetry. Protocols for high-energy reference dosimetry are currently being updated leading to considerable interest in accurate electron beam data. To this end, Monte Carlo simulations using the EGSnrc user-code egs_chamber are performed to extract relevant data for reference beam dosimetry. Calculations of the absorbed dose to water and the absorbed dose to the gas in realistic ion chamber models are performed as a function of depth in water for cobalt-60 and high-energy electron beams between 4 and 22 MeV. These calculations are used to extract several of the parameters required for electron beam dosimetry - the beam quality specifier, R 50 , beam quality conversion factors, k Q and k R50 , the electron quality conversion factor, k' R50 , the photon-electron conversion factor, k ecal , and ion chamber perturbation factors, P Q . The method used has the advantage that many important parameters can be extracted as a function of depth instead of determination at only the reference depth as has typically been done. Results obtained here are in good agreement with measured and other calculated results. The photon-electron conversion factors obtained for a Farmer-type NE2571 and plane-parallel PTW Roos, IBA NACP-02 and Exradin A11 chambers are 0.903, 0.896, 0.894 and 0.906, respectively. These typically differ by less than 0.7% from the contentious TG-51 values but have much smaller systematic uncertainties. These results are valuable for reference dosimetry of high-energy electron beams. © 2012 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Internal validation of the DNAscan/ANDE™ Rapid DNA Analysis™ platform and its associated PowerPlex® 16 high content DNA biochip cassette for use as an expert system with reference buccal swabs.

PubMed

Moreno, Lilliana I; Brown, Alice L; Callaghan, Thomas F

2017-07-01

Rapid DNA platforms are fully integrated systems capable of producing and analyzing short tandem repeat (STR) profiles from reference sample buccal swabs in less than two hours. The technology requires minimal user interaction and experience making it possible for high quality profiles to be generated outside an accredited laboratory. The automated production of point of collection reference STR profiles could eliminate the time delay for shipment and analysis of arrestee samples at centralized laboratories. Furthermore, point of collection analysis would allow searching against profiles from unsolved crimes during the normal booking process once the infrastructure to immediately search the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database from the booking station is established. The DNAscan/ANDE™ Rapid DNA Analysis™ System developed by Network Biosystems was evaluated for robustness and reliability in the production of high quality reference STR profiles for database enrollment and searching applications. A total of 193 reference samples were assessed for concordance of the CODIS 13 loci. Studies to evaluate contamination, reproducibility, precision, stutter, peak height ratio, noise and sensitivity were also performed. The system proved to be robust, consistent and dependable. Results indicated an overall success rate of 75% for the 13 CODIS core loci and more importantly no incorrect calls were identified. The DNAscan/ANDE™ could be confidently used without human interaction in both laboratory and non-laboratory settings to generate reference profiles. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Quality of drug information on the World Wide Web and strategies to improve pages with poor information quality. An intervention study on pages about sildenafil

PubMed Central

Martin-Facklam, Meret; Kostrzewa, Michael; Martin, Peter; Haefeli, Walter E

2004-01-01

Aims The generally poor quality of health information on the world wide web (WWW) has caused preventable adverse outcomes. Quality management of information on the internet is therefore critical given its widespread use. In order to develop strategies for the safe use of drugs, we scored general and content quality of pages about sildenafil and performed an intervention to improve their quality. Methods The internet was searched with Yahoo and AltaVista for pages about sildenafil and 303 pages were included. For assessment of content quality a score based on accuracy and completeness of essential drug information was assigned. For assessment of general quality, four criteria were evaluated and their association with high content quality was determined by multivariate logistic regression analysis. The pages were randomly allocated to either control or intervention group. Evaluation took place before, as well as 7 and 22 weeks after an intervention which consisted of two letters with individualized feedback information on the respective page which were sent electronically to the address mentioned on the page. Results Providing references to scientific publications or prescribing information was significantly associated with high content quality (odds ratio: 8.2, 95% CI 3.2, 20.5). The intervention had no influence on general or content quality. Conclusions To prevent adverse outcomes caused by misinformation on the WWW individualized feedback to the address mentioned on the page was ineffective. It is currently probably the most straight-forward approach to inform lay persons about indicators of high information quality, i.e. the provision of references. PMID:14678344

A high-quality annotated transcriptome of swine peripheral blood

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Background: High throughput gene expression profiling assays of peripheral blood are widely used in biomedicine, as well as in animal genetics and physiology research. Accurate, comprehensive, and precise interpretation of such high throughput assays relies on well-characterized reference genomes an...

Full-reference quality assessment of stereoscopic images by learning binocular receptive field properties.

PubMed

Shao, Feng; Li, Kemeng; Lin, Weisi; Jiang, Gangyi; Yu, Mei; Dai, Qionghai

2015-10-01

Quality assessment of 3D images encounters more challenges than its 2D counterparts. Directly applying 2D image quality metrics is not the solution. In this paper, we propose a new full-reference quality assessment for stereoscopic images by learning binocular receptive field properties to be more in line with human visual perception. To be more specific, in the training phase, we learn a multiscale dictionary from the training database, so that the latent structure of images can be represented as a set of basis vectors. In the quality estimation phase, we compute sparse feature similarity index based on the estimated sparse coefficient vectors by considering their phase difference and amplitude difference, and compute global luminance similarity index by considering luminance changes. The final quality score is obtained by incorporating binocular combination based on sparse energy and sparse complexity. Experimental results on five public 3D image quality assessment databases demonstrate that in comparison with the most related existing methods, the devised algorithm achieves high consistency with subjective assessment.

Assessment of sound quality perception in cochlear implant users during music listening.

PubMed

Roy, Alexis T; Jiradejvong, Patpong; Carver, Courtney; Limb, Charles J

2012-04-01

Although cochlear implant (CI) users frequently report deterioration of sound quality when listening to music, few methods exist to quantify these subjective claims. 1) To design a novel research method for quantifying sound quality perception in CI users during music listening; 2) To validate this method by assessing one attribute of music perception, bass frequency perception, which is hypothesized to be relevant to overall musical sound quality perception. Limitations in bass frequency perception contribute to CI-mediated sound quality deteriorations. The proposed method will quantify this deterioration by measuring CI users' impaired ability to make sound quality discriminations among musical stimuli with variable amounts of bass frequency removal. A method commonly used in the audio industry (multiple stimulus with hidden reference and anchor [MUSHRA]) was adapted for CI users, referred to as CI-MUSHRA. CI users and normal hearing controls were presented with 7 sound quality versions of a musical segment: 5 high pass filter cutoff versions (200-, 400-, 600-, 800-, 1000-Hz) with decreasing amounts of bass information, an unaltered version ("hidden reference"), and a highly altered version (1,000-1,200 Hz band pass filter; "anchor"). Participants provided sound quality ratings between 0 (very poor) and 100 (excellent) for each version; ratings reflected differences in perceived sound quality among stimuli. CI users had greater difficulty making overall sound quality discriminations as a function of bass frequency loss than normal hearing controls, as demonstrated by a significantly weaker correlation between bass frequency content and sound quality ratings. In particular, CI users could not perceive sound quality difference among stimuli missing up to 400 Hz of bass frequency information. Bass frequency impairments contribute to sound quality deteriorations during music listening for CI users. CI-MUSHRA provided a systematic and quantitative assessment of this reduced sound quality. Although the effects of bass frequency removal were studied here, we advocate CI-MUSHRA as a user-friendly and versatile research tool to measure the effects of a wide range of acoustic manipulations on sound quality perception in CI users.

Reduced-Reference Quality Assessment Based on the Entropy of DWT Coefficients of Locally Weighted Gradient Magnitudes.

PubMed

Golestaneh, S Alireza; Karam, Lina

2016-08-24

Perceptual image quality assessment (IQA) attempts to use computational models to estimate the image quality in accordance with subjective evaluations. Reduced-reference (RR) image quality assessment (IQA) methods make use of partial information or features extracted from the reference image for estimating the quality of distorted images. Finding a balance between the number of RR features and accuracy of the estimated image quality is essential and important in IQA. In this paper we propose a training-free low-cost RRIQA method that requires a very small number of RR features (6 RR features). The proposed RRIQA algorithm is based on the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) of locally weighted gradient magnitudes.We apply human visual system's contrast sensitivity and neighborhood gradient information to weight the gradient magnitudes in a locally adaptive manner. The RR features are computed by measuring the entropy of each DWT subband, for each scale, and pooling the subband entropies along all orientations, resulting in L RR features (one average entropy per scale) for an L-level DWT. Extensive experiments performed on seven large-scale benchmark databases demonstrate that the proposed RRIQA method delivers highly competitive performance as compared to the state-of-the-art RRIQA models as well as full reference ones for both natural and texture images. The MATLAB source code of REDLOG and the evaluation results are publicly available online at https://http://lab.engineering.asu.edu/ivulab/software/redlog/.

Use of Terrestrial Laser Scanning Technology for Long Term High Precision Deformation Monitoring

PubMed Central

Vezočnik, Rok; Ambrožič, Tomaž; Sterle, Oskar; Bilban, Gregor; Pfeifer, Norbert; Stopar, Bojan

2009-01-01

The paper presents a new methodology for high precision monitoring of deformations with a long term perspective using terrestrial laser scanning technology. In order to solve the problem of a stable reference system and to assure the high quality of possible position changes of point clouds, scanning is integrated with two complementary surveying techniques, i.e., high quality static GNSS positioning and precise tacheometry. The case study object where the proposed methodology was tested is a high pressure underground pipeline situated in an area which is geologically unstable. PMID:22303152

Online Reduction of Artifacts in EEG of Simultaneous EEG-fMRI Using Reference Layer Adaptive Filtering (RLAF).

PubMed

Steyrl, David; Krausz, Gunther; Koschutnig, Karl; Edlinger, Günter; Müller-Putz, Gernot R

2018-01-01

Simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allow us to study the active human brain from two perspectives concurrently. Signal processing based artifact reduction techniques are mandatory for this, however, to obtain reasonable EEG quality in simultaneous EEG-fMRI. Current artifact reduction techniques like average artifact subtraction (AAS), typically become less effective when artifact reduction has to be performed on-the-fly. We thus present and evaluate a new technique to improve EEG quality online. This technique adds up with online AAS and combines a prototype EEG-cap for reference recordings of artifacts, with online adaptive filtering and is named reference layer adaptive filtering (RLAF). We found online AAS + RLAF to be highly effective in improving EEG quality. Online AAS + RLAF outperformed online AAS and did so in particular online in terms of the chosen performance metrics, these being specifically alpha rhythm amplitude ratio between closed and opened eyes (3-45% improvement), signal-to-noise-ratio of visual evoked potentials (VEP) (25-63% improvement), and VEPs variability (16-44% improvement). Further, we found that EEG quality after online AAS + RLAF is occasionally even comparable with the offline variant of AAS at a 3T MRI scanner. In conclusion RLAF is a very effective add-on tool to enable high quality EEG in simultaneous EEG-fMRI experiments, even when online artifact reduction is necessary.

[Application of traditional Chinese medicine reference standards in quality control of Chinese herbal pieces].

PubMed

Lu, Tu-Lin; Li, Jin-Ci; Yu, Jiang-Yong; Cai, Bao-Chang; Mao, Chun-Qin; Yin, Fang-Zhou

2014-01-01

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) reference standards plays an important role in the quality control of Chinese herbal pieces. This paper overviewed the development of TCM reference standards. By analyzing the 2010 edition of Chinese pharmacopoeia, the application of TCM reference standards in the quality control of Chinese herbal pieces was summarized, and the problems exiting in the system were put forward. In the process of improving the quality control level of Chinese herbal pieces, various kinds of advanced methods and technology should be used to research the characteristic reference standards of Chinese herbal pieces, more and more reasonable reference standards should be introduced in the quality control system of Chinese herbal pieces. This article discussed the solutions in the aspect of TCM reference standards, and future development of quality control on Chinese herbal pieces is prospected.

Histogram-based normalization technique on human brain magnetic resonance images from different acquisitions.

PubMed

Sun, Xiaofei; Shi, Lin; Luo, Yishan; Yang, Wei; Li, Hongpeng; Liang, Peipeng; Li, Kuncheng; Mok, Vincent C T; Chu, Winnie C W; Wang, Defeng

2015-07-28

Intensity normalization is an important preprocessing step in brain magnetic resonance image (MRI) analysis. During MR image acquisition, different scanners or parameters would be used for scanning different subjects or the same subject at a different time, which may result in large intensity variations. This intensity variation will greatly undermine the performance of subsequent MRI processing and population analysis, such as image registration, segmentation, and tissue volume measurement. In this work, we proposed a new histogram normalization method to reduce the intensity variation between MRIs obtained from different acquisitions. In our experiment, we scanned each subject twice on two different scanners using different imaging parameters. With noise estimation, the image with lower noise level was determined and treated as the high-quality reference image. Then the histogram of the low-quality image was normalized to the histogram of the high-quality image. The normalization algorithm includes two main steps: (1) intensity scaling (IS), where, for the high-quality reference image, the intensities of the image are first rescaled to a range between the low intensity region (LIR) value and the high intensity region (HIR) value; and (2) histogram normalization (HN),where the histogram of low-quality image as input image is stretched to match the histogram of the reference image, so that the intensity range in the normalized image will also lie between LIR and HIR. We performed three sets of experiments to evaluate the proposed method, i.e., image registration, segmentation, and tissue volume measurement, and compared this with the existing intensity normalization method. It is then possible to validate that our histogram normalization framework can achieve better results in all the experiments. It is also demonstrated that the brain template with normalization preprocessing is of higher quality than the template with no normalization processing. We have proposed a histogram-based MRI intensity normalization method. The method can normalize scans which were acquired on different MRI units. We have validated that the method can greatly improve the image analysis performance. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that with the help of our normalization method, we can create a higher quality Chinese brain template.

The use of PacBio and Hi-C data in denovo assembly of the goat genome

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Generating de novo reference genome assemblies for non-model organisms is a laborious task that often requires a large amount of data from several sequencing platforms and cytogenetic surveys. By using PacBio sequence data and new library creation techniques, we present a de novo, high quality refer...

An integrated low phase noise radiation-pressure-driven optomechanical oscillator chipset

PubMed Central

Luan, Xingsheng; Huang, Yongjun; Li, Ying; McMillan, James F.; Zheng, Jiangjun; Huang, Shu-Wei; Hsieh, Pin-Chun; Gu, Tingyi; Wang, Di; Hati, Archita; Howe, David A.; Wen, Guangjun; Yu, Mingbin; Lo, Guoqiang; Kwong, Dim-Lee; Wong, Chee Wei

2014-01-01

High-quality frequency references are the cornerstones in position, navigation and timing applications of both scientific and commercial domains. Optomechanical oscillators, with direct coupling to continuous-wave light and non-material-limited f × Q product, are long regarded as a potential platform for frequency reference in radio-frequency-photonic architectures. However, one major challenge is the compatibility with standard CMOS fabrication processes while maintaining optomechanical high quality performance. Here we demonstrate the monolithic integration of photonic crystal optomechanical oscillators and on-chip high speed Ge detectors based on the silicon CMOS platform. With the generation of both high harmonics (up to 59th order) and subharmonics (down to 1/4), our chipset provides multiple frequency tones for applications in both frequency multipliers and dividers. The phase noise is measured down to −125 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz offset at ~400 μW dropped-in powers, one of the lowest noise optomechanical oscillators to date and in room-temperature and atmospheric non-vacuum operating conditions. These characteristics enable optomechanical oscillators as a frequency reference platform for radio-frequency-photonic information processing. PMID:25354711

[Preparation and certification of mussel reference material for organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls using isotope dilution-high resolution mass spectrometry].

PubMed

Lu, Xianbo; Chen, Jiping; Wang, Shuqiu; Zou, Lili; Tian, Yuzeng; Ni, Yuwen; Su, Fan

2012-09-01

A method for the preparation and certification of the reference material of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in mussel tissue is described. The mussel tissue from Dalian Bay was frozen-dried, comminuted, sieved, homogenized, packaged, and sterilized by 60Co radiation sterilization in turn. The certified values for 18 OCPs and 16 PCBs were determined by high resolution gas chromatography/high resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC/HRMS) using isotope dilution and internal standard quantitation techniques. The certified values were validated and given based on seven accredited laboratories, and these values are traceable to the SI (international system of units) through gravimetrically prepared standards of established purity and measurement intercomparisons. The certified values of PCBs and OCPs in mussel span 4 orders of magnitude with a relative uncertainty of about 10%. This material is a natural biological material with confirmed good homogeneity and stability, and it was approved as the grade "primary reference material" (GBW10069) in June 2012 in China. This reference material provided necessary quality control products for our country to implement the Stockholm Treaty on the monitoring of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). The material is intended to be used for the method validation and quality control in the determination of OCPs and PCBs in biota samples.

TREAT Asia Quality Assessment Scheme (TAQAS) to standardize the outcome of HIV genotypic resistance testing in a group of Asian laboratories

PubMed Central

Land, Sally; Cunningham, Philip; Zhou, Jialun; Frost, Kevin; Katzenstein, David; Kantor, Rami; Chen, Yi-Ming Arthur; Oka, Shinichi; DeLong, Allison; Sayer, David; Smith, Jeffery; Dax, Elizabeth M.; Law, Matthew

2010-01-01

The TREAT Asia (Therapeutics, Research, Education, and AIDS Training in Asia) Network is building capacity for Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type-1 (HIV-1) drug resistance testing in the region. The objective of the TREAT Asia Quality Assessment Scheme – designated TAQAS – is to standardize HIV-1 genotypic resistance testing (HIV genotyping) among laboratories to permit rigorous comparison of results from different clinics and testing centres. TAQAS has evaluated three panels of HIV-1-positive plasma from clinical material or low-passage, culture supernatant for up to 10 Asian laboratories. Laboratory participants used their standard protocols to perform HIV genotyping. Assessment was in comparison to a target genotype derived from all participants and the reference laboratory’s result. Agreement between most participants at the edited nucleotide sequence level was high (>98%). Most participants performed to the reference laboratory standard in detection of drug resistance mutations (DRMs). However, there was variation in the detection of nucleotide mixtures (0–83%) and a significant correlation with the detection of DRMs (p < 0.01). Interpretation of antiretroviral resistance showed ~70% agreement among participants when different interpretation systems were used but >90% agreement with a common interpretation system, within the Stanford University Drug Resistance Database. Using the principles of external quality assessment and a reference laboratory, TAQAS has demonstrated high quality HIV genotyping results from Asian laboratories. PMID:19490972

GEOdetic Data assimilation and EStimation of references for climate change InvEstigation. An overall presentation of the French GEODESIE project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coulot, David; Richard, Jean-Yves

2017-04-01

Many major indicators of climate change are monitored with space observations (sea level rise from satellite altimetry, ice melting from dedicated satellites, etc.). This monitoring is highly dependent on references (positions and velocities of ground observing instruments, orbits of satellites, etc.) that only geodesy can provide. The current accuracy of these references does not permit to fully support the challenges that the constantly evolving Earth system gives rise to, and can consequently limit the accuracy of these indicators. For this reason, in the framework of the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS), stringent requirements are fixed to the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) for the next decade: an accuracy at the level of 1 mm and a stability at the level of 0.1 mm/yr. This means an improvement of the current quality of ITRF by a factor of 5-10. Improving the quality of the geodetic references is an issue which requires a thorough reassessment of the methodologies involved. The most relevant and promising method to improve this quality is the direct combination (Combination at Observation Level - COL) of the space-geodetic measurements used to compute the official references of the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS). The GEODESIE project aims at (i) determining highly-accurate global and consistent references (time series of Terrestrial Reference Frames and Celestial Reference Frames, of Earth's Orientation Parameters, and orbits of Earth's observation satellites) and (ii) providing the geophysical and climate research communities with these references, for a better estimation of geocentric sea level rise, ice mass balance and on-going climate changes. Time series of sea levels computed from altimetric data and tide gauge records with these references (orbits of satellite altimeters, Terrestrial Reference Frames and related vertical velocities of stations) will also be provided. The geodetic references will be essential bases for Earth's observation and monitoring to support the challenges of the century. The geocentric time series of sea levels will permit to better apprehend (i) the drivers of the global mean sea level rise and of regional variations of sea level and (ii) the contribution of the global climate change induced by anthropogenic greenhouse gases emissions to these drivers. All the results and computation and quality assessment reports will be available on a Website designed and opened in the Summer of 2017. This project, supported by the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) for the period 2017-2020, will be an unprecedented opportunity to provide the French Groupe de Recherche de Géodésie Spatiale (GRGS) with complete simulation and data processing capabilities to prepare the future arrival of space missions such as the European Geodetic Reference Antenna in SPace (E-GRASP) and to significantly contribute to the GGOS with accurate references.

KAT: a K-mer analysis toolkit to quality control NGS datasets and genome assemblies.

PubMed

Mapleson, Daniel; Garcia Accinelli, Gonzalo; Kettleborough, George; Wright, Jonathan; Clavijo, Bernardo J

2017-02-15

De novo assembly of whole genome shotgun (WGS) next-generation sequencing (NGS) data benefits from high-quality input with high coverage. However, in practice, determining the quality and quantity of useful reads quickly and in a reference-free manner is not trivial. Gaining a better understanding of the WGS data, and how that data is utilized by assemblers, provides useful insights that can inform the assembly process and result in better assemblies. We present the K-mer Analysis Toolkit (KAT): a multi-purpose software toolkit for reference-free quality control (QC) of WGS reads and de novo genome assemblies, primarily via their k-mer frequencies and GC composition. KAT enables users to assess levels of errors, bias and contamination at various stages of the assembly process. In this paper we highlight KAT's ability to provide valuable insights into assembly composition and quality of genome assemblies through pairwise comparison of k-mers present in both input reads and the assemblies. KAT is available under the GPLv3 license at: https://github.com/TGAC/KAT . bernardo.clavijo@earlham.ac.uk. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

Learning to Teach Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students through Cross-Cultural Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Savva, Maria

2017-01-01

Teacher participation in cross-cultural experiences is often associated with the broadening of perspectives and increased intercultural sensitivity. While these qualities provide an overarching and important framework for intercultural development, they remain highly abstract. What exactly do we mean when we refer to these qualities? And in what…

High Quality in Primary Humanities: Insights from the UK's School Inspectorates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Catling, Simon

2017-01-01

The school inspectorates of the four jurisdictions of the UK are sources of evidence about the quality of humanities teaching, learning and curriculum in primary schools. The term "humanities" usually refers to the subjects of geography, history and Religious Education, but here they are considered holistically, not separately. Discrete…

Strategies for optimizing BioNano and Dovetail explored through a second reference quality assembly for the legume model, Medicago truncatula.

PubMed

Moll, Karen M; Zhou, Peng; Ramaraj, Thiruvarangan; Fajardo, Diego; Devitt, Nicholas P; Sadowsky, Michael J; Stupar, Robert M; Tiffin, Peter; Miller, Jason R; Young, Nevin D; Silverstein, Kevin A T; Mudge, Joann

2017-08-04

Third generation sequencing technologies, with sequencing reads in the tens- of kilo-bases, facilitate genome assembly by spanning ambiguous regions and improving continuity. This has been critical for plant genomes, which are difficult to assemble due to high repeat content, gene family expansions, segmental and tandem duplications, and polyploidy. Recently, high-throughput mapping and scaffolding strategies have further improved continuity. Together, these long-range technologies enable quality draft assemblies of complex genomes in a cost-effective and timely manner. Here, we present high quality genome assemblies of the model legume plant, Medicago truncatula (R108) using PacBio, Dovetail Chicago (hereafter, Dovetail) and BioNano technologies. To test these technologies for plant genome assembly, we generated five assemblies using all possible combinations and ordering of these three technologies in the R108 assembly. While the BioNano and Dovetail joins overlapped, they also showed complementary gains in continuity and join numbers. Both technologies spanned repetitive regions that PacBio alone was unable to bridge. Combining technologies, particularly Dovetail followed by BioNano, resulted in notable improvements compared to Dovetail or BioNano alone. A combination of PacBio, Dovetail, and BioNano was used to generate a high quality draft assembly of R108, a M. truncatula accession widely used in studies of functional genomics. As a test for the usefulness of the resulting genome sequence, the new R108 assembly was used to pinpoint breakpoints and characterize flanking sequence of a previously identified translocation between chromosomes 4 and 8, identifying more than 22.7 Mb of novel sequence not present in the earlier A17 reference assembly. Adding Dovetail followed by BioNano data yielded complementary improvements in continuity over the original PacBio assembly. This strategy proved efficient and cost-effective for developing a quality draft assembly compared to traditional reference assemblies.

Guidelines for Calibration and Application of Storm.

DTIC Science & Technology

1977-12-01

combination method uses the SCS method on pervious areas and the coefficient method on impervious areas of the watershed. Storm water quality is computed...stations, it should be accomplished according to procedures outlined In Reference 7. Adequate storm water quality data are the most difficult and costly...mass discharge of pollutants is negligible. The state-of-the-art in urban storm water quality modeling precludes highly accurate simulation of

A digital reference collection for aquatic macroinvertebrates of North America

USGS Publications Warehouse

Walters, David; Ford, Morgan A; Zuellig, Robert E.

2017-01-01

Aquatic invertebrates are a key component of freshwater ecosystems, and understanding aquatic invertebrate taxonomy is a cornerstone of freshwater science. Physical reference collections of expertly identified voucher specimens are the ‘gold-standard’ used to confirm specimen identifications. However, most biologists lack access to such collections, which themselves tend to be highly regionalized and somewhat limited in terms of taxonomic scope. The North American Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Digital Reference Collection (NAAMDRC; https://sciencebase.usgs.gov/naamdrc) was developed by the US Geological Survey (USGS) to overcome these limitations of physical collections. NAAMDRC provides users with public-domain, high-quality digital photographs to help verify specimen identifications.

[Tasks and duties of veterinary reference laboratories for food borne zoonoses].

PubMed

Ellerbroek, Lüppo; Alter, T; Johne, R; Nöckler, K; Beutin, L; Helmuth, R

2009-02-01

Reference laboratories are of central importance for consumer protection. Field expertise and high scientific competence are basic requirements for the nomination of a national reference laboratory. To ensure a common approach in the analysis of zoonotic hazards, standards have been developed by the reference laboratories together with national official laboratories on the basis of Art. 33 of Directive (EG) No. 882/2004. Reference laboratories function as arbitrative boards in the case of ambivalent or debatable results. New methods for detection of zoonotic agents are developed and validated to provide tools for analysis, e. g., in legal cases, if results from different parties are disputed. Besides these tasks, national reference laboratories offer capacity building and advanced training courses and control the performance of ring trials to ensure consistency in the quality of analyses in official laboratories. All reference laboratories work according to the ISO standard 17025 which defines the grounds for strict laboratory quality rules and in cooperation with the respective Community Reference Laboratories (CRL). From the group of veterinary reference laboratories for food-borne zoonoses, the national reference laboratories are responsible for Listeria monocytogenes, for Campylobacter, for the surveillance and control of viral and bacterial contamination of bivalve molluscs, for E. coli, for the performance of analysis and tests on zoonoses (Salmonella), and from the group of parasitological zoonotic agents, the national reference laboratory for Trichinella.

Impact of pre-imputation SNP-filtering on genotype imputation results

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Imputation of partially missing or unobserved genotypes is an indispensable tool for SNP data analyses. However, research and understanding of the impact of initial SNP-data quality control on imputation results is still limited. In this paper, we aim to evaluate the effect of different strategies of pre-imputation quality filtering on the performance of the widely used imputation algorithms MaCH and IMPUTE. Results We considered three scenarios: imputation of partially missing genotypes with usage of an external reference panel, without usage of an external reference panel, as well as imputation of completely un-typed SNPs using an external reference panel. We first created various datasets applying different SNP quality filters and masking certain percentages of randomly selected high-quality SNPs. We imputed these SNPs and compared the results between the different filtering scenarios by using established and newly proposed measures of imputation quality. While the established measures assess certainty of imputation results, our newly proposed measures focus on the agreement with true genotypes. These measures showed that pre-imputation SNP-filtering might be detrimental regarding imputation quality. Moreover, the strongest drivers of imputation quality were in general the burden of missingness and the number of SNPs used for imputation. We also found that using a reference panel always improves imputation quality of partially missing genotypes. MaCH performed slightly better than IMPUTE2 in most of our scenarios. Again, these results were more pronounced when using our newly defined measures of imputation quality. Conclusion Even a moderate filtering has a detrimental effect on the imputation quality. Therefore little or no SNP filtering prior to imputation appears to be the best strategy for imputing small to moderately sized datasets. Our results also showed that for these datasets, MaCH performs slightly better than IMPUTE2 in most scenarios at the cost of increased computing time. PMID:25112433

Synthesized view comparison method for no-reference 3D image quality assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, Fangzhou; Lin, Chaoyi; Gu, Xiaodong; Ma, Xiaojun

2018-04-01

We develop a no-reference image quality assessment metric to evaluate the quality of synthesized view rendered from the Multi-view Video plus Depth (MVD) format. Our metric is named Synthesized View Comparison (SVC), which is designed for real-time quality monitoring at the receiver side in a 3D-TV system. The metric utilizes the virtual views in the middle which are warped from left and right views by Depth-image-based rendering algorithm (DIBR), and compares the difference between the virtual views rendered from different cameras by Structural SIMilarity (SSIM), a popular 2D full-reference image quality assessment metric. The experimental results indicate that our no-reference quality assessment metric for the synthesized images has competitive prediction performance compared with some classic full-reference image quality assessment metrics.

Ambiguity of Quality in Remote Sensing Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lynnes, Christopher; Leptoukh, Greg

2010-01-01

This slide presentation reviews some of the issues in quality of remote sensing data. Data "quality" is used in several different contexts in remote sensing data, with quite different meanings. At the pixel level, quality typically refers to a quality control process exercised by the processing algorithm, not an explicit declaration of accuracy or precision. File level quality is usually a statistical summary of the pixel-level quality but is of doubtful use for scenes covering large areal extents. Quality at the dataset or product level, on the other hand, usually refers to how accurately the dataset is believed to represent the physical quantities it purports to measure. This assessment often bears but an indirect relationship at best to pixel level quality. In addition to ambiguity at different levels of granularity, ambiguity is endemic within levels. Pixel-level quality terms vary widely, as do recommendations for use of these flags. At the dataset/product level, quality for low-resolution gridded products is often extrapolated from validation campaigns using high spatial resolution swath data, a suspect practice at best. Making use of quality at all levels is complicated by the dependence on application needs. We will present examples of the various meanings of quality in remote sensing data and possible ways forward toward a more unified and usable quality framework.

Image sharpness assessment based on wavelet energy of edge area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Jin; Zhang, Hong; Zhang, Lei; Yang, Yifan; He, Lei; Sun, Mingui

2018-04-01

Image quality assessment is needed in multiple image processing areas and blur is one of the key reasons of image deterioration. Although great full-reference image quality assessment metrics have been proposed in the past few years, no-reference method is still an area of current research. Facing this problem, this paper proposes a no-reference sharpness assessment method based on wavelet transformation which focuses on the edge area of image. Based on two simple characteristics of human vision system, weights are introduced to calculate weighted log-energy of each wavelet sub band. The final score is given by the ratio of high-frequency energy to the total energy. The algorithm is tested on multiple databases. Comparing with several state-of-the-art metrics, proposed algorithm has better performance and less runtime consumption.

A Guideline to Family-Wide Comparative State-of-the-Art Quantitative RT-PCR Analysis Exemplified with a Brassicaceae Cross-Species Seed Germination Case Study[W][OA

PubMed Central

Graeber, Kai; Linkies, Ada; Wood, Andrew T.A.; Leubner-Metzger, Gerhard

2011-01-01

Comparative biology includes the comparison of transcriptome and quantitative real-time RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) data sets in a range of species to detect evolutionarily conserved and divergent processes. Transcript abundance analysis of target genes by qRT-PCR requires a highly accurate and robust workflow. This includes reference genes with high expression stability (i.e., low intersample transcript abundance variation) for correct target gene normalization. Cross-species qRT-PCR for proper comparative transcript quantification requires reference genes suitable for different species. We addressed this issue using tissue-specific transcriptome data sets of germinating Lepidium sativum seeds to identify new candidate reference genes. We investigated their expression stability in germinating seeds of L. sativum and Arabidopsis thaliana by qRT-PCR, combined with in silico analysis of Arabidopsis and Brassica napus microarray data sets. This revealed that reference gene expression stability is higher for a given developmental process between distinct species than for distinct developmental processes within a given single species. The identified superior cross-species reference genes may be used for family-wide comparative qRT-PCR analysis of Brassicaceae seed germination. Furthermore, using germinating seeds, we exemplify optimization of the qRT-PCR workflow for challenging tissues regarding RNA quality, transcript stability, and tissue abundance. Our work therefore can serve as a guideline for moving beyond Arabidopsis by establishing high-quality cross-species qRT-PCR. PMID:21666000

Nutrient concentrations and their relations to the biotic integrity of wadeable streams in Wisconsin

USGS Publications Warehouse

Robertson, Dale M.; Graczyk, David J.; Garrison, Paul J.; Wang, Lizhu; LaLiberte, Gina; Bannerman, Roger

2006-01-01

Excessive nutrient (phosphorus and nitrogen) loss from watersheds is frequently associated with degraded water quality in streams. To reduce this loss, agricultural performance standards and regulations for croplands and livestock operations are being proposed by various States. In addition, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is establishing regionally based nutrient criteria that can be refined by each State to determine whether actions are needed to improve a stream's water quality. More confidence in the environmental benefits of the proposed performance standards and nutrient criteria will be possible with a better understanding of the biotic responses to a range of nutrient concentrations in different environmental settings. The U.S. Geological Survey and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources collected data from 240 wadeable streams throughout Wisconsin to: 1) describe how nutrient concentrations and biotic-community structure vary throughout the State; 2) determine which environmental characteristics are most strongly related to the distribution of nutrient concentrations; 3) determine reference water-quality and biotic conditions for different areas of the State; 4) determine how the biotic community of streams in different areas of the State respond to changes in nutrient concentrations; 5) determine the best regionalization scheme to describe the patterns in reference conditions and the responses in water quality and the biotic community; and 6) develop new indices to estimate nutrient concentrations in streams from a combination of biotic indices. The ultimate goal of this study is to provide the information needed to guide the development of regionally based nutrient criteria for Wisconsin streams. For total nitrogen (N) and suspended chlorophyll (SCHL) concentrations and water clarity, regional variability in reference conditions and in the responses in water quality to changes in land use are best described by subdividing wadeable streams into two categories: streams in areas with high clay-content soils (Environmental Phosphorus Zone 3, EPZ 3) and streams throughout the rest of the State. The regional variability in the response in total phosphorus (P) concentrations is also best described by subdividing the streams into these two categories; however, little consistent variability was found in reference P concentrations in streams throughout the State. Reference P concentrations are smilar throughout the State (0.03-0.04 mg/L). Reference N concentrations are divided into two categories: 0.6-0.7 mg/L in all streams except those in areas with high clay-content soils, where 0.4 mg/L is more appropriate. Reference SCHL concentrations are divided into two categories: 1.2-1.7 ?g/L in all streams except those in areas with high clay-content soils, where 1.0 ?g/L may be more appropriate. Reference water clarity is divided into two categories: streams in areas with high clay-content soils with a lower reference water clarity (Secchi tube depth, SD, of about 110 cm) and streams throughout the rest of the State (SD greater than or equal to about 115 cm). For each category of the biotic community (SCHL and benthic chlorophyll a concentrations (BCHL), periphytic diatoms, macroinvertebrates, and fish), a few biotic indices were more related to differences in nutrient concentrations than were others. For each of the indices more strongly related to nutrient concentrations, reference conditions were obtained by determining values corresponding to the worst 75th percentile value from a subset of minimally impacted streams (streams having reference nutrient concentrations). By examining the biotic community in streams having either reference P or N concentrations but not both, the relative importance of these two nutrients was determined. For SCHL, P was the more important limiting nutrient; however, for BCHL and all macroinvertebrate indices, it appears that N was the more important nutrient when concent

Building high-quality assay libraries for targeted analysis of SWATH MS data.

PubMed

Schubert, Olga T; Gillet, Ludovic C; Collins, Ben C; Navarro, Pedro; Rosenberger, George; Wolski, Witold E; Lam, Henry; Amodei, Dario; Mallick, Parag; MacLean, Brendan; Aebersold, Ruedi

2015-03-01

Targeted proteomics by selected/multiple reaction monitoring (S/MRM) or, on a larger scale, by SWATH (sequential window acquisition of all theoretical spectra) MS (mass spectrometry) typically relies on spectral reference libraries for peptide identification. Quality and coverage of these libraries are therefore of crucial importance for the performance of the methods. Here we present a detailed protocol that has been successfully used to build high-quality, extensive reference libraries supporting targeted proteomics by SWATH MS. We describe each step of the process, including data acquisition by discovery proteomics, assertion of peptide-spectrum matches (PSMs), generation of consensus spectra and compilation of MS coordinates that uniquely define each targeted peptide. Crucial steps such as false discovery rate (FDR) control, retention time normalization and handling of post-translationally modified peptides are detailed. Finally, we show how to use the library to extract SWATH data with the open-source software Skyline. The protocol takes 2-3 d to complete, depending on the extent of the library and the computational resources available.

[Study on ethnic medicine quantitative reference herb,Tibetan medicine fruits of Capsicum frutescens as a case].

PubMed

Zan, Ke; Cui, Gan; Guo, Li-Nong; Ma, Shuang-Cheng; Zheng, Jian

2018-05-01

High price and difficult to get of reference substance have become obstacles to HPLC assay of ethnic medicine. A new method based on quantitative reference herb (QRH) was proposed. Specific chromatograms in fruits of Capsicum frutescens were employed to determine peak positions, and HPLC quantitative reference herb was prepared from fruits of C. frutescens. The content of capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin in the quantitative control herb was determined by HPLC. Eleven batches of fruits of C. frutescens were analyzed with quantitative reference herb and reference substance respectively. The results showed no difference. The present method is feasible for quality control of ethnic medicines and quantitative reference herb is suitable to replace reference substances in assay. Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.

Anxiety and Quality of Life: Clinically Anxious Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorders Compared

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Steensel, Francisca J. A.; Bogels, Susan M.; Dirksen, Carmen D.

2012-01-01

Comorbid anxiety disorders are common in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, studies comparing children with ASD to clinically anxious children are rare. This study investigated anxiety problems and health-related quality of life in children with high-functioning ASD and comorbid anxiety disorders (referred to as the ASD…

Referral physician marketing.

PubMed

Lewis, A

1993-01-01

Marketing of specialist services to referring physicians can be highly effective at influencing referral patterns if the referring physician's needs are taken into account. Furthermore, it is possible to generate referrals from nonreferring physicians by approaching them correctly. The ideal approach is for a specialist to treat non-referring physicians as though they referred the patient, even when they didn't. This practice allows the specialist to demonstrate communications service quality in a non-aggressive, non-sales context. The United Weight Control case study summarizes the impact of a referral-generation strategy with "before" and "after" analyses of the strategy's cost and effectiveness.

Diagnosis and classification of mastocytosis in non-specialized versus reference centres: a Spanish Network on Mastocytosis (REMA) study on 122 patients.

PubMed

Sánchez-Muñoz, Laura; Morgado, Jose M; Álvarez-Twose, Ivan; Matito, Almudena; Garcia-Montero, Andrés C; Teodosio, Cristina; Jara-Acevedo, Maria; Mayado, Andrea; Mollejo, Manuela; Caldas, Carolina; González de Olano, David; Escribano, Luis; Orfao, Alberto

2016-01-01

The diagnosis of 'rare diseases', such as mastocytosis, remains a challenge. Despite this, the precise benefits of referral of mastocytosis patients to highly specialized reference centres are poorly defined and whether patients should be managed at non-specialized versus reference centres remains a matter of debate. To evaluate the quality and efficiency of diagnostic procedures performed at the reference centres for mastocytosis in Spain (REMA) versus other non-reference centres, we retrospectively analysed a series of 122 patients, for the overall degree of agreement obtained for the World Health Organization (WHO) diagnostic and classification criteria betwen the referring and REMA centres. Our results showed that not all WHO diagnostic criteria were frequently investigated at the referring centres. Among the five WHO diagnostic criteria, the highest degree of agreement was obtained for serum tryptase levels [median 90% (95% confidence interval 84-96%)]; in turn, the overall agreement was significantly lower for the major histopathological criterion [80% (72-89%)], and the other three minor criteria: cytomorphology [68% (56-80%)] immunophenotyping of BM mast cells [75% (62-87%)] and detection of the KIT mutation [34% (8-60%)]. Referral of patients with diagnostic suspicion of mastocytosis to a multidisciplinary reference centre improves diagnostic efficiency and quality. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

A high resolution radiation hybrid map of wheat chromosome 4A

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Bread wheat has a large and complex allohexaploid genome with low recombination level at chromosome centromeric and peri-centromeric regions. This significantly hampers ordering of markers, contigs of physical maps and sequence scaffolds and impedes obtaining of high-quality reference genome sequenc...

High Quality Teaching Act of 2009

THOMAS, 111th Congress

Rep. Davis, Susan A. [D-CA-53

2009-06-08

House - 07/23/2009 Referred to the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education. (All Actions) Tracker: This bill has the status IntroducedHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Sediment quality assessment in tidal salt marshes in northern California, USA: An evaluation of multiple lines of evidence approach

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hwang, Hyun-Min; Carr, Robert S.; Cherr, Gary N.; Green, Peter G.; Grosholz, Edwin G.; Judah, Linda; Morgan, Steven G.; Ogle, Scott; Rashbrook, Vanessa K.; Rose, Wendy L.; Teh, Swee J.; Vines, Carol A.; Anderson, Susan L.

2013-01-01

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of integrating a traditional sediment quality triad approach with selected sublethal chronic indicators in resident species in assessing sediment quality in four salt marshes in northern California, USA. These included the highly contaminated (Stege Marsh) and relatively clean (China Camp) marshes in San Francisco Bay and two reference marshes in Tomales Bay. Toxicity potential of contaminants and benthic macroinvertebrate survey showed significant differences between contaminated and reference marshes. Sublethal responses (e.g., apoptotic DNA fragmentation, lipid accumulation, and glycogen depletion) in livers of longjaw mudsucker (Gillichthys mirabilis) and embryo abnormality in lined shore crab (Pachygrapsus crassipes) also clearly distinguished contaminated and reference marshes, while other responses (e.g., cytochrome P450, metallothionein) did not. This study demonstrates that additional chronic sublethal responses in resident species under field exposure conditions can be readily combined with sediment quality triads for an expanded multiple lines of evidence approach. This confirmatory step may be warranted in environments like salt marshes in which natural variables may affect interpretation of toxicity test data. Qualitative and quantitative integration of the portfolio of responses in resident species and traditional approach can support a more comprehensive and informative sediment quality assessment in salt marshes and possibly other habitat types as well.

Quality assessment for color reproduction using a blind metric

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bringier, B.; Quintard, L.; Larabi, M.-C.

2007-01-01

This paper deals with image quality assessment. This field plays nowadays an important role in various image processing applications. Number of objective image quality metrics, that correlate or not, with the subjective quality have been developed during the last decade. Two categories of metrics can be distinguished, the first with full-reference and the second with no-reference. Full-reference metric tries to evaluate the distortion introduced to an image with regards to the reference. No-reference approach attempts to model the judgment of image quality in a blind way. Unfortunately, the universal image quality model is not on the horizon and empirical models established on psychophysical experimentation are generally used. In this paper, we focus only on the second category to evaluate the quality of color reproduction where a blind metric, based on human visual system modeling is introduced. The objective results are validated by single-media and cross-media subjective tests.

The quality of veterinary in-clinic and reference laboratory biochemical testing.

PubMed

Rishniw, Mark; Pion, Paul D; Maher, Tammy

2012-03-01

Although evaluation of biochemical analytes in blood is common in veterinary practice, studies assessing the global quality of veterinary in-clinic and reference laboratory testing have not been reported. The aim of this study was to assess the quality of biochemical testing in veterinary laboratories using results obtained from analyses of 3 levels of assayed quality control materials over 5 days. Quality was assessed by comparison of calculated total error with quality requirements, determination of sigma metrics, use of a quality goal index to determine factors contributing to poor performance, and agreement between in-clinic and reference laboratory mean results. The suitability of in-clinic and reference laboratory instruments for statistical quality control was determined using adaptations from the computerized program, EZRules3. Reference laboratories were able to achieve desirable quality requirements more frequently than in-clinic laboratories. Across all 3 materials, > 50% of in-clinic analyzers achieved a sigma metric ≥ 6.0 for measurement of 2 analytes, whereas > 50% of reference laboratory analyzers achieved a sigma metric ≥ 6.0 for measurement of 6 analytes. Expanded uncertainty of measurement and ± total allowable error resulted in the highest mean percentages of analytes demonstrating agreement between in-clinic and reference laboratories. Owing to marked variation in bias and coefficient of variation between analyzers of the same and different types, the percentages of analytes suitable for statistical quality control varied widely. These findings reflect the current state-of-the-art with regard to in-clinic and reference laboratory analyzer performance and provide a baseline for future evaluations of the quality of veterinary laboratory testing. © 2012 American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology.

Predictive factors of life quality among packaging workers in Taiwan.

PubMed

Yang, Shang-Yu; Hsu, Der-Jen; Yen, Chun-Ming; Chang, Jer-Hao

2018-05-16

The semiconductor plants on the top of high-tech industrial chain hire many packaging workers to carry out miscellaneous packing tasks for various product orders from different companies and countries. Under tremendous workload the quality of life (QoL) of such packaging workers need to be concerned. The aim of this study was to explore factors influencing their QoL. This study recruited 247 packing workers (162 male and 85 female; mean age: 35.6 years old) in 2015 and 2016 from a semiconductor plant in Taiwan by convenience sampling. The questionnaire comprised four parts: demographics, the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF), an occupational burnout inventory and the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire. The four domains of the WHOQOL-BREF were defined as outcome variables. Predictive factors included gender (reference: male), age (reference: ≤ 35), BMI (reference: ≤ 25), educational level (reference: below university), marital/partner status (reference: married/cohabiting), years of work (reference: ≤ 5), work shift (reference: day shift), personal burnout, work-related burnout, over-commitment to work and the number of body parts with discomfort (0-9). The findings showed that physical QoL was negatively correlated with night -shift work, personal burnout, and number of body parts with discomfort. Psychological QoL was negatively correlated with night shift work and personal burnout. Environment QoL was negatively correlated with being male, night shift work and personal burnout. The results showed that the QoL among the packaging workers could be improved by reducing musculoskeletal discomfort, personal burnout and by improving work schedules.

AIRQino, a low-cost air quality mobile platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zaldei, Alessandro; Vagnoli, Carolina; Di Lonardo, Sara; Gioli, Beniamino; Gualtieri, Giovanni; Toscano, Piero; Martelli, Francesca; Matese, Alessandro

2015-04-01

Recent air quality regulations (Directive 2008/50/EC) enforce the transition from point-based monitoring networks to new tools that must be capable of mapping and forecasting air quality on the totality of land area, and therefore the totality of citizens. This implies new technologies such as models and additional indicative measurements, are needed in addition to accurate fixed air quality monitoring stations, that until now have been taken as reference by local administrators for the enforcement of various mitigation strategies. However, due to their sporadic spatial distribution, they cannot describe the highly resolved spatial pollutant variations within cities. Integrating additional indicative measurements may provide adequate information on the spatial distribution of the ambient air quality, also allowing for a reduction of the required minimum number of fixed sampling points, whose high cost and complex maintenance still remain a crucial concern for local administrators. New low-cost and small size sensors are becoming available, that could be employed in air quality monitoring including mobile applications. However, accurate assessment of their accuracy and performance both in controlled and real monitoring conditions is crucially needed. Quantifying sensor response is a significant challenge due to the sensitivity to ambient temperature and humidity and the cross-sensitivity to others pollutant species. This study reports the development of an Arduino compatible electronic board (AIRQino) which integrates a series of low-cost metal oxide and NDIR sensors for air quality monitoring, with sensors to measure air temperature, relative humidity, noise, solar radiation and vertical acceleration. A comparative assessment was made for CO2, CO, NO2, CH4, O3, VOCs concentrations, temperature and relative humidity. A controlled climatic chamber study (-80°C / +80°C) was performed to verify temperature and humidity interference using reference gas cylinders and high quality reference sensors. The AIRQino was installed on mobile vectors such as bikes, buses and trams in the cities of Firenze and Siracusa (Italy), that send data real-time to a Web portal. By integrating a microprocessor unit it is capable of directly updating calibration coefficients to provide corrected sensor output as digital string through RS232 serial port. Results from the lab tests and the 'real world' mobile applications are presented and discussed, to assess to what extent this sensor technology might be useful for the development of portable, compact, wireless and cost-effective system for air quality monitoring in urban areas at high spatio-temporal resolution.

[Quality management in implementing specialist pediatric palliative home care in Lower Saxony, Germany].

PubMed

Kremeike, Kerstin; Eulitz, Nina; Sens, Brigitte; Geraedts, Max; Reinhardt, Dirk

2012-01-01

To provide comprehensive high-quality health care is a great challenge in the context of high specialisation and intensive costs. This problem becomes further aggravated in service areas with low patient numbers and low numbers of specialists. Therefore, a multidimensional approach to quality development was chosen in order to optimise the care of children and adolescents with life-limiting conditions in Lower Saxony, a German federal state with a predominantly rural infrastructure. Different service structures were implemented and a classification of service provider's specialisation was defined on the basis of existing references of professional associations. Measures to optimise care were implemented in a process-oriented manner. High-quality health care can be facilitated by carefully worded requirements concerning the quality of structures combined with optimally designed processes. Parts of the newly implemented paediatric palliative care structures are funded by the statutory health insurance. Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier GmbH.

Diagnostic accuracy of scapular physical examination tests for shoulder disorders: a systematic review.

PubMed

Wright, Alexis A; Wassinger, Craig A; Frank, Mason; Michener, Lori A; Hegedus, Eric J

2013-09-01

To systematically review and critique the evidence regarding the diagnostic accuracy of physical examination tests for the scapula in patients with shoulder disorders. A systematic, computerised literature search of PubMED, EMBASE, CINAHL and the Cochrane Library databases (from database inception through January 2012) using keywords related to diagnostic accuracy of physical examination tests of the scapula. The Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies tool was used to critique the quality of each paper. Eight articles met the inclusion criteria; three were considered to be of high quality. Of the three high-quality studies, two were in reference to a 'diagnosis' of shoulder pain. Only one high-quality article referenced specific shoulder pathology of acromioclavicular dislocation with reported sensitivity of 71% and 41% for the scapular dyskinesis and SICK scapula test, respectively. Overall, no physical examination test of the scapula was found to be useful in differentially diagnosing pathologies of the shoulder.

Chat reference service in medical libraries: part 2--Trends in medical school libraries.

PubMed

Dee, Cheryl R

2003-01-01

An increasing number of medical school libraries offer chat service to provide immediate, high quality information at the time and point of need to students, faculty, staff, and health care professionals. Part 2 of Chat Reference Service in Medical Libraries presents a snapshot of the current trends in chat reference service in medical school libraries. In late 2002, 25 (21%) medical school libraries provided chat reference. Trends in chat reference services in medical school libraries were compiled from an exploration of medical school library Web sites and informal correspondence from medical school library personnel. Many medical libraries are actively investigating and planning new chat reference services, while others have decided not to pursue chat reference at this time. Anecdotal comments from medical school library staff provide insights into chat reference service.

Evaluation of quality of precipitation products: A case study using WRF and IMERG data over the central United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, J.; Lin, L. F.; Bras, R. L.

2017-12-01

Hydrological applications rely on the availability and quality of precipitation products, specially model- and satellite-based products for use in areas without ground measurements. It is known that the quality of model- and satellite-based precipitation products are complementary—model-based products exhibiting high quality during winters while satellite-based products seem to be better during summers. To explore that behavior, this study uses 2-m air temperature as auxiliary information to evaluate high-resolution (0.1°×0.1° every hour) precipitation products from Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) simulations and from version-4 Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) early and final runs. The products are evaluated relative to the reference NCEP Stage IV precipitation estimates over the central United States in 2016. The results show that the WRF and IMERG final-run estimates are nearly unbiased while the IMERG early-run estimates positively biased. The results also show that the WRF estimates exhibit high correlations with the reference data when the temperature falls below 280°K and the IMERG estimates (i.e., both early and final runs) do so when the temperature exceeds 280°K. Moreover, the temperature threshold of 280°K, which distinguishes the quality of the WRF and the IMERG products, does not vary significantly with either season or location. This study not only adds insight into current precipitation research on the quality of precipitation products but also suggests a simple way for choosing either a model- or satellite-based product or a hybrid model/satellite product for applications.

Inside Student Government: The Variable Quality of High School Student Councils

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McFarland, Daniel; Starmanns, Carlos E.

2009-01-01

Background/Context: Student governments are the first direct experience that youth have of representative government. However, very little research has been done on student councils in spite of their ubiquity in American high schools and consistent references to their positive effects on the political socialization of youth.…

SU-F-BRD-15: Quality Correction Factors in Scanned Or Broad Proton Therapy Beams Are Indistinguishable

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

Sorriaux, J; Lee, J; ICTEAM Institute, Universite catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve

2015-06-15

Purpose: The IAEA TRS-398 code of practice details the reference conditions for reference dosimetry of proton beams using ionization chambers and the required beam quality correction factors (kQ). Pencil beam scanning (PBS) requires multiple spots to reproduce the reference conditions. The objective is to demonstrate, using Monte Carlo (MC) calculations, that kQ factors for broad beams can be used for scanned beams under the same reference conditions with no significant additional uncertainty. We consider hereafter the general Alfonso formalism (Alfonso et al, 2008) for non-standard beam. Methods: To approach the reference conditions and the associated dose distributions, PBS must combinemore » many pencil beams with range modulation and shaping techniques different than those used in passive systems (broad beams). This might lead to a different energy spectrum at the measurement point. In order to evaluate the impact of these differences on kQ factors, ion chamber responses are computed with MC (Geant4 9.6) in a dedicated scanned pencil beam (Q-pcsr) producing a 10×10cm2 composite field with a flat dose distribution from 10 to 16 cm depth. Ion chamber responses are also computed by MC in a broad beam with quality Q-ds (double scattering). The dose distribution of Q -pcsr matches the dose distribution of Q-ds. k-(Q-pcsr,Q-ds) is computed for a 2×2×0.2cm{sup 3} idealized air cavity and a realistic plane-parallel ion chamber (IC). Results: Under reference conditions, quality correction factors for a scanned composite field versus a broad beam are the same for air cavity dose response, k-(Q-pcsr,Q-ds) =1.001±0.001 and for a Roos IC, k-(Q-pcsr,Q-ds) =0.999±0.005. Conclusion: Quality correction factors for ion chamber response in scanned and broad proton therapy beams are identical under reference conditions within the calculation uncertainties. The results indicate that quality correction factors published in IAEA TRS-398 can be used for scanned beams in the SOBP of a high-energy proton beam. Jefferson Sorriaux is financed by the Walloon Region under the convention 1217662. Jefferson Sorriaux is sponsored by a public-private partnership IBA - Walloon Region.« less

Establishing physico-chemical reference conditions in Mediterranean streams according to the European Water Framework Directive.

PubMed

Sánchez-Montoya, María del Mar; Arce, Maria Isabel; Vidal-Abarca, María Rosario; Suárez, María Luisa; Prat, Narcís; Gómez, Rosa

2012-05-01

Type-specific physico-chemical reference conditions are required for the assessment of ecological status in the Water Framework Directive context, similarly to the biological and hydro-morphological elements. This directive emphasises that natural variability of quality elements in high status (reference condition) needs to be quantified. Mediterranean streams often present a marked seasonal pattern in hydrological, biological and geochemical processes which could affect physico-chemical reference conditions. This study establishes general physico-chemical reference conditions (oxygenation, nutrient, salinity and acidification conditions) for different Mediterranean stream types. 116 potential reference sites located in 23 Mediterranean catchments in Spain were sampled in spring, summer and autumn in 2003. All sites were subjected to a screening method for the selection of reference sites in Mediterranean streams (Mediterranean Reference Criteria) and classified using a pre-established stream typology that establishes five different stream types (temporary streams, evaporite-calcareous at medium altitude, siliceous headwaters, calcareous headwaters and large watercourses). Reference conditions (reference value and reference threshold equivalents to high-good class boundary) were calculated using two different methods according to the availability of reference sites: the reference site 75th percentile approach of all reference sites and the 25th percentile of the population approach. The majority of the studied potential reference sites (76 out of 116) were selected as reference sites. Regarding type-specific reference conditions, only siliceous headwaters could be considered different from the rest of stream types because lower conductivity and pH. All reference stream types presented seasonal differences as regards some parameters, except for temporary streams due to the high natural variation of this stream type. For those parameters which presented seasonal differences in a specific stream type, the least restrictive values were proposed as reference conditions. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Gradient Magnitude Similarity Deviation: A Highly Efficient Perceptual Image Quality Index.

PubMed

Xue, Wufeng; Zhang, Lei; Mou, Xuanqin; Bovik, Alan C

2014-02-01

It is an important task to faithfully evaluate the perceptual quality of output images in many applications, such as image compression, image restoration, and multimedia streaming. A good image quality assessment (IQA) model should not only deliver high quality prediction accuracy, but also be computationally efficient. The efficiency of IQA metrics is becoming particularly important due to the increasing proliferation of high-volume visual data in high-speed networks. We present a new effective and efficient IQA model, called gradient magnitude similarity deviation (GMSD). The image gradients are sensitive to image distortions, while different local structures in a distorted image suffer different degrees of degradations. This motivates us to explore the use of global variation of gradient based local quality map for overall image quality prediction. We find that the pixel-wise gradient magnitude similarity (GMS) between the reference and distorted images combined with a novel pooling strategy-the standard deviation of the GMS map-can predict accurately perceptual image quality. The resulting GMSD algorithm is much faster than most state-of-the-art IQA methods, and delivers highly competitive prediction accuracy. MATLAB source code of GMSD can be downloaded at http://www4.comp.polyu.edu.hk/~cslzhang/IQA/GMSD/GMSD.htm.

Putting the Horse Back in Front of the Cart: Using Visions and Decisions about High-Quality Learning Experiences to Drive Course Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Deborah; Tanner, Kimberly

2007-01-01

This article discusses a systematic approach to designing significant learning experiences, often referred to as the "backward design process," which has been popularized by Wiggins and McTighe (1998) and is included as a central feature of L. Dee Fink's model for integrated course design (Fink, 2003). The process is referred to as backward…

Wide field of view common-path lateral-shearing digital holographic interference microscope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vora, Priyanka; Trivedi, Vismay; Mahajan, Swapnil; Patel, Nimit; Joglekar, Mugdha; Chhaniwal, Vani; Moradi, Ali-Reza; Javidi, Bahram; Anand, Arun

2017-12-01

Quantitative three-dimensional (3-D) imaging of living cells provides important information about the cell morphology and its time variation. Off-axis, digital holographic interference microscopy is an ideal tool for 3-D imaging, parameter extraction, and classification of living cells. Two-beam digital holographic microscopes, which are usually employed, provide high-quality 3-D images of micro-objects, albeit with lower temporal stability. Common-path digital holographic geometries, in which the reference beam is derived from the object beam, provide higher temporal stability along with high-quality 3-D images. Self-referencing geometry is the simplest of the common-path techniques, in which a portion of the object beam itself acts as the reference, leading to compact setups using fewer optical elements. However, it has reduced field of view, and the reference may contain object information. Here, we describe the development of a common-path digital holographic microscope, employing a shearing plate and converting one of the beams into a separate reference by employing a pin-hole. The setup is as compact as self-referencing geometry, while providing field of view as wide as that of a two-beam microscope. The microscope is tested by imaging and quantifying the morphology and dynamics of human erythrocytes.

Wide field of view common-path lateral-shearing digital holographic interference microscope.

PubMed

Vora, Priyanka; Trivedi, Vismay; Mahajan, Swapnil; Patel, Nimit; Joglekar, Mugdha; Chhaniwal, Vani; Moradi, Ali-Reza; Javidi, Bahram; Anand, Arun

2017-12-01

Quantitative three-dimensional (3-D) imaging of living cells provides important information about the cell morphology and its time variation. Off-axis, digital holographic interference microscopy is an ideal tool for 3-D imaging, parameter extraction, and classification of living cells. Two-beam digital holographic microscopes, which are usually employed, provide high-quality 3-D images of micro-objects, albeit with lower temporal stability. Common-path digital holographic geometries, in which the reference beam is derived from the object beam, provide higher temporal stability along with high-quality 3-D images. Self-referencing geometry is the simplest of the common-path techniques, in which a portion of the object beam itself acts as the reference, leading to compact setups using fewer optical elements. However, it has reduced field of view, and the reference may contain object information. Here, we describe the development of a common-path digital holographic microscope, employing a shearing plate and converting one of the beams into a separate reference by employing a pin-hole. The setup is as compact as self-referencing geometry, while providing field of view as wide as that of a two-beam microscope. The microscope is tested by imaging and quantifying the morphology and dynamics of human erythrocytes. (2017) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

Using Third Party Data to Update a Reference Dataset in a Quality Evaluation Service

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xavier, E. M. A.; Ariza-López, F. J.; Ureña-Cámara, M. A.

2016-06-01

Nowadays it is easy to find many data sources for various regions around the globe. In this 'data overload' scenario there are few, if any, information available about the quality of these data sources. In order to easily provide these data quality information we presented the architecture of a web service for the automation of quality control of spatial datasets running over a Web Processing Service (WPS). For quality procedures that require an external reference dataset, like positional accuracy or completeness, the architecture permits using a reference dataset. However, this reference dataset is not ageless, since it suffers the natural time degradation inherent to geospatial features. In order to mitigate this problem we propose the Time Degradation & Updating Module which intends to apply assessed data as a tool to maintain the reference database updated. The main idea is to utilize datasets sent to the quality evaluation service as a source of 'candidate data elements' for the updating of the reference database. After the evaluation, if some elements of a candidate dataset reach a determined quality level, they can be used as input data to improve the current reference database. In this work we present the first design of the Time Degradation & Updating Module. We believe that the outcomes can be applied in the search of a full-automatic on-line quality evaluation platform.

Methylation analysis of CMTM3 and DUSP1 gene promoters in high-quality brush hair in the Yangtze River delta white goat.

PubMed

Qiang, Wang; Guo, Haiyan; Li, Yongjun; Shi, Jianfei; Yin, Xiuyuan; Qu, Jingwen

2018-08-20

The Yangtze River delta white goat is the only goat breed that produces high-quality brush hair, which is specifically used in top-grade writing brushes. Previous studies have indicated that the CMTM3 and DUSP1 genes are involved in the growth and cycle of high-quality brush hair, and these genes are thought to be involved in the formation of high-quality brush hair traits. In this study, we investigated the relationship between methylation of CMTM3 and DUSP1 and such traits. The results indicated that the relative expression levels of the CMTM3 and DUSP1 genes were higher in non-high-quality brush hair than in high-quality brush hair. Furthermore, the CpG sites of the DUSP1 gene were not methylated, and the methylation level of CMTM3 was negatively correlated with the gene expression level. We believe that the DUSP1 gene regulates the formation of high-quality brush hair by non-methylated, and that methylation of the CMTM3 gene results in a decrease in its expression, causing an increase in the activity of the androgen receptor and the level of androgen. This high androgen level promotes the growth of high-quality brush hair. These study results provide a theoretical basis for further elucidating the molecular mechanism of the formation of high-quality brush hair characteristics, and provide scientific reference for the molecular breeding of high-quality brush hair. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Blind prediction of natural video quality.

PubMed

Saad, Michele A; Bovik, Alan C; Charrier, Christophe

2014-03-01

We propose a blind (no reference or NR) video quality evaluation model that is nondistortion specific. The approach relies on a spatio-temporal model of video scenes in the discrete cosine transform domain, and on a model that characterizes the type of motion occurring in the scenes, to predict video quality. We use the models to define video statistics and perceptual features that are the basis of a video quality assessment (VQA) algorithm that does not require the presence of a pristine video to compare against in order to predict a perceptual quality score. The contributions of this paper are threefold. 1) We propose a spatio-temporal natural scene statistics (NSS) model for videos. 2) We propose a motion model that quantifies motion coherency in video scenes. 3) We show that the proposed NSS and motion coherency models are appropriate for quality assessment of videos, and we utilize them to design a blind VQA algorithm that correlates highly with human judgments of quality. The proposed algorithm, called video BLIINDS, is tested on the LIVE VQA database and on the EPFL-PoliMi video database and shown to perform close to the level of top performing reduced and full reference VQA algorithms.

Drifts in ADCC-related quality attributes of Herceptin®: Impact on development of a trastuzumab biosimilar.

PubMed

Kim, Seokkyun; Song, Jinsu; Park, Seungkyu; Ham, Sunyoung; Paek, Kyungyeol; Kang, Minjung; Chae, Yunjung; Seo, Heewon; Kim, Hyung-Chan; Flores, Michael

A biosimilar product needs to demonstrate biosimilarity to the originator reference product, and the quality profile of the latter should be monitored throughout the period of the biosimilar's development to match the quality attributes of the 2 products that relate to efficacy and safety. For the development of a biosimilar version of trastuzumab, the reference product, Herceptin®, was extensively characterized for the main physicochemical and biologic properties by standard or state-of-the-art analytical methods, using multiple lots expiring between March 2015 and December 2019. For lots with expiry dates up to July 2018, a high degree of consistency was observed for all the tested properties. However, among the lots expiring in August 2018 or later, a downward drift was observed in %afucose (G0+G1+G2). Furthermore, the upward drift of %high mannose (M5+M6) was observed in the lots with expiry dates from June 2019 to December 2019. As a result, the combination of %afucose and %high mannose showed 2 marked drifts in the lots with expiry dates from August 2018 to December 2019, which was supported by the similar trend of biologic data, such as FcγRIIIa binding and antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) activity. Considering that ADCC is one of the clinically relevant mechanisms of action for trastuzumab, the levels of %afucose and %high mannose should be tightly monitored as critical quality attributes for biosimilar development of trastuzumab.

Drifts in ADCC-related quality attributes of Herceptin®: Impact on development of a trastuzumab biosimilar

PubMed Central

Kim, Seokkyun; Song, Jinsu; Park, Seungkyu; Ham, Sunyoung; Paek, Kyungyeol; Kang, Minjung; Chae, Yunjung; Seo, Heewon; Kim, Hyung-Chan; Flores, Michael

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT A biosimilar product needs to demonstrate biosimilarity to the originator reference product, and the quality profile of the latter should be monitored throughout the period of the biosimilar's development to match the quality attributes of the 2 products that relate to efficacy and safety. For the development of a biosimilar version of trastuzumab, the reference product, Herceptin®, was extensively characterized for the main physicochemical and biologic properties by standard or state-of-the-art analytical methods, using multiple lots expiring between March 2015 and December 2019. For lots with expiry dates up to July 2018, a high degree of consistency was observed for all the tested properties. However, among the lots expiring in August 2018 or later, a downward drift was observed in %afucose (G0+G1+G2). Furthermore, the upward drift of %high mannose (M5+M6) was observed in the lots with expiry dates from June 2019 to December 2019. As a result, the combination of %afucose and %high mannose showed 2 marked drifts in the lots with expiry dates from August 2018 to December 2019, which was supported by the similar trend of biologic data, such as FcγRIIIa binding and antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) activity. Considering that ADCC is one of the clinically relevant mechanisms of action for trastuzumab, the levels of %afucose and %high mannose should be tightly monitored as critical quality attributes for biosimilar development of trastuzumab. PMID:28296619

The diploid genome sequence of an Asian individual

PubMed Central

Wang, Jun; Wang, Wei; Li, Ruiqiang; Li, Yingrui; Tian, Geng; Goodman, Laurie; Fan, Wei; Zhang, Junqing; Li, Jun; Zhang, Juanbin; Guo, Yiran; Feng, Binxiao; Li, Heng; Lu, Yao; Fang, Xiaodong; Liang, Huiqing; Du, Zhenglin; Li, Dong; Zhao, Yiqing; Hu, Yujie; Yang, Zhenzhen; Zheng, Hancheng; Hellmann, Ines; Inouye, Michael; Pool, John; Yi, Xin; Zhao, Jing; Duan, Jinjie; Zhou, Yan; Qin, Junjie; Ma, Lijia; Li, Guoqing; Yang, Zhentao; Zhang, Guojie; Yang, Bin; Yu, Chang; Liang, Fang; Li, Wenjie; Li, Shaochuan; Li, Dawei; Ni, Peixiang; Ruan, Jue; Li, Qibin; Zhu, Hongmei; Liu, Dongyuan; Lu, Zhike; Li, Ning; Guo, Guangwu; Zhang, Jianguo; Ye, Jia; Fang, Lin; Hao, Qin; Chen, Quan; Liang, Yu; Su, Yeyang; san, A.; Ping, Cuo; Yang, Shuang; Chen, Fang; Li, Li; Zhou, Ke; Zheng, Hongkun; Ren, Yuanyuan; Yang, Ling; Gao, Yang; Yang, Guohua; Li, Zhuo; Feng, Xiaoli; Kristiansen, Karsten; Wong, Gane Ka-Shu; Nielsen, Rasmus; Durbin, Richard; Bolund, Lars; Zhang, Xiuqing; Li, Songgang; Yang, Huanming; Wang, Jian

2009-01-01

Here we present the first diploid genome sequence of an Asian individual. The genome was sequenced to 36-fold average coverage using massively parallel sequencing technology. We aligned the short reads onto the NCBI human reference genome to 99.97% coverage, and guided by the reference genome, we used uniquely mapped reads to assemble a high-quality consensus sequence for 92% of the Asian individual's genome. We identified approximately 3 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) inside this region, of which 13.6% were not in the dbSNP database. Genotyping analysis showed that SNP identification had high accuracy and consistency, indicating the high sequence quality of this assembly. We also carried out heterozygote phasing and haplotype prediction against HapMap CHB and JPT haplotypes (Chinese and Japanese, respectively), sequence comparison with the two available individual genomes (J. D. Watson and J. C. Venter), and structural variation identification. These variations were considered for their potential biological impact. Our sequence data and analyses demonstrate the potential usefulness of next-generation sequencing technologies for personal genomics. PMID:18987735

Metabarcoding of marine nematodes – evaluation of reference datasets used in tree-based taxonomy assignment approach

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Abstract Background Metabarcoding is becoming a common tool used to assess and compare diversity of organisms in environmental samples. Identification of OTUs is one of the critical steps in the process and several taxonomy assignment methods were proposed to accomplish this task. This publication evaluates the quality of reference datasets, alongside with several alignment and phylogeny inference methods used in one of the taxonomy assignment methods, called tree-based approach. This approach assigns anonymous OTUs to taxonomic categories based on relative placements of OTUs and reference sequences on the cladogram and support that these placements receive. New information In tree-based taxonomy assignment approach, reliable identification of anonymous OTUs is based on their placement in monophyletic and highly supported clades together with identified reference taxa. Therefore, it requires high quality reference dataset to be used. Resolution of phylogenetic trees is strongly affected by the presence of erroneous sequences as well as alignment and phylogeny inference methods used in the process. Two preparation steps are essential for the successful application of tree-based taxonomy assignment approach. Curated collections of genetic information do include erroneous sequences. These sequences have detrimental effect on the resolution of cladograms used in tree-based approach. They must be identified and excluded from the reference dataset beforehand. Various combinations of multiple sequence alignment and phylogeny inference methods provide cladograms with different topology and bootstrap support. These combinations of methods need to be tested in order to determine the one that gives highest resolution for the particular reference dataset. Completing the above mentioned preparation steps is expected to decrease the number of unassigned OTUs and thus improve the results of the tree-based taxonomy assignment approach. PMID:27932919

Metabarcoding of marine nematodes - evaluation of reference datasets used in tree-based taxonomy assignment approach.

PubMed

Holovachov, Oleksandr

2016-01-01

Metabarcoding is becoming a common tool used to assess and compare diversity of organisms in environmental samples. Identification of OTUs is one of the critical steps in the process and several taxonomy assignment methods were proposed to accomplish this task. This publication evaluates the quality of reference datasets, alongside with several alignment and phylogeny inference methods used in one of the taxonomy assignment methods, called tree-based approach. This approach assigns anonymous OTUs to taxonomic categories based on relative placements of OTUs and reference sequences on the cladogram and support that these placements receive. In tree-based taxonomy assignment approach, reliable identification of anonymous OTUs is based on their placement in monophyletic and highly supported clades together with identified reference taxa. Therefore, it requires high quality reference dataset to be used. Resolution of phylogenetic trees is strongly affected by the presence of erroneous sequences as well as alignment and phylogeny inference methods used in the process. Two preparation steps are essential for the successful application of tree-based taxonomy assignment approach. Curated collections of genetic information do include erroneous sequences. These sequences have detrimental effect on the resolution of cladograms used in tree-based approach. They must be identified and excluded from the reference dataset beforehand.Various combinations of multiple sequence alignment and phylogeny inference methods provide cladograms with different topology and bootstrap support. These combinations of methods need to be tested in order to determine the one that gives highest resolution for the particular reference dataset.Completing the above mentioned preparation steps is expected to decrease the number of unassigned OTUs and thus improve the results of the tree-based taxonomy assignment approach.

Evaluation of Elm and Speck Sensors

EPA Science Inventory

Particulate matter (PM) is a pollutant of high public interest regulated by national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) using Federal Reference Method (FRM) and Federal Equivalent Method (FEM) instrumentation identified for environmental monitoring. The US EPA has been evaluat...

[Hospital and organizational dynamics of the National Institutes of Health. Relationship with high-specialty hospitals].

PubMed

Gabilondo Navarro, Fernando

2011-01-01

In order to primarily encourage medical care, teaching and research activities in high specialty regional hospitals (HSRH), a number of strategies are explored to increase the number of patients cared for, improve the quality and timeliness of care and successfully integrate the function of these hospitals within the care and patient flow model expected by the Federal Government. These strategies include the use of information technology systems as platforms for telemedicine, including tele-imaging, tele-education and telepathology, thus fostering the quality and timeliness of medical care and narrow the relationship between these HSRH with the National Health Institutes. Other strategies such as extra-mural surgery, specific theme workshops, resident rotations, the use of simulators and "Science Weeks" are also explored so as to promote teaching and research. Finally, the reference and counter-reference system and the introduction of pension programs are evaluated as possible strategies supporting resource management.

MetaSort untangles metagenome assembly by reducing microbial community complexity

PubMed Central

Ji, Peifeng; Zhang, Yanming; Wang, Jinfeng; Zhao, Fangqing

2017-01-01

Most current approaches to analyse metagenomic data rely on reference genomes. Novel microbial communities extend far beyond the coverage of reference databases and de novo metagenome assembly from complex microbial communities remains a great challenge. Here we present a novel experimental and bioinformatic framework, metaSort, for effective construction of bacterial genomes from metagenomic samples. MetaSort provides a sorted mini-metagenome approach based on flow cytometry and single-cell sequencing methodologies, and employs new computational algorithms to efficiently recover high-quality genomes from the sorted mini-metagenome by the complementary of the original metagenome. Through extensive evaluations, we demonstrated that metaSort has an excellent and unbiased performance on genome recovery and assembly. Furthermore, we applied metaSort to an unexplored microflora colonized on the surface of marine kelp and successfully recovered 75 high-quality genomes at one time. This approach will greatly improve access to microbial genomes from complex or novel communities. PMID:28112173

Development and validation of the RapidHIT™ 200 utilising NGMSElect™ Express for the processing of buccal swabs.

PubMed

Shackleton, David; Pagram, Jenny; Ives, Lesley; Vanhinsbergh, Des

2018-06-02

The RapidHIT™ 200 System is a fully automated sample-to-DNA profile system designed to produce high quality DNA profiles within 2h. The use of RapidHIT™ 200 System within the United Kingdom Criminal Justice System (UKCJS) has required extensive development and validation of methods with a focus on AmpFℓSTR ® NGMSElect™ Express PCR kit to comply with specific regulations for loading to the UK National DNA Database (NDNAD). These studies have been carried out using single source reference samples to simulate live reference samples taken from arrestees and victims for elimination. The studies have shown that the system is capable of generating high quality profile and has achieved the accreditations necessary to load to the NDNAD; a first for the UK. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Interlaboratory Reproducibility of Droplet Digital Polymerase Chain Reaction Using a New DNA Reference Material Format.

PubMed

Pinheiro, Leonardo B; O'Brien, Helen; Druce, Julian; Do, Hongdo; Kay, Pippa; Daniels, Marissa; You, Jingjing; Burke, Daniel; Griffiths, Kate; Emslie, Kerry R

2017-11-07

Use of droplet digital PCR technology (ddPCR) is expanding rapidly in the diversity of applications and number of users around the world. Access to relatively simple and affordable commercial ddPCR technology has attracted wide interest in use of this technology as a molecular diagnostic tool. For ddPCR to effectively transition to a molecular diagnostic setting requires processes for method validation and verification and demonstration of reproducible instrument performance. In this study, we describe the development and characterization of a DNA reference material (NMI NA008 High GC reference material) comprising a challenging methylated GC-rich DNA template under a novel 96-well microplate format. A scalable process using high precision acoustic dispensing technology was validated to produce the DNA reference material with a certified reference value expressed in amount of DNA molecules per well. An interlaboratory study, conducted using blinded NA008 High GC reference material to assess reproducibility among seven independent laboratories demonstrated less than 4.5% reproducibility relative standard deviation. With the exclusion of one laboratory, laboratories had appropriate technical competency, fully functional instrumentation, and suitable reagents to perform accurate ddPCR based DNA quantification measurements at the time of the study. The study results confirmed that NA008 High GC reference material is fit for the purpose of being used for quality control of ddPCR systems, consumables, instrumentation, and workflow.

[Development of the certified reference material of mercury in lyophilized human urine].

PubMed

Zhao, Wei; Zhang, Fu-gang; DU, Hui-fang; Pan, Ya-juan; Yan, Hui-fang

2011-02-01

To develop the certified reference material of mercury in lyophilized human urine. Human urine samples from normal level mercury districts were filtered, homogenized, dispensed, lyophilized and radio-sterilized. Homogeneity test, stability inspection and certification were conducted using a atom fluorescence spectrophotometric method. The physical and chemical stability of the certified reference material were assessed for 18 months. The certified values are based on analysis made by three independent laboratories. The certified values are as follows: low level was (35.6 ± 2.1) µg/L, high level was (50.5 ± 3.0) µg/L. The certified reference material of mercury in lyophilized human urine in this research reached the national certified reference material requirements and could be used for the quality control.

[Gender influence on health related quality of life among resident physicians working in an emergency department].

PubMed

Fernández-Prada, María; González-Cabrera, Joaquín; Torres G, Francisco; Iribar-Ibabe, Concepción; María Peinado, José

2014-02-01

The high emotional burden of physicians working in emergency departments may affect their quality of life perception. To evaluate health related quality of life among resident physicians performing shifts at an emergency department. Seventy one physicians aged 26,3 ± 1,7 years (47 women), working as residents in an emergency department, answered the short version of the Short-Form Health Survey Questionnaire (SF-36®). This questionnaire analyses eight domains: physical function, body pain, general health, vitality, social function, emotional role and mental health. Women had a significantly worse perception than a reference population in four dimensions of the SF-36, especially mental health and social functioning. Men had scores similar to the reference population. Among women, vitality is the best predictor of mental health and social functioning. Women working as residents in an emergency department have a worse perception of their quality of life than men performing the same job.

Handling Qualities of Model Reference Adaptive Controllers with Varying Complexity for Pitch-Roll Coupled Failures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schaefer, Jacob; Hanson, Curt; Johnson, Marcus A.; Nguyen, Nhan

2011-01-01

Three model reference adaptive controllers (MRAC) with varying levels of complexity were evaluated on a high performance jet aircraft and compared along with a baseline nonlinear dynamic inversion controller. The handling qualities and performance of the controllers were examined during failure conditions that induce coupling between the pitch and roll axes. Results from flight tests showed with a roll to pitch input coupling failure, the handling qualities went from Level 2 with the baseline controller to Level 1 with the most complex MRAC tested. A failure scenario with the left stabilator frozen also showed improvement with the MRAC. Improvement in performance and handling qualities was generally seen as complexity was incrementally added; however, added complexity usually corresponds to increased verification and validation effort required for certification. The tradeoff between complexity and performance is thus important to a controls system designer when implementing an adaptive controller on an aircraft. This paper investigates this relation through flight testing of several controllers of vary complexity.

Environmental quality of transitional waters: the lagoon of Venice case study.

PubMed

Micheletti, C; Gottardo, S; Critto, A; Chiarato, S; Marcomini, A

2011-01-01

The health status of European aquatic environments, including transitional waters such as coastal lagoons, is regulated by the Water Framework Directive (WFD), which requires the classification of the water bodies' environmental quality and the achievement of a good ecological status by 2015. In the Venice lagoon, a transitional water body located in the northeastern part of Italy, the achievement of a good ecological status is hampered by several anthropogenic and natural pressures, such as sediment and water chemical contamination, and sediment erosion. In order to evaluate the lagoon's environmental quality according to the WFD (i.e. 5 quality classes, from High to Bad), an integrated Weight-of-Evidence methodology was developed and applied to classify the quality of the lagoon water bodies, integrating biological, physico-chemical, chemical, ecotoxicological, and hydromorphological data (i.e. Lines of Evidence, LOE). The quality assessment was carried out in two lagoon habitat typologies (previously defined on the basis of morphological, sediment, and hydrodynamic characteristics) which were selected taking into account the ecological gradient from sea to land, and the differences in anthropogenic pressure and contamination levels. The LOE classification was carried out by using indicators scored by comparing site specific conditions to reference conditions measured in lagoon reference sites, or provided by local, national or European regulations (e.g. Environmental Quality Standards, EQS, for chemicals). Finally, the overall quality status for each water body was calculated by a probabilistic approach, i.e. by reporting the final result as the frequency distribution of quality classes. The developed procedure was applied by using data and information concerning selected LOE and collected from monitoring programs and research studies carried out in the last 15 years in the lagoon of Venice. A set of sampling stations characterized by spatially and temporally coherent information for each LOE was selected, and among these stations, potential reference sites for each water body typology were identified. The quality assessment highlighted that there are specific lagoon areas, especially those located near the industrially developed area, which are highly affected by anthropogenic activities, and that chemical contamination is one of the main pressures affecting ecological status (e.g. macro-benthonic biodiversity) in the Venice lagoon. The integrated quality assessment procedure that was developed provided a new tool supporting decision making, as well as lagoon assessment and management. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

High-Quality Genome Sequence of the Highly Resistant Bacterium Staphylococcus haemolyticus, Isolated from a Neonatal Bloodstream Infection.

PubMed

Hosseinkhani, Farideh; Emaneini, Mohammad; van Leeuwen, Willem

2017-07-20

Using Illumina HiSeq and PacBio technologies, we sequenced the genome of the multidrug-resistant bacterium Staphylococcus haemolyticus , originating from a bloodstream infection in a neonate. The sequence data can be used as an accurate reference sequence. Copyright © 2017 Hosseinkhani et al.

Quality Assurance in Large Scale Online Course Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holsombach-Ebner, Cinda

2013-01-01

The course design and development process (often referred to here as the "production process") at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU-Worldwide) aims to produce turnkey style courses to be taught by a highly-qualified pool of over 800 instructors. Given the high number of online courses and tremendous number of live sections…

78 FR 9650 - Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Maryland; Amendments to Maryland's...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-02-11

... Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Maryland; Amendments to Maryland's Ambient Air Quality... adopting through incorporation by reference the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS). In the... incorporation by reference of the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), please see the information...

Challenges in Routine Implementation and Quality Control of Rapid Diagnostic Tests for Malaria–Rufiji District, Tanzania

PubMed Central

McMorrow, Meredith L.; Masanja, M. Irene; Abdulla, Salim M. K.; Kahigwa, Elizeus; Kachur, S. Patrick

2018-01-01

Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) represent an alternative to microscopy for malaria diagnosis and have shown high sensitivity and specificity in a variety of study settings. Current World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for quality control of RDTs provide detailed instructions on pre-field testing, but offer little guidance for quality assurance once RDTs are deployed in health facilities. From September 2006 to April 2007, we introduced a histidine-rich protein II (HRP2)-based RDT (Paracheck) for suspected malaria cases five years of age and older in nine health facilities in Rufiji District, Tanzania, to assess sensitivity and specificity of RDTs in routine use at rural health facilities. Thick blood smears were collected for all patients tested with RDTs and stained and read by laboratory personnel in each facility. Thick smears were subsequently reviewed by a reference microscopist to determine RDT sensitivity and specificity. In all nine health facilities, there were significant problems with the quality of staining and microscopy. Sensitivity and specificity of RDTs were difficult to assess given the poor quality of routine blood smear staining. Mean operational sensitivity of RDTs based on reference microscopy was 64.8%, but varied greatly by health facility, range 18.8–85.9%. Sensitivity of RDTs increased with increasing parasite density. Specificity remained high at 87.8% despite relatively poor slide quality. Institution of quality control of RDTs based on poor quality blood smear staining may impede reliable measurement of sensitivity and specificity and undermine confidence in the new diagnostic. There is an urgent need for the development of alternative quality control procedures for rapid diagnostic tests that can be performed at the facility level. PMID:18784230

MO-FG-204-02: Reference Image Selection in the Presence of Multiple Scan Realizations

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

Ruan, D; Dou, T; Thomas, D

Purpose: Fusing information from multiple correlated realizations (e.g., 4DCT) can improve image quality. This process often involves ill-conditioned and asymmetric nonlinear registration and the proper selection of a reference image is important. This work proposes to examine post-registration variation indirectly for such selection, and develops further insights to reduce the number of cross-registrations needed. Methods: We consider each individual scan as a noisy point in the vicinity of an image manifold, related by motion. Nonrigid registration “transports” a scan along the manifold to the reference neighborhood, and the residual is a surrogate for local variation. To test this conjecture, 10more » thoracic scans from the same session were reconstructed from a recently developed low-dose helical 4DCT protocol. Pairwise registration was repeated bi-directionally (81 times) and fusion was performed with each candidate reference. The fused image quality was assessed with SNR and CNR. Registration residuals in SSD, harmonic energy, and deformation Jacobian behavior were examined. The semi-symmetry is further utilized to reduce the number of registration needed. Results: The comparison of image quality between single image and fused ones identified reduction of local intensity variance as the major contributor of image quality, boosting SNR and CNR by 5 to 7 folds. This observation further suggests the criticality of good agreement across post-registration images. Triangle inequality on the SSD metric provides a proficient upper-bound and surrogate on such disagreement. Empirical observation also confirms that fused images with high residual SSD have lower SNR and CNR than the ones with low or intermediate SSDs. Registration SSD is structurally close enough to symmetry for reduced computation. Conclusion: Registration residual is shown to be a good predictor of post-fusion image quality and can be used to identify good reference centers. Semi-symmetry of the registration residual further reduces computation cost. Supported by in part by NIH R01 CA096679.« less

Harmonization in laboratory medicine: Requests, samples, measurements and reports.

PubMed

Plebani, Mario

2016-01-01

In laboratory medicine, the terms "standardization" and "harmonization" are frequently used interchangeably as the final goal is the same: the equivalence of measurement results among different routine measurement procedures over time and space according to defined analytical and clinical quality specifications. However, the terms define two distinct, albeit closely linked, concepts based on traceability principles. The word "standardization" is used when results for a measurement are equivalent and traceable to the International System of Units (SI) through a high-order primary reference material and/or a reference measurement procedure (RMP). "Harmonization" is generally used when results are equivalent, but neither a high-order primary reference material nor a reference measurement procedure is available. Harmonization is a fundamental aspect of quality in laboratory medicine as its ultimate goal is to improve patient outcomes through the provision of accurate and actionable laboratory information. Patients, clinicians and other healthcare professionals assume that clinical laboratory tests performed by different laboratories at different times on the same sample and specimen can be compared, and that results can be reliably and consistently interpreted. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily the case, because many laboratory test results are still highly variable and poorly standardized and harmonized. Although the initial focus was mainly on harmonizing and standardizing analytical processes and methods, the scope of harmonization now also includes all other aspects of the total testing process (TTP), such as terminology and units, report formats, reference intervals and decision limits as well as tests and test profiles, requests and criteria for interpretation. Several projects and initiatives aiming to improve standardization and harmonization in the testing process are now underway. Laboratory professionals should therefore step up their efforts to provide interchangeable and comparable laboratory information in order to ultimately assure better diagnosis and treatment in patient care.

36 CFR 294.41 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... fires; or (ii) Landscape patterns; and (4) Vegetation attributes have been significantly altered from... semi-primitive motorized classes of dispersed recreation; (6) Reference landscapes; (7) Natural-appearing landscapes with high scenic quality; (8) Traditional cultural properties and sacred sites; and (9...

36 CFR 294.41 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... fires; or (ii) Landscape patterns; and (4) Vegetation attributes have been significantly altered from... semi-primitive motorized classes of dispersed recreation; (6) Reference landscapes; (7) Natural-appearing landscapes with high scenic quality; (8) Traditional cultural properties and sacred sites; and (9...

Evaluation of Field-deployed Low Cost PM Sensors

EPA Science Inventory

Background Particulate matter (PM) is a pollutant of high public interest regulated by national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) using federal reference method (FRM) and federal equivalent method (FEM) instrumentation identified for environmental monitoring. PM is present i...

Perceived assessment metrics for visible and infrared color fused image quality without reference image

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Xuelian; Chen, Qian; Gu, Guohua; Ren, Jianle; Sui, Xiubao

2015-02-01

Designing objective quality assessment of color-fused image is a very demanding and challenging task. We propose four no-reference metrics based on human visual system characteristics for objectively evaluating the quality of false color fusion image. The perceived edge metric (PEM) is defined based on visual perception model and color image gradient similarity between the fused image and the source images. The perceptual contrast metric (PCM) is established associating multi-scale contrast and varying contrast sensitivity filter (CSF) with color components. The linear combination of the standard deviation and mean value over the fused image construct the image colorfulness metric (ICM). The color comfort metric (CCM) is designed by the average saturation and the ratio of pixels with high and low saturation. The qualitative and quantitative experimental results demonstrate that the proposed metrics have a good agreement with subjective perception.

Radiation dose and image quality for paediatric interventional cardiology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vano, E.; Ubeda, C.; Leyton, F.; Miranda, P.

2008-08-01

Radiation dose and image quality for paediatric protocols in a biplane x-ray system used for interventional cardiology have been evaluated. Entrance surface air kerma (ESAK) and image quality using a test object and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) phantoms have been measured for the typical paediatric patient thicknesses (4-20 cm of PMMA). Images from fluoroscopy (low, medium and high) and cine modes have been archived in digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) format. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), figure of merit (FOM), contrast (CO), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and high contrast spatial resolution (HCSR) have been computed from the images. Data on dose transferred to the DICOM header have been used to test the values of the dosimetric display at the interventional reference point. ESAK for fluoroscopy modes ranges from 0.15 to 36.60 µGy/frame when moving from 4 to 20 cm PMMA. For cine, these values range from 2.80 to 161.10 µGy/frame. SNR, FOM, CO, CNR and HCSR are improved for high fluoroscopy and cine modes and maintained roughly constant for the different thicknesses. Cumulative dose at the interventional reference point resulted 25-45% higher than the skin dose for the vertical C-arm (depending of the phantom thickness). ESAK and numerical image quality parameters allow the verification of the proper setting of the x-ray system. Knowing the increases in dose per frame when increasing phantom thicknesses together with the image quality parameters will help cardiologists in the good management of patient dose and allow them to select the best imaging acquisition mode during clinical procedures.

Genome sequencing of bacteria: sequencing, de novo assembly and rapid analysis using open source tools.

PubMed

Kisand, Veljo; Lettieri, Teresa

2013-04-01

De novo genome sequencing of previously uncharacterized microorganisms has the potential to open up new frontiers in microbial genomics by providing insight into both functional capabilities and biodiversity. Until recently, Roche 454 pyrosequencing was the NGS method of choice for de novo assembly because it generates hundreds of thousands of long reads (<450 bps), which are presumed to aid in the analysis of uncharacterized genomes. The array of tools for processing NGS data are increasingly free and open source and are often adopted for both their high quality and role in promoting academic freedom. The error rate of pyrosequencing the Alcanivorax borkumensis genome was such that thousands of insertions and deletions were artificially introduced into the finished genome. Despite a high coverage (~30 fold), it did not allow the reference genome to be fully mapped. Reads from regions with errors had low quality, low coverage, or were missing. The main defect of the reference mapping was the introduction of artificial indels into contigs through lower than 100% consensus and distracting gene calling due to artificial stop codons. No assembler was able to perform de novo assembly comparable to reference mapping. Automated annotation tools performed similarly on reference mapped and de novo draft genomes, and annotated most CDSs in the de novo assembled draft genomes. Free and open source software (FOSS) tools for assembly and annotation of NGS data are being developed rapidly to provide accurate results with less computational effort. Usability is not high priority and these tools currently do not allow the data to be processed without manual intervention. Despite this, genome assemblers now readily assemble medium short reads into long contigs (>97-98% genome coverage). A notable gap in pyrosequencing technology is the quality of base pair calling and conflicting base pairs between single reads at the same nucleotide position. Regardless, using draft whole genomes that are not finished and remain fragmented into tens of contigs allows one to characterize unknown bacteria with modest effort.

Associations between Rice, Noodle, and Bread Intake and Sleep Quality in Japanese Men and Women

PubMed Central

Yoneyama, Satoko; Sakurai, Masaru; Nakamura, Koshi; Morikawa, Yuko; Miura, Katsuyuki; Nakashima, Motoko; Yoshita, Katsushi; Ishizaki, Masao; Kido, Teruhiko; Naruse, Yuchi; Nogawa, Kazuhiro; Suwazono, Yasushi; Sasaki, Satoshi; Nakagawa, Hideaki

2014-01-01

Background Previous studies have shown that a diet with a high-glycemic index is associated with good sleep quality. Therefore, we investigated the association of sleep quality with the intake of 3 common starchy foods with different glycemic indexes–rice, bread, and noodles–as well as the dietary glycemic index in a Japanese population. Methods The participants were 1,848 men and women between 20 and 60 years of age. Rice, bread, and noodle consumption was evaluated using a self-administered diet history questionnaire. Sleep quality was evaluated by using the Japanese version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and a global score >5.5 was considered to indicate poor sleep. Results Multivariate-adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) for poor sleep across the quintiles of rice consumption were 1.00 (reference), 0.68 (0.49–0.93), 0.61 (0.43–0.85), 0.59 (0.42–0.85), and 0.54 (0.37–0.81) (p for trend = 0.015); those for the quintiles of noodle consumption were 1.00 (reference), 1.25 (0.90–1.74), 1.05 (0.75–1.47), 1.31 (0.94–1.82), and 1.82 (1.31–2.51) (p for trend = 0.002). Bread intake was not associated with sleep quality. A higher dietary glycemic index was significantly associated with a lower risk of poor sleep (p for trend = 0.020). Conclusion A high dietary glycemic index and high rice consumption are significantly associated with good sleep in Japanese men and women, whereas bread intake is not associated with sleep quality and noodle consumption is associated with poor sleep. The different associations of these starchy foods with sleep quality might be attributable to the different glycemic index of each food. PMID:25127476

Methodologic quality and relevance of references in pharmaceutical advertisements in a Canadian medical journal.

PubMed

Lexchin, J; Holbrook, A

1994-07-01

To evaluate the methodologic quality and relevance of references in pharmaceutical advertisements in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ). Analytic study. All 114 references cited in the first 22 distinct pharmaceutical advertisements in volume 146 of CMAJ. Mean methodologic quality score (modified from the 6-point scale used to assess articles in the American College of Physicians' Journal Club) and mean relevance score (based on a new 5-point scale) for all references in each advertisement. Twenty of the 22 companies responded, sending 78 (90%) of the 87 references requested. The mean methodologic quality score was 58% (95% confidence limits [CL] 51% and 65%) and the mean relevance score 76% (95% CL 72% and 80%). The two mean scores were statistically lower than the acceptable score of 80% (p < 0.05), and the methodologic quality score was outside the preset clinically significant difference of 15%. The poor rating for methodologic quality was primarily because of the citation of references to low-quality review articles and "other" sources (i.e., other than reports of clinical trials). Half of the advertisements had a methodologic quality score of less than 65%, but only five had a relevance score of less than 65%. Although the relevance of most of the references was within minimal acceptable limits, the methodologic quality was often unacceptable. Because advertisements are an important part of pharmaceutical marketing and education, we suggest that companies develop written standards for their advertisements and monitor their advertisements for adherence to these standards. We also suggest that the Pharmaceutical Advertising Advisory Board develop more stringent guidelines for advertising and that it enforce these guidelines in a consistent, rigorous fashion.

Methodologic quality and relevance of references in pharmaceutical advertisements in a Canadian medical journal.

PubMed Central

Lexchin, J; Holbrook, A

1994-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the methodologic quality and relevance of references in pharmaceutical advertisements in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ). DESIGN: Analytic study. DATA SOURCE: All 114 references cited in the first 22 distinct pharmaceutical advertisements in volume 146 of CMAJ. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Mean methodologic quality score (modified from the 6-point scale used to assess articles in the American College of Physicians' Journal Club) and mean relevance score (based on a new 5-point scale) for all references in each advertisement. MAIN RESULTS: Twenty of the 22 companies responded, sending 78 (90%) of the 87 references requested. The mean methodologic quality score was 58% (95% confidence limits [CL] 51% and 65%) and the mean relevance score 76% (95% CL 72% and 80%). The two mean scores were statistically lower than the acceptable score of 80% (p < 0.05), and the methodologic quality score was outside the preset clinically significant difference of 15%. The poor rating for methodologic quality was primarily because of the citation of references to low-quality review articles and "other" sources (i.e., other than reports of clinical trials). Half of the advertisements had a methodologic quality score of less than 65%, but only five had a relevance score of less than 65%. CONCLUSIONS: Although the relevance of most of the references was within minimal acceptable limits, the methodologic quality was often unacceptable. Because advertisements are an important part of pharmaceutical marketing and education, we suggest that companies develop written standards for their advertisements and monitor their advertisements for adherence to these standards. We also suggest that the Pharmaceutical Advertising Advisory Board develop more stringent guidelines for advertising and that it enforce these guidelines in a consistent, rigorous fashion. PMID:8004560

Irregular analytical errors in diagnostic testing - a novel concept.

PubMed

Vogeser, Michael; Seger, Christoph

2018-02-23

In laboratory medicine, routine periodic analyses for internal and external quality control measurements interpreted by statistical methods are mandatory for batch clearance. Data analysis of these process-oriented measurements allows for insight into random analytical variation and systematic calibration bias over time. However, in such a setting, any individual sample is not under individual quality control. The quality control measurements act only at the batch level. Quantitative or qualitative data derived for many effects and interferences associated with an individual diagnostic sample can compromise any analyte. It is obvious that a process for a quality-control-sample-based approach of quality assurance is not sensitive to such errors. To address the potential causes and nature of such analytical interference in individual samples more systematically, we suggest the introduction of a new term called the irregular (individual) analytical error. Practically, this term can be applied in any analytical assay that is traceable to a reference measurement system. For an individual sample an irregular analytical error is defined as an inaccuracy (which is the deviation from a reference measurement procedure result) of a test result that is so high it cannot be explained by measurement uncertainty of the utilized routine assay operating within the accepted limitations of the associated process quality control measurements. The deviation can be defined as the linear combination of the process measurement uncertainty and the method bias for the reference measurement system. Such errors should be coined irregular analytical errors of the individual sample. The measurement result is compromised either by an irregular effect associated with the individual composition (matrix) of the sample or an individual single sample associated processing error in the analytical process. Currently, the availability of reference measurement procedures is still highly limited, but LC-isotope-dilution mass spectrometry methods are increasingly used for pre-market validation of routine diagnostic assays (these tests also involve substantial sets of clinical validation samples). Based on this definition/terminology, we list recognized causes of irregular analytical error as a risk catalog for clinical chemistry in this article. These issues include reproducible individual analytical errors (e.g. caused by anti-reagent antibodies) and non-reproducible, sporadic errors (e.g. errors due to incorrect pipetting volume due to air bubbles in a sample), which can both lead to inaccurate results and risks for patients.

Availability, quality and price of produce in low-income neighbourhood food stores in California raise equity issues.

PubMed

Gosliner, Wendi; Brown, Daniel M; Sun, Betty C; Woodward-Lopez, Gail; Crawford, Patricia B

2018-06-01

To assess produce availability, quality and price in a large sample of food stores in low-income neighbourhoods in California. Cross-sectional statewide survey. Between 2011 and 2015, local health departments assessed store type, WIC (Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children)/SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) participation, produce availability, quality and price of selected items in stores in low-income neighbourhoods. Secondary data provided reference chain supermarket produce prices matched by county and month. t Tests and ANOVA examined differences by store type; regression models examined factors associated with price. Large grocery stores (n 231), small markets (n 621) and convenience stores (n 622) in 225 neighbourhoods. Produce in most large groceries was rated high quality (97 % of fruits, 98 % of vegetables), but not in convenience stores (25 % fruits, 14 % vegetables). Small markets and convenience stores participating in WIC and/or SNAP had better produce availability, variety and quality than non-participating stores. Produce prices across store types were, on average, higher than reference prices from matched chain supermarkets (27 % higher in large groceries, 37 % higher in small markets, 102 % higher in convenience stores). Price was significantly inversely associated with produce variety, adjusting for quality, store type, and SNAP and WIC participation. The study finds that fresh produce is more expensive in low-income neighbourhoods and that convenience stores offer more expensive, poorer-quality produce than other stores. Variety is associated with price and most limited in convenience stores, suggesting more work is needed to determine how convenience stores can provide low-income consumers with access to affordable, high-quality produce. WIC and SNAP can contribute to the solution.

Alternative Medications for Medications Included in the Use of High-Risk Medications in the Elderly and Potentially Harmful Drug–Disease Interactions in the Elderly Quality Measures

PubMed Central

Hanlon, Joseph T.; Semla, Todd P.; Schmader, Kenneth E.

2016-01-01

The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and the Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) use the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) Beers Criteria to designate the quality measure Use of High-Risk Medications in the Elderly (HRM). The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) use the HRM measure to monitor and evaluate the quality of care provided to Medicare beneficiaries. NCQA additionally uses the AGS Beers Criteria to designate the quality measure Potentially Harmful Drug–Disease Interactions in the Elderly. Medications included in these measures may be harmful to elderly adults, negatively affect a health care plan’s quality ratings, and be denied as a health care plan drug benefit. Prescribers, pharmacists, patients, and health care plans may benefit from evidence-based alternative medication treatments to avoid these problems. Therefore the goal of this work was to develop a list of alternative medications to those included in the two measures. The authors conducted a comprehensive literature review for 2000 to 2014 and a search of their personal files. From the evidence, they prepared a list of drug-therapy alternatives with supporting references. A reference list of non-pharmacological approaches was also provided when appropriate. NCQA, PQA, the 2015 AGS Beers Criteria panel, and the Executive Committee of the AGS reviewed the drug therapy alternatives and nonpharmacological approaches. Recommendations by these groups were incorporated into the final list of alternatives. The final product of drug-therapy alternatives to medications included in the two quality measures and some nonpharmacological resources will be useful to health professionals, consumers, payers, and health systems that care for older adults. PMID:26447889

Meeting the Early Learning Challenge: Supporting English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matthews, Hannah

2011-01-01

The Race to The Top-Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) is designed to improve the quality of early learning and development and close the achievement gap for children with high needs. The Departments of Education and Health and Human Services define high needs to include children who are English learners, often referred to as English Language…

Danish Palliative Care Database.

PubMed

Groenvold, Mogens; Adsersen, Mathilde; Hansen, Maiken Bang

2016-01-01

The aim of the Danish Palliative Care Database (DPD) is to monitor, evaluate, and improve the clinical quality of specialized palliative care (SPC) (ie, the activity of hospital-based palliative care teams/departments and hospices) in Denmark. The study population is all patients in Denmark referred to and/or in contact with SPC after January 1, 2010. The main variables in DPD are data about referral for patients admitted and not admitted to SPC, type of the first SPC contact, clinical and sociodemographic factors, multidisciplinary conference, and the patient-reported European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionaire-Core-15-Palliative Care questionnaire, assessing health-related quality of life. The data support the estimation of currently five quality of care indicators, ie, the proportions of 1) referred and eligible patients who were actually admitted to SPC, 2) patients who waited <10 days before admission to SPC, 3) patients who died from cancer and who obtained contact with SPC, 4) patients who were screened with European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionaire-Core-15-Palliative Care at admission to SPC, and 5) patients who were discussed at a multidisciplinary conference. In 2014, all 43 SPC units in Denmark reported their data to DPD, and all 9,434 cancer patients (100%) referred to SPC were registered in DPD. In total, 41,104 unique cancer patients were registered in DPD during the 5 years 2010-2014. Of those registered, 96% had cancer. DPD is a national clinical quality database for SPC having clinically relevant variables and high data and patient completeness.

Reference View Selection in DIBR-Based Multiview Coding.

PubMed

Maugey, Thomas; Petrazzuoli, Giovanni; Frossard, Pascal; Cagnazzo, Marco; Pesquet-Popescu, Beatrice

2016-04-01

Augmented reality, interactive navigation in 3D scenes, multiview video, and other emerging multimedia applications require large sets of images, hence larger data volumes and increased resources compared with traditional video services. The significant increase in the number of images in multiview systems leads to new challenging problems in data representation and data transmission to provide high quality of experience on resource-constrained environments. In order to reduce the size of the data, different multiview video compression strategies have been proposed recently. Most of them use the concept of reference or key views that are used to estimate other images when there is high correlation in the data set. In such coding schemes, the two following questions become fundamental: 1) how many reference views have to be chosen for keeping a good reconstruction quality under coding cost constraints? And 2) where to place these key views in the multiview data set? As these questions are largely overlooked in the literature, we study the reference view selection problem and propose an algorithm for the optimal selection of reference views in multiview coding systems. Based on a novel metric that measures the similarity between the views, we formulate an optimization problem for the positioning of the reference views, such that both the distortion of the view reconstruction and the coding rate cost are minimized. We solve this new problem with a shortest path algorithm that determines both the optimal number of reference views and their positions in the image set. We experimentally validate our solution in a practical multiview distributed coding system and in the standardized 3D-HEVC multiview coding scheme. We show that considering the 3D scene geometry in the reference view, positioning problem brings significant rate-distortion improvements and outperforms the traditional coding strategy that simply selects key frames based on the distance between cameras.

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

Ma, R; Zhu, X; Li, S

Purpose: High Dose Rate (HDR) brachytherapy forward planning is principally an iterative process; hence, plan quality is affected by planners’ experiences and limited planning time. Thus, this may lead to sporadic errors and inconsistencies in planning. A statistical tool based on previous approved clinical treatment plans would help to maintain the consistency of planning quality and improve the efficiency of second checking. Methods: An independent dose calculation tool was developed from commercial software. Thirty-three previously approved cervical HDR plans with the same prescription dose (550cGy), applicator type, and treatment protocol were examined, and ICRU defined reference point doses (bladder, vaginalmore » mucosa, rectum, and points A/B) along with dwell times were collected. Dose calculation tool then calculated appropriate range with a 95% confidence interval for each parameter obtained, which would be used as the benchmark for evaluation of those parameters in future HDR treatment plans. Model quality was verified using five randomly selected approved plans from the same dataset. Results: Dose variations appears to be larger at the reference point of bladder and mucosa as compared with rectum. Most reference point doses from verification plans fell between the predicted range, except the doses of two points of rectum and two points of reference position A (owing to rectal anatomical variations & clinical adjustment in prescription points, respectively). Similar results were obtained for tandem and ring dwell times despite relatively larger uncertainties. Conclusion: This statistical tool provides an insight into clinically acceptable range of cervical HDR plans, which could be useful in plan checking and identifying potential planning errors, thus improving the consistency of plan quality.« less

Soil structural quality assessment for soil protection regulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johannes, Alice; Boivin, Pascal

2017-04-01

Soil quality assessment is rapidly developing worldwide, though mostly focused on the monitoring of arable land and soil fertility. Soil protection regulations assess soil quality differently, focusing on priority pollutants and threshold values. The soil physical properties are weakly considered, due to lack of consensus and experimental difficulties faced with characterization. Non-disputable, easy to perform and inexpensive methods should be available for environmental regulation to be applied, which is unfortunately not the case. As a consequence, quantitative soil physical protection regulation is not applied, and inexpensive soil physical quality indicators for arable soil management are not available. Overcoming these limitations was the objective of a research project funded by the Swiss federal office for environment (FOEN). The main results and the perspectives of application are given in this presentation. A first step of the research was to characterize soils in a good structural state (reference soils) under different land use. The structural quality was assessed with field expertise and Visual Evaluation of the Soil Structure (VESS), and the physical properties were assessed with Shrinkage analysis. The relationships between the physical properties and the soil constituents were linear and highly determined. They represent the reference properties of the corresponding soils. In a second step, the properties of physically degraded soils were analysed and compared to the reference properties. This allowed defining the most discriminant parameters departing the different structure qualities and their threshold limits. Equivalent properties corresponding to these parameters but inexpensive and easy to determine were defined and tested. More than 90% of the samples were correctly classed with this method, which meets, therefore, the requirements for practical application in regulation. Moreover, result-oriented agri-environmental schemes for soil quality are now proposed to farmers based on these indicators.

A BMI-adjusted ultra-low-dose CT angiography protocol for the peripheral arteries-Image quality, diagnostic accuracy and radiation exposure.

PubMed

Schreiner, Markus M; Platzgummer, Hannes; Unterhumer, Sylvia; Weber, Michael; Mistelbauer, Gabriel; Loewe, Christian; Schernthaner, Ruediger E

2017-08-01

To investigate radiation exposure, objective image quality, and the diagnostic accuracy of a BMI-adjusted ultra-low-dose CT angiography (CTA) protocol for the assessment of peripheral arterial disease (PAD), with digital subtraction angiography (DSA) as the standard of reference. In this prospective, IRB-approved study, 40 PAD patients (30 male, mean age 72 years) underwent CTA on a dual-source CT scanner at 80kV tube voltage. The reference amplitude for tube current modulation was personalized based on the body mass index (BMI) with 120 mAs for [BMI≤25] or 150 mAs for [2570%) was assessed by two readers independently and compared to subsequent DSA. Radiation exposure was assessed with the computed tomography dose index (CTDIvol) and the dosis-length product (DLP). Objective image quality was assessed via contrast- and signal-to-noise ratio (CNR and SNR) measurements. Radiation exposure and image quality were compared between the BMI groups and between the BMI-adjusted ultra-low-dose protocol and the low-dose institutional standard protocol (ISP). The BMI-adjusted ultra-low-dose protocol reached high diagnostic accuracy values of 94% for Reader 1 and 93% for Reader 2. Moreover, in comparison to the ISP, it showed significantly (p<0.001) lower CTDIvol (1.97±0.55mGy vs. 4.18±0.62 mGy) and DLP (256±81mGy x cm vs. 544±83mGy x cm) but similar image quality (p=0.37 for CNR). Furthermore, image quality was similar between BMI groups (p=0.86 for CNR). A CT protocol that incorporates low kV settings with a personalized (BMI-adjusted) reference amplitude for tube current modulation and iterative reconstruction enables very low radiation exposure CTA, while maintaining good image quality and high diagnostic accuracy in the assessment of PAD. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Standard Reference Specimens in Quality Control of Engineering Surfaces

PubMed Central

Song, J. F.; Vorburger, T. V.

1991-01-01

In the quality control of engineering surfaces, we aim to understand and maintain a good relationship between the manufacturing process and surface function. This is achieved by controlling the surface texture. The control process involves: 1) learning the functional parameters and their control values through controlled experiments or through a long history of production and use; 2) maintaining high accuracy and reproducibility with measurements not only of roughness calibration specimens but also of real engineering parts. In this paper, the characteristics, utilizations, and limitations of different classes of precision roughness calibration specimens are described. A measuring procedure of engineering surfaces, based on the calibration procedure of roughness specimens at NIST, is proposed. This procedure involves utilization of check specimens with waveform, wavelength, and other roughness parameters similar to functioning engineering surfaces. These check specimens would be certified under standardized reference measuring conditions, or by a reference instrument, and could be used for overall checking of the measuring procedure and for maintaining accuracy and agreement in engineering surface measurement. The concept of “surface texture design” is also suggested, which involves designing the engineering surface texture, the manufacturing process, and the quality control procedure to meet the optimal functional needs. PMID:28184115

[Quality standards for ultrasound assessment of the superficial venous system of the lower limbs. Report of the French Society for Vascular Medicine].

PubMed

Auvert, J-F; Chleir, F; Coppé, G; Hamel-Desnos, C; Moraglia, L; Pichot, O

2014-02-01

The quality standards of the French Society for Vascular Medicine for the ultrasound assessment of the superficial venous system of the lower limbs are based on the two following requirements: technical know-how (mastering the use of ultrasound devices and the method of examination); medical know-how (ability to adapt the methods and scope of the examination to its clinical indications and purpose and to rationally analyze and interpret its results). To describe an optimal method of examination in relation to the clinical question and hypothesis; to achieve consistent practice, methods, glossary terminologies and reporting; to provide good practice reference points and to promote a high quality process. The three levels of examination. Their clinical indications and goals. The reference standard examination (level 2) and its variants according to clinical needs. The minimal content of the examination report, the letter to the referring physician (synthesis, conclusion and management suggestions) and iconography. Commented glossary (anatomy, hemodynamics, semiology). Technical basis. Ultrasound devices settings. We discuss of use of Duplex ultrasound for the assessment of the superficial veins of the lower limbs in vascular medicine practice. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.

The importance of reference materials in doping-control analysis.

PubMed

Mackay, Lindsey G; Kazlauskas, Rymantas

2011-08-01

Currently a large range of pure substance reference materials are available for calibration of doping-control methods. These materials enable traceability to the International System of Units (SI) for the results generated by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited laboratories. Only a small number of prohibited substances have threshold limits for which quantification is highly important. For these analytes only the highest quality reference materials that are available should be used. Many prohibited substances have no threshold limits and reference materials provide essential identity confirmation. For these reference materials the correct identity is critical and the methods used to assess identity in these cases should be critically evaluated. There is still a lack of certified matrix reference materials to support many aspects of doping analysis. However, in key areas a range of urine matrix materials have been produced for substances with threshold limits, for example 19-norandrosterone and testosterone/epitestosterone (T/E) ratio. These matrix-certified reference materials (CRMs) are an excellent independent means of checking method recovery and bias and will typically be used in method validation and then regularly as quality-control checks. They can be particularly important in the analysis of samples close to threshold limits, in which measurement accuracy becomes critical. Some reference materials for isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) analysis are available and a matrix material certified for steroid delta values is currently under production. In other new areas, for example the Athlete Biological Passport, peptide hormone testing, designer steroids, and gene doping, reference material needs still need to be thoroughly assessed and prioritised.

Drinking water treatment response following a Colorado wildfire.

PubMed

Hohner, Amanda K; Cawley, Kaelin; Oropeza, Jill; Summers, R Scott; Rosario-Ortiz, Fernando L

2016-11-15

Wildfires can greatly alter the vegetation, soils, and hydrologic processes of watersheds serving as drinking water supplies, which may negatively influence source water quality and treatment. To address wildfire impacts on treatment, a drinking water intake below a burned watershed and an upstream, unburned reference site were monitored following the High Park wildfire (2012) in the Cache la Poudre watershed of northern Colorado, USA. Turbidity, nutrients, dissolved organic matter (DOM) character, coagulation treatability, and disinfection byproduct formation were evaluated and compared to pre-fire data. Post-fire paired spatial differences between the treatment plant intake and reference site for turbidity, nitrogen, and phosphorus increased by an order of magnitude compared to pre-fire differences. Fluorescence index (FI) values were significantly higher at the intake compared to the reference site (Δ = 0.04), and higher than pre-fire years, suggesting the wildfire altered the DOM character of the river. Total trihalomethane (TTHM) and haloacetonitrile (HAN4) formation at the intake were 10.1 μg L -1 and 0.91 μg L -1 higher than the reference site. Post-fire water was amenable to conventional treatment at a 10 mg L -1 higher average alum dose than reference samples. The intake was also monitored following rainstorms. Post-rainstorm samples showed the maximum observed FI values (1.52), HAN4 (3.4 μg mg C -1 ) and chloropicrin formation yields (3.6 μg mg C -1 ), whereas TTHM and haloacetic acid yields were not elevated. Several post-rainstorm samples presented treatment challenges, and even at high alum doses (65 mg L -1 ), showed minimal dissolved organic carbon removal (<10%). The degraded water quality of the post-rainstorm samples is likely attributed to the combined effects of runoff from precipitation and greater erosion following wildfire. Wildfire impacts cannot be separated from rainfall effects due to the lack of post-rainstorm samples from the reference site. Results suggest for this study region, wildfire may have consequences for influent water quality, coagulant dosing, and DBP speciation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Video streaming with SHVC to HEVC transcoding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gudumasu, Srinivas; He, Yuwen; Ye, Yan; Xiu, Xiaoyu

2015-09-01

This paper proposes an efficient Scalable High efficiency Video Coding (SHVC) to High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) transcoder, which can reduce the transcoding complexity significantly, and provide a desired trade-off between the transcoding complexity and the transcoded video quality. To reduce the transcoding complexity, some of coding information, such as coding unit (CU) depth, prediction mode, merge mode, motion vector information, intra direction information and transform unit (TU) depth information, in the SHVC bitstream are mapped and transcoded to single layer HEVC bitstream. One major difficulty in transcoding arises when trying to reuse the motion information from SHVC bitstream since motion vectors referring to inter-layer reference (ILR) pictures cannot be reused directly in transcoding. Reusing motion information obtained from ILR pictures for those prediction units (PUs) will reduce the complexity of the SHVC transcoder greatly but a significant reduction in the quality of the picture is observed. Pictures corresponding to the intra refresh pictures in the base layer (BL) will be coded as P pictures in enhancement layer (EL) in the SHVC bitstream; and directly reusing the intra information from the BL for transcoding will not get a good coding efficiency. To solve these problems, various transcoding technologies are proposed. The proposed technologies offer different trade-offs between transcoding speed and transcoding quality. They are implemented on the basis of reference software SHM-6.0 and HM-14.0 for the two layer spatial scalability configuration. Simulations show that the proposed SHVC software transcoder reduces the transcoding complexity by up to 98-99% using low complexity transcoding mode when compared with cascaded re-encoding method. The transcoder performance at various bitrates with different transcoding modes are compared in terms of transcoding speed and transcoded video quality.

Developmental validation of a Nextera XT mitogenome Illumina MiSeq sequencing method for high-quality samples.

PubMed

Peck, Michelle A; Sturk-Andreaggi, Kimberly; Thomas, Jacqueline T; Oliver, Robert S; Barritt-Ross, Suzanne; Marshall, Charla

2018-05-01

Generating mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) data from reference samples in a rapid and efficient manner is critical to harnessing the greater power of discrimination of the entire mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) marker. The method of long-range target enrichment, Nextera XT library preparation, and Illumina sequencing on the MiSeq is a well-established technique for generating mitogenome data from high-quality samples. To this end, a validation was conducted for this mitogenome method processing up to 24 samples simultaneously along with analysis in the CLC Genomics Workbench and utilizing the AQME (AFDIL-QIAGEN mtDNA Expert) tool to generate forensic profiles. This validation followed the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Quality Assurance Standards (QAS) for forensic DNA testing laboratories and the Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods (SWGDAM) validation guidelines. The evaluation of control DNA, non-probative samples, blank controls, mixtures, and nonhuman samples demonstrated the validity of this method. Specifically, the sensitivity was established at ≥25 pg of nuclear DNA input for accurate mitogenome profile generation. Unreproducible low-level variants were observed in samples with low amplicon yields. Further, variant quality was shown to be a useful metric for identifying sequencing error and crosstalk. Success of this method was demonstrated with a variety of reference sample substrates and extract types. These studies further demonstrate the advantages of using NGS techniques by highlighting the quantitative nature of heteroplasmy detection. The results presented herein from more than 175 samples processed in ten sequencing runs, show this mitogenome sequencing method and analysis strategy to be valid for the generation of reference data. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Reduction of radiation exposure while maintaining high-quality fluoroscopic images during interventional cardiology using novel x-ray tube technology with extra beam filtering.

PubMed

den Boer, A; de Feyter, P J; Hummel, W A; Keane, D; Roelandt, J R

1994-06-01

Radiographic technology plays an integral role in interventional cardiology. The number of interventions continues to increase, and the associated radiation exposure to patients and personnel is of major concern. This study was undertaken to determine whether a newly developed x-ray tube deploying grid-switched pulsed fluoroscopy and extra beam filtering can achieve a reduction in radiation exposure while maintaining fluoroscopic images of high quality. Three fluoroscopic techniques were compared: continuous fluoroscopy, pulsed fluoroscopy, and a newly developed high-output pulsed fluoroscopy with extra filtering. To ascertain differences in the quality of images and to determine differences in patient entrance and investigator radiation exposure, the radiated volume curve was measured to determine the required high voltage levels (kVpeak) for different object sizes for each fluoroscopic mode. The fluoroscopic data of 124 patient procedures were combined. The data were analyzed for radiographic projections, image intensifier field size, and x-ray tube kilovoltage levels (kVpeak). On the basis of this analysis, a reference procedure was constructed. The reference procedure was tested on a phantom or dummy patient by all three fluoroscopic modes. The phantom was so designed that the kilovoltage requirements for each projection were comparable to those needed for the average patient. Radiation exposure of the operator and patient was measured during each mode. The patient entrance dose was measured in air, and the operator dose was measured by 18 dosimeters on a dummy operator. Pulsed compared with continuous fluoroscopy could be performed with improved image quality at lower kilovoltages. The patient entrance dose was reduced by 21% and the operator dose by 54%. High-output pulsed fluoroscopy with extra beam filtering compared with continuous fluoroscopy improved the image quality, lowered the kilovoltage requirements, and reduced the patient entrance dose by 55% and the operator dose by 69%. High-output pulsed fluoroscopy with a grid-switched tube and extra filtering improves the image quality and significantly reduces both the operator dose and patient dose.

Prestack depth migration for complex 2D structure using phase-screen propagators

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

Roberts, P.; Huang, Lian-Jie; Burch, C.

1997-11-01

We present results for the phase-screen propagator method applied to prestack depth migration of the Marmousi synthetic data set. The data were migrated as individual common-shot records and the resulting partial images were superposed to obtain the final complete Image. Tests were performed to determine the minimum number of frequency components required to achieve the best quality image and this in turn provided estimates of the minimum computing time. Running on a single processor SUN SPARC Ultra I, high quality images were obtained in as little as 8.7 CPU hours and adequate images were obtained in as little as 4.4more » CPU hours. Different methods were tested for choosing the reference velocity used for the background phase-shift operation and for defining the slowness perturbation screens. Although the depths of some of the steeply dipping, high-contrast features were shifted slightly the overall image quality was fairly insensitive to the choice of the reference velocity. Our jests show the phase-screen method to be a reliable and fast algorithm for imaging complex geologic structures, at least for complex 2D synthetic data where the velocity model is known.« less

Qualitative evaluations and comparisons of six night-vision colorization methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Yufeng; Reese, Kristopher; Blasch, Erik; McManamon, Paul

2013-05-01

Current multispectral night vision (NV) colorization techniques can manipulate images to produce colorized images that closely resemble natural scenes. The colorized NV images can enhance human perception by improving observer object classification and reaction times especially for low light conditions. This paper focuses on the qualitative (subjective) evaluations and comparisons of six NV colorization methods. The multispectral images include visible (Red-Green- Blue), near infrared (NIR), and long wave infrared (LWIR) images. The six colorization methods are channel-based color fusion (CBCF), statistic matching (SM), histogram matching (HM), joint-histogram matching (JHM), statistic matching then joint-histogram matching (SM-JHM), and the lookup table (LUT). Four categries of quality measurements are used for the qualitative evaluations, which are contrast, detail, colorfulness, and overall quality. The score of each measurement is rated from 1 to 3 scale to represent low, average, and high quality, respectively. Specifically, high contrast (of rated score 3) means an adequate level of brightness and contrast. The high detail represents high clarity of detailed contents while maintaining low artifacts. The high colorfulness preserves more natural colors (i.e., closely resembles the daylight image). Overall quality is determined from the NV image compared to the reference image. Nine sets of multispectral NV images were used in our experiments. For each set, the six colorized NV images (produced from NIR and LWIR images) are concurrently presented to users along with the reference color (RGB) image (taken at daytime). A total of 67 subjects passed a screening test ("Ishihara Color Blindness Test") and were asked to evaluate the 9-set colorized images. The experimental results showed the quality order of colorization methods from the best to the worst: CBCF < SM < SM-JHM < LUT < JHM < HM. It is anticipated that this work will provide a benchmark for NV colorization and for quantitative evaluation using an objective metric such as objective evaluation index (OEI).

[Oncological quality indicators and Colorectal Cancer Program: data from 2009-2010 of University Hospital in Ferrara, Italy].

PubMed

Giuliani, Jacopo; Marzola, Marina; Indelli, Monica; Frassoldati, Antonio

2012-02-01

The aim of this study is to analyse the oncological quality indicators on our Colorectal Cancer Program, that are reflective of the scope of care, feasible to implement and supported by evidence. We compared two different populations during the same period: patients referring to our Clinical Oncology Unit coming from Regional Colorectal Cancer Screening Program and the other population that was not in any Colorectal Cancer Program. On the basis of our experience, we concluded for high-quality care for both population. Any critical point should be carefully analysed in order to implement quality of care.

Non-Contrast-Enhanced MR Angiography at 3 Tesla in Patients with Advanced Peripheral Arterial Occlusive Disease

PubMed Central

Nikolaou, Konstantin; Sommer, Wieland H.; Schmitt, Peter; Kazmierczak, Philipp M.; Reiser, Maximilian F.; Theisen, Daniel

2014-01-01

Purpose The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic performance of ECG-gated non-contrast-enhanced quiescent interval single-shot (QISS) magnetic resonance angiography at a magnetic field strength of 3 Tesla in patients with advanced peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD). Method and Materials A total of 21 consecutive patients with advanced PAOD (Fontaine stage IIb and higher) referred for peripheral magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) were included. Imaging was performed on a 3 T whole body MR. Image quality and stenosis diameter were evaluated in comparison to contrast-enhanced continuous table and TWIST MRA (CE-MRA) as standard of reference. QISS images were acquired with a thickness of 1.5 mm each (high-resolution QISS, HR-QISS). Two blinded readers rated the image quality and the degree of stenosis for both HR-QISS and CE-MRA in 26 predefined arterial vessel segments on 5-point Likert scales. Results With CE-MRA as the reference standard, HR-QISS showed high sensitivity (94.1%), specificity (97.8%), positive (95.1%), and negative predictive value (97.2%) for the detection of significant (≥50%) stenosis. Interreader agreement for stenosis assessment of both HR-QISS and CE-MRA was excellent (κ-values of 0.951 and 0.962, respectively). As compared to CR-MRA, image quality of HR-QISS was significantly lower for the distal aorta, the femoral and iliac arteries (each with p<0.01), while no significant difference was found in the popliteal (p = 0.09) and lower leg arteries (p = 0.78). Conclusion Non-enhanced ECG-gated HR-QISS performs very well in subjects with severe PAOD and is a good alternative for patients with a high risk of nephrogenic systemic fibrosis. PMID:24608937

Holographic imaging with a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor.

PubMed

Gong, Hai; Soloviev, Oleg; Wilding, Dean; Pozzi, Paolo; Verhaegen, Michel; Vdovin, Gleb

2016-06-27

A high-resolution Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor has been used for coherent holographic imaging, by computer reconstruction and propagation of the complex field in a lensless imaging setup. The resolution of the images obtained with the experimental data is in a good agreement with the diffraction theory. Although a proper calibration with a reference beam improves the image quality, the method has a potential for reference-less holographic imaging with spatially coherent monochromatic and narrowband polychromatic sources in microscopy and imaging through turbulence.

Old boys' network in general practitioners' referral behavior?

PubMed

Hackl, Franz; Hummer, Michael; Pruckner, Gerald J

2015-09-01

We analyzed the impact of social networks on general practitioners' (GPs) referral behavior based on administrative panel data from 2,684,273 referrals to specialists made between 1998 and 2007. For the definition of social networks, we used information on the doctors' place and time of study and their hospital work history. We found that GPs referred more patients to specialists within their personal networks and that patients referred within a social network had fewer follow-up consultations and less inpatient days thereafter. The effects on patient outcomes (e.g. waiting periods, days in hospital) of referrals within personal networks and affinity-based networks differed. Specifically, whereas empirical evidence showed a concentration on high-quality specialists for referrals within the personal network, suggesting that referrals within personal networks overcome information asymmetry with respect to specialists' abilities, the empirical evidence for affinity-based networks was different and less clear. Same-gender networks tended to refer patients to low-quality specialists. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

No-reference image quality assessment based on natural scene statistics and gradient magnitude similarity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jia, Huizhen; Sun, Quansen; Ji, Zexuan; Wang, Tonghan; Chen, Qiang

2014-11-01

The goal of no-reference/blind image quality assessment (NR-IQA) is to devise a perceptual model that can accurately predict the quality of a distorted image as human opinions, in which feature extraction is an important issue. However, the features used in the state-of-the-art "general purpose" NR-IQA algorithms are usually natural scene statistics (NSS) based or are perceptually relevant; therefore, the performance of these models is limited. To further improve the performance of NR-IQA, we propose a general purpose NR-IQA algorithm which combines NSS-based features with perceptually relevant features. The new method extracts features in both the spatial and gradient domains. In the spatial domain, we extract the point-wise statistics for single pixel values which are characterized by a generalized Gaussian distribution model to form the underlying features. In the gradient domain, statistical features based on neighboring gradient magnitude similarity are extracted. Then a mapping is learned to predict quality scores using a support vector regression. The experimental results on the benchmark image databases demonstrate that the proposed algorithm correlates highly with human judgments of quality and leads to significant performance improvements over state-of-the-art methods.

Passive MIMO Radar Detection

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-09-01

investigated using recent results from random matrix theory. Equivalence is established between PMR networks without direct-path signals and passive...approach ignores a potentially useful source of information about the unknown transmit signals . This is particularly true in high-DNR scenarios, in...which the direct-path signal provides a high-quality reference that can be used for (noisy) matched filtering, as in the conventional approach. Thus

Assessing return on investment of defined-population disease management interventions.

PubMed

Wilson, Thomas W; Gruen, Jeff; William, Thar; Fetterolf, Donald; Minalkumar, Patel; Popiel, Richard G; Lewis, Al; Nash, David B

2004-11-01

Strategies to reduce health expenditures through the improvement of health and quality of care are in high demand. A group of experts formed a nonpartisan, independent work group, under the sponsorship of the National Managed Health Care Congress. Its goal was to establish a list of easy-to-understand, actionable, and usable recommendations to enable disease management program advocates to conduct basic-level evaluations. The work group made recommendations concerning identification of reference and intervention population, population definitions, quantitative methods and data quality, confounding and bias, and stakeholder agreements/contracting. A case study was created to quantitatively illustrate some of the major issues raised by the work group. Five typical errors were simulated by applying different rules to the intervention population than to the reference population: differential inclusion (high versus low risk), differential exclusion (high versus low risk) and differential claims run-out. Compared with the true impact, four of the five errors resulted in a bias toward "intervention effect," while one (differential inclusion of high-risk patients) was biased against the "intervention effect." The direction and magnitude of the bias in natural settings will not necessarily follow this pattern.

Pursuit of communal values in an agentic manner: a way to happiness?

PubMed

Abele, Andrea E

2014-01-01

The present research studies the association between traits, values, and life satisfaction. While values should influence the direction of an individual's goals and behavior, his/her traits impact effort-expenditure, efficiency, and persistence in goal-pursuit. We apply the framework of the "Big Two" of agency and communion (Bakan, 1966) for distinguishing the content of values and traits. While agentic content refers to qualities relevant for goal-attainment, such as assertiveness, competence or persistence, communal content refers to qualities relevant for the establishment and maintenance of social relationships, such as being friendly, helpful, or fair. We predict that high scores on communal values and high scores on agentic traits are associated with life satisfaction. We test these predictions in two studies conducted in different countries (Germany and Russia) with different cultural background. The findings support our reasoning: across both countries we find positive associations of communal values and agentic traits with life satisfaction; and individuals high in communal values and high in agentic traits are most satisfied with their lives. In Russia, the association of communal values with life satisfaction is moderated by agentic traits; in Germany, however, there is a main effect of communal values.

Pursuit of communal values in an agentic manner: a way to happiness?

PubMed Central

Abele, Andrea E.

2014-01-01

The present research studies the association between traits, values, and life satisfaction. While values should influence the direction of an individual’s goals and behavior, his/her traits impact effort-expenditure, efficiency, and persistence in goal-pursuit. We apply the framework of the “Big Two” of agency and communion (Bakan, 1966) for distinguishing the content of values and traits. While agentic content refers to qualities relevant for goal-attainment, such as assertiveness, competence or persistence, communal content refers to qualities relevant for the establishment and maintenance of social relationships, such as being friendly, helpful, or fair. We predict that high scores on communal values and high scores on agentic traits are associated with life satisfaction. We test these predictions in two studies conducted in different countries (Germany and Russia) with different cultural background. The findings support our reasoning: across both countries we find positive associations of communal values and agentic traits with life satisfaction; and individuals high in communal values and high in agentic traits are most satisfied with their lives. In Russia, the association of communal values with life satisfaction is moderated by agentic traits; in Germany, however, there is a main effect of communal values. PMID:25477843

Internal quality control indicators of cervical cytopathology exams performed in laboratories monitored by the External Quality Control Laboratory.

PubMed

Ázara, Cinara Zago Silveira; Manrique, Edna Joana Cláudio; Tavares, Suelene Brito do Nascimento; de Souza, Nadja Lindany Alves; Amaral, Rita Goreti

2014-09-01

To evaluate the impact of continued education provided by an external quality control laboratory on the indicators of internal quality control of cytopathology exams. The internal quality assurance indicators for cytopathology exams from 12 laboratories monitored by the External Quality Control Laboratory were evaluated. Overall, 185,194 exams were included, 98,133 of which referred to the period preceding implementation of a continued education program, while 87,061 referred to the period following this intervention. Data were obtained from the Cervical Cancer Database of the Brazilian National Health Service. Following implementation of the continued education program, the positivity index (PI) remained within recommended limits in four laboratories. In another four laboratories, the PI progressed from below the limits to within the recommended standards. In one laboratory, the PI remained low, in two laboratories, it remained very low, and in one, it increased from very low to low. The percentage of exams compatible with a high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) remained within the recommended limits in five laboratories, while in three laboratories it progressed from below the recommended levels to >0.4% of the total number of satisfactory exams, and in four laboratories it remained below the standard limit. Both the percentage of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC-US) in relation to abnormal exams, and the ratio between ASC-US and intraepithelial lesions remained within recommended levels in all the laboratories investigated. An improvement was found in the indicators represented by the positivity index and the percentage of exams compatible with a high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion, showing that the role played by the external quality control laboratory in providing continued education contributed towards improving laboratory staff skills in detecting cervical cancer precursor lesions.

Arthropod genomic resources for the 21st century

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Genome references are foundational for high quality entomological research today. Species, sub populations and taxonomy are defined by gene flow and genome sequences. Gene content in arthropods is often directly reflective of life history, for example, diet and symbiont related gene loss is observed...

West Asian Special Libraries and Information Centers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harvey, John F.

Special libraries are defined in this paper as those libraries serving such institutions as government offices, private corporations, associations, and university departments. Information centers are similar to special libraries but provide personalized, high quality reference service, usually in science and technology, and often using mechanical…

Certified ion implantation fluence by high accuracy RBS.

PubMed

Colaux, Julien L; Jeynes, Chris; Heasman, Keith C; Gwilliam, Russell M

2015-05-07

From measurements over the last two years we have demonstrated that the charge collection system based on Faraday cups can robustly give near-1% absolute implantation fluence accuracy for our electrostatically scanned 200 kV Danfysik ion implanter, using four-point-probe mapping with a demonstrated accuracy of 2%, and accurate Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) of test implants from our quality assurance programme. The RBS is traceable to the certified reference material IRMM-ERM-EG001/BAM-L001, and involves convenient calibrations both of the electronic gain of the spectrometry system (at about 0.1% accuracy) and of the RBS beam energy (at 0.06% accuracy). We demonstrate that accurate RBS is a definitive method to determine quantity of material. It is therefore useful for certifying high quality reference standards, and is also extensible to other kinds of samples such as thin self-supporting films of pure elements. The more powerful technique of Total-IBA may inherit the accuracy of RBS.

Simultaneous compression and encryption for secure real-time secure transmission of sensitive video transmission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Al-Hayani, Nazar; Al-Jawad, Naseer; Jassim, Sabah A.

2014-05-01

Video compression and encryption became very essential in a secured real time video transmission. Applying both techniques simultaneously is one of the challenges where the size and the quality are important in multimedia transmission. In this paper we proposed a new technique for video compression and encryption. Both encryption and compression are based on edges extracted from the high frequency sub-bands of wavelet decomposition. The compression algorithm based on hybrid of: discrete wavelet transforms, discrete cosine transform, vector quantization, wavelet based edge detection, and phase sensing. The compression encoding algorithm treats the video reference and non-reference frames in two different ways. The encryption algorithm utilized A5 cipher combined with chaotic logistic map to encrypt the significant parameters and wavelet coefficients. Both algorithms can be applied simultaneously after applying the discrete wavelet transform on each individual frame. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithms have the following features: high compression, acceptable quality, and resistance to the statistical and bruteforce attack with low computational processing.

D Imaging for Museum Artefacts: a Portable Test Object for Heritage and Museum Documentation of Small Objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hess, M.; Robson, S.

2012-07-01

3D colour image data generated for the recording of small museum objects and archaeological finds are highly variable in quality and fitness for purpose. Whilst current technology is capable of extremely high quality outputs, there are currently no common standards or applicable guidelines in either the museum or engineering domain suited to scientific evaluation, understanding and tendering for 3D colour digital data. This paper firstly explains the rationale towards and requirements for 3D digital documentation in museums. Secondly it describes the design process, development and use of a new portable test object suited to sensor evaluation and the provision of user acceptance metrics. The test object is specifically designed for museums and heritage institutions and includes known surface and geometric properties which support quantitative and comparative imaging on different systems. The development for a supporting protocol will allow object reference data to be included in the data processing workflow with specific reference to conservation and curation.

Choice of Reference Sequence and Assembler for Alignment of Listeria monocytogenes Short-Read Sequence Data Greatly Influences Rates of Error in SNP Analyses

PubMed Central

Pightling, Arthur W.; Petronella, Nicholas; Pagotto, Franco

2014-01-01

The wide availability of whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and an abundance of open-source software have made detection of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in bacterial genomes an increasingly accessible and effective tool for comparative analyses. Thus, ensuring that real nucleotide differences between genomes (i.e., true SNPs) are detected at high rates and that the influences of errors (such as false positive SNPs, ambiguously called sites, and gaps) are mitigated is of utmost importance. The choices researchers make regarding the generation and analysis of WGS data can greatly influence the accuracy of short-read sequence alignments and, therefore, the efficacy of such experiments. We studied the effects of some of these choices, including: i) depth of sequencing coverage, ii) choice of reference-guided short-read sequence assembler, iii) choice of reference genome, and iv) whether to perform read-quality filtering and trimming, on our ability to detect true SNPs and on the frequencies of errors. We performed benchmarking experiments, during which we assembled simulated and real Listeria monocytogenes strain 08-5578 short-read sequence datasets of varying quality with four commonly used assemblers (BWA, MOSAIK, Novoalign, and SMALT), using reference genomes of varying genetic distances, and with or without read pre-processing (i.e., quality filtering and trimming). We found that assemblies of at least 50-fold coverage provided the most accurate results. In addition, MOSAIK yielded the fewest errors when reads were aligned to a nearly identical reference genome, while using SMALT to align reads against a reference sequence that is ∼0.82% distant from 08-5578 at the nucleotide level resulted in the detection of the greatest numbers of true SNPs and the fewest errors. Finally, we show that whether read pre-processing improves SNP detection depends upon the choice of reference sequence and assembler. In total, this study demonstrates that researchers should test a variety of conditions to achieve optimal results. PMID:25144537

High performance thin layer chromatography fingerprinting, phytochemical and physico-chemical studies of anti-diabetic herbal extracts

PubMed Central

Itankar, Prakash R.; Sawant, Dattatray B.; Tauqeer, Mohd.; Charde, Sonal S.

2015-01-01

Introduction: Herbal medicines have gained increasing popularity in the last few decades, and this global resurgence of herbal medicines increases their commercial value. However, this increasing demand has resulted in a decline in their quality, primarily due to a lack of adequate regulations pertaining to herbal medicines. Aim: To develop an optimized methodology for the standardization of herbal raw materials. Materials and Methods: The present study has been designed to examine each of the five herbal anti-diabetic drugs, Gymnema sylvester R. Br., Pterocarpus marsupium Roxburgh., Enicostema littorale Blume., Syzygium cumini (L.) Skeels. and Emblica officinalis Gaertn. The in-house extracts and marketed extracts were evaluated using physicochemical parameters, preliminary phytochemical screening, quantification of polyphenols (Folin–Ciocalteu colorimetric method) and high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) fingerprint profiling with reference to marker compounds in plant extracts. Results: All the plants mainly contain polyphenolic compounds and are quantified in the range of 3.6–21.72% w/w. E. officinalis contain the highest and E. littorale contain the lowest content of polyphenol among plant extracts analyzed. HPTLC fingerprinting showed that the in-house extracts were of better quality than marketed extracts. Conclusion: The results obtained from the study could be utilized for setting limits for the reference phytoconstituents (biomarker) for the quality control and quality assurance of these anti-diabetic drugs. PMID:27011722

[Drug-promoting advertisements in the Dutch Journal of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Weekly: not always evidence based].

PubMed

van Eeden, Annelies E; Roach, Rachel E J; Halbesma, Nynke; Dekker, Friedo W

2012-01-01

To determine and compare the foundation of claims in drug-promoting advertisements in a Dutch journal for physicians and a Dutch journal for pharmacists. A cross-sectional study. We included all the drug-promoting advertisements referring to a randomized controlled trial (RCT) we could find on Medline from 2 volumes of the Dutch Journal of Medicine (Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde; NTvG) and the (also Dutch) Pharmaceutical Weekly (Pharmaceutisch Weekblad; PW). The validity of the advertisements (n = 54) and the methodological quality of the referenced RCTs (n = 150) were independently scored by 250 medical students using 2 standardised questionnaires. The advertisements' sources were concealed from the students. Per journal, the percentage of drug-promoting advertisements having a valid claim and the percentage of high-quality RCT references were determined. Average scores on quality and validity were compared between the 2 journals. On a scale of 0-18 points, the mean quality scores of the RCTs differed 0.3 (95% CI: -0.1-0.7) between the NTvG (score: 14.8; SD: 2.2) and the PW (score: 14.5; SD: 2.6). The difference between the validity scores of drug-promoting advertisements in the NTvG (score: 5.8; SD: 3.3) and the PW (score: 5.6; SD: 3.6) was 0.3 (95% CI: -0.3-0.9) on a scale of 0-10 points. For both journals, an average of 15% of drug-promoting advertisements was valid (defined as a validity score of > 8 points); 35% of the RCTs referred to was of good methodological quality (defined as a quality score of > 16 points). The substantiation of many claims in drug-promoting advertisements in the NTvG and the PW was mediocre. There was no difference between the 2 journals.

Free Air Quality Alerts Help New Englanders Prepare for Summer Smog Season

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

With the onset of warm summer weather, the USEPA advises New Englanders to be aware of the increased risk of ground-level ozone and fine particle air pollution (when combined, often referred to as smog), & take health precautions when smog levels are high.

Instructor and Student Attitudes Toward Distance Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Inman, Elliot; Kerwin, Michael; Mayes, Larry

1999-01-01

Discusses data collected from 11 distance-learning classes. The instructors were willing to teach distance-learning classes again, but said the courses were of equal or lesser quality than traditional classes. The 334 students surveyed were highly satisfied with the courses and instructors. Contains 17 references. (TGO)

Development of an evidence-based approach to external quality assurance for breast cancer hormone receptor immunohistochemistry: comparison of reference values.

PubMed

Makretsov, Nikita; Gilks, C Blake; Alaghehbandan, Reza; Garratt, John; Quenneville, Louise; Mercer, Joel; Palavdzic, Dragana; Torlakovic, Emina E

2011-07-01

External quality assurance and proficiency testing programs for breast cancer predictive biomarkers are based largely on traditional ad hoc design; at present there is no universal consensus on definition of a standard reference value for samples used in external quality assurance programs. To explore reference values for estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor immunohistochemistry in order to develop an evidence-based analytic platform for external quality assurance. There were 31 participating laboratories, 4 of which were previously designated as "expert" laboratories. Each participant tested a tissue microarray slide with 44 breast carcinomas for estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor and submitted it to the Canadian Immunohistochemistry Quality Control Program for analysis. Nuclear staining in 1% or more of the tumor cells was a positive score. Five methods for determining reference values were compared. All reference values showed 100% agreement for estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor scores, when indeterminate results were excluded. Individual laboratory performance (agreement rates, test sensitivity, test specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and κ value) was very similar for all reference values. Identification of suboptimal performance by all methods was identical for 30 of 31 laboratories. Estrogen receptor assessment of 1 laboratory was discordant: agreement was less than 90% for 3 of 5 reference values and greater than 90% with the use of 2 other reference values. Various reference values provide equivalent laboratory rating. In addition to descriptive feedback, our approach allows calculation of technical test sensitivity and specificity, positive and negative predictive values, agreement rates, and κ values to guide corrective actions.

Three-dimensional ultrasound imaging and measurement of nasal bone length, prenasal thickness and frontomaxillary facial angle in normal second- and third-trimester fetuses.

PubMed

Vos, F I; De Jong-Pleij, E A P; Ribbert, L S M; Tromp, E; Bilardo, C M

2012-06-01

To assess the feasibility of nasal bone length (NBL), prenasal thickness (PT) and frontomaxillary facial (FMF) angle measurements performed on the same three-dimensional (3D) multiplanar-corrected profile view in healthy second- and third-trimester fetuses, to create reference ranges and to review published measurement techniques. 3D volumes of 219 healthy second- and third-trimester fetuses were retrospectively analyzed. The quality of images and measurability of the markers were assessed with 5-point and 3-point scoring systems, respectively. Measurements of NBL (with care to exclude the frontal bone), PT and FMF were obtained in the exact mid-sagittal plane. Reference ranges were constructed based on measurements from images with high-quality (4 or 5 points) and high measurability (2 or 3 points) scores and compared with those in the most relevant published literature. A high-quality score was assigned to 111 images. Among these, a high measurability score was significantly more often achieved for NBL (98.2%) and PT (97.3%) than for the FMF angle (26.1%) (P < 0.001). Both NBL (NBL = - 6.927 + (0.83 × GA) - (0.01 × GA(2))) and PT (PT = (0.212 × GA) - 0.873) (where GA = gestational age) showed growth with gestation, with less pronounced growth for NBL after 28 weeks. Our reference range for the NBL showed a systematically smaller length than those in other two-dimensional (2D) ultrasound-based publications. The FMF angle measurements that we obtained did not show a significant change with GA. NBL and PT are easily measured using 3D ultrasound whereas FMF angle measurement is more challenging. When it is measured in the exact mid-sagittal plane and care is taken to exclude the frontal bone, measurements of the NBL are systematically smaller than those in previous 2D ultrasound-based publications. Copyright © 2012 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Striking against bioterrorism with advanced proteomics and reference methods.

PubMed

Armengaud, Jean

2017-01-01

The intentional use by terrorists of biological toxins as weapons has been of great concern for many years. Among the numerous toxins produced by plants, animals, algae, fungi, and bacteria, ricin is one of the most scrutinized by the media because it has already been used in biocrimes and acts of bioterrorism. Improving the analytical toolbox of national authorities to monitor these potential bioweapons all at once is of the utmost interest. MS/MS allows their absolute quantitation and exhibits advantageous sensitivity, discriminative power, multiplexing possibilities, and speed. In this issue of Proteomics, Gilquin et al. (Proteomics 2017, 17, 1600357) present a robust multiplex assay to quantify a set of eight toxins in the presence of a complex food matrix. This MS/MS reference method is based on scheduled SRM and high-quality standards consisting of isotopically labeled versions of these toxins. Their results demonstrate robust reliability based on rather loose scheduling of SRM transitions and good sensitivity for the eight toxins, lower than their oral median lethal doses. In the face of an increased threat from terrorism, relevant reference assays based on advanced proteomics and high-quality companion toxin standards are reliable and firm answers. © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

A regional classification scheme for estimating reference water quality in streams using land-use-adjusted spatial regression-tree analysis

USGS Publications Warehouse

Robertson, Dale M.; Saad, D.A.; Heisey, D.M.

2006-01-01

Various approaches are used to subdivide large areas into regions containing streams that have similar reference or background water quality and that respond similarly to different factors. For many applications, such as establishing reference conditions, it is preferable to use physical characteristics that are not affected by human activities to delineate these regions. However, most approaches, such as ecoregion classifications, rely on land use to delineate regions or have difficulties compensating for the effects of land use. Land use not only directly affects water quality, but it is often correlated with the factors used to define the regions. In this article, we describe modifications to SPARTA (spatial regression-tree analysis), a relatively new approach applied to water-quality and environmental characteristic data to delineate zones with similar factors affecting water quality. In this modified approach, land-use-adjusted (residualized) water quality and environmental characteristics are computed for each site. Regression-tree analysis is applied to the residualized data to determine the most statistically important environmental characteristics describing the distribution of a specific water-quality constituent. Geographic information for small basins throughout the study area is then used to subdivide the area into relatively homogeneous environmental water-quality zones. For each zone, commonly used approaches are subsequently used to define its reference water quality and how its water quality responds to changes in land use. SPARTA is used to delineate zones of similar reference concentrations of total phosphorus and suspended sediment throughout the upper Midwestern part of the United States. ?? 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.

Effects on employees of controlling working hours and working schedules.

PubMed

Kubo, T; Takahashi, M; Togo, F; Liu, X; Shimazu, A; Tanaka, K; Takaya, M

2013-03-01

High levels of control over working time and low variability in working hours have been associated with improved health-related outcomes. The potential mechanisms for this association remain unclear. To examine how work-time control and variability of working times are associated with fatigue recovery, sleep quality, work-life balance, and 'near misses' at work. Manufacturing sector employees completed a questionnaire that assessed work-time control, work-time variability, fatigue recovery, sleep quality, work-life balance and the frequency of near misses in the past 6 months. Mixed model analysis of covariance and multiple logistic regression analysis tested the main effects of work-time control and variability and their interaction, while adjusting for age, sex, work schedules, and overtime work in the past month. Subscales of work-time control were also investigated (control over daily working hours and over days off). One thousand three hundred and seventy-two completed questionnaires were returned, a response rate of 69%. A significantly higher quality of sleep and better work-life balance were found in the 'high control with low variability' reference group than in the other groups. Significantly better recovery of fatigue was also observed in the group having control over days off with low variability. While near misses were more frequent in the group with high control over daily working hours coupled with high variability compared with the reference group this was not significant. High work-time control and low variability were associated with favourable outcomes of health and work-life balance. This combined effect was not observed for the safety outcome addressed here.

Controlling costs without compromising quality: paying hospitals for total knee replacement.

PubMed

Pine, Michael; Fry, Donald E; Jones, Barbara L; Meimban, Roger J; Pine, Gregory J

2010-10-01

Unit costs of health services are substantially higher in the United States than in any other developed country in the world, without a correspondingly healthier population. An alternative payment structure, especially for high volume, high cost episodes of care (eg, total knee replacement), is needed to reward high quality care and reduce costs. The National Inpatient Sample of administrative claims data was used to measure risk-adjusted mortality, postoperative length-of-stay, costs of routine care, adverse outcome rates, and excess costs of adverse outcomes for total knee replacements performed between 2002 and 2005. Empirically identified inefficient and ineffective hospitals were then removed to create a reference group of high-performance hospitals. Predictive models for outcomes and costs were recalibrated to the reference hospitals and used to compute risk-adjusted outcomes and costs for all hospitals. Per case predicted costs were computed and compared with observed costs. Of the 688 hospitals with acceptable data, 62 failed to meet effectiveness criteria and 210 were identified as inefficient. The remaining 416 high-performance hospitals had 13.4% fewer risk-adjusted adverse outcomes (4.56%-3.95%; P < 0.001; χ) and 9.9% lower risk-adjusted total costs ($12,773-$11,512; P < 0.001; t test) than all study hospitals. Inefficiency accounted for 96% of excess costs. A payment system based on the demonstrated performance of effective, efficient hospitals can produce sizable cost savings without jeopardizing quality. In this study, 96% of total excess hospital costs resulted from higher routine costs at inefficient hospitals, whereas only 4% was associated with ineffective care.

Sustaining quality in the community: trends in the performance of a structured diabetes care programme in primary care over 16 years.

PubMed

Riordan, F; McHugh, S M; Harkins, V; Marsden, P; Kearney, P M

2018-04-29

To examine the quality of care delivered by a structured primary care-led programme for people with Type 2 diabetes mellitus in 1999-2016. The Midland Diabetes Structured Care Programme provides structured primary care-led management. Trends over time in care processes were examined (using a chi-squared trend test and age- and gender-adjusted logistic regression). Screening and annual review attendance were reviewed. A composite of eight National Institute for Health and Care Excellence-recommended processes was used as a quality indicator. Participants who were referred to diabetes nurse specialists were compared with those not referred (Student's t-test, Pearson's chi-squared test, Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test). Proportions achieving outcome targets [HbA 1c ≤58 mmol/mol (7.5%), blood pressure ≤140/80 mmHg, cholesterol <5.0 mmol/l] were calculated. Data were available for people with diabetes aged ≥18 years: 1998/1999 (n=336); 2003 (n=843); 2008 (n=988); and 2016 (n=1029). Recording of some processes improved significantly over time (HbA 1c , cholesterol, blood pressure, creatinine), and in 2016 exceeded 97%. Foot assessment and annual review attendance declined. In 2016, only 29% of participants had all eight National Institute for Health and Care Excellence processes recorded. A higher proportion of people with diabetes who were referred to a diabetes nurse specialist had poor glycaemic control compared with those not referred. The proportions meeting blood pressure and lipid targets increased over time. Structured primary care led to improvements in the quality of care over time. Poorer recording of some processes, a decline in annual review attendance, and participants remaining at high risk suggest limits to what structured care alone can achieve. Engagement in continuous quality improvement to target other factors, including attendance and self-management, may deliver further improvements. © 2018 Diabetes UK.

A structured approach to recording AIDS-defining illnesses in Kenya: A SNOMED CT based solution

PubMed Central

Oluoch, Tom; de Keizer, Nicolette; Langat, Patrick; Alaska, Irene; Ochieng, Kenneth; Okeyo, Nicky; Kwaro, Daniel; Cornet, Ronald

2016-01-01

Introduction Several studies conducted in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have shown that routine clinical data in HIV clinics often have errors. Lack of structured and coded documentation of diagnosis of AIDS defining illnesses (ADIs) can compromise data quality and decisions made on clinical care. Methods We used a structured framework to derive a reference set of concepts and terms used to describe ADIs. The four sources used were: (i) CDC/Accenture list of opportunistic infections, (ii) SNOMED Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT), (iii) Focus Group Discussion (FGD) among clinicians and nurses attending to patients at a referral provincial hospital in western Kenya, and (iv) chart abstraction from the Maternal Child Health (MCH) and HIV clinics at the same hospital. Using the January 2014 release of SNOMED CT, concepts were retrieved that matched terms abstracted from approach iii & iv, and the content coverage assessed. Post-coordination matching was applied when needed. Results The final reference set had 1054 unique ADI concepts which were described by 1860 unique terms. Content coverage of SNOMED CT was high (99.9% with pre-coordinated concepts; 100% with post-coordination). The resulting reference set for ADIs was implemented as the interface terminology on OpenMRS data entry forms. Conclusion Different sources demonstrate complementarity in the collection of concepts and terms for an interface terminology. SNOMED CT provides a high coverage in the domain of ADIs. Further work is needed to evaluate the effect of the interface terminology on data quality and quality of care. PMID:26184057

Power Quality Improvement by Unified Power Quality Conditioner Based on CSC Topology Using Synchronous Reference Frame Theory

PubMed Central

Dharmalingam, Rajasekaran; Dash, Subhransu Sekhar; Senthilnathan, Karthikrajan; Mayilvaganan, Arun Bhaskar; Chinnamuthu, Subramani

2014-01-01

This paper deals with the performance of unified power quality conditioner (UPQC) based on current source converter (CSC) topology. UPQC is used to mitigate the power quality problems like harmonics and sag. The shunt and series active filter performs the simultaneous elimination of current and voltage problems. The power fed is linked through common DC link and maintains constant real power exchange. The DC link is connected through the reactor. The real power supply is given by the photovoltaic system for the compensation of power quality problems. The reference current and voltage generation for shunt and series converter is based on phase locked loop and synchronous reference frame theory. The proposed UPQC-CSC design has superior performance for mitigating the power quality problems. PMID:25013854

Power quality improvement by unified power quality conditioner based on CSC topology using synchronous reference frame theory.

PubMed

Dharmalingam, Rajasekaran; Dash, Subhransu Sekhar; Senthilnathan, Karthikrajan; Mayilvaganan, Arun Bhaskar; Chinnamuthu, Subramani

2014-01-01

This paper deals with the performance of unified power quality conditioner (UPQC) based on current source converter (CSC) topology. UPQC is used to mitigate the power quality problems like harmonics and sag. The shunt and series active filter performs the simultaneous elimination of current and voltage problems. The power fed is linked through common DC link and maintains constant real power exchange. The DC link is connected through the reactor. The real power supply is given by the photovoltaic system for the compensation of power quality problems. The reference current and voltage generation for shunt and series converter is based on phase locked loop and synchronous reference frame theory. The proposed UPQC-CSC design has superior performance for mitigating the power quality problems.

Improving Reference Service: The Case for Using a Continuous Quality Improvement Method.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aluri, Rao

1993-01-01

Discusses the evaluation of library reference service; examines problems with past evaluations, including the lack of long-term planning and a systems perspective; and suggests a method for continuously monitoring and improving reference service using quality improvement tools such as checklists, cause and effect diagrams, Pareto charts, and…

Advanced scatter search approach and its application in a sequencing problem of mixed-model assembly lines in a case company

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Qiong; Wang, Wen-xi; Zhu, Ke-ren; Zhang, Chao-yong; Rao, Yun-qing

2014-11-01

Mixed-model assembly line sequencing is significant in reducing the production time and overall cost of production. To improve production efficiency, a mathematical model aiming simultaneously to minimize overtime, idle time and total set-up costs is developed. To obtain high-quality and stable solutions, an advanced scatter search approach is proposed. In the proposed algorithm, a new diversification generation method based on a genetic algorithm is presented to generate a set of potentially diverse and high-quality initial solutions. Many methods, including reference set update, subset generation, solution combination and improvement methods, are designed to maintain the diversification of populations and to obtain high-quality ideal solutions. The proposed model and algorithm are applied and validated in a case company. The results indicate that the proposed advanced scatter search approach is significant for mixed-model assembly line sequencing in this company.

Pop Culture Universe: Icons, Idols, Ideas

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harper, Meghan

2010-01-01

This article features "Pop Culture Universe," which received the 2009 Dartmouth Medal honoring the creation of a reference work of outstanding quality. School librarians will find "Pop Culture Universe" a wonderful resource for assisting middle school and high school students with research projects on significant historical events that focus on…

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States regarding the right of citizens of the United States to health care of equal high quality.

THOMAS, 111th Congress

Rep. Jackson, Jesse L., Jr. [D-IL-2

2009-03-03

House - 03/16/2009 Referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. (All Actions) Tracker: This bill has the status IntroducedHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

The eastern oyster genome: A resource for comparative genomics in shellfish aquaculture species

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Oyster aquaculture is an important sector of world food production. As such, it is imperative to develop a high quality reference genome for the eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, to assist in the elucidation of the genomic basis of commercially important traits. All genetic, gene expression and...

Wave-Ice Interaction and the Marginal Ice Zone

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-09-30

concept, using a high-quality attitude and heading reference system ( AHRS ) together with an accurate twin-antennae GPS compass. The instruments logged...the AHRS parameters at 50Hz, together with GPS-derived fixes, heading (accurate to better than 1o) and velocities at 10Hz. The 30MB hourly files

A nine-scaffold genome assembly of the nine chromosome sugar beet

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

A sugar beet genome sequence is required to take full advantage of the increasingly powerful approaches directed a single nucleotide resolution across the whole genome. A high quality reference genome serves as a benchmark from which other genotypes might be compared and exploited for sugar beet imp...

7 CFR 170.12 - What are the selection criteria for participation in the USDA Farmers Market?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... referred to the Internal Revenue Service or a tax advisor. Receipts for donated foods may be obtained from... Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards, Inspections, Marketing Practices... Farmers Market? The selection criteria are designed to ensure a consistently high level of quality and...

CARD 2017: expansion and model-centric curation of the Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database (CARD; http://arpcard.mcmaster.ca) is a manually curated resource containing high quality reference data on the molecular basis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), with an emphasis on the genes, proteins, and mutations involved in AMR. CARD is ontologi...

The channel catfish genome sequence provides insights into the evolution of scale formation in teleosts

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus), characteristic of its scaleless skin and prominent barbels, is an ideal species to study osteogenesis, development of appendages, olfactory sensing, and immunological adaptation. It is the leading aquaculture species in the United States. A high quality refere...

Improving the Processing Quality of Existing Cultivars by Suppressing the Vacuolar Acid Invertase Gene

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Storing potato tubers at low temperatures is highly advantageous in that it prevents sprouting, minimizes disease losses and increases the marketing window. Unfortunately, cold storage of existing cultivars causes an unacceptable accumulation of reducing sugars, a phenomenon referred to as cold-indu...

Root yield and quality of sugarbeet hybrids with pollinators selected for sodium, potassium, or amino-nitrogen concentration

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Sodium, potassium, and amino-nitrogen, collectively referred to as impurities, are natural constituents of sugarbeet that impede sucrose extraction during factory operations. Lines selected specifically for low or high concentration of a single impurity component were crossed as pollinators with a ...

Sequencing of diverse mandarin, pummelo and orange genomes reveals complex history of admixture during citrus domestication

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Cultivated citrus are selections from, or hybrids of, wild progenitor species whose identities and contributions to citrus domestication remain controversial. Here we sequence and compare citrus genomes—a high-quality reference haploid clementine genome and mandarin, pummelo, sweet-orange and sour-o...

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

Naylor, G.D.; Marino, G.G.; Shumway, R.C.

Radiation therapy and chemotherapy have decreased the mortality rates of cancer patients, but the morbidity associated with oral complications is high in many cases. A pretreatment oral evaluation and institution of a preventive care program reduce oral symptoms such as glossodynia considerably. When oral symptoms are minimized, the dentist can improve the patient's quality of life.40 references.

78 FR 18323 - Notice of Availability of a Draft Programmatic Environmental Assessment of the Proposed United...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-03-26

... Proposed United States Regional Climate Reference Network (USRCRN) AGENCY: National Weather Service (NWS..., is proposing to implement, operate, and manage a USRCRN. With other climate monitoring efforts..., high-quality climate data for use in climate-monitoring activities and for placing current climate...

What information is used in treatment decision aids? A systematic review of the types of evidence populating health decision aids.

PubMed

Clifford, Amanda M; Ryan, Jean; Walsh, Cathal; McCurtin, Arlene

2017-02-23

Patient decision aids (DAs) are support tools designed to provide patients with relevant information to help them make informed decisions about their healthcare. While DAs can be effective in improving patient knowledge and decision quality, it is unknown what types of information and evidence are used to populate such decision tools. Systematic methods were used to identify and appraise the relevant literature and patient DAs published between 2006 and 2015. Six databases (Academic Search Complete, AMED, CINAHL, Biomedical Reference Collection, General Sciences and MEDLINE) and reference list searching were used. Articles evaluating the effectiveness of the DAs were appraised using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. The content, quality and sources of evidence in the decision aids were evaluated using the IPDASi-SF and a novel classification system. Findings were synthesised and a narrative analysis was performed on the results. Thirteen studies representing ten DAs met the inclusion criteria. The IPDASI-SF score ranged from 9 to 16 indicating many of the studies met the majority of quality criteria. Sources of evidence were described but reports were sometimes generic or missing important information. The majority of DAs incorporated high quality research evidence including systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Patient and practice evidence was less commonly employed, with only a third of included DAs using these to populate decision aid content. The quality of practice and patient evidence ranged from high to low. Contextual factors were addressed across all DAs to varying degrees and covered a range of factors. This is an initial study examining the information and evidence used to populate DAs. While research evidence and contextual factors are well represented in included DAs, consideration should be given to incorporating high quality information representing all four pillars of evidence based practice when developing DAs. Further, patient and expert practice evidence should be acquired rigorously and DAs should report the means by which such evidence is obtained with citations clearly provided.

CMOS compatible fabrication process of MEMS resonator for timing reference and sensing application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huynh, Duc H.; Nguyen, Phuong D.; Nguyen, Thanh C.; Skafidas, Stan; Evans, Robin

2015-12-01

Frequency reference and timing control devices are ubiquitous in electronic applications. There is at least one resonator required for each of this device. Currently electromechanical resonators such as crystal resonator, ceramic resonator are the ultimate choices. This tendency will probably keep going for many more years. However, current market demands for small size, low power consumption, cheap and reliable products, has divulged many limitations of this type of resonators. They cannot be integrated into standard CMOS (Complement metaloxide- semiconductor) IC (Integrated Circuit) due to material and fabrication process incompatibility. Currently, these devices are off-chip and they require external circuitries to interface with the ICs. This configuration significantly increases the overall size and cost of the entire electronic system. In addition, extra external connection, especially at high frequency, will potentially create negative impacts on the performance of the entire system due to signal degradation and parasitic effects. Furthermore, due to off-chip packaging nature, these devices are quite expensive, particularly for high frequency and high quality factor devices. To address these issues, researchers have been intensively studying on an alternative for type of resonator by utilizing the new emerging MEMS (Micro-electro-mechanical systems) technology. Recent progress in this field has demonstrated a MEMS resonator with resonant frequency of 2.97 GHz and quality factor (measured in vacuum) of 42900. Despite this great achievement, this prototype is still far from being fully integrated into CMOS system due to incompatibility in fabrication process and its high series motional impedance. On the other hand, fully integrated MEMS resonator had been demonstrated but at lower frequency and quality factor. We propose a design and fabrication process for a low cost, high frequency and a high quality MEMS resonator, which can be integrated into a standard CMOS IC. This device is expected to operate in hundreds of Mhz frequency range; quality factor surpasses 10000 and series motional impedance low enough that could be matching into conventional system without enormous effort. This MEMS resonator can be used in the design of many blocks in wireless and RF (Radio Frequency) systems such as low phase noise oscillator, band pass filter, power amplifier and in many sensing application.

Factors in Software Quality. Volume I. Concepts and Definitions of Software Quality

DTIC Science & Technology

1977-11-01

FLEXIBILITY COMPLEXITY EXPANDABILITY PRECISION DOCUMENTATION TOLERANCE REPAIRABILITY COMPATABIL ITY SERVICEABILITY 2-4 AiI1I~3~I!-T A1 11 NI󈧥 AIiB 9l 0...applications. Several standard documents are required by DOD/AF’ regulations . The following references were used to compile the rFpnge of documents...documents are specified by the AF regulations or SPO-local regulations listed above. Each ot the document types for a long life/high cost software

Readability, credibility and quality of patient information for hypogonadism and testosterone replacement therapy on the Internet.

PubMed

McBride, J A; Carson, C C; Coward, R M

2017-05-01

The incidence of hypogonadism and use of testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) are rising, while data evaluating the complexity and quality of health-care information available to patients on the Internet for hypogonadism or TRT are lacking. This study focuses on characterizing the readability, credibility and quality of patient-centered information for hypogonadism on the Internet. A Google search was performed to identify top-ranked websites offering patient-centered information on hypogonadism and TRT. Readability was quantified by reading grade level using several validated instruments. Credibility and quality were determined by several additional criteria, including authorship, references, health-care information quality certification and breadth of topic discussion. Twenty of 75 total sites identified (27%) met the inclusion and exclusion criteria and were evaluated. The mean reading grade level was 13.1 (interquartile range 11.7-15.1), with all websites demonstrating reading levels significantly above recommended levels. Less than half (45%) of the sites were neither authored nor reviewed by a physician, 60% contained at least one reference and 40% were certified for displaying quality health-care information. Over half (55%) did not comprehensively discuss management of hypogonadism or mention treatment-associated risks. In conclusion, the majority of patient-centered information available on the Internet regarding hypogonadism or TRT is of poor quality and too complex for the average patient to comprehend. These results highlight a critical shortage in easily accessible, high-quality, comprehensible online patient health-care information on hypogonadism and TRT.

Quality improving techniques for free-viewpoint DIBR

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Do, Luat; Zinger, Sveta; de With, Peter H. N.

2010-02-01

Interactive free-viewpoint selection applied to a 3D multi-view signal is a possible attractive feature of the rapidly developing 3D TV media. This paper explores a new rendering algorithm that computes a free-viewpoint based on depth image warping between two reference views from existing cameras. We have developed three quality enhancing techniques that specifically aim at solving the major artifacts. First, resampling artifacts are filled in by a combination of median filtering and inverse warping. Second, contour artifacts are processed while omitting warping of edges at high discontinuities. Third, we employ a depth signal for more accurate disocclusion inpainting. We obtain an average PSNR gain of 3 dB and 4.5 dB for the 'Breakdancers' and 'Ballet' sequences, respectively, compared to recently published results. While experimenting with synthetic data, we observe that the rendering quality is highly dependent on the complexity of the scene. Moreover, experiments are performed using compressed video from surrounding cameras. The overall system quality is dominated by the rendering quality and not by coding.

Primary Care-Based Memory Clinics: Expanding Capacity for Dementia Care.

PubMed

Lee, Linda; Hillier, Loretta M; Heckman, George; Gagnon, Micheline; Borrie, Michael J; Stolee, Paul; Harvey, David

2014-09-01

The implementation in Ontario of 15 primary-care-based interprofessional memory clinics represented a unique model of team-based case management aimed at increasing capacity for dementia care at the primary-care level. Each clinic tracked referrals; in a subset of clinics, charts were audited by geriatricians, clinic members were interviewed, and patients, caregivers, and referring physicians completed satisfaction surveys. Across all clinics, 582 patients were assessed, and 8.9 per cent were referred to a specialist. Patients and caregivers were very satisfied with the care received, as were referring family physicians, who reported increased capacity to manage dementia. Geriatricians' chart audits revealed a high level of agreement with diagnosis and management. This study demonstrated acceptability, feasibility, and preliminary effectiveness of the primary-care memory clinic model. Led by specially trained family physicians, it provided timely access to high-quality collaborative dementia care, impacting health service utilization by more-efficient use of scarce geriatric specialist resources.

On the impact of ICRU report 90 recommendations on kQ factors for high-energy photon beams.

PubMed

Mainegra-Hing, Ernesto; Muir, Bryan R

2018-06-03

To assess the impact of the ICRU report 90 recommendations on the beam-quality conversion factor, k Q , used for clinical reference dosimetry of megavoltage linac photon beams. The absorbed dose to water and the absorbed dose to the air in ionization chambers representative of those typically used for linac photon reference dosimetry are calculated at the reference depth in a water phantom using Monte Carlo simulations. Depth-dose calculations in water are also performed to investigate changes in beam quality specifiers. The calculations are performed in a cobalt-60 beam and MV photon beams with nominal energy between 6 MV and 25 MV using the EGSnrc simulation toolkit. Inputs to the calculations use stopping-power data for graphite and water from the original ICRU-37 report and the new proposed values from the recently published ICRU-90 report. Calculated k Q factors are compared using the two different recommendations for key dosimetry data and measured k Q factors. Less than about 0.1% effects from ICRU-90 recommendations on the beam quality specifiers, the photon component of the percentage depth-dose at 10 cm, %dd(10) x , and the tissue-phantom ratio at 20 cm and 10 cm, TPR1020, are observed. Although using different recommendations for key dosimetric data impact water-to-air stopping-power ratios and ion chamber perturbation corrections by up to 0.54% and 0.40%, respectively, we observe little difference (≤0.14%) in calculated k Q factors. This is contradictory to the predictions in ICRU-90 that suggest differences up to 0.5% in high-energy photon beams. A slightly better agreement with experimental values is obtained when using ICRU-90 recommendations. Users of the addendum to the TG-51 protocol for reference dosimetry of high-energy photon beams, which recommends Monte Carlo calculated k Q factors, can rest assured that the recommendations of ICRU report 90 on basic data have little impact on this central dosimetric parameter. © Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada 2018. Reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Science.

40 CFR 50.3 - Reference conditions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... SECONDARY AMBIENT AIR QUALITY STANDARDS § 50.3 Reference conditions. All measurements of air quality that... reported based on actual ambient air volume measured at the actual ambient temperature and pressure at the...

Hg0 and HgCl2 Reference Gas Standards: ?NIST Traceability ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

EPA and NIST have collaborated to establish the necessary procedures for establishing the required NIST traceability of commercially-provided Hg0 and HgCl2 reference generators. This presentation will discuss the approach of a joint EPA/NIST study to accurately quantify the true concentrations of Hg0 and HgCl2 reference gases produced from high quality, NIST-traceable, commercial Hg0 and HgCl2 generators. This presentation will also discuss the availability of HCl and Hg0 compressed reference gas standards as a result of EPA's recently approved Alternative Methods 114 and 118. Gaseous elemental mercury (Hg0) and oxidized mercury (HgCl2) reference standards are integral to the use of mercury continuous emissions monitoring systems (Hg CEMS) for regulatory compliance emissions monitoring. However, a quantitative disparity of approximately 7-10% has been observed between commercial Hg0 and HgCl2 reference gases which currently limits the use of (HgCl2) reference gas standards. Resolving this disparity would enable the expanded use of (HgCl2) reference gas standards for regulatory compliance purposes.

Accuracy of Referring Provider and Endoscopist Impressions of Colonoscopy Indication.

PubMed

Naveed, Mariam; Clary, Meredith; Ahn, Chul; Kubiliun, Nisa; Agrawal, Deepak; Cryer, Byron; Murphy, Caitlin; Singal, Amit G

2017-07-01

Background: Referring provider and endoscopist impressions of colonoscopy indication are used for clinical care, reimbursement, and quality reporting decisions; however, the accuracy of these impressions is unknown. This study assessed the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value, and overall accuracy of methods to classify colonoscopy indication, including referring provider impression, endoscopist impression, and administrative algorithm compared with gold standard chart review. Methods: We randomly sampled 400 patients undergoing a colonoscopy at a Veterans Affairs health system between January 2010 and December 2010. Referring provider and endoscopist impressions of colonoscopy indication were compared with gold-standard chart review. Indications were classified into 4 mutually exclusive categories: diagnostic, surveillance, high-risk screening, or average-risk screening. Results: Of 400 colonoscopies, 26% were performed for average-risk screening, 7% for high-risk screening, 26% for surveillance, and 41% for diagnostic indications. Accuracy of referring provider and endoscopist impressions of colonoscopy indication were 87% and 84%, respectively, which were significantly higher than that of the administrative algorithm (45%; P <.001 for both). There was substantial agreement between endoscopist and referring provider impressions (κ=0.76). All 3 methods showed high sensitivity (>90%) for determining screening (vs nonscreening) indication, but specificity of the administrative algorithm was lower (40.3%) compared with referring provider (93.7%) and endoscopist (84.0%) impressions. Accuracy of endoscopist, but not referring provider, impression was lower in patients with a family history of colon cancer than in those without (65% vs 84%; P =.001). Conclusions: Referring provider and endoscopist impressions of colonoscopy indication are both accurate and may be useful data to incorporate into algorithms classifying colonoscopy indication. Copyright © 2017 by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

At risk or not at risk? A meta-analysis of the prognostic accuracy of psychometric interviews for psychosis prediction

PubMed Central

Fusar-Poli, Paolo; Cappucciati, Marco; Rutigliano, Grazia; Schultze-Lutter, Frauke; Bonoldi, Ilaria; Borgwardt, Stefan; Riecher-Rössler, Anita; Addington, Jean; Perkins, Diana; Woods, Scott W; McGlashan, Thomas H; Lee, Jimmy; Klosterkötter, Joachim; Yung, Alison R; McGuire, Philip

2015-01-01

An accurate detection of individuals at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis is a prerequisite for effective preventive interventions. Several psychometric interviews are available, but their prognostic accuracy is unknown. We conducted a prognostic accuracy meta-analysis of psychometric interviews used to examine referrals to high risk services. The index test was an established CHR psychometric instrument used to identify subjects with and without CHR (CHR+ and CHR−). The reference index was psychosis onset over time in both CHR+ and CHR− subjects. Data were analyzed with MIDAS (STATA13). Area under the curve (AUC), summary receiver operating characteristic curves, quality assessment, likelihood ratios, Fagan’s nomogram and probability modified plots were computed. Eleven independent studies were included, with a total of 2,519 help-seeking, predominately adult subjects (CHR+: N=1,359; CHR−: N=1,160) referred to high risk services. The mean follow-up duration was 38 months. The AUC was excellent (0.90; 95% CI: 0.87-0.93), and comparable to other tests in preventive medicine, suggesting clinical utility in subjects referred to high risk services. Meta-regression analyses revealed an effect for exposure to antipsychotics and no effects for type of instrument, age, gender, follow-up time, sample size, quality assessment, proportion of CHR+ subjects in the total sample. Fagan’s nomogram indicated a low positive predictive value (5.74%) in the general non-help-seeking population. Albeit the clear need to further improve prediction of psychosis, these findings support the use of psychometric prognostic interviews for CHR as clinical tools for an indicated prevention in subjects seeking help at high risk services worldwide. PMID:26407788

Macromolecule mapping of the brain using ultrashort-TE acquisition and reference-based metabolite removal.

PubMed

Lam, Fan; Li, Yudu; Clifford, Bryan; Liang, Zhi-Pei

2018-05-01

To develop a practical method for mapping macromolecule distribution in the brain using ultrashort-TE MRSI data. An FID-based chemical shift imaging acquisition without metabolite-nulling pulses was used to acquire ultrashort-TE MRSI data that capture the macromolecule signals with high signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) efficiency. To remove the metabolite signals from the ultrashort-TE data, single voxel spectroscopy data were obtained to determine a set of high-quality metabolite reference spectra. These spectra were then incorporated into a generalized series (GS) model to represent general metabolite spatiospectral distributions. A time-segmented algorithm was developed to back-extrapolate the GS model-based metabolite distribution from truncated FIDs and remove it from the MRSI data. Numerical simulations and in vivo experiments have been performed to evaluate the proposed method. Simulation results demonstrate accurate metabolite signal extrapolation by the proposed method given a high-quality reference. For in vivo experiments, the proposed method is able to produce spatiospectral distributions of macromolecules in the brain with high SNR from data acquired in about 10 minutes. We further demonstrate that the high-dimensional macromolecule spatiospectral distribution resides in a low-dimensional subspace. This finding provides a new opportunity to use subspace models for quantification and accelerated macromolecule mapping. Robustness of the proposed method is also demonstrated using multiple data sets from the same and different subjects. The proposed method is able to obtain macromolecule distributions in the brain from ultrashort-TE acquisitions. It can also be used for acquiring training data to determine a low-dimensional subspace to represent the macromolecule signals for subspace-based MRSI. Magn Reson Med 79:2460-2469, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Quality specifications for articles of botanical origin from the United States Pharmacopeia.

PubMed

Ma, Cuiying; Oketch-Rabah, Hellen; Kim, Nam-Cheol; Monagas, Maria; Bzhelyansky, Anton; Sarma, Nandakumara; Giancaspro, Gabriel

2018-06-01

In order to define appropriate quality of botanical dietary supplements, botanical drugs, and herbal medicines, the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) and the Herbal Medicines Compendium (HMC) contain science-based quality standards that include multiple interrelated tests to provide a full quality characterization for each article in terms of its identity, purity, and content. To provide a comprehensive description of the pharmacopeial tests and requirements for articles of botanical origin in the aforementioned compendia. Selective chromatographic procedures, such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC), are used as Identification tests in pharmacopeial monographs to detect species substitution or other confounders. HPLC quantitative tests are typically used to determine the content of key constituents, i.e., the total or individual amount of plant secondary metabolites that are considered bioactive constituents or analytical marker compounds. Purity specifications are typically set to limit the content of contaminants such as toxic elements, pesticides, and fungal toxins. Additional requirements highlight the importance of naming, definition, use of reference materials, and packaging/storage conditions. Technical requirements for each section of the monographs were illustrated with specific examples. Tests were performed on authentic samples using pharmacopeial reference standards. The chromatographic analytical procedures were validated to provide characteristic profiles for the identity and/or accurate determination of the content of quality markers. The multiple tests included in each monograph complement each other to provide an appropriate pharmacopeial quality characterization for the botanicals used as herbal medicines and dietary supplements. The monographs provide detailed specifications for identity, content of bioactive constituents or quality markers, and limits of contaminants, adulterants, and potentially toxic substances. Additional requirements such as labeling and packaging further contribute to preserve the quality of these products. Compliance with pharmacopeial specifications should be required to ensure the reliability of botanical articles used for health care purposes. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier GmbH.

Quality assurance and quality improvement in U.S. clinical molecular genetic laboratories.

PubMed

Chen, Bin; Richards, C Sue; Wilson, Jean Amos; Lyon, Elaine

2011-04-01

A robust quality-assurance program is essential for laboratories that perform molecular genetic testing to maintain high-quality testing and be able to address challenges associated with performance or delivery of testing services as the use of molecular genetic tests continues to expand in clinical and public health practice. This unit discusses quality-assurance and quality-improvement considerations that are critical for molecular genetic testing performed for heritable diseases and conditions. Specific discussion is provided on applying regulatory standards and best practices in establishing/verifying test performance, ensuring quality of the total testing process, monitoring and maintaining personnel competency, and continuing quality improvement. The unit provides a practical reference for laboratory professionals to use in recognizing and addressing essential quality-assurance issues in human molecular genetic testing. It should also provide useful information for genetics researchers, trainees, and fellows in human genetics training programs, as well as others who are interested in quality assurance and quality improvement for molecular genetic testing. 2011 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Two low coverage bird genomes and a comparison of reference-guided versus de novo genome assemblies.

PubMed

Card, Daren C; Schield, Drew R; Reyes-Velasco, Jacobo; Fujita, Matthew K; Andrew, Audra L; Oyler-McCance, Sara J; Fike, Jennifer A; Tomback, Diana F; Ruggiero, Robert P; Castoe, Todd A

2014-01-01

As a greater number and diversity of high-quality vertebrate reference genomes become available, it is increasingly feasible to use these references to guide new draft assemblies for related species. Reference-guided assembly approaches may substantially increase the contiguity and completeness of a new genome using only low levels of genome coverage that might otherwise be insufficient for de novo genome assembly. We used low-coverage (∼3.5-5.5x) Illumina paired-end sequencing to assemble draft genomes of two bird species (the Gunnison Sage-Grouse, Centrocercus minimus, and the Clark's Nutcracker, Nucifraga columbiana). We used these data to estimate de novo genome assemblies and reference-guided assemblies, and compared the information content and completeness of these assemblies by comparing CEGMA gene set representation, repeat element content, simple sequence repeat content, and GC isochore structure among assemblies. Our results demonstrate that even lower-coverage genome sequencing projects are capable of producing informative and useful genomic resources, particularly through the use of reference-guided assemblies.

Two low coverage bird genomes and a comparison of reference-guided versus de novo genome assemblies

USGS Publications Warehouse

Card, Daren C.; Schield, Drew R.; Reyes-Velasco, Jacobo; Fujita, Matthre K.; Andrew, Audra L.; Oyler-McCance, Sara J.; Fike, Jennifer A.; Tomback, Diana F.; Ruggiero, Robert P.; Castoe, Todd A.

2014-01-01

As a greater number and diversity of high-quality vertebrate reference genomes become available, it is increasingly feasible to use these references to guide new draft assemblies for related species. Reference-guided assembly approaches may substantially increase the contiguity and completeness of a new genome using only low levels of genome coverage that might otherwise be insufficient for de novo genome assembly. We used low-coverage (~3.5–5.5x) Illumina paired-end sequencing to assemble draft genomes of two bird species (the Gunnison Sage-Grouse, Centrocercus minimus, and the Clark's Nutcracker, Nucifraga columbiana). We used these data to estimate de novo genome assemblies and reference-guided assemblies, and compared the information content and completeness of these assemblies by comparing CEGMA gene set representation, repeat element content, simple sequence repeat content, and GC isochore structure among assemblies. Our results demonstrate that even lower-coverage genome sequencing projects are capable of producing informative and useful genomic resources, particularly through the use of reference-guided assemblies.

Assessment of Reference Height Models on Quality of Tandem-X dem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mirzaee, S.; Motagh, M.; Arefi, H.

2015-12-01

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of various Global Digital Elevation Models (GDEMs) in producing high-resolution topography model using TanDEM-X (TDX) Coregistered Single Look Slant Range Complex (CoSSC) images. We selected an image acquired on Jun 12th, 2012 over Doroud region in Lorestan, west of Iran and used 4 external digital elevation models in our processing including DLR/ASI X-SAR DEM (SRTM-X, 30m resolution), ASTER GDEM Version 2 (ASTER-GDEMV2, 30m resolution), NASA SRTM Version 4 (SRTM-V4, 90m resolution), and a local photogrammetry-based DEM prepared by National Cartographic Center (NCC DEM, 10m resolution) of Iran. InSAR procedure for DEM generation was repeated four times with each of the four external height references. The quality of each external DEM was initially assessed using ICESat filtered points. Then, the quality of, each TDX-based DEM was assessed using the more precise external DEM selected in the previous step. Results showed that both local (NCC) DEM and SRTM X-band performed the best (RMSE< 9m) for TDX-DEM generation. In contrast, ASTER GDEM v2 and SRTM C-band v4 showed poorer quality.

Importance of relationship quality in the success of data warehouse systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Almabhouh, Alaaeddin; Saleh, Abdul; Ahmad, Azizah

2011-10-01

Increased organizational dependence on data warehouse (DW) systems drives management attention towards improving DW systems success. However, the successful implementation rate of DW systems is low and many firms did not achieve intended goals. A recent studies show that improves and evaluates DW success is one of the top concerns facing IT/DW executives. Existing information system (IS) research has studied DW success more from information quality and system quality. Researchers argue in this study that we should also take the relationship quality, which has significant research and practical implications in that it connects to IS success directly. As our first attempt, this study, referring to both IS and marketing literature, examines how communication, coordination, cooperation, commitment, and trust can be achieved to some degrees by high quality relationships between DW parties.

Baseline Assessment of 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Reference Material and Proficiency Testing/External Quality Assurance Material Commutability: A Vitamin D Standardization Program Study.

PubMed

Phinney, Karen W; Sempos, Christopher T; Tai, Susan S-C; Camara, Johanna E; Wise, Stephen A; Eckfeldt, John H; Hoofnagle, Andrew N; Carter, Graham D; Jones, Julia; Myers, Gary L; Durazo-Arvizu, Ramon; Miller, W Greg; Bachmann, Lorin M; Young, Ian S; Pettit, Juanita; Caldwell, Grahame; Liu, Andrew; Brooks, Stephen P J; Sarafin, Kurtis; Thamm, Michael; Mensink, Gert B M; Busch, Markus; Rabenberg, Martina; Cashman, Kevin D; Kiely, Mairead; Galvin, Karen; Zhang, Joy Y; Kinsella, Michael; Oh, Kyungwon; Lee, Sun-Wha; Jung, Chae L; Cox, Lorna; Goldberg, Gail; Guberg, Kate; Meadows, Sarah; Prentice, Ann; Tian, Lu; Brannon, Patsy M; Lucas, Robyn M; Crump, Peter M; Cavalier, Etienne; Merkel, Joyce; Betz, Joseph M

2017-09-01

The Vitamin D Standardization Program (VDSP) coordinated a study in 2012 to assess the commutability of reference materials and proficiency testing/external quality assurance materials for total 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] in human serum, the primary indicator of vitamin D status. A set of 50 single-donor serum samples as well as 17 reference and proficiency testing/external quality assessment materials were analyzed by participating laboratories that used either immunoassay or LC-MS methods for total 25(OH)D. The commutability test materials included National Institute of Standards and Technology Standard Reference Material 972a Vitamin D Metabolites in Human Serum as well as materials from the College of American Pathologists and the Vitamin D External Quality Assessment Scheme. Study protocols and data analysis procedures were in accordance with Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines. The majority of the test materials were found to be commutable with the methods used in this commutability study. These results provide guidance for laboratories needing to choose appropriate reference materials and select proficiency or external quality assessment programs and will serve as a foundation for additional VDSP studies.

The zebrafish reference genome sequence and its relationship to the human genome.

PubMed

Howe, Kerstin; Clark, Matthew D; Torroja, Carlos F; Torrance, James; Berthelot, Camille; Muffato, Matthieu; Collins, John E; Humphray, Sean; McLaren, Karen; Matthews, Lucy; McLaren, Stuart; Sealy, Ian; Caccamo, Mario; Churcher, Carol; Scott, Carol; Barrett, Jeffrey C; Koch, Romke; Rauch, Gerd-Jörg; White, Simon; Chow, William; Kilian, Britt; Quintais, Leonor T; Guerra-Assunção, José A; Zhou, Yi; Gu, Yong; Yen, Jennifer; Vogel, Jan-Hinnerk; Eyre, Tina; Redmond, Seth; Banerjee, Ruby; Chi, Jianxiang; Fu, Beiyuan; Langley, Elizabeth; Maguire, Sean F; Laird, Gavin K; Lloyd, David; Kenyon, Emma; Donaldson, Sarah; Sehra, Harminder; Almeida-King, Jeff; Loveland, Jane; Trevanion, Stephen; Jones, Matt; Quail, Mike; Willey, Dave; Hunt, Adrienne; Burton, John; Sims, Sarah; McLay, Kirsten; Plumb, Bob; Davis, Joy; Clee, Chris; Oliver, Karen; Clark, Richard; Riddle, Clare; Elliot, David; Eliott, David; Threadgold, Glen; Harden, Glenn; Ware, Darren; Begum, Sharmin; Mortimore, Beverley; Mortimer, Beverly; Kerry, Giselle; Heath, Paul; Phillimore, Benjamin; Tracey, Alan; Corby, Nicole; Dunn, Matthew; Johnson, Christopher; Wood, Jonathan; Clark, Susan; Pelan, Sarah; Griffiths, Guy; Smith, Michelle; Glithero, Rebecca; Howden, Philip; Barker, Nicholas; Lloyd, Christine; Stevens, Christopher; Harley, Joanna; Holt, Karen; Panagiotidis, Georgios; Lovell, Jamieson; Beasley, Helen; Henderson, Carl; Gordon, Daria; Auger, Katherine; Wright, Deborah; Collins, Joanna; Raisen, Claire; Dyer, Lauren; Leung, Kenric; Robertson, Lauren; Ambridge, Kirsty; Leongamornlert, Daniel; McGuire, Sarah; Gilderthorp, Ruth; Griffiths, Coline; Manthravadi, Deepa; Nichol, Sarah; Barker, Gary; Whitehead, Siobhan; Kay, Michael; Brown, Jacqueline; Murnane, Clare; Gray, Emma; Humphries, Matthew; Sycamore, Neil; Barker, Darren; Saunders, David; Wallis, Justene; Babbage, Anne; Hammond, Sian; Mashreghi-Mohammadi, Maryam; Barr, Lucy; Martin, Sancha; Wray, Paul; Ellington, Andrew; Matthews, Nicholas; Ellwood, Matthew; Woodmansey, Rebecca; Clark, Graham; Cooper, James D; Cooper, James; Tromans, Anthony; Grafham, Darren; Skuce, Carl; Pandian, Richard; Andrews, Robert; Harrison, Elliot; Kimberley, Andrew; Garnett, Jane; Fosker, Nigel; Hall, Rebekah; Garner, Patrick; Kelly, Daniel; Bird, Christine; Palmer, Sophie; Gehring, Ines; Berger, Andrea; Dooley, Christopher M; Ersan-Ürün, Zübeyde; Eser, Cigdem; Geiger, Horst; Geisler, Maria; Karotki, Lena; Kirn, Anette; Konantz, Judith; Konantz, Martina; Oberländer, Martina; Rudolph-Geiger, Silke; Teucke, Mathias; Lanz, Christa; Raddatz, Günter; Osoegawa, Kazutoyo; Zhu, Baoli; Rapp, Amanda; Widaa, Sara; Langford, Cordelia; Yang, Fengtang; Schuster, Stephan C; Carter, Nigel P; Harrow, Jennifer; Ning, Zemin; Herrero, Javier; Searle, Steve M J; Enright, Anton; Geisler, Robert; Plasterk, Ronald H A; Lee, Charles; Westerfield, Monte; de Jong, Pieter J; Zon, Leonard I; Postlethwait, John H; Nüsslein-Volhard, Christiane; Hubbard, Tim J P; Roest Crollius, Hugues; Rogers, Jane; Stemple, Derek L

2013-04-25

Zebrafish have become a popular organism for the study of vertebrate gene function. The virtually transparent embryos of this species, and the ability to accelerate genetic studies by gene knockdown or overexpression, have led to the widespread use of zebrafish in the detailed investigation of vertebrate gene function and increasingly, the study of human genetic disease. However, for effective modelling of human genetic disease it is important to understand the extent to which zebrafish genes and gene structures are related to orthologous human genes. To examine this, we generated a high-quality sequence assembly of the zebrafish genome, made up of an overlapping set of completely sequenced large-insert clones that were ordered and oriented using a high-resolution high-density meiotic map. Detailed automatic and manual annotation provides evidence of more than 26,000 protein-coding genes, the largest gene set of any vertebrate so far sequenced. Comparison to the human reference genome shows that approximately 70% of human genes have at least one obvious zebrafish orthologue. In addition, the high quality of this genome assembly provides a clearer understanding of key genomic features such as a unique repeat content, a scarcity of pseudogenes, an enrichment of zebrafish-specific genes on chromosome 4 and chromosomal regions that influence sex determination.

The zebrafish reference genome sequence and its relationship to the human genome

PubMed Central

Howe, Kerstin; Clark, Matthew D.; Torroja, Carlos F.; Torrance, James; Berthelot, Camille; Muffato, Matthieu; Collins, John E.; Humphray, Sean; McLaren, Karen; Matthews, Lucy; McLaren, Stuart; Sealy, Ian; Caccamo, Mario; Churcher, Carol; Scott, Carol; Barrett, Jeffrey C.; Koch, Romke; Rauch, Gerd-Jörg; White, Simon; Chow, William; Kilian, Britt; Quintais, Leonor T.; Guerra-Assunção, José A.; Zhou, Yi; Gu, Yong; Yen, Jennifer; Vogel, Jan-Hinnerk; Eyre, Tina; Redmond, Seth; Banerjee, Ruby; Chi, Jianxiang; Fu, Beiyuan; Langley, Elizabeth; Maguire, Sean F.; Laird, Gavin K.; Lloyd, David; Kenyon, Emma; Donaldson, Sarah; Sehra, Harminder; Almeida-King, Jeff; Loveland, Jane; Trevanion, Stephen; Jones, Matt; Quail, Mike; Willey, Dave; Hunt, Adrienne; Burton, John; Sims, Sarah; McLay, Kirsten; Plumb, Bob; Davis, Joy; Clee, Chris; Oliver, Karen; Clark, Richard; Riddle, Clare; Eliott, David; Threadgold, Glen; Harden, Glenn; Ware, Darren; Mortimer, Beverly; Kerry, Giselle; Heath, Paul; Phillimore, Benjamin; Tracey, Alan; Corby, Nicole; Dunn, Matthew; Johnson, Christopher; Wood, Jonathan; Clark, Susan; Pelan, Sarah; Griffiths, Guy; Smith, Michelle; Glithero, Rebecca; Howden, Philip; Barker, Nicholas; Stevens, Christopher; Harley, Joanna; Holt, Karen; Panagiotidis, Georgios; Lovell, Jamieson; Beasley, Helen; Henderson, Carl; Gordon, Daria; Auger, Katherine; Wright, Deborah; Collins, Joanna; Raisen, Claire; Dyer, Lauren; Leung, Kenric; Robertson, Lauren; Ambridge, Kirsty; Leongamornlert, Daniel; McGuire, Sarah; Gilderthorp, Ruth; Griffiths, Coline; Manthravadi, Deepa; Nichol, Sarah; Barker, Gary; Whitehead, Siobhan; Kay, Michael; Brown, Jacqueline; Murnane, Clare; Gray, Emma; Humphries, Matthew; Sycamore, Neil; Barker, Darren; Saunders, David; Wallis, Justene; Babbage, Anne; Hammond, Sian; Mashreghi-Mohammadi, Maryam; Barr, Lucy; Martin, Sancha; Wray, Paul; Ellington, Andrew; Matthews, Nicholas; Ellwood, Matthew; Woodmansey, Rebecca; Clark, Graham; Cooper, James; Tromans, Anthony; Grafham, Darren; Skuce, Carl; Pandian, Richard; Andrews, Robert; Harrison, Elliot; Kimberley, Andrew; Garnett, Jane; Fosker, Nigel; Hall, Rebekah; Garner, Patrick; Kelly, Daniel; Bird, Christine; Palmer, Sophie; Gehring, Ines; Berger, Andrea; Dooley, Christopher M.; Ersan-Ürün, Zübeyde; Eser, Cigdem; Geiger, Horst; Geisler, Maria; Karotki, Lena; Kirn, Anette; Konantz, Judith; Konantz, Martina; Oberländer, Martina; Rudolph-Geiger, Silke; Teucke, Mathias; Osoegawa, Kazutoyo; Zhu, Baoli; Rapp, Amanda; Widaa, Sara; Langford, Cordelia; Yang, Fengtang; Carter, Nigel P.; Harrow, Jennifer; Ning, Zemin; Herrero, Javier; Searle, Steve M. J.; Enright, Anton; Geisler, Robert; Plasterk, Ronald H. A.; Lee, Charles; Westerfield, Monte; de Jong, Pieter J.; Zon, Leonard I.; Postlethwait, John H.; Nüsslein-Volhard, Christiane; Hubbard, Tim J. P.; Crollius, Hugues Roest; Rogers, Jane; Stemple, Derek L.

2013-01-01

Zebrafish have become a popular organism for the study of vertebrate gene function1,2. The virtually transparent embryos of this species, and the ability to accelerate genetic studies by gene knockdown or overexpression, have led to the widespread use of zebrafish in the detailed investigation of vertebrate gene function and increasingly, the study of human genetic disease3–5. However, for effective modelling of human genetic disease it is important to understand the extent to which zebrafish genes and gene structures are related to orthologous human genes. To examine this, we generated a high-quality sequence assembly of the zebrafish genome, made up of an overlapping set of completely sequenced large-insert clones that were ordered and oriented using a high-resolution high-density meiotic map. Detailed automatic and manual annotation provides evidence of more than 26,000 protein-coding genes6, the largest gene set of any vertebrate so far sequenced. Comparison to the human reference genome shows that approximately 70% of human genes have at least one obvious zebrafish orthologue. In addition, the high quality of this genome assembly provides a clearer understanding of key genomic features such as a unique repeat content, a scarcity of pseudogenes, an enrichment of zebrafish-specific genes on chromosome 4 and chromosomal regions that influence sex determination. PMID:23594743

The value of new genome references.

PubMed

Worley, Kim C; Richards, Stephen; Rogers, Jeffrey

2017-09-15

Genomic information has become a ubiquitous and almost essential aspect of biological research. Over the last 10-15 years, the cost of generating sequence data from DNA or RNA samples has dramatically declined and our ability to interpret those data increased just as remarkably. Although it is still possible for biologists to conduct interesting and valuable research on species for which genomic data are not available, the impact of having access to a high quality whole genome reference assembly for a given species is nothing short of transformational. Research on a species for which we have no DNA or RNA sequence data is restricted in fundamental ways. In contrast, even access to an initial draft quality genome (see below for definitions) opens a wide range of opportunities that are simply not available without that reference genome assembly. Although a complete discussion of the impact of genome sequencing and assembly is beyond the scope of this short paper, the goal of this review is to summarize the most common and highest impact contributions that whole genome sequencing and assembly has had on comparative and evolutionary biology. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

A Systematic Review Evaluating the Effect of Vitamin B6 on Semen Quality.

PubMed

Banihani, Saleem Ali

2017-12-30

This review systematically discusses and summarizes the effect of vitamin B6 on semen quality. To achieve this contribution, we searched the PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases for English language papers from 1984 through 2017 using the key words "sperm" versus "Vitamin B6", "pyridoxine", and "pyridoxal". Also, the references from selected published papers were included, only if relevant. To date, as revealed by rodent studies, high doses of vitamin B6 impair semen quality and sperm parameters. While in humans, it is suggested, but not yet directly approved, that seminal vitamin B6 levels may alter sperm quality (i.e., sperm quantity and quality), and that vitamin B6 deficiency may trigger the chemical toxicity to sperm (i.e., hyperhomocysteinemia, oxidative injury). The adverse effect of vitamin B6, when used at high doses, has been revealed in experimental animals, but not yet directly approved in humans. Consequently, in vitro studies on human ejaculate as well as clinical studies that investigate the direct effect of vitamin B6 on semen quality seem very significant.

Reference Guide for Indoor Air Quality in Schools

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

IAQ Tools for Schools Action Kit - IAQ Reference Guide. This guidance is designed to present practical and often low-cost actions you can take to identify and address existing or potential air quality problems.

40 CFR Appendix A to Subpart C of... - References

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

...—References (1) American National Standard Quality Systems for Environmental Data and Technology Programs—Requirements with guidance for use, ANSI/ASQC E4-2004. Available from American Society for Quality, P.O. Box...

40 CFR Appendix A to Subpart C of... - References

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

...—References (1) American National Standard Quality Systems for Environmental Data and Technology Programs—Requirements with guidance for use, ANSI/ASQC E4-2004. Available from American Society for Quality, P.O. Box...

POTENTIAL RADIOACTIVE POLLUTANTS RESULTING FROM EXPANDED ENERGY PROGRAMS

EPA Science Inventory

An effective environmental monitoring program must have a quality assurance component to assure the production of valid data. Quality assurance has many components: calibration standards, standard reference materials, standard reference methods, interlaboratory comparison studies...

[Extraction of management information from the national quality assurance program].

PubMed

Stausberg, Jürgen; Bartels, Claus; Bobrowski, Christoph

2007-07-15

Starting with clinically motivated projects, the national quality assurance program has established a legislative obligatory framework. Annual feedback of results is an important means of quality control. The annual reports cover quality-related information with high granularity. A synopsis for corporate management is missing, however. Therefore, the results of the University Clinics in Greifswald, Germany, have been analyzed and aggregated to support hospital management. Strengths were identified by the ranking of results within the state for each quality indicator, weaknesses by the comparison with national reference values. The assessment was aggregated per clinical discipline and per category (indication, process, and outcome). A composition of quality indicators was claimed multiple times. A coherent concept is still missing. The method presented establishes a plausible summary of strengths and weaknesses of a hospital from the point of view of the national quality assurance program. Nevertheless, further adaptation of the program is needed to better assist corporate management.

Quality Managment Program (QMP) report: A review of quality management programs developed in response to Title 10, Section 35.32 of the Code of Federal Regulations

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

Witte, M.C.

1994-10-01

In July of 1991, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission published a Final Rule in the Federal Register amending regulations governing medical therapeutic administrations of byproduct material and certain uses of radioactive sodium iodide. These amendments required implementation of a Quality Management Program (QMP) to provide high confidence that the byproduct material -- or radiation from byproduct material -- will be administered as directed by an authorized user physician. Herein, this rule is referred to as the QM rule. The Final Rule was published after two proposed rules had been published in the Federal Register.

Teledermatology: quality assessment by user satisfaction and clinical efficiency.

PubMed

Klaz, Itay; Wohl, Yonit; Nathansohn, Nir; Yerushalmi, Nir; Sharvit, Sharon; Kochba, Ilan; Brenner, Sarah

2005-08-01

The Israel Defense Forces implemented a pilot teledermatology service in primary clinics. To assess user satisfaction and clinical short-term effectiveness of a computerized store and forward teledermatology service in urban and rural units. A multi-center prospective uncontrolled cohort pilot trial was conducted for a period of 6 months. Primary care physicians referred patients to a board-certified dermatologist using text email accompanied by digital photographs. Diagnosis, therapy and management were sent back to the referring PCP. Patients were asked to evaluate the level of the CSAFTD service, effect of the service on accessibility to dermatologists, respect for privacy, availability of drugs, health improvement and overall satisfaction. PCPs assessed the quality of the teledermatology consultations they received, the contribution to their knowledge, and their overall satisfaction. Tele-diagnosis alone was possible for 95% (n=413) of 435 CSAFTD referrals; 22% (n=95) of referrals also required face-to-face consultation, Satisfaction with CSAFTD was high among patients in both rural and urban clinics, with significantly higher scores in rural units. Rural patients rated the level of service, accessibility and overall satisfaction higher than did urban patients. PCPs were satisfied with the quality of the service and its contribution to their knowledge. Rural physicians rated level of service and overall satisfaction higher than did urban physicians. Tele-referrals were completed more efficiently than referral for face-to-face appointments. CSAFTD provided efficient, high quality medical service to rural and urban military clinics in the IDF.

A system to measure the data quality of spectral remote-sensing reflectance of aquatic environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wei, Jianwei; Lee, Zhongping; Shang, Shaoling

2016-11-01

Spectral remote-sensing reflectance (Rrs, sr-1) is the key for ocean color retrieval of water bio-optical properties. Since Rrs from in situ and satellite systems are subject to errors or artifacts, assessment of the quality of Rrs data is critical. From a large collection of high quality in situ hyperspectral Rrs data sets, we developed a novel quality assurance (QA) system that can be used to objectively evaluate the quality of an individual Rrs spectrum. This QA scheme consists of a unique Rrs spectral reference and a score metric. The reference system includes Rrs spectra of 23 optical water types ranging from purple blue to yellow waters, with an upper and a lower bound defined for each water type. The scoring system is to compare any target Rrs spectrum with the reference and a score between 0 and 1 will be assigned to the target spectrum, with 1 for perfect Rrs spectrum and 0 for unusable Rrs spectrum. The effectiveness of this QA system is evaluated with both synthetic and in situ Rrs spectra and it is found to be robust. Further testing is performed with the NOMAD data set as well as with satellite Rrs over coastal and oceanic waters, where questionable or likely erroneous Rrs spectra are shown to be well identifiable with this QA system. Our results suggest that applications of this QA system to in situ data sets can improve the development and validation of bio-optical algorithms and its application to ocean color satellite data can improve the short-term and long-term products by objectively excluding questionable Rrs data.

A global reference database from very high resolution commercial satellite data and methodology for application to Landsat derived 30 m continuous field tree cover data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pengra, Bruce; Long, Jordan; Dahal, Devendra; Stehman, Stephen V.; Loveland, Thomas R.

2015-01-01

The methodology for selection, creation, and application of a global remote sensing validation dataset using high resolution commercial satellite data is presented. High resolution data are obtained for a stratified random sample of 500 primary sampling units (5 km  ×  5 km sample blocks), where the stratification based on Köppen climate classes is used to distribute the sample globally among biomes. The high resolution data are classified to categorical land cover maps using an analyst mediated classification workflow. Our initial application of these data is to evaluate a global 30 m Landsat-derived, continuous field tree cover product. For this application, the categorical reference classification produced at 2 m resolution is converted to percent tree cover per 30 m pixel (secondary sampling unit)for comparison to Landsat-derived estimates of tree cover. We provide example results (based on a subsample of 25 sample blocks in South America) illustrating basic analyses of agreement that can be produced from these reference data. Commercial high resolution data availability and data quality are shown to provide a viable means of validating continuous field tree cover. When completed, the reference classifications for the full sample of 500 blocks will be released for public use.

Image quality and absorbed dose comparison of single- and dual-source cone-beam computed tomography.

PubMed

Miura, Hideharu; Ozawa, Shuichi; Okazue, Toshiya; Kawakubo, Atsushi; Yamada, Kiyoshi; Nagata, Yasushi

2018-05-01

Dual-source cone-beam computed tomography (DCBCT) is currently available in the Vero4DRT image-guided radiotherapy system. We evaluated the image quality and absorbed dose for DCBCT and compared the values with those for single-source CBCT (SCBCT). Image uniformity, Hounsfield unit (HU) linearity, image contrast, and spatial resolution were evaluated using a Catphan phantom. The rotation angle for acquiring SCBCT and DCBCT images is 215° and 115°, respectively. The image uniformity was calculated using measurements obtained at the center and four peripheral positions. The HUs of seven materials inserted into the phantom were measured to evaluate HU linearity and image contrast. The Catphan phantom was scanned with a conventional CT scanner to measure the reference HU for each material. The spatial resolution was calculated using high-resolution pattern modules. Image quality was analyzed using ImageJ software ver. 1.49. The absorbed dose was measured using a 0.6-cm 3 ionization chamber with a 16-cm-diameter cylindrical phantom, at the center and four peripheral positions of the phantom, and calculated using weighted cone-beam CT dose index (CBCTDI w ). Compared with that of SCBCT, the image uniformity of DCBCT was slightly reduced. A strong linear correlation existed between the measured HU for DCBCT and the reference HU, although the linear regression slope was different from that of the reference HU. DCBCT had poorer image contrast than did SCBCT, particularly with a high-contrast material. There was no significant difference between the spatial resolutions of SCBCT and DCBCT. The absorbed dose for DCBCT was higher than that for SCBCT, because in DCBCT, the two x-ray projections overlap between 45° and 70°. We found that the image quality was poorer and the absorbed dose was higher for DCBCT than for SCBCT in the Vero4DRT. © 2018 The Authors. Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States regarding the right of all citizens of the United States to a public education of equal high quality.

THOMAS, 111th Congress

Rep. Jackson, Jesse L., Jr. [D-IL-2

2009-03-03

House - 03/16/2009 Referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. (All Actions) Tracker: This bill has the status IntroducedHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

The sheep genome illuminates biology of the rumen and lipid metabolism

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Sheep (Ovis aries) are a major source of meat, milk, and fiber in the form of wool and represent a distinct class of animals that have a specialized digestive organ, the rumen, that carries out the initial digestion of plant material. We have developed and analyzed a high-quality reference sheep gen...

Genomic structural differences between cattle and river buffalo identified through a combination and genomic and transcriptomic analysis

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis L.) is an important livestock species worldwide. Like many other livestock species, water buffalo lacks high quality and continuous reference genome assembly required for fine-scale comparative genomics studies. In this work, we present a dataset, which characterizes g...

Subjective Well-Being: Keeping up with the Perception of the Joneses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guven, Cahit; Sorensen, Bent E.

2012-01-01

Using data from the US General Social Survey 1972-2004, we study the role of perceptions and status in self-reported happiness. Reference group income negatively relates to own happiness and high perceptions about own relative income, quality of dwelling, and social class relate positively and very significantly to happiness. Perceptions about…

Chromosome-scale scaffolding of the black raspberry (Rubus occidentalis L.) genome based on chromatin interaction data

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Black raspberry (Rubus occidentalis L.) is a niche fruit crop valued for its flavour and potential health benefits. The improvement of fruit and cane characteristics via molecular breeding technologies has been hindered by the lack of a high-quality reference genome. The recently released draft geno...

Physiological Regulation of Stress in Referred Adolescents: The Role of the Parent-Adolescent Relationship

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Willemen, Agnes M.; Schuengel, Carlo; Koot, Hans M.

2009-01-01

Background: Psychopathology in youth appears to be linked to deficits in regulating affective responses to stressful situations. In children, high-quality parental support facilitates affect regulation. However, in adolescence, the role of parent-child interaction in the regulation of affect is unclear. This study examined physiological reactivity…

Does Sex of Dyad Members Really Matter? A Review of Leader-Member Exchange

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goertzen, Brent J.; Fritz, Susan M.

2004-01-01

Leader-member exchange (LMX) generally refers to the leadership process centered on the interactions between leaders and direct reports. The basic premise of high quality leader-member exchange relationships holds that direct reports gain tremendous benefits through these partnerships. LMX is perhaps the most commonly researched theory of…

Whole genome sequencing of a begomovirus-resistant tomato inbred reveals introgressions from wild Solanum species

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The low cost of next generation sequencing (NGS) technology and the availability of a large number of well annotated plant genomes has made sequencing technology useful to breeding programs. With the published high quality tomato reference genome of the processing cultivar Heinz 1706, we can now uti...

Contribution to and Use of Online Knowledge Repositories: The Role of Governance Mechanisms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kayhan, Varol O.

2010-01-01

Drawing upon the concept of governance, this dissertation refers to the two most commonly employed mechanisms that ensure high quality knowledge in electronic repositories as expert-governance and community-governance. In three related but distinct essays, the dissertation examines the governance concept, and investigates contributing knowledge to…

Background-Modeling-Based Adaptive Prediction for Surveillance Video Coding.

PubMed

Zhang, Xianguo; Huang, Tiejun; Tian, Yonghong; Gao, Wen

2014-02-01

The exponential growth of surveillance videos presents an unprecedented challenge for high-efficiency surveillance video coding technology. Compared with the existing coding standards that were basically developed for generic videos, surveillance video coding should be designed to make the best use of the special characteristics of surveillance videos (e.g., relative static background). To do so, this paper first conducts two analyses on how to improve the background and foreground prediction efficiencies in surveillance video coding. Following the analysis results, we propose a background-modeling-based adaptive prediction (BMAP) method. In this method, all blocks to be encoded are firstly classified into three categories. Then, according to the category of each block, two novel inter predictions are selectively utilized, namely, the background reference prediction (BRP) that uses the background modeled from the original input frames as the long-term reference and the background difference prediction (BDP) that predicts the current data in the background difference domain. For background blocks, the BRP can effectively improve the prediction efficiency using the higher quality background as the reference; whereas for foreground-background-hybrid blocks, the BDP can provide a better reference after subtracting its background pixels. Experimental results show that the BMAP can achieve at least twice the compression ratio on surveillance videos as AVC (MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding) high profile, yet with a slightly additional encoding complexity. Moreover, for the foreground coding performance, which is crucial to the subjective quality of moving objects in surveillance videos, BMAP also obtains remarkable gains over several state-of-the-art methods.

Optimized algorithm for the spatial nonuniformity correction of an imaging system based on a charge-coupled device color camera.

PubMed

de Lasarte, Marta; Pujol, Jaume; Arjona, Montserrat; Vilaseca, Meritxell

2007-01-10

We present an optimized linear algorithm for the spatial nonuniformity correction of a CCD color camera's imaging system and the experimental methodology developed for its implementation. We assess the influence of the algorithm's variables on the quality of the correction, that is, the dark image, the base correction image, and the reference level, and the range of application of the correction using a uniform radiance field provided by an integrator cube. The best spatial nonuniformity correction is achieved by having a nonzero dark image, by using an image with a mean digital level placed in the linear response range of the camera as the base correction image and taking the mean digital level of the image as the reference digital level. The response of the CCD color camera's imaging system to the uniform radiance field shows a high level of spatial uniformity after the optimized algorithm has been applied, which also allows us to achieve a high-quality spatial nonuniformity correction of captured images under different exposure conditions.

JCPDS-ICDD Research Associateship (Cooperative Program with NBS/NIST)

PubMed Central

Wong-Ng, W.; McMurdie, H. F.; Hubbard, C. R.; Mighell, A. D.

2001-01-01

The Research Associateship program of the Joint Committee on Powder Diffraction-International Centre for Diffraction Data (JCPDS-ICDD, now known as the ICDD) at NBS/NIST was a long standing (over 35 years) successful industry-government cooperation. The main mission of the Associateship was to publish high quality x-ray reference patterns to be included in the Powder Diffraction File (PDF). The PDF is a continuing compilation of patterns gathered from many sources, compiled and published by the ICDD. As a result of this collaboration, more than 1500 high quality powder diffraction patterns, which have had a significant impact on the scientific community, were reported. In addition, various research collaborations with NBS/NIST also led to the development of several standard reference materials (SRMs) for instrument calibration and quantitative analyses, and computer software for data collection, calibration, reduction, for the editorial process of powder pattern publication, analysis of powder data, and for quantitative analyses. This article summarizes information concerning the JCPDS-ICDD organization, the Powder Diffraction File (PDF), history and accomplishments of the JCPDS-ICDD Research Associateship. PMID:27500061

Water quality in three creeks in the backcountry of Grand Teton National Park, USA

USGS Publications Warehouse

Farag, A.M.; Goldstein, J.N.; Woodward, D.F.

2001-01-01

This study was conducted in Grand Teton National Park during the summers of 1996 and 1997 to investigate the water quality in two high human use areas: Garnet Canyon and lower Cascade Canyon. To evaluate the water quality in these creeks, fecal coliform, Giardia lamblia, coccidia, and microparticulates were measured in water samples. No evidence of fecal coliform, Giardia lamblia, or coccidia, was found in Garnet Creek. The water quality and general water chemistry of Garnet Creek was similar to the reference site. No Giardia lamblia or coccidia were found in Cascade Creek, but fecal coliforms were present. The isolated colonies of Escherichia coli from Cascade Creek matched the ribosome patterns of avian, deer, canine, elk, rodent, and human coliforms.

Issues in women's participation in a phase III community HIV vaccine trial in Thailand.

PubMed

Kaewkungwal, Jaranit; Pitisuttithum, Punnee; Rerks-Ngarm, Supachai; Nitayaphan, Sorachai; Khamboonruang, Chirasak; Kunasol, Prayura; Suntharasamai, Pravan; Pungpak, Swangjai; Vanijanonta, Sirivan; Bussaratid, Valai; Maek-A-Nantawat, Wirach; Dhitavat, Jittima; Thongcharoen, Prasert; Pawarana, Rungrawee; Sabmee, Yupa; Benenson, Mike W; Morgan, Patricia; O'Connell, Robert J; Kim, Jerome

2013-11-01

To assess qualities and outcomes of women participating in a large, community-based HIV vaccine trial, the present study was conducted among female participants of the RV 144 prime-boost trial in Thailand from 2003 to 2009. Qualities of participation refer to complete vaccination, retention, and status change. Outcomes of participation refer to incident rate, adverse event, and participation impact event. A total of 6,334 (38.6%) women participated in the trial, of whom about 50% were classified as low risk and 11% as high risk. About 85% of participants completed four vaccinations and 76% were included in the per-protocol analysis of the on-time vaccination schedule. More women (88%) completed 42 months follow-up compared with men (85%). Women aged 21 and above had more adverse events compared to younger age groups. More women (5%) compared with men (3%) reported participation impact events (PIEs). High-risk women had more PIEs and a higher infection rate compared to the low-risk group. Complete vaccination and retention on last follow-up were more common in married women aged above 21, and being a housewife. Female volunteers showed the same qualities and outcomes of participation as males in the HIV vaccine trial. There was no statistically significant difference in vaccine efficacy between men and women, especially among the high-risk and married women. The study highlighted the important behavioral, social, and cultural issues that could be considered for future HIV vaccine trial designs.

Key Features of the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) System Architecture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pela, F.; Tsugawa, R. K.; Andreoli, L. J.

2004-12-01

The National Polar-Orbiting NPOESS, a tri-agency program, supports missions of the Department of Commerce (DOC)/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Department of Defense (DoD), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NPOESS provides a critical, timely, reliable, and high quality space-based sensing capability to acquire and process global and regional environmental imagery and specialized meteorological, climatic, terrestrial, oceanographic, solar-geophysical, and other data products. These products are delivered to national weather and environmental facilities operated by NOAA and DoD, to NASA, and to environmental remote sensing science community users to support civil and military functions. These data are also provided in real time to field terminals deployed worldwide. The NPOESS architecture is built on a foundation of affordability, and the three pillars of data quality, latency, availability. Affordability refers to an over-arching awareness of cost to provide the best value to the government for implementing a converged system; some dimensions of cost include the cost for system development and implementation, the balance between development costs and operation and maintenance costs, and the fiscal year expenditure plans that meet schedule commitments. Data quality is characterized in terms of the attributes associated with Environmental Data Records (EDRs), and the products that are delivered to the four US Operational Centrals and field users. These EDRs are generated by the system using raw data from the space-borne sensors and spacecraft, in conjunction with science algorithms and calibration factors. Data latency refers to the time period between the detection of energy by a space-borne sensor to the delivery of a corresponding EDR. The system was designed to minimize data latency, and hence provide users with timely data. Availability refers to both data availability and system operational availability. Data availability is ensured by the way data is stored and routed throughout the system, on the spacecraft and on the ground, so that it can be retrieved and resent if the first transmittal is not successful. Operational availability is a measure of how well around-the-clock operations are supported, through the careful deployment of hot spares and fault tolerance of the system. Both types of availability are very high for the NPOESS architecture. Overall, the NPOESS architecture successfully delivers to the government a best-value solution featuring high data quality, low data latency, and high data/system availability.

Noise Estimation and Quality Assessment of Gaussian Noise Corrupted Images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kamble, V. M.; Bhurchandi, K.

2018-03-01

Evaluating the exact quantity of noise present in an image and quality of an image in the absence of reference image is a challenging task. We propose a near perfect noise estimation method and a no reference image quality assessment method for images corrupted by Gaussian noise. The proposed methods obtain initial estimate of noise standard deviation present in an image using the median of wavelet transform coefficients and then obtains a near to exact estimate using curve fitting. The proposed noise estimation method provides the estimate of noise within average error of +/-4%. For quality assessment, this noise estimate is mapped to fit the Differential Mean Opinion Score (DMOS) using a nonlinear function. The proposed methods require minimum training and yields the noise estimate and image quality score. Images from Laboratory for image and Video Processing (LIVE) database and Computational Perception and Image Quality (CSIQ) database are used for validation of the proposed quality assessment method. Experimental results show that the performance of proposed quality assessment method is at par with the existing no reference image quality assessment metric for Gaussian noise corrupted images.

Performance evaluation of no-reference image quality metrics for face biometric images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Xinwei; Pedersen, Marius; Charrier, Christophe; Bours, Patrick

2018-03-01

The accuracy of face recognition systems is significantly affected by the quality of face sample images. The recent established standardization proposed several important aspects for the assessment of face sample quality. There are many existing no-reference image quality metrics (IQMs) that are able to assess natural image quality by taking into account similar image-based quality attributes as introduced in the standardization. However, whether such metrics can assess face sample quality is rarely considered. We evaluate the performance of 13 selected no-reference IQMs on face biometrics. The experimental results show that several of them can assess face sample quality according to the system performance. We also analyze the strengths and weaknesses of different IQMs as well as why some of them failed to assess face sample quality. Retraining an original IQM by using face database can improve the performance of such a metric. In addition, the contribution of this paper can be used for the evaluation of IQMs on other biometric modalities; furthermore, it can be used for the development of multimodality biometric IQMs.

Quality of care in integrated community case management services in Bugoye, Uganda: a retrospective observational study.

PubMed

Miller, James S; English, Lacey; Matte, Michael; Mbusa, Rapheal; Ntaro, Moses; Bwambale, Shem; Kenney, Jessica; Siedner, Mark J; Reyes, Raquel; Lee, Patrick T; Mulogo, Edgar; Stone, Geren S

2018-02-27

Village health workers (VHWs) in five villages in Bugoye subcounty (Kasese District, Uganda) provide integrated community case management (iCCM) services, in which VHWs evaluate and treat malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhoea in children under 5 years of age. VHWs use a "Sick Child Job Aid" that guides them through the evaluation and treatment of these illnesses. A retrospective observational study was conducted to measure the quality of iCCM care provided by 23 VHWs in 5 villages in Bugoye subcounty over a 2-year period. Patient characteristics and clinical services were summarized using existing aggregate programme data. Lot quality assurance sampling of individual patient records was used to estimate adherence to the iCCM algorithm, VHW-level quality (based on adherence to the iCCM protocol), and change over time in quality of care (using generalized estimating equations regression modelling). For each of 23 VHWs, 25 patient visits were randomly selected from a 2-year period after iCCM care initiation. In these visits, 97% (150) of patients with diarrhoea were treated with oral rehydration and zinc, 95% (216) of patients with pneumonia were treated with amoxicillin, and 94% (240) of patients with malaria were treated with artemisinin-based combination therapy or rectal artesunate. However, only 44% (44) of patients with a negative rapid test for malaria were appropriately referred to a health facility. Overall, 75% (434) of patients received all the correct evaluation and management steps. Only 9 (39%) of the 23 VHWs met the pre-determined LQAS threshold for high-quality care over the 2-year observation period. Quality of care increased significantly in the first 6 months after initiation of iCCM services (p = 0.003), and then plateaued during months 7-24. Quality of care was high for uncomplicated malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea. Overall quality of care was lower, in part because VHWs often did not follow the guidelines to refer patients with fever who tested negative for malaria. Quality of care appears to improve in the initial months after iCCM implementation, as VHWs gain initial experience in iCCM care.

Nutritional status and quality of life of the gastric cancer patients in Changle County of China.

PubMed

Tian, Jun; Chen, Jian-Shun

2005-03-21

To analyze the relation between nutrition and quality of life in the stomach cancer patients, evaluate the intake of daily nutrition of the patients, and study the feasibility of nutrition intervention in improving quality of life of the stomach cancer patients. A total of 285 surgical stomach cancer patients reported in the Changle Cancer Registry from 2002 to 2003 were investigated with respect to their diet and quality of life. Daily nutrition intakes of the patients were calculated according to the Food Composition Database, and these data were compared with the reference values proposed by the Chinese Nutrition Society. The partial correlation was used to analyze the relationship between nutrition and quality of life in the patients. Stepwise multiple regression analyses were conducted to analyze the factors influencing nutrition intake in stomach cancer patients. Except vitamin C, there were statistical correlations between the nutrition and quality of life in stomach cancer patients, and differences of the daily nutrition intake among three groups (good, modest and bad quality of life) of the patients were significant. Most of the stomach cancer patients had a lower daily nutrition intake than the reference values. At the significance level alpha = 0.05, the factors influencing the daily nutrition intake of the patients were number of meals a day, family income, way of operation, exercise and age. The nutritional status of the operated patients with stomach cancer may impact on their quality of life. The stomach cancer patients in Changle County have a low level of daily nutrition intake, which suggests that they have a bad nutritional status. To improve the quality of life of the patients, the nutrition intervention should be conducted. Increasing times of meals a day and having a high-protein, high-calorie foods can improve the nutritional status of the stomach cancer patients. Moreover, exercise for rehabilitation can whet the appetite of the patients and recover their body function, which in turn may improve the quality of life of the stomach cancer patients.

Key elements of high-quality practice organisation in primary health care: a systematic review.

PubMed

Crossland, Lisa; Janamian, Tina; Jackson, Claire L

2014-08-04

To identify elements that are integral to high-quality practice and determine considerations relating to high-quality practice organisation in primary care. A narrative systematic review of published and grey literature. Electronic databases (PubMed, CINAHL, the Cochrane Library, Embase, Emerald Insight, PsycInfo, the Primary Health Care Research and Information Service website, Google Scholar) were searched in November 2013 and used to identify articles published in English from 2002 to 2013. Reference lists of included articles were searched for relevant unpublished articles and reports. Data were configured at the study level to allow for the inclusion of findings from a broad range of study types. Ten elements were most often included in the existing organisational assessment tools. A further three elements were identified from an inductive thematic analysis of descriptive articles, and were noted as important considerations in effective quality improvement in primary care settings. Although there are some validated tools available to primary care that identify and build quality, most are single-strategy approaches developed outside health care settings. There are currently no validated organisational improvement tools, designed specifically for primary health care, which combine all elements of practice improvement and whose use does not require extensive external facilitation.

[Ecological regionalization of national cotton fiber quality in China using GGE biplot analysis method].

PubMed

Xu, Nai Yin; Jin, Shi Qiao; Li, Jian

2017-01-01

The distinctive regional characteristics of cotton fiber quality in the major cotton-producing areas in China enhance the textile use efficiency of raw cotton yarn by improving fiber quality through ecological regionalization. The "environment vs. trait" GGE biplot analysis method was adopted to explore the interaction between conventional cotton sub-regions and cotton fiber quality traits based on the datasets collected from the national cotton regional trials from 2011 to 2015. The results showed that the major cotton-producing area in China were divided into four fiber quality ecological regions, namely, the "high fiber quality ecological region", the "low micronaire ecological region", the "high fiber strength and micronaire ecological region", and the "moderate fiber quality ecological region". The high fiber quality ecological region was characterized by harmonious development of cotton fiber length, strength, micronaire value and the highest spinning consistency index, and located in the conventional cotton regions in the upper and lower reaches of Yangtze River Valley. The low micronaire value ecological region composed of the northern and south Xinjiang cotton regions was characterized by low micronaire value, relatively lower fiber strength, and relatively high spinning consistency index performance. The high fiber strength and micronaire value ecological region covered the middle reaches of Yangtze River Valley, Nanxiang Basin and Huaibei Plain, and was prominently characterized by high strength and micronaire value, and moderate performance of other traits. The moderate fiber quality ecological region included North China Plain and Loess Plateau cotton growing regions in the Yellow River Valley, and was characterized by moderate or lower performances of all fiber quality traits. This study effectively applied "environment vs. trait" GGE biplot to regionalize cotton fiber quality, which provided a helpful reference for the regiona-lized cotton growing regions in terms of optimal raw fiber production for textile industry, and gave a good example for the implementation of similar ecological regionalization of other crops as well.

Deep supervised dictionary learning for no-reference image quality assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Yuge; Liu, Xuesong; Tian, Xiang; Zhou, Fan; Chen, Yaowu; Jiang, Rongxin

2018-03-01

We propose a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) for general no-reference image quality assessment (NR-IQA), i.e., accurate prediction of image quality without a reference image. The proposed model consists of three components such as a local feature extractor that is a fully CNN, an encoding module with an inherent dictionary that aggregates local features to output a fixed-length global quality-aware image representation, and a regression module that maps the representation to an image quality score. Our model can be trained in an end-to-end manner, and all of the parameters, including the weights of the convolutional layers, the dictionary, and the regression weights, are simultaneously learned from the loss function. In addition, the model can predict quality scores for input images of arbitrary sizes in a single step. We tested our method on commonly used image quality databases and showed that its performance is comparable with that of state-of-the-art general-purpose NR-IQA algorithms.

A global reference database of crowdsourced cropland data collected using the Geo-Wiki platform.

PubMed

Laso Bayas, Juan Carlos; Lesiv, Myroslava; Waldner, François; Schucknecht, Anne; Duerauer, Martina; See, Linda; Fritz, Steffen; Fraisl, Dilek; Moorthy, Inian; McCallum, Ian; Perger, Christoph; Danylo, Olha; Defourny, Pierre; Gallego, Javier; Gilliams, Sven; Akhtar, Ibrar Ul Hassan; Baishya, Swarup Jyoti; Baruah, Mrinal; Bungnamei, Khangsembou; Campos, Alfredo; Changkakati, Trishna; Cipriani, Anna; Das, Krishna; Das, Keemee; Das, Inamani; Davis, Kyle Frankel; Hazarika, Purabi; Johnson, Brian Alan; Malek, Ziga; Molinari, Monia Elisa; Panging, Kripal; Pawe, Chandra Kant; Pérez-Hoyos, Ana; Sahariah, Parag Kumar; Sahariah, Dhrubajyoti; Saikia, Anup; Saikia, Meghna; Schlesinger, Peter; Seidacaru, Elena; Singha, Kuleswar; Wilson, John W

2017-09-26

A global reference data set on cropland was collected through a crowdsourcing campaign using the Geo-Wiki crowdsourcing tool. The campaign lasted three weeks, with over 80 participants from around the world reviewing almost 36,000 sample units, focussing on cropland identification. For quality assessment purposes, two additional data sets are provided. The first is a control set of 1,793 sample locations validated by students trained in satellite image interpretation. This data set was used to assess the quality of the crowd as the campaign progressed. The second data set contains 60 expert validations for additional evaluation of the quality of the contributions. All data sets are split into two parts: the first part shows all areas classified as cropland and the second part shows cropland average per location and user. After further processing, the data presented here might be suitable to validate and compare medium and high resolution cropland maps generated using remote sensing. These could also be used to train classification algorithms for developing new maps of land cover and cropland extent.

[Quality standards for duplex ultrasonographic assessment (duplex us) of abdominal aortic stent grafts].

PubMed

Diard, A; Becker, F; Pichot, O

2017-05-01

The quality standards of the French Society of Vascular Medicine for the ultrasound assessment of lower limb arteries in vascular medicine practice are based on the principle that these examinations have to meet two requirements: technical know-how (knowledge of devices and methodologies); medical know-how (level of examination matching the indication and purpose of the examination, interpretation and critical analysis of results). To describe an optimal level of examination adjusted to the indication or clinical hypothesis; to establish harmonious practices, methodologies, terminologies, results description and report; to provide good practice reference points and to promote a high quality process. The three levels of examination, indications and objectives for each level; the reference standard examination (level 2) and its variants according to indications; the minimal content of the exam report, the medical conclusion letter to the corresponding physician (synthesis, conclusion and management suggestions); commented glossary (anatomy, hemodynamics, signs and symptoms); technical basis; device settings. Here, we discuss duplex ultrasound for the supervision of the aortic stent grafts. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Semen quality and sex hormones with reference to metal welding.

PubMed

Hjollund, N H; Bonde, J P; Jensen, T K; Ernst, E; Henriksen, T B; Kolstad, H A; Giwercman, A; Skakkebaek, N E; Olsen, J

1998-01-01

Welding may involve hazards to the male reproductive system, but previous studies of semen quality have produced inconsistent results. We studied the effects of welding on markers of semen quality in a Danish nationwide sample of 430 first-time pregnancy planners without earlier reproductive experience. Couples were recruited among members of the union of metal workers and three other trade unions and were followed from termination of birth control until pregnancy for a maximum of six menstrual cycles. The males provided semen samples in each cycle. Median sperm density for welders was 56 x 10(6)/mL (52.5 x 10(6)/mL and 50.0 x 10(6)/mL in two reference groups). No statistically significant differences attributable to welding were found in proportions of morphologically normal sperm, sperm motility assessed by computer-aided sperm analysis, or sex hormones (testosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone, and luteinizing hormone). These negative findings may not apply to populations with high-level exposure to welding fume or to welders exposed to other putative hazards, e.g., heat.

A global reference database of crowdsourced cropland data collected using the Geo-Wiki platform

PubMed Central

Laso Bayas, Juan Carlos; Lesiv, Myroslava; Waldner, François; Schucknecht, Anne; Duerauer, Martina; See, Linda; Fritz, Steffen; Fraisl, Dilek; Moorthy, Inian; McCallum, Ian; Perger, Christoph; Danylo, Olha; Defourny, Pierre; Gallego, Javier; Gilliams, Sven; Akhtar, Ibrar ul Hassan; Baishya, Swarup Jyoti; Baruah, Mrinal; Bungnamei, Khangsembou; Campos, Alfredo; Changkakati, Trishna; Cipriani, Anna; Das, Krishna; Das, Keemee; Das, Inamani; Davis, Kyle Frankel; Hazarika, Purabi; Johnson, Brian Alan; Malek, Ziga; Molinari, Monia Elisa; Panging, Kripal; Pawe, Chandra Kant; Pérez-Hoyos, Ana; Sahariah, Parag Kumar; Sahariah, Dhrubajyoti; Saikia, Anup; Saikia, Meghna; Schlesinger, Peter; Seidacaru, Elena; Singha, Kuleswar; Wilson, John W

2017-01-01

A global reference data set on cropland was collected through a crowdsourcing campaign using the Geo-Wiki crowdsourcing tool. The campaign lasted three weeks, with over 80 participants from around the world reviewing almost 36,000 sample units, focussing on cropland identification. For quality assessment purposes, two additional data sets are provided. The first is a control set of 1,793 sample locations validated by students trained in satellite image interpretation. This data set was used to assess the quality of the crowd as the campaign progressed. The second data set contains 60 expert validations for additional evaluation of the quality of the contributions. All data sets are split into two parts: the first part shows all areas classified as cropland and the second part shows cropland average per location and user. After further processing, the data presented here might be suitable to validate and compare medium and high resolution cropland maps generated using remote sensing. These could also be used to train classification algorithms for developing new maps of land cover and cropland extent. PMID:28949323

A global reference database of crowdsourced cropland data collected using the Geo-Wiki platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laso Bayas, Juan Carlos; Lesiv, Myroslava; Waldner, François; Schucknecht, Anne; Duerauer, Martina; See, Linda; Fritz, Steffen; Fraisl, Dilek; Moorthy, Inian; McCallum, Ian; Perger, Christoph; Danylo, Olha; Defourny, Pierre; Gallego, Javier; Gilliams, Sven; Akhtar, Ibrar Ul Hassan; Baishya, Swarup Jyoti; Baruah, Mrinal; Bungnamei, Khangsembou; Campos, Alfredo; Changkakati, Trishna; Cipriani, Anna; Das, Krishna; Das, Keemee; Das, Inamani; Davis, Kyle Frankel; Hazarika, Purabi; Johnson, Brian Alan; Malek, Ziga; Molinari, Monia Elisa; Panging, Kripal; Pawe, Chandra Kant; Pérez-Hoyos, Ana; Sahariah, Parag Kumar; Sahariah, Dhrubajyoti; Saikia, Anup; Saikia, Meghna; Schlesinger, Peter; Seidacaru, Elena; Singha, Kuleswar; Wilson, John W.

2017-09-01

A global reference data set on cropland was collected through a crowdsourcing campaign using the Geo-Wiki crowdsourcing tool. The campaign lasted three weeks, with over 80 participants from around the world reviewing almost 36,000 sample units, focussing on cropland identification. For quality assessment purposes, two additional data sets are provided. The first is a control set of 1,793 sample locations validated by students trained in satellite image interpretation. This data set was used to assess the quality of the crowd as the campaign progressed. The second data set contains 60 expert validations for additional evaluation of the quality of the contributions. All data sets are split into two parts: the first part shows all areas classified as cropland and the second part shows cropland average per location and user. After further processing, the data presented here might be suitable to validate and compare medium and high resolution cropland maps generated using remote sensing. These could also be used to train classification algorithms for developing new maps of land cover and cropland extent.

Effect of Broadband Nature of Marine Mammal Echolocation Clicks on Click-Based Population Density Estimates

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-09-30

initially on beaked whales (Blainville’s or Cuvier’s), for which high quality click recordings of clicks are available from DTAG data, as these are known...will be applied also to other species such as sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) (whose high source level assures long range detection and amplifies...REFERENCES Gillespie, D. and Leaper, R. (1996). Detection of sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus clicks and discrimination of individual vocalizations

Effect of Broadband Nature of Marine Mammal Echolocation Clicks on Click-Based Population Density Estimates

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-09-30

research will focus initially on beaked whales (Blainville’s or Cuvier’s), for which high quality click recordings of clicks are available from DTAG...The same methodology will be applied also to other species such as sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) (whose high source level assures long range...Thomas, University of St. Andrews). REFERENCES Gillespie, D. and Leaper, R. (1996). Detection of sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus clicks and

Wet process shotcrete: An ecological and economical quality product for the future

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

Bracher, G.

1995-12-31

Shotcrete is an essential component of modern tunnelling and its importance is continuously growing. In order to comply with this role, the demands made on quality and economy have increased considerably. The wet process Shotcrete has been established on all the major job sites in Switzerland. Regarding the technical and ecological aspects, the introduction of an alkali free non-toxic accelerator has set up a new standard. Enormous high early strengths in combination with strength gains compared to the reference concrete can be achieved.

MaCH-Admix: Genotype Imputation for Admixed Populations

PubMed Central

Liu, Eric Yi; Li, Mingyao; Wang, Wei; Li, Yun

2012-01-01

Imputation in admixed populations is an important problem but challenging due to the complex linkage disequilibrium (LD) pattern. The emergence of large reference panels such as that from the 1,000 Genomes Project enables more accurate imputation in general, and in particular for admixed populations and for uncommon variants. To efficiently benefit from these large reference panels, one key issue to consider in modern genotype imputation framework is the selection of effective reference panels. In this work, we consider a number of methods for effective reference panel construction inside a hidden Markov model and specific to each target individual. These methods fall into two categories: identity-by-state (IBS) based and ancestry-weighted approach. We evaluated the performance on individuals from recently admixed populations. Our target samples include 8,421 African Americans and 3,587 Hispanic Americans from the Women’s Health Initiative, which allow assessment of imputation quality for uncommon variants. Our experiments include both large and small reference panels; large, medium, and small target samples; and in genome regions of varying levels of LD. We also include BEAGLE and IMPUTE2 for comparison. Experiment results with large reference panel suggest that our novel piecewise IBS method yields consistently higher imputation quality than other methods/software. The advantage is particularly noteworthy among uncommon variants where we observe up to 5.1% information gain with the difference being highly significant (Wilcoxon signed rank test P-value < 0.0001). Our work is the first that considers various sensible approaches for imputation in admixed populations and presents a comprehensive comparison. PMID:23074066

Evidence assessing the diagnostic performance of medical smartphone apps: a systematic review and exploratory meta-analysis

PubMed Central

Buechi, Rahel; Faes, Livia; Bachmann, Lucas M; Thiel, Michael A; Bodmer, Nicolas S; Schmid, Martin K; Job, Oliver; Lienhard, Kenny R

2017-01-01

Objective The number of mobile applications addressing health topics is increasing. Whether these apps underwent scientific evaluation is unclear. We comprehensively assessed papers investigating the diagnostic value of available diagnostic health applications using inbuilt smartphone sensors. Methods Systematic Review—MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science inclusive Medical Informatics and Business Source Premier (by citation of reference) were searched from inception until 15 December 2016. Checking of reference lists of review articles and of included articles complemented electronic searches. We included all studies investigating a health application that used inbuilt sensors of a smartphone for diagnosis of disease. The methodological quality of 11 studies used in an exploratory meta-analysis was assessed with the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 tool and the reporting quality with the ’STAndards for the Reporting of Diagnostic accuracy studies' (STARD) statement. Sensitivity and specificity of studies reporting two-by-two tables were calculated and summarised. Results We screened 3296 references for eligibility. Eleven studies, most of them assessing melanoma screening apps, reported 17 two-by-two tables. Quality assessment revealed high risk of bias in all studies. Included papers studied 1048 subjects (758 with the target conditions and 290 healthy volunteers). Overall, the summary estimate for sensitivity was 0.82 (95 % CI 0.56 to 0.94) and 0.89 (95 %CI 0.70 to 0.97) for specificity. Conclusions The diagnostic evidence of available health apps on Apple’s and Google’s app stores is scarce. Consumers and healthcare professionals should be aware of this when using or recommending them. PROSPERO registration number 42016033049. PMID:29247099

A Microfluidic Immunostaining System Enables Quality Assured and Standardized Immunohistochemical Biomarker Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kwon, Seyong; Cho, Chang Hyun; Kwon, Youngmee; Lee, Eun Sook; Park, Je-Kyun

2017-04-01

Immunohistochemistry (IHC) plays an important role in biomarker-driven cancer therapy. Although there has been a high demand for standardized and quality assured IHC, it has rarely been achieved due to the complexity of IHC testing and the subjective validation-based process flow of IHC quality control. We present here a microfluidic immunostaining system for the standardization of IHC by creating a microfluidic linearly graded antibody (Ab)-staining device and a reference cell microarray. Unlike conventional efforts, our system deals primarily with the screening of biomarker staining conditions for quantitative quality assurance testing in IHC. We characterized the microfluidic matching of Ab staining intensity using three HER2 Abs produced by different manufacturers. The quality of HER2 Ab was also validated using tissues of breast cancer patients, demonstrating that our system is an efficient and powerful tool for the standardization and quality assurance of IHC.

Nonenhanced ECG-gated quiescent-interval single shot MRA: image quality and stenosis assessment at 3 tesla compared with contrast-enhanced MRA and digital subtraction angiography.

PubMed

Hansmann, Jan; Morelli, John N; Michaely, Henrik J; Riester, Thomas; Budjan, Johannes; Schoenberg, Stefan O; Attenberger, Ulrike I

2014-06-01

To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of a nonenhanced electrocardiograph-gated quiescent-interval single shot MR-angiography (QISS-MRA) at 3 Tesla with contrast-enhanced MRA (CE-MRA) and digital subtraction angiography (DSA) serving as reference standard. Following institutional review board approval, 16 consecutive patients with peripheral arterial disease underwent a combined peripheral MRA protocol consisting of a large field-of-view QISS-MRA, continuous table movement MRA, and an additional time-resolved MRA of the calves. DSA correlation was available in eight patients. Image quality and degree of stenosis was assessed. Sensitivity and specificity of QISS-MRA was evaluated with CE-MRA and DSA serving as the standards of reference and compared using the Fisher exact test. With the exception of the calf station, image quality with QISS-MRA was rated statistically significantly less than that of CE-MRA (P < 0.05, P = 0.17, and P = 0.6, respectively). A greater percentage of segments were not accessible with QISS-MRA (19.5-20.1%) in comparison to CE-MRA (10.9%). Relative to DSA, sensitivity for QISS-MRA was high (100% versus 91.2% for CE-MRA, P = 0.24) in the evaluated segments; however, specificity (76.5%) was substantially less than that of CE-MRA (94.6%, P = 0.003). Overall image quality and specificity of QISS-MRA at 3T are diminished relative to CE-MRA. However, when image quality is adequate, QISS-MRA has high sensitivity and, thus, has potential use in patients with contraindications to gadolinium. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Geoinformatics 2007: data to knowledge

USGS Publications Warehouse

Brady, Shailaja R.; Sinha, A. Krishna; Gundersen, Linda C.

2007-01-01

Geoinformatics is the term used to describe a variety of efforts to promote collaboration between the computer sciences and the geosciences to solve complex scientific questions. It refers to the distributed, integrated digital information system and working environment that provides innovative means for the study of the Earth systems, as well as other planets, through use of advanced information technologies. Geoinformatics activities range from major research and development efforts creating new technologies to provide high-quality, sustained production-level services for data discovery, integration and analysis, to small, discipline-specific efforts that develop earth science data collections and data analysis tools serving the needs of individual communities. The ultimate vision of Geoinformatics is a highly interconnected data system populated with high quality, freely available data, as well as, a robust set of software for analysis, visualization, and modeling.

Podiatric medical resources on the internet: a fifth update.

PubMed

Fikar, Charles R

2006-01-01

An updated selection of high-quality Internet resources of potential use to the podiatric medical practitioner, educator, resident, and student is presented. Internet search tools and general Internet reference sources are briefly covered, including methods of locating material residing on the "invisible" Web. General medical and podiatric medical resources are emphasized. These Web sites were judged on the basis of their potential to enhance the practice of podiatric medicine in addition to their contribution to education. Podiatric medical students, educators, residents, and practitioners who require a quick reference guide to the Internet may find this article useful.

SCARF: maximizing next-generation EST assemblies for evolutionary and population genomic analyses.

PubMed

Barker, Michael S; Dlugosch, Katrina M; Reddy, A Chaitanya C; Amyotte, Sarah N; Rieseberg, Loren H

2009-02-15

Scaffolded and Corrected Assembly of Roche 454 (SCARF) is a next-generation sequence assembly tool for evolutionary genomics that is designed especially for assembling 454 EST sequences against high-quality reference sequences from related species. The program was created to knit together 454 contigs that do not assemble during traditional de novo assembly, using a reference sequence library to orient the 454 sequences. SCARF is freely available at http://msbarker.com/software.htm, and is released under the open source GPLv3 license (http://www.opensource.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html.

Monitoring urban air quality using a high-density network of low-cost sensor nodes in Oslo, Norway.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Castell, Nuria; Schneider, Philipp; Vogt, Matthias; Dauge, Franck R.; Lahoz, William; Bartonova, Alena

2017-04-01

Urban air quality represents a major public health burden and is a long-standing concern to citizens. Air pollution is associated with a range of diseases, symptoms and conditions that impair health and quality of life. In Oslo, traffic, especially exhaust from heavy-duty and private diesel vehicles and dust resuspension from studded tyres, together with wood burning in winter, are the main sources of pollution. Norway, as part of the European Economic Area, is obliged to comply with the European air quality regulations and ensure clean air. Despite this, Oslo has exceeded both the NO2 and PM10 thresholds for health protection defined in the Directive 2008/50/EC. The air quality in the Oslo area is continuously monitored in 12 compliance monitoring stations. These stations provide reliable and accurate data but their density is too low to provide a detailed spatial distribution of air quality. The emergence of low-cost nodes enables observations at high spatial resolution, providing the opportunity to enhance existing monitoring systems. However, the data generated by these nodes is significantly less accurate and precise than the data provided by reference equipment. We have conducted an evaluation of low-cost nodes to monitor NO2 and PM10, comparing the data collected with low-cost nodes against CEN (European Standardization Organization) reference analysers. During January and March 2016, a network of 24 nodes was deployed in Oslo. During January, high NO2 levels were observed for several days in a row coinciding with the formation of a thermal inversion. During March, we observed an episode with high PM10 levels due to road dust resuspension. Our results show that there is a major technical challenge associated with current commercial low-cost sensors, regarding the sensor robustness and measurement repeatability. Despite this, low-cost sensor nodes are able to reproduce the NO2 and PM10 variability. The data from the sensors was employed to generate detailed NO2 and PM10 air quality maps using a data fusion technique. This way we were able to offer localized air quality information for the city of Oslo. The outlook for commercial low-cost sensors is promising, and our results show that currently some sensors are already capable of providing coarse information about air quality, indicating if the air quality is good, moderate or if the air is heavily polluted. This type of information could be suitable for applications that aim to raise awareness, or engage the community by monitoring local air quality, as such applications do not require the same accuracy as scientific or regulatory monitoring.

Using Vision Metrology System for Quality Control in Automotive Industries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mostofi, N.; Samadzadegan, F.; Roohy, Sh.; Nozari, M.

2012-07-01

The need of more accurate measurements in different stages of industrial applications, such as designing, producing, installation, and etc., is the main reason of encouraging the industry deputy in using of industrial Photogrammetry (Vision Metrology System). With respect to the main advantages of Photogrammetric methods, such as greater economy, high level of automation, capability of noncontact measurement, more flexibility and high accuracy, a good competition occurred between this method and other industrial traditional methods. With respect to the industries that make objects using a main reference model without having any mathematical model of it, main problem of producers is the evaluation of the production line. This problem will be so complicated when both reference and product object just as a physical object is available and comparison of them will be possible with direct measurement. In such case, producers make fixtures fitting reference with limited accuracy. In practical reports sometimes available precision is not better than millimetres. We used a non-metric high resolution digital camera for this investigation and the case study that studied in this paper is a chassis of automobile. In this research, a stable photogrammetric network designed for measuring the industrial object (Both Reference and Product) and then by using the Bundle Adjustment and Self-Calibration methods, differences between the Reference and Product object achieved. These differences will be useful for the producer to improve the production work flow and bringing more accurate products. Results of this research, demonstrate the high potential of proposed method in industrial fields. Presented results prove high efficiency and reliability of this method using RMSE criteria. Achieved RMSE for this case study is smaller than 200 microns that shows the fact of high capability of implemented approach.

[Physical and technical quality assurance in German breast cancer screening: progress report of the Reference Center Muenster after three years].

PubMed

Sommer, A; Girnus, R; Wendt, B; Czwoydzinski, J; Wüstenbecker, C; Heindel, W; Lenzen, H

2009-05-01

German breast cancer screening is monitored by a large physical quality assurance program. This report refers to the first experiences of the Reference Center (RC) Muenster after three years of the technical quality control of digital and analog mammography units (MU). This paper also shows whether the presently used quality assurance (QA) method is able to ensure that the MUs in the screening program are functioning without any serious problems. RC Muenster supervises 95 units (May 2008). The daily, weekly and monthly quality assurance of these units is controlled by web-based QA software named "MammoConrol" and developed by RC Muenster. The annual QA for the units must be conducted in the form of an on-site inspection by medical physics experts of the RC and is scored by an objective ranking system. The results of these QA routines were evaluated and analyzed for this paper. During the period from 3/1/2006 to 5/31/2008, 8 % of the analog systems and 1 % of the digital systems exhibited problems in the daily QA. For 9 % of the analog MUs and 17 % of the digital MUs, failures appeared in the monthly QA. In the annual control, 86.7 % of the analog units exhibited slight problems and 13.3 % had serious problems. With respect to the digital units, 12 % were without any defects, 58 % had slight problems, 27 % had serious failures and 3 % had to be reported to the responsible authorities and were temporarily shut down. The special quality control requirements for German breast cancer screening, including annual on-site checks of the units, have shown in the last three years that QA with a high monitoring standard can be ensured for a large number of decentralized MUs. The currently used QA method sufficiently ensures that the screening program is technically safe. Further studies must show whether the density and focus of the QA measures must be reconfigured.

No-reference multiscale blur detection tool for content based image retrieval

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ezekiel, Soundararajan; Stocker, Russell; Harrity, Kyle; Alford, Mark; Ferris, David; Blasch, Erik; Gorniak, Mark

2014-06-01

In recent years, digital cameras have been widely used for image capturing. These devices are equipped in cell phones, laptops, tablets, webcams, etc. Image quality is an important component of digital image analysis. To assess image quality for these mobile products, a standard image is required as a reference image. In this case, Root Mean Square Error and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio can be used to measure the quality of the images. However, these methods are not possible if there is no reference image. In our approach, a discrete-wavelet transformation is applied to the blurred image, which decomposes into the approximate image and three detail sub-images, namely horizontal, vertical, and diagonal images. We then focus on noise-measuring the detail images and blur-measuring the approximate image to assess the image quality. We then compute noise mean and noise ratio from the detail images, and blur mean and blur ratio from the approximate image. The Multi-scale Blur Detection (MBD) metric provides both an assessment of the noise and blur content. These values are weighted based on a linear regression against full-reference y values. From these statistics, we can compare to normal useful image statistics for image quality without needing a reference image. We then test the validity of our obtained weights by R2 analysis as well as using them to estimate image quality of an image with a known quality measure. The result shows that our method provides acceptable results for images containing low to mid noise levels and blur content.

Methodological quality of systematic reviews referenced in clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of opioid use disorder.

PubMed

Ross, Andrew; Rankin, Justin; Beaman, Jason; Murray, Kelly; Sinnett, Philip; Riddle, Ross; Haskins, Jordan; Vassar, Matt

2017-01-01

With efforts to combat opioid use disorder, there is an increased interest in clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for opioid use disorder treatments. No literature exists examining the quality of systematic reviews used in opioid use disorder CPGs. This study aims to describe the methodological quality and reporting clarity of systematic reviews (SRs) used to create CPGs for opioid use disorder. From June to July 2016 guideline clearinghouses and medical literature databases were searched for relevant CPGs used in the treatment of opioid use disorder. Included CPGs must have been recognized by a national organization. SRs from the reference section of each CPG was scored by using AMSTAR (a measurement tool to assess the methodological quality of systematic reviews) tool and PRISMA (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses) checklist. Seventeen CPGs from 2006-2016 were included in the review. From these, 57 unique SRs were extracted. SRS comprised 0.28% to 17.92% of all references found in the CPGs. All SRs obtained moderate or high methodological quality score on the AMSTAR tool. All reviews met at least 70% of PRISMA criteria. In PRISMA, underperforming areas included accurate title labeling, protocol registration, and risk of bias. Underperforming areas in AMSTAR included conflicts of interest, funding, and publication bias. A positive correlation was found between AMSTAR and PRISMA scores (r = .79). Although the SRs in the CPGs were of good quality, there are still areas for improvement. Systematic reviewers should consult PRISMA and AMSTAR when conducting and reporting reviews. It is important for CPG developers to consider methodological quality as a factor when developing CPG recommendations, recognizing that the quality of systematic reviews underpinning guidelines does not necessarily correspond to the quality of the guideline itself.

Quality and Cultural Sensitivity of Linguistically Appropriate Cardiovascular Disease Information for Chinese Immigrants: A Review of Online Resources From Heart Foundations.

PubMed

Li, Jialin; Lowres, Nicole; Jin, Kai; Zhang, Ling; Neubeck, Lis; Gallagher, Robyn

Chinese immigrants are at an increased risk for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) compared with Chinese nationals partly because of lifestyle changes and knowledge deficits. Translated patient resources are available on the Internet and are often provided by health professionals; however, the quality and cultural sensitivity of these resources have not been reported. The aim of this study was to assess the availability, quality, and cultural sensitivity of Chinese-language information available from national "Heart Foundations" (cardiac research bodies, nongovernmental organisations) of the 5 most popular destinations of Chinese immigration. This study is a descriptive research in which national "Heart Foundation" websites were systematically searched for Chinese-language CVD patient education resources. Quality (content, identification, structure) was assessed using the Ensuring Quality Information for Patients instrument. Cultural sensitivity was evaluated using the Cultural Sensitivity Assessment Tool. From 107 identified resources, 33 were CVD specific: coronary heart disease (n = 20), arrhythmias (n = 7), and heart failure (n = 6). Quality of resources was adequate (mean Ensuring Quality Information for Patients score, 69%), but scores varied significantly (min, 60%; max, 85%). Although all resources were classified as culturally sensitive (Cultural Sensitivity Assessment Tool score ≥ 2.5), 2 resources scored low (≤2.5) for visual impact, and across all resources, written and visual domains were assessed as least culturally sensitive. Most resources lacked culturally specific references. Chinese-language CVD resources were inconsistent in the supply of key information. Quality and level of cultural sensitivity were adequate, but most resources lacked culturally specific references. Comprehensive, high-quality CVD resources powered by Editorial Manager and ProduXion Manager from Aries Systems Corporation tailored for Chinese immigrants are urgently needed for healthcare providers to support CVD education and care of patients belonging to this population.

Modeling the Water - Quality Effects of Changes to the Klamath River Upstream of Keno Dam, Oregon

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sullivan, Annett B.; Sogutlugil, I. Ertugrul; Rounds, Stewart A.; Deas, Michael L.

2013-01-01

The Link River to Keno Dam (Link-Keno) reach of the Klamath River, Oregon, generally has periods of water-quality impairment during summer, including low dissolved oxygen, elevated concentrations of ammonia and algae, and high pH. Efforts are underway to improve water quality in this reach through a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program and other management and operational actions. To assist in planning, a hydrodynamic and water-quality model was used in this study to provide insight about how various actions could affect water quality in the reach. These model scenarios used a previously developed and calibrated CE-QUAL-W2 model of the Link-Keno reach developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Watercourse Engineering Inc., and the Bureau of Reclamation for calendar years 2006-09 (referred to as the "USGS model" in this report). Another model of the same river reach was previously developed by Tetra Tech, Inc. and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality for years 2000 and 2002 and was used in the TMDL process; that model is referred to as the "TMDL model" in this report. This report includes scenarios that (1) assess the effect of TMDL allocations on water quality, (2) provide insight on certain aspects of the TMDL model, (3) assess various methods to improve water quality in this reach, and (4) examine possible water-quality effects of a future warmer climate. Results presented in this report for the first 5 scenarios supersede or augment those that were previously published (scenarios 1 and 2 in Sullivan and others [2011], 3 through 5 in Sullivan and others [2012]); those previous results are still valid, but the results for those scenarios in this report are more current.

Assessment of Science Learning: Living in Interesting Times

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pellegrino, James W.

2012-01-01

Beginning with a reference to living in a time of both uncertainty and opportunity, this article presents a discussion of key areas where shared understanding is needed if we are to successfully realize the design and use of high quality, valid assessments of science. The key areas discussed are: (1) assessment purpose and use, (2) the nature of…

Early Care and Education: Policy Considerations for Ensuring High-Quality Pre-K Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Best, Jane; Cohen, Courtney

2013-01-01

Interest in early care and education (ECE), also referred to as an early childhood education, has escalated in recent years. The interest is bipartisan, as evidenced by the multiple ECE-related bills already introduced by the 113th Congress. Further, 39 states have implemented prekindergarten (pre-K) programs. In 2013, 27 governors mentioned ECE…

Teaching Macroeconomics to the Visually Impaired: New Tactile Methods, Verbal Precision, and Small Groups

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Naples, Michele I.

2017-01-01

Visually-impaired students require tailored pedagogies to ensure their instruction is as high quality as for sighted students. They follow board work during class by referring to typed class notes provided ahead of time via a Braille reader, and in-class small groups solving problems create an inclusive "esprit de corps" and promote…

State-of-the-Art in Open Courseware Initiatives Worldwide

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vladoiu, Monica

2011-01-01

We survey here the state-of-the-art in open courseware initiatives worldwide. First, the MIT OpenCourseWare project is overviewed, as it has been the real starting point of the OCW movement. Usually, open courseware refers to a free and open digital publication of high quality university level educational materials that are organized as courses,…

Evaluating Electronic Reference Services: Issues, Approaches and Criteria.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Novotny, Eric

2001-01-01

Discussion of electronic library reference services focuses on an overview of the chief methodologies available for conducting assessments of electronic services. Highlights include quantitative measures and benchmarks, including equity and access; quality measures; behavioral aspects of quality, including librarian-patron interaction; and future…

Quality-assurance data for routine water quality analyses by the U. S. Geological Survey laboratory in Troy, New York; July 1993 through June 1995

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lincoln, Tricia A.; Horan-Ross, Debra A.; McHale, Michael R.; Lawrence, Gregory B.

2001-01-01

A laboratory for analysis of low-ionic strength water has been developed at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) office in Troy, N.Y., to analyze samples collected by USGS projects in the Northeast. The laboratory's quality-assurance program is based on internal and interlaboratory quality-assurance samples and quality-control procedures developed to ensure proper sample collection, processing, and analysis. The quality-assurance/quality-control data are stored in the laboratory's SAS data-management system, which provides efficient review, compilation, and plotting of quality-assurance/quality-control data. This report presents and discusses samples analyzed from July 1993 through June 1995. Quality-control results for 18 analytical procedures were evaluated for bias and precision. Control charts show that data from seven of the analytical procedures were biased throughout the analysis period for either high-concentration or low-concentration samples but were within control limits; these procedures were: acid-neutralizing capacity, dissolved inorganic carbon, dissolved organic carbon (soil expulsions), chloride, magnesium, nitrate (colorimetric method), and pH. Three of the analytical procedures were occasionally biased but were within control limits; they were: calcium (high for high-concentration samples for May 1995), dissolved organic carbon (high for highconcentration samples from January through September 1994), and fluoride (high in samples for April and June 1994). No quality-control sample has been developed for the organic monomeric aluminum procedure. Results from the filter-blank and analytical-blank analyses indicate that all analytical procedures in which blanks were run were within control limits, although values for a few blanks were outside the control limits. Blanks were not analyzed for acid-neutralizing capacity, dissolved inorganic carbon, fluoride, nitrate (colorimetric method), or pH. Sampling and analysis precision are evaluated herein in terms of the coefficient of variation obtained for triplicate samples in 14 of the 18 procedures. Data-quality objectives were met by more than 90 percent of the samples analyzed in all procedures except total monomeric aluminum (85 percent of samples met objectives), total aluminum (70 percent of samples met objectives), and dissolved organic carbon (85 percent of samples met objectives). Triplicate samples were not analyzed for ammonium, fluoride, dissolved inorganic carbon, or nitrate (colorimetric method). Results of the USGS interlaboratory Standard Reference Sample Program indicated high data quality with a median result of 3.6 of a possible 4.0. Environment Canada's LRTAP interlaboratory study results indicated that more than 85 percent of the samples met data-quality objectives in 6 of the 12 analyses; exceptions were calcium, dissolved organic carbon, chloride, pH, potassium, and sodium. Data-quality objectives were not met for calcium samples in one LRTAP study, but 94 percent of samples analyzed were within control limits for the remaining studies. Data-quality objectives were not met by 35 percent of samples analyzed for dissolved organic carbon, but 94 percent of sample values were within 20 percent of the most probable value. Data-quality objectives were not met for 30 percent of samples analyzed for chloride, but 90 percent of sample values were within 20 percent of the most probable value. Measurements of samples with a pH above 6.0 were biased high in 54 percent of the samples, although 85 percent of the samples met data-quality objectives for pH measurements below 6.0. Data-quality objectives for potassium and sodium were not met in one study (only 33 percent of the samples analyzed met the objectives), although 85 percent of the sample values were within control limits for the other studies. Measured sodium values were above the upper control limit in all studies. Results from blind reference-sample analyses indicated that data

Reference Service Policy Statement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Young, William F.

This reference service policy manual provides general guidelines to encourage reference service of the highest possible quality and to insure uniform practice. The policy refers only to reference service in the University Libraries and is intended for use in conjunction with other policies and procedures issued by the Reference Services Division.…

Identification of phlebotomine sand flies using one MALDI-TOF MS reference database and two mass spectrometer systems.

PubMed

Mathis, Alexander; Depaquit, Jérôme; Dvořák, Vit; Tuten, Holly; Bañuls, Anne-Laure; Halada, Petr; Zapata, Sonia; Lehrter, Véronique; Hlavačková, Kristýna; Prudhomme, Jorian; Volf, Petr; Sereno, Denis; Kaufmann, Christian; Pflüger, Valentin; Schaffner, Francis

2015-05-10

Rapid, accurate and high-throughput identification of vector arthropods is of paramount importance in surveillance programmes that are becoming more common due to the changing geographic occurrence and extent of many arthropod-borne diseases. Protein profiling by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry fulfils these requirements for identification, and reference databases have recently been established for several vector taxa, mostly with specimens from laboratory colonies. We established and validated a reference database containing 20 phlebotomine sand fly (Diptera: Psychodidae, Phlebotominae) species by using specimens from colonies or field-collections that had been stored for various periods of time. Identical biomarker mass patterns ('superspectra') were obtained with colony- or field-derived specimens of the same species. In the validation study, high quality spectra (i.e. more than 30 evaluable masses) were obtained with all fresh insects from colonies, and with 55/59 insects deep-frozen (liquid nitrogen/-80 °C) for up to 25 years. In contrast, only 36/52 specimens stored in ethanol could be identified. This resulted in an overall sensitivity of 87 % (140/161); specificity was 100 %. Duration of storage impaired data counts in the high mass range, and thus cluster analyses of closely related specimens might reflect their storage conditions rather than phenotypic distinctness. A major drawback of MALDI-TOF MS is the restricted availability of in-house databases and the fact that mass spectrometers from 2 companies (Bruker, Shimadzu) are widely being used. We have analysed fingerprints of phlebotomine sand flies obtained by automatic routine procedure on a Bruker instrument by using our database and the software established on a Shimadzu system. The sensitivity with 312 specimens from 8 sand fly species from laboratory colonies when evaluating only high quality spectra was 98.3 %; the specificity was 100 %. The corresponding diagnostic values with 55 field-collected specimens from 4 species were 94.7 % and 97.4 %, respectively. A centralized high-quality database (created by expert taxonomists and experienced users of mass spectrometers) that is easily amenable to customer-oriented identification services is a highly desirable resource. As shown in the present work, spectra obtained from different specimens with different instruments can be analysed using a centralized database, which should be available in the near future via an online platform in a cost-efficient manner.

Systematic review of scope and quality of electronic patient record data in primary care

PubMed Central

Thiru, Krish; Hassey, Alan; Sullivan, Frank

2003-01-01

Objective To systematically review measures of data quality in electronic patient records (EPRs) in primary care. Design Systematic review of English language publications, 1980-2001. Data sources Bibliographic searches of medical databases, specialist medical informatics databases, conference proceedings, and institutional contacts. Study selection Studies selected according to a predefined framework for categorising review papers. Data extraction Reference standards and measurements used to judge quality. Results Bibliographic searches identified 4589 publications. After primary exclusions 174 articles were classified, 52 of which met the inclusion criteria for review. Selected studies were primarily descriptive surveys. Variability in methods prevented meta-analysis of results. Forty eight publications were concerned with diagnostic data, 37 studies measured data quality, and 15 scoped EPR quality. Reliability of data was assessed with rate comparison. Measures of sensitivity were highly dependent on the element of EPR data being investigated, while the positive predictive value was consistently high, indicating good validity. Prescribing data were generally of better quality than diagnostic or lifestyle data. Conclusion The lack of standardised methods for assessment of quality of data in electronic patient records makes it difficult to compare results between studies. Studies should present data quality measures with clear numerators, denominators, and confidence intervals. Ambiguous terms such as “accuracy” should be avoided unless precisely defined. PMID:12750210

[Quality Management and Quality Specifications of Laboratory Tests in Clinical Studies--Challenges in Pre-Analytical Processes in Clinical Laboratories].

PubMed

Ishibashi, Midori

2015-01-01

The cost, speed, and quality are the three important factors recently indicated by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) for the purpose of accelerating clinical studies. Based on this background, the importance of laboratory tests is increasing, especially in the evaluation of clinical study participants' entry and safety, and drug efficacy. To assure the quality of laboratory tests, providing high-quality laboratory tests is mandatory. For providing adequate quality assurance in laboratory tests, quality control in the three fields of pre-analytical, analytical, and post-analytical processes is extremely important. There are, however, no detailed written requirements concerning specimen collection, handling, preparation, storage, and shipping. Most laboratory tests for clinical studies are performed onsite in a local laboratory; however, a part of laboratory tests is done in offsite central laboratories after specimen shipping. As factors affecting laboratory tests, individual and inter-individual variations are well-known. Besides these factors, standardizing the factors of specimen collection, handling, preparation, storage, and shipping, may improve and maintain the high quality of clinical studies in general. Furthermore, the analytical method, units, and reference interval are also important factors. It is concluded that, to overcome the problems derived from pre-analytical processes, it is necessary to standardize specimen handling in a broad sense.

Field Methods and Quality-Assurance Plan for Quality-of-Water Activities, U.S. Geological Survey, Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho

USGS Publications Warehouse

Knobel, LeRoy L.; Tucker, Betty J.; Rousseau, Joseph P.

2008-01-01

Water-quality activities conducted by the staff of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Project Office coincide with the USGS mission of appraising the quantity and quality of the Nation's water resources. The activities are conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Idaho Operations Office. Results of the water-quality investigations are presented in various USGS publications or in refereed scientific journals. The results of the studies are highly regarded, and they are used with confidence by researchers, regulatory and managerial agencies, and interested civic groups. In its broadest sense, quality assurance refers to doing the job right the first time. It includes the functions of planning for products, review and acceptance of the products, and an audit designed to evaluate the system that produces the products. Quality control and quality assurance differ in that quality control ensures that things are done correctly given the 'state-of-the-art' technology, and quality assurance ensures that quality control is maintained within specified limits.

High quality digital holographic reconstruction on analog film

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nelsen, B.; Hartmann, P.

2017-05-01

High quality real-time digital holographic reconstruction, i.e. at 30 Hz frame rates, has been at the forefront of research and has been hailed as the holy grail of display systems. While these efforts have produced a fascinating array of computer algorithms and technology, many applications of reconstructing high quality digital holograms do not require such high frame rates. In fact, applications such as 3D holographic lithography even require a stationary mask. Typical devices used for digital hologram reconstruction are based on spatial-light-modulator technology and this technology is great for reconstructing arbitrary holograms on the fly; however, it lacks the high spatial resolution achievable by its analog counterpart, holographic film. Analog holographic film is therefore the method of choice for reconstructing highquality static holograms. The challenge lies in taking a static, high-quality digitally calculated hologram and effectively writing it to holographic film. We have developed a theoretical system based on a tunable phase plate, an intensity adjustable high-coherence laser and a slip-stick based piezo rotation stage to effectively produce a digitally calculated hologram on analog film. The configuration reproduces the individual components, both the amplitude and phase, of the hologram in the Fourier domain. These Fourier components are then individually written on the holographic film after interfering with a reference beam. The system is analogous to writing angularly multiplexed plane waves with individual component phase control.

Quality-assurance results for routine water analyses in U.S. Geological Survey laboratories, water year 1998

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ludtke, Amy S.; Woodworth, Mark T.; Marsh, Philip S.

2000-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey operates a quality-assurance program based on the analyses of reference samples for two laboratories: the National Water Quality Laboratory and the Quality of Water Service Unit. Reference samples that contain selected inorganic, nutrient, and low-level constituents are prepared and submitted to the laboratory as disguised routine samples. The program goal is to estimate precision and bias for as many analytical methods offered by the participating laboratories as possible. Blind reference samples typically are submitted at a rate of 2 to 5 percent of the annual environmental-sample load for each constituent. The samples are distributed to the laboratories throughout the year. The reference samples are subject to the identical laboratory handling, processing, and analytical procedures as those applied to environmental samples and, therefore, have been used as an independent source to verify bias and precision of laboratory analytical methods and ambient water-quality measurements. The results are stored permanently in the National Water Information System and the Blind Sample Project's data base. During water year 1998, 95 analytical procedures were evaluated at the National Water Quality Laboratory and 63 analytical procedures were evaluated at the Quality of Water Service Unit. An overall evaluation of the inorganic and low-level constituent data for water year 1998 indicated 77 of 78 analytical procedures at the National Water Quality Laboratory met the criteria for precision. Silver (dissolved, inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry) was determined to be imprecise. Five of 78 analytical procedures showed bias throughout the range of reference samples: chromium (dissolved, inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry), dissolved solids (dissolved, gravimetric), lithium (dissolved, inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry), silver (dissolved, inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry), and zinc (dissolved, inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry). At the National Water Quality Laboratory during water year 1998, lack of precision was indicated for 2 of 17 nutrient procedures: ammonia as nitrogen (dissolved, colorimetric) and orthophosphate as phosphorus (dissolved, colorimetric). Bias was indicated throughout the reference sample range for ammonia as nitrogen (dissolved, colorimetric, low level) and nitrate plus nitrite as nitrogen (dissolved, colorimetric, low level). All analytical procedures tested at the Quality of Water Service Unit during water year 1998 met the criteria for precision. One of the 63 analytical procedures indicated a bias throughout the range of reference samples: aluminum (whole-water recoverable, inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry, trace).

Evaluation of the protein quality of wheat grains (Grizza 155) and eight related products by the dose-response bioassay.

PubMed

Hussein, L; Abbassy, M; Arafa, A; Morcos, S R

1979-12-01

The amino acid analysis revealed that wheat grains, white and dark flour, baladi bread prepared from white or dark flour, bread prepared from formulae enriched with gluten and biscuits are poor in lysine with chemical scores ranging between 20 and 49. The assessment of the protein quality of wheat and related products was done by slope ratio bioassay. Results based on slopes relative to those of reference casein + methionine ranked bread prepared from dark flour and cooked wheat (belila) as the highest in their protein quality, followed by their parent; wheat (RNV = 44). Dietetic bread with gluten had RNV = 20-24; owing to its high protein content (38%), its utilizable protein approached that of good proteins (8%). Very high significant correlation existed between the two measures of response; gain in weight and net increase in body water as response of nitrogen intake.

The Asian arowana (Scleropages formosus) genome provides new insights into the evolution of an early lineage of teleosts

PubMed Central

Bian, Chao; Hu, Yinchang; Ravi, Vydianathan; Kuznetsova, Inna S.; Shen, Xueyan; Mu, Xidong; Sun, Ying; You, Xinxin; Li, Jia; Li, Xiaofeng; Qiu, Ying; Tay, Boon-Hui; Thevasagayam, Natascha May; Komissarov, Aleksey S.; Trifonov, Vladimir; Kabilov, Marsel; Tupikin, Alexey; Luo, Jianren; Liu, Yi; Song, Hongmei; Liu, Chao; Wang, Xuejie; Gu, Dangen; Yang, Yexin; Li, Wujiao; Polgar, Gianluca; Fan, Guangyi; Zeng, Peng; Zhang, He; Xiong, Zijun; Tang, Zhujing; Peng, Chao; Ruan, Zhiqiang; Yu, Hui; Chen, Jieming; Fan, Mingjun; Huang, Yu; Wang, Min; Zhao, Xiaomeng; Hu, Guojun; Yang, Huanming; Wang, Jian; Wang, Jun; Xu, Xun; Song, Linsheng; Xu, Gangchun; Xu, Pao; Xu, Junmin; O’Brien, Stephen J.; Orbán, László; Venkatesh, Byrappa; Shi, Qiong

2016-01-01

The Asian arowana (Scleropages formosus), one of the world’s most expensive cultivated ornamental fishes, is an endangered species. It represents an ancient lineage of teleosts: the Osteoglossomorpha. Here, we provide a high-quality chromosome-level reference genome of a female golden-variety arowana using a combination of deep shotgun sequencing and high-resolution linkage mapping. In addition, we have also generated two draft genome assemblies for the red and green varieties. Phylogenomic analysis supports a sister group relationship between Osteoglossomorpha (bonytongues) and Elopomorpha (eels and relatives), with the two clades together forming a sister group of Clupeocephala which includes all the remaining teleosts. The arowana genome retains the full complement of eight Hox clusters unlike the African butterfly fish (Pantodon buchholzi), another bonytongue fish, which possess only five Hox clusters. Differential gene expression among three varieties provides insights into the genetic basis of colour variation. A potential heterogametic sex chromosome is identified in the female arowana karyotype, suggesting that the sex is determined by a ZW/ZZ sex chromosomal system. The high-quality reference genome of the golden arowana and the draft assemblies of the red and green varieties are valuable resources for understanding the biology, adaptation and behaviour of Asian arowanas. PMID:27089831

Two Low Coverage Bird Genomes and a Comparison of Reference-Guided versus De Novo Genome Assemblies

PubMed Central

Card, Daren C.; Schield, Drew R.; Reyes-Velasco, Jacobo; Fujita, Matthew K.; Andrew, Audra L.; Oyler-McCance, Sara J.; Fike, Jennifer A.; Tomback, Diana F.; Ruggiero, Robert P.; Castoe, Todd A.

2014-01-01

As a greater number and diversity of high-quality vertebrate reference genomes become available, it is increasingly feasible to use these references to guide new draft assemblies for related species. Reference-guided assembly approaches may substantially increase the contiguity and completeness of a new genome using only low levels of genome coverage that might otherwise be insufficient for de novo genome assembly. We used low-coverage (∼3.5–5.5x) Illumina paired-end sequencing to assemble draft genomes of two bird species (the Gunnison Sage-Grouse, Centrocercus minimus, and the Clark's Nutcracker, Nucifraga columbiana). We used these data to estimate de novo genome assemblies and reference-guided assemblies, and compared the information content and completeness of these assemblies by comparing CEGMA gene set representation, repeat element content, simple sequence repeat content, and GC isochore structure among assemblies. Our results demonstrate that even lower-coverage genome sequencing projects are capable of producing informative and useful genomic resources, particularly through the use of reference-guided assemblies. PMID:25192061

77 FR 71140 - Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Pennsylvania; Allegheny County...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-11-29

... by Reference of Pennsylvania's Consumer Products Regulations,'' that is located in the ``Rules and... Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Pennsylvania; Allegheny County Incorporation by Reference of Pennsylvania's Consumer Products Regulations AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Proposed...

Cardiac rehabilitation and mid-term follow-up after transcatheter aortic valve implantation

PubMed Central

Zanettini, Renzo; Gatto, Gemma; Mori, Ileana; Pozzoni, Maria Beatrice; Pelenghi, Stefano; Martinelli, Luigi; Klugmann, Silvio

2014-01-01

Background Evaluation of patient outcomes following transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has usually been based on survival and clinical improvement. Studies on quality of life are limited, and data from comprehensive assessments after the procedure are lacking. Methods Sixty patients referred for cardiac rehabilitation after TAVI underwent in-hospital and after-discharge multidimensional assessments to evaluate clinical, functional, and nutritional statuses, degree of autonomy, cognitive impairment, depression and quality of life. Results On admission to rehabilitation, approximately half of the patients had severe functional impairment and dependence for basic activities of daily living. During their hospital stay, one-third of the patients suffered significant clinical complications and two had to be transferred to the implantation center. Despite this, the overall outcome was very good. All of the remaining patients were clinically stable at discharge and functional status, autonomy and quality of life were improved in most. During a mean follow-up of 540 days (range: 192–738 days), five patients died from noncardiac causes, three were hospitalized for cardiac events, and nine for non cardiac reasons. Functional status and autonomy remained satisfactory in the majority of patients and most continued to live independently. Conclusions Patients referred for rehabilitation after TAVI are often very frail, with a high grade of functional impairment, dependence on others and high risk of clinical complications. During a rehabilitation programme, based on a multidimensional assessment and intervention, most patients showed significant improvement in functional status, quality of life, and autonomy, which remained stable in the majority of subjects during mid-term follow-up. PMID:25593575

Simple and rapid quality control of sulfated glycans by a fluorescence sensor assay--exemplarily developed for the sulfated polysaccharides from red algae Delesseria sanguinea.

PubMed

Lühn, Susanne; Grimm, Juliane C; Alban, Susanne

2014-04-10

Sulfated polysaccharides (SP) from algae are of great interest due to their manifold biological activities. Obstacles to commercial (especially medical) application include considerable variability and complex chemical composition making the analysis and the quality control challenging. The aim of this study was to evaluate a simple microplate assay for screening the quality of SP. It is based on the fluorescence intensity (FI) increase of the sensor molecule Polymer-H by SP and was originally developed for direct quantification of SP. Exemplarily, 65 SP batches isolated from the red alga Delesseria sanguinea (D.s.-SP) and several other algae polysaccharides were investigated. Their FI increase in the Polymer-H assay was compared with other analytical parameters. By testing just one concentration of a D.s.-SP sample, quality deviations from the reference D.s.-SP and thus both batch-to-batch variability and stability can be detected. Further, structurally distinct SP showed to differ in their concentration-dependent FI profiles. By using corresponding reference compounds, the Polymer-H assay is therefore applicable as identification assay with high negative predictability. In conclusion, the Polymer-H assay showed to represent not only a simple method for quantification, but also for characterization identification and differentiation of SP of marine origin.

A no-reference bitstream-based perceptual model for video quality estimation of videos affected by coding artifacts and packet losses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pandremmenou, K.; Shahid, M.; Kondi, L. P.; Lövström, B.

2015-03-01

In this work, we propose a No-Reference (NR) bitstream-based model for predicting the quality of H.264/AVC video sequences, affected by both compression artifacts and transmission impairments. The proposed model is based on a feature extraction procedure, where a large number of features are calculated from the packet-loss impaired bitstream. Many of the features are firstly proposed in this work, and the specific set of the features as a whole is applied for the first time for making NR video quality predictions. All feature observations are taken as input to the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regression method. LASSO indicates the most important features, and using only them, it is possible to estimate the Mean Opinion Score (MOS) with high accuracy. Indicatively, we point out that only 13 features are able to produce a Pearson Correlation Coefficient of 0.92 with the MOS. Interestingly, the performance statistics we computed in order to assess our method for predicting the Structural Similarity Index and the Video Quality Metric are equally good. Thus, the obtained experimental results verified the suitability of the features selected by LASSO as well as the ability of LASSO in making accurate predictions through sparse modeling.

An Examination of the Quality of Wind Observations with Smartphones

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hintz, Kasper; Vedel, Henrik; Muñoz-Gomez, Juan; Woetmann, Niels

2017-04-01

Over the last years, the number of devices connected to the internet has increased significantly making it possible for internal and external sensors to communicate via the internet, opening up many possibilities for additional data for use in the atmospheric sciences. Vaavud has manufactured small anemometer devices which can measure wind speed and wind direction when connected to a smartphone. This work examines the quality of such crowdsourced Handheld Wind Observations (HWO). In order to examine the quality of the HWO, multiple idealised measurement sessions were performed at different sites in different atmospheric conditions. In these sessions, a high-precision ultrasonic anemometer was installed to work as a reference measurement. The HWO are extrapolated to 10 m in order to compare these to the reference observations. This allows us to examine the effect of stability correction in the surface layer and the quality of height extrapolated HWO. The height extrapolation is done using the logarithmic wind profile law with and without stability correction. Furthermore, this study examines the optimal ways of using traditional observations and numerical models to validate HWO. In order to do so, a series of numerical reanalysis have been run for a period of 5 months to quantise the effect of including crowdsourced HWO in a traditional observation dataset.

Coval: Improving Alignment Quality and Variant Calling Accuracy for Next-Generation Sequencing Data

PubMed Central

Kosugi, Shunichi; Natsume, Satoshi; Yoshida, Kentaro; MacLean, Daniel; Cano, Liliana; Kamoun, Sophien; Terauchi, Ryohei

2013-01-01

Accurate identification of DNA polymorphisms using next-generation sequencing technology is challenging because of a high rate of sequencing error and incorrect mapping of reads to reference genomes. Currently available short read aligners and DNA variant callers suffer from these problems. We developed the Coval software to improve the quality of short read alignments. Coval is designed to minimize the incidence of spurious alignment of short reads, by filtering mismatched reads that remained in alignments after local realignment and error correction of mismatched reads. The error correction is executed based on the base quality and allele frequency at the non-reference positions for an individual or pooled sample. We demonstrated the utility of Coval by applying it to simulated genomes and experimentally obtained short-read data of rice, nematode, and mouse. Moreover, we found an unexpectedly large number of incorrectly mapped reads in ‘targeted’ alignments, where the whole genome sequencing reads had been aligned to a local genomic segment, and showed that Coval effectively eliminated such spurious alignments. We conclude that Coval significantly improves the quality of short-read sequence alignments, thereby increasing the calling accuracy of currently available tools for SNP and indel identification. Coval is available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/coval105/. PMID:24116042

Pedestrian visual recommendation in Kertanegara - Semeru corridor in Malang City

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cosalia, V. B.

2017-06-01

Streetscape could be the first impression to see an urban area. One of the streerscape that should be attended to it is corridor of Jl. Kertanegara - Semeru since at that corridor is the road corridor having the strong caracter also as the one of the main axes in Malang city. This research is aim knowing the visual quality also the exact structuring rcommendation for Jl. Kertanegara - Semeru based on pedestrian’s visual. The methode used to this research is Scenic Beauty Estimation (SBE) and used historic study. There is several variables used, they are scale space, visual flexibility, beauty, emphasis, balance and dominant. Based on those variable the pedestrians as a respondent doing the assessment. Based on the result of SBE have been done, it is showed that the visual quality in Corridor Kertanegara Semeru is well enough since the result showed that there are 10 photos in low visual quality in Jl. Semeru and 14 photos in high visual quality in Jl. Kertanegara, Jl. Tugu dan Jl. Kahuripan. By the historic study and based on high visual quality reference doing the structuring recommendation in part of landscape having the low visual quality.

Comparative Genomics as a Foundation for Evo-Devo Studies in Birds.

PubMed

Grayson, Phil; Sin, Simon Y W; Sackton, Timothy B; Edwards, Scott V

2017-01-01

Developmental genomics is a rapidly growing field, and high-quality genomes are a useful foundation for comparative developmental studies. A high-quality genome forms an essential reference onto which the data from numerous assays and experiments, including ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq, and RNA-seq, can be mapped. A genome also streamlines and simplifies the development of primers used to amplify putative regulatory regions for enhancer screens, cDNA probes for in situ hybridization, microRNAs (miRNAs) or short hairpin RNAs (shRNA) for RNA interference (RNAi) knockdowns, mRNAs for misexpression studies, and even guide RNAs (gRNAs) for CRISPR knockouts. Finally, much can be gleaned from comparative genomics alone, including the identification of highly conserved putative regulatory regions. This chapter provides an overview of laboratory and bioinformatics protocols for DNA extraction, library preparation, library quantification, and genome assembly, from fresh or frozen tissue to a draft avian genome. Generating a high-quality draft genome can provide a developmental research group with excellent resources for their study organism, opening the doors to many additional assays and experiments.

The extant World War 1 dysentery bacillus NCTC1: a genomic analysis.

PubMed

Baker, Kate S; Mather, Alison E; McGregor, Hannah; Coupland, Paul; Langridge, Gemma C; Day, Martin; Deheer-Graham, Ana; Parkhill, Julian; Russell, Julie E; Thomson, Nicholas R

2014-11-08

Shigellosis (previously bacillary dysentery) was the primary diarrhoeal disease of World War 1, but outbreaks still occur in military operations, and shigellosis causes hundreds of thousands of deaths per year in developing nations. We aimed to generate a high-quality reference genome of the historical Shigella flexneri isolate NCTC1 and to examine the isolate for resistance to antimicrobials. In this genomic analysis, we sequenced the oldest extant Shigella flexneri serotype 2a isolate using single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing technology. Isolated from a soldier with dysentery from the British forces fighting on the Western Front in World War 1, this bacterium, NCTC1, was the first isolate accessioned into the National Collection of Type Cultures. We created a reference sequence for NCTC1, investigated the isolate for antimicrobial resistance, and undertook comparative genetics with S flexneri reference strains isolated during the 100 years since World War 1. We discovered that NCTC1 belonged to a 2a lineage of S flexneri, with which it shares common characteristics and a large core genome. NCTC1 was resistant to penicillin and erythromycin, and contained a complement of chromosomal antimicrobial resistance genes similar to that of more recent isolates. Genomic islands gained in the S flexneri 2a lineage over time were predominately associated with additional antimicrobial resistances, virulence, and serotype conversion. This S flexneri 2a lineage is a well adapted pathogen that has continued to respond to selective pressures. We have created a valuable historical benchmark for shigellae in the form of a high-quality reference sequence for a publicly available isolate. The Wellcome Trust. Copyright © 2014 Baker et al. Open Access article distributed under the terms of CC BY. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Applying Tandem Mass Spectral Libraries for Solving the Critical Assessment of Small Molecule Identification (CASMI) LC/MS Challenge 2012

PubMed Central

Oberacher, Herbert

2013-01-01

The “Critical Assessment of Small Molecule Identification” (CASMI) contest was aimed in testing strategies for small molecule identification that are currently available in the experimental and computational mass spectrometry community. We have applied tandem mass spectral library search to solve Category 2 of the CASMI Challenge 2012 (best identification for high resolution LC/MS data). More than 230,000 tandem mass spectra part of four well established libraries (MassBank, the collection of tandem mass spectra of the “NIST/NIH/EPA Mass Spectral Library 2012”, METLIN, and the ‘Wiley Registry of Tandem Mass Spectral Data, MSforID’) were searched. The sample spectra acquired in positive ion mode were processed. Seven out of 12 challenges did not produce putative positive matches, simply because reference spectra were not available for the compounds searched. This suggests that to some extent the limited coverage of chemical space with high-quality reference spectra is still a problem encountered in tandem mass spectral library search. Solutions were submitted for five challenges. Three compounds were correctly identified (kanamycin A, benzyldiphenylphosphine oxide, and 1-isopropyl-5-methyl-1H-indole-2,3-dione). In the absence of any reference spectrum, a false positive identification was obtained for 1-aminoanthraquinone by matching the corresponding sample spectrum to the structurally related compounds N-phenylphthalimide and 2-aminoanthraquinone. Another false positive result was submitted for 1H-benz[g]indole; for the 1H-benz[g]indole-specific sample spectra provided, carbazole was listed as the best matching compound. In this case, the quality of the available 1H-benz[g]indole-specific reference spectra was found to hamper unequivocal identification. PMID:24957994

Devices for the Production of Reference Gas Mixtures.

PubMed

Fijało, Cyprian; Dymerski, Tomasz; Gębicki, Jacek; Namieśnik, Jacek

2016-09-02

For many years there has been growing demand for gaseous reference materials, which is connected with development in many fields of science and technology. As a result, new methodological and instrumental solutions appear that can be used for this purpose. Appropriate quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) must be used to make sure that measurement data are a reliable source of information. Reference materials are a significant element of such systems. In the case of gas samples, such materials are generally called reference gas mixtures. This article presents the application and classification of reference gas mixtures, which are a specific type of reference materials, and the methods for obtaining them are described. Construction solutions of devices for the production of reference gas mixtures are detailed, and a description of a prototype device for dynamic production of reference gas mixtures containing aroma compounds is presented.

Quality of claims, references and the presentation of risk results in medical journal advertising: a comparative study in Australia, Malaysia and the United States.

PubMed

Othman, Noordin; Vitry, Agnes I; Roughead, Elizabeth E

2010-05-29

Journal advertising is used by pharmaceutical companies to disseminate medicine information to doctors. The quality of claims, references and the presentation of risk results in Australia and the US has been questioned in several studies. No recent evidence is available on the quality of claims, references and the presentation of risk results in journal advertising in Australia and the US and no Malaysian data have been published. The aim of this study was to compare the quality of claims, references and the presentation of risk results in journal advertising in these three countries. A consecutive sample of 85 unique advertisements from each country was selected from journal advertising published between January 2004 to December 2006. Claims, references and the presentation of risk results in medical journal advertising were compared between the three countries. Less than one-third of the claims were unambiguous claims (Australia, 30%, Malaysia 17%, US, 23%). In Malaysia significantly less unambiguous claims were provided than in Australia and the US (P < 0.001). However, the unambiguous claims were supported by more references than other claims (80%). Most evidence was obtained from at least one randomized controlled trial, a systematic review or meta-analysis (Australia, 84%, Malaysia, 81%, US, 76%) with journal articles being the most commonly cited references in all countries. Data on file were significantly more likely to be cited in the US (17%) than in Australia (2%) and Malaysia (4%) (P < 0.001). Advertisements that provided quantitative information reported risk results exclusively as a relative risk reduction. The majority of claims were vague suggesting poor quality of claims in journal advertising in these three countries. Evidence from a randomized controlled trial, systematic review or meta- analysis was commonly cited to support claims. However, the more frequent use of data that have not been published and independently reviewed in the US compared to Australia and Malaysia raises questions on the quality of references in the US. The use of relative rather than absolute benefits may overemphasize the benefit of medicines which may leave doctors susceptible to misinterpreting information.

Quality of claims, references and the presentation of risk results in medical journal advertising: a comparative study in Australia, Malaysia and the United States

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background Journal advertising is used by pharmaceutical companies to disseminate medicine information to doctors. The quality of claims, references and the presentation of risk results in Australia and the US has been questioned in several studies. No recent evidence is available on the quality of claims, references and the presentation of risk results in journal advertising in Australia and the US and no Malaysian data have been published. The aim of this study was to compare the quality of claims, references and the presentation of risk results in journal advertising in these three countries. Methods A consecutive sample of 85 unique advertisements from each country was selected from journal advertising published between January 2004 to December 2006. Claims, references and the presentation of risk results in medical journal advertising were compared between the three countries. Results Less than one-third of the claims were unambiguous claims (Australia, 30%, Malaysia 17%, US, 23%). In Malaysia significantly less unambiguous claims were provided than in Australia and the US (P < 0.001). However, the unambiguous claims were supported by more references than other claims (80%). Most evidence was obtained from at least one randomized controlled trial, a systematic review or meta-analysis (Australia, 84%, Malaysia, 81%, US, 76%) with journal articles being the most commonly cited references in all countries. Data on file were significantly more likely to be cited in the US (17%) than in Australia (2%) and Malaysia (4%) (P < 0.001). Advertisements that provided quantitative information reported risk results exclusively as a relative risk reduction Conclusions The majority of claims were vague suggesting poor quality of claims in journal advertising in these three countries. Evidence from a randomized controlled trial, systematic review or meta- analysis was commonly cited to support claims. However, the more frequent use of data that have not been published and independently reviewed in the US compared to Australia and Malaysia raises questions on the quality of references in the US. The use of relative rather than absolute benefits may overemphasize the benefit of medicines which may leave doctors susceptible to misinterpreting information. PMID:20509953

Using optical mapping data for the improvement of vertebrate genome assemblies.

PubMed

Howe, Kerstin; Wood, Jonathan M D

2015-01-01

Optical mapping is a technology that gathers long-range information on genome sequences similar to ordered restriction digest maps. Because it is not subject to cloning, amplification, hybridisation or sequencing bias, it is ideally suited to the improvement of fragmented genome assemblies that can no longer be improved by classical methods. In addition, its low cost and rapid turnaround make it equally useful during the scaffolding process of de novo assembly from high throughput sequencing reads. We describe how optical mapping has been used in practice to produce high quality vertebrate genome assemblies. In particular, we detail the efforts undertaken by the Genome Reference Consortium (GRC), which maintains the reference genomes for human, mouse, zebrafish and chicken, and uses different optical mapping platforms for genome curation.

A metrological approach to improve accuracy and reliability of ammonia measurements in ambient air

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pogány, Andrea; Balslev-Harder, David; Braban, Christine F.; Cassidy, Nathan; Ebert, Volker; Ferracci, Valerio; Hieta, Tuomas; Leuenberger, Daiana; Martin, Nicholas A.; Pascale, Céline; Peltola, Jari; Persijn, Stefan; Tiebe, Carlo; Twigg, Marsailidh M.; Vaittinen, Olavi; van Wijk, Janneke; Wirtz, Klaus; Niederhauser, Bernhard

2016-11-01

The environmental impacts of ammonia (NH3) in ambient air have become more evident in the recent decades, leading to intensifying research in this field. A number of novel analytical techniques and monitoring instruments have been developed, and the quality and availability of reference gas mixtures used for the calibration of measuring instruments has also increased significantly. However, recent inter-comparison measurements show significant discrepancies, indicating that the majority of the newly developed devices and reference materials require further thorough validation. There is a clear need for more intensive metrological research focusing on quality assurance, intercomparability and validations. MetNH3 (Metrology for ammonia in ambient air) is a three-year project within the framework of the European Metrology Research Programme (EMRP), which aims to bring metrological traceability to ambient ammonia measurements in the 0.5-500 nmol mol-1 amount fraction range. This is addressed by working in three areas: (1) improving accuracy and stability of static and dynamic reference gas mixtures, (2) developing an optical transfer standard and (3) establishing the link between high-accuracy metrological standards and field measurements. In this article we describe the concept, aims and first results of the project.

Preliminary assessment of several parameters to measure and compare usefulness of the CEOS reference pseudo-invariant calibration sites

USGS Publications Warehouse

Chander, Gyanesh; Angal, Amit; Xiong, Xiaoxiong; Helder, Dennis L.; Mishra, Nischal; Choi, Taeyoung; Wu, Aisheng

2010-01-01

Test sites are central to any future quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) strategy. The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) Working Group for Calibration and Validation (WGCV) Infrared Visible Optical Sensors (IVOS) worked with collaborators around the world to establish a core set of CEOS-endorsed, globally distributed, reference standard test sites (both instrumented and pseudo-invariant) for the post-launch calibration of space-based optical imaging sensors. The pseudo-invariant calibration sites (PICS) have high reflectance and are usually made up of sand dunes with low aerosol loading and practically no vegetation. The goal of this paper is to provide preliminary assessment of "several parameters" than can be used on an operational basis to compare and measure usefulness of reference sites all over the world. The data from Landsat 7 (L7) Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) and the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) Hyperion sensors over the CEOS PICS were used to perform a preliminary assessment of several parameters, such as usable area, data availability, top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance, at-sensor brightness temperature, spatial uniformity, temporal stability, spectral stability, and typical spectrum observed over the sites.

Principles for high-quality, high-value testing.

PubMed

Power, Michael; Fell, Greg; Wright, Michael

2013-02-01

A survey of doctors working in two large NHS hospitals identified over 120 laboratory tests, imaging investigations and investigational procedures that they considered not to be overused. A common suggestion in this survey was that more training was required. And, this prompted the development of a list of core principles for high-quality, high-value testing. The list can be used as a framework for training and as a reference source. The core principles are: (1) Base testing practices on the best available evidence. (2) Apply the evidence on test performance with careful judgement. (3) Test efficiently. (4) Consider the value (and affordability) of a test before requesting it. (5) Be aware of the downsides and drivers of overdiagnosis. (6) Confront uncertainties. (7) Be patient-centred in your approach. (8) Consider ethical issues. (9) Be aware of normal cognitive limitations and biases when testing. (10) Follow the 'knowledge journey' when teaching and learning these core principles.

[Construction and application of economy-pollution-environment three-dimensional evaluation model for district].

PubMed

Fan, Xin-Gang; Mi, Wen-Bao; Ma, Zhen-Ning

2015-02-01

For deep analysis on the regional environmental economic system, the paper analyzes the mutual relation of regional economy development, environmental quality, environmental pollution, and builds the theoretical basis. Then, the economy-pollution-environment quality three-dimensional coupling evaluation model for district is constructed. It includes economic development level index, environmental pollution index, and environmental quality index. The model is a cube, which has spatialization and visualization characteristics. The model includes 8 sub cubes, which expresses 8 types of state, e. g. low pollution-inferior quality-low level of economic development etc. The model can be used to evaluate the status of region, divide development phase, analyze evolution trend etc. It has two ways including relative meaning evaluation (RME) and absolute meaning evaluation (AME). Based on the model, Yinchuan City in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region is used as an example for the empirical study. Using RME, compared with Guangzhou city, The result shows that the Yinchuan City has been a high pollution-low quality-low level of economic development state for a long period during 1996-2010. After 2007, the state changed to a high pollution-high quality-low level of economic development. Now, the environmental quality of Yinchuan city gets better, but pollutant discharge pressure is high, and tends to be the break point of high environment quality and low environment. With AME, using national standard, the Yinchuan City remains a high pollution-low quality-low level of economic development state during 1996-2010. Empirical research verifies that different target reference areas and relevant national standards have different main parameters, the evaluating result has an flexible range. The dimensionless data enhances the coupling of index. The data position in model increases the visibility to the environmental management decisions. The model improves mismatches of calculated data size, time asymmetry of spatial data, verification of the former multi-target coupling model.

Anthropogenic activities impact on atmospheric environmental quality in a gas-flaring community: application of fuzzy logic modelling concept.

PubMed

Akintola, Olayiwola Akin; Sangodoyin, Abimbola Yisau; Agunbiade, Foluso Oyedotun

2018-05-24

We present a modelling concept for evaluating the impacts of anthropogenic activities suspected to be from gas flaring on the quality of the atmosphere using domestic roof-harvested rainwater (DRHRW) as indicator. We analysed seven metals (Cu, Cd, Pb, Zn, Fe, Ca, and Mg) and six water quality parameters (acidity, PO 4 3- , SO 4 2- , NO 3 - , Cl - , and pH). These were used as input parameters in 12 sampling points from gas-flaring environments (Port Harcourt, Nigeria) using Ibadan as reference. We formulated the results of these input parameters into membership function fuzzy matrices based on four degrees of impact: extremely high, high, medium, and low, using regulatory limits as criteria. We generated indices that classified the degree of anthropogenic activity impact on the sites from the product membership function matrices and weight matrices, with investigated (gas-flaring) environment as between medium and high impact compared to those from reference (residential) environment that was classified as between low and medium impact. Major contaminants of concern found in the harvested rainwater were Pb and Cd. There is also the urgent need to stop gas-flaring activities in Port Harcourt area in particular and Niger Delta region of Nigeria in general, so as to minimise the untold health hazard that people living in the area are currently faced with. The fuzzy methodology presented has also indicated that the water cannot safely support potable uses and should not be consumed without purification due to the impact of anthropogenic activities in the area but may be useful for other domestic purposes.

Exploring the concept of quality care for the person who is dying.

PubMed

Stefanou, Nichola; Faircloth, Sandra

2010-12-01

The concept of good quality care for the patient who is dying is diverse and complex. Many of the actions that are being taken to increase the quality of care of the dying patient are based around outcome, uniformity of service and standardization of process. There are two main areas that are referred to when dealing with care of the dying patient; end-of-life care and palliative care. High quality end-of-life care is increasingly recognized as an ethical obligation of health-care providers, clinicians and organizations, and yet there appears little evidence from the patients' perspective. There are many national and local initiatives taking place to improve the quality of care people receive towards the end of their life. This being said initiatives alone will not achieve good quality care and deliver good patient experiences. Only clinicians working at the front line can truly influence the way in which quality is improved and good experiences delivered.

Key concepts relevant to quality of complex and shared decision-making in health care: a literature review.

PubMed

Dy, Sydney M; Purnell, Tanjala S

2012-02-01

High-quality provider-patient decision-making is key to quality care for complex conditions. We performed an analysis of key elements relevant to quality and complex, shared medical decision-making. Based on a search of electronic databases, including Medline and the Cochrane Library, as well as relevant articles' reference lists, reviews of tools, and annotated bibliographies, we developed a list of key concepts and applied them to a decision-making example. Key concepts identified included provider competence, trustworthiness, and cultural competence; communication with patients and families; information quality; patient/surrogate competence; and roles and involvement. We applied this concept list to a case example, shared decision-making for live donor kidney transplantation, and identified the likely most important concepts as provider and cultural competence, information quality, and communication with patients and families. This concept list may be useful for conceptualizing the quality of complex shared decision-making and in guiding research in this area. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sorption of lead ions on diatomite and manganese oxides modified diatomite.

PubMed

Al-Degs, Y; Khraisheh, M A; Tutunji, M F

2001-10-01

Naturally occurring diatomaceous earth (diatomite) has been tested as a potential sorbent for Pb(II) ions. The intrinsic exchange properties were further improved by modification with manganese oxides. Modified adsorbent (referred to as Mn-diatomite) showed a higher tendency for adsorbing lead ions from solution at pH 4. The high performance exhibited by Mn-diatomite was attributed to increased surface area and higher negative surface charge after modification. Scanning electron microscope pictures revealed a birnessite structure of manganese oxides, which was featured by a plate-like-crystal structure. Diatomite filtration quality was improved after modification by manganese oxides. Good filtration qualities combined with high exchange capacity emphasised the potential use of Mn-diatomite in filtration systems.

A high-throughput Sanger strategy for human mitochondrial genome sequencing

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background A population reference database of complete human mitochondrial genome (mtGenome) sequences is needed to enable the use of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) coding region data in forensic casework applications. However, the development of entire mtGenome haplotypes to forensic data quality standards is difficult and laborious. A Sanger-based amplification and sequencing strategy that is designed for automated processing, yet routinely produces high quality sequences, is needed to facilitate high-volume production of these mtGenome data sets. Results We developed a robust 8-amplicon Sanger sequencing strategy that regularly produces complete, forensic-quality mtGenome haplotypes in the first pass of data generation. The protocol works equally well on samples representing diverse mtDNA haplogroups and DNA input quantities ranging from 50 pg to 1 ng, and can be applied to specimens of varying DNA quality. The complete workflow was specifically designed for implementation on robotic instrumentation, which increases throughput and reduces both the opportunities for error inherent to manual processing and the cost of generating full mtGenome sequences. Conclusions The described strategy will assist efforts to generate complete mtGenome haplotypes which meet the highest data quality expectations for forensic genetic and other applications. Additionally, high-quality data produced using this protocol can be used to assess mtDNA data developed using newer technologies and chemistries. Further, the amplification strategy can be used to enrich for mtDNA as a first step in sample preparation for targeted next-generation sequencing. PMID:24341507

Evaluation of RNA from human trabecular bone and identification of stable reference genes.

PubMed

Cepollaro, Simona; Della Bella, Elena; de Biase, Dario; Visani, Michela; Fini, Milena

2018-06-01

The isolation of good quality RNA from tissues is an essential prerequisite for gene expression analysis to study pathophysiological processes. This study evaluated the RNA isolated from human trabecular bone and defined a set of stable reference genes. After pulverization, RNA was extracted with a phenol/chloroform method and then purified using silica columns. The A260/280 ratio, A260/230 ratio, RIN, and ribosomal ratio were measured to evaluate RNA quality and integrity. Moreover, the expression of six candidates was analyzed by qPCR and different algorithms were applied to assess reference gene stability. A good purity and quality of RNA was achieved according to A260/280 and A260/230 ratios, and RIN values. TBP, YWHAZ, and PGK1 were the most stable reference genes that should be used for gene expression analysis. In summary, the method proposed is suitable for gene expression evaluation in human bone and a set of reliable reference genes has been identified. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Geomorphological reference condition definition as a basis for river restoration and river management: the example of Oiartzun, Oria and Urumea River basins (Basque Country)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ibisate, Askoa; Ollero, Alfredo; Sáenz de Olazagoitia, Ana; Acín, Vanesa; Granado, David; Herrero, Xabier; Horacio, Jesús

2017-04-01

The application of hydrogeomorphology as a tool for river management and decision making on reference condition definition for river restoration is presented. Water Framework Directive (2000/60/CE) requires the identification of reference conditions and attainable target images, to achieve the good ecological status, taking into account the direct and indirect changes in the basin and river course. Data collection was done through an exhaustive fieldwork and GIS tools. Based on geomorphological homogeneous river reaches identification (waterfall, bedrock, step-pool, cascade, coluvial, run, riffle-pool, heavily modified), the hydrogeomorphological assessment of all of them in relation to its "natural" condition allowed the identification of those with a good or very good hydrogeomorphological condition, considered as reference condition. The loss of hydrogeomorphological quality was closely linked to sociodemographical pressure, due to artificial elements in the river course, floodplain and land use changes on the basin. The assessment done based on pressures and impacts allowed the proposal of specific restoration objectives which facilitated the identification of the elements that degrade the hydrogeomorphological quality of the reaches, and helped the identification of specific restoration actions. In addition it was possible to set the reaches with the potentiality of being restored, those reversible and those that due to its high degradation were considered irreversible, and therefore not able to be restored, except for some rehabilitation or mitigation measures. The application in two basins, Oria and Oiartzun, concluded that 36% of the reaches could recover their geomorphological good status and a 40% could be considered as reference condition for other reaches. This geomorphological based reference condition definition could be linked and complete with ecological data.

Field Characterization of Potential Reference Sediments in the Gulf of Mexico: Chemical and Biological Quality

EPA Science Inventory

Lewis, Michael A., Jed G. Campbell, Peggy S. Harris, Darrin D. Dantin, Steve S. Foss, Robert L. Quarles, James C. Moore and Cynthia A. Chancy. Submitted. Characterization of Potential Reference Areas in the Gulf of Mexico: Near-Coastal Sediment Chemical and Biological Quality. En...

A novel approach for the development of tiered use biological criteria for rivers and streams in an ecologically diverse landscape.

PubMed

Bouchard, R William; Niemela, Scott; Genet, John A; Yoder, Chris O; Sandberg, John; Chirhart, Joel W; Feist, Mike; Lundeen, Benjamin; Helwig, Dan

2016-03-01

Water resource protection goals for aquatic life are often general and can result in under protection of some high quality water bodies and unattainable expectations for other water bodies. More refined aquatic life goals known as tiered aquatic life uses (TALUs) provide a framework to designate uses by setting protective goals for high quality water bodies and establishing attainable goals for water bodies altered by legally authorized legacy activities (e.g., channelization). Development of biological criteria or biocriteria typically requires identification of a set of least- or minimally-impacted reference sites that are used to establish a baseline from which goals are derived. Under a more refined system of stream types and aquatic life use goals, an adequate set of reference sites is needed to account for the natural variability of aquatic communities (e.g., landscape differences, thermal regime, and stream size). To develop sufficient datasets, Minnesota employed a reference condition approach in combination with an approach based on characterizing a stream's response to anthropogenic disturbance through development of a Biological Condition Gradient (BCG). These two approaches allowed for the creation of ecologically meaningful and consistent biocriteria within a more refined stream typology and solved issues related to small sample sizes and poor representation of minimally- or least-disturbed conditions for some stream types. Implementation of TALU biocriteria for Minnesota streams and rivers will result in consistent and protective goals that address fundamental differences among waters in terms of their potential for restoration.

US Fish and Wildlife Service biomonitoring operations manual, Appendices A--K

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

Gianotto, D.F.; Rope, R.C.; Mondecar, M.

1993-04-01

Volume 2 contains Appendices and Summary Sheets for the following areas: A-Legislative Background and Key to Relevant Legislation, B- Biomonitoring Operations Workbook, C-Air Monitoring, D-Introduction to the Flora and Fauna for Biomonitoring, E-Decontamination Guidance Reference Field Methods, F-Documentation Guidance, Sample Handling, and Quality Assurance/Quality Control Standard Operating Procedures, G-Field Instrument Measurements Reference Field Methods, H-Ground Water Sampling Reference Field Methods, I-Sediment Sampling Reference Field Methods, J-Soil Sampling Reference Field Methods, K-Surface Water Reference Field Methods. Appendix B explains how to set up strategy to enter information on the ``disk workbook``. Appendix B is enhanced by DE97006389, an on-line workbook formore » users to be able to make revisions to their own biomonitoring data.« less

Focus on Teacher Pay and Incentives: Recent Legislative Actions and Update on Salary Averages. Challenge to Lead

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gaines, Gale F.

2004-01-01

Is your state making progress toward having a high-quality teacher in every classroom? How will you know? One indicator of progress in the Challenge to Lead goals refers to teacher compensation: "Salaries, benefits and incentives are competitive in the marketplace. They are aimed at recognized expertise, student performance, state needs and taking…

Use of multiple sequencing technologies to produce a high-quality genome of the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, the causative agent of bat White-Nose syndrome

USGS Publications Warehouse

Drees, Kevin P.; Palmer, Jonathan M.; Sebra, Robert; Lorch, Jeffrey M.; Chen, Cynthia; Wu, ChengCang; Bok, Jin Woo; Keller, Nancy F.; Blehert, David; Cuomo, Christina A.; Linder, Daniel L.; Foster, Jeffrey T.

2016-01-01

White-Nose syndrome has recently emerged as one of the most devastating wildlife diseases recorded, causing widespread mortality in numerous bat species throughout eastern North America. Here, we present an improvised reference genome of the fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans for use in comparative genomic studies.

Assessment of the Impact of Super Storm Sandy on Coral Reefs of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-01-01

Matted-like sponge seen at all sites ...................................................................................... 28 18. Mosaic of the...boring sponges ). Cooper et al. (2008) correlated high densities of macro-bioeroders with diminished water quality. Bleaching refers to the loss or... sponges measured from mosaics using random point counts. CPCe and Mosiac Viewer Coral species richness & diversity Number of coral species as

Use of Multiple Sequencing Technologies To Produce a High-Quality Genome of the Fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, the Causative Agent of Bat White-Nose Syndrome

PubMed Central

Sebra, Robert; Lorch, Jeffrey M.; Chen, Cynthia; Wu, Cheng-Cang; Bok, Jin Woo; Keller, Nancy P.; Blehert, David S.; Lindner, Daniel L.

2016-01-01

White-nose syndrome has recently emerged as one of the most devastating wildlife diseases recorded, causing widespread mortality in numerous bat species throughout eastern North America. Here, we present an improved reference genome of the fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans for use in comparative genomic studies. PMID:27365344

An ultra-dense SNP linkage map for the octoploid, cultivated strawberry and its application in genetic research

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

We will present an ultra-dense genetic linkage map for the octoploid, cultivated strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) consisting of over 13K Axiom® based SNP markers and 150 previously mapped reference SSR loci. The high quality of the map is demonstrated by the short sizes of each of the 28 linkage gro...

A statistically valid method for using FIA plots to guide spectral class rejection in producing stratification maps

Treesearch

Michael L. Hoppus; Andrew J. Lister

2002-01-01

A Landsat TM classification method (iterative guided spectral class rejection) produced a forest cover map of southern West Virginia that provided the stratification layer for producing estimates of timberland area from Forest Service FIA ground plots using a stratified sampling technique. These same high quality and expensive FIA ground plots provided ground reference...

Evaluation of Time Transfer Units for Time and Frequency Transfer in Optical Fibers Utilizing a Passive Technique Based on SONET/SDH

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-01-01

precision and accuracy. For instance, in international time metrology, two-way satellite time and frequency transfer ( TWSTFT ) (see e.g. [1] and...can act as a time transfer system that is complementary to other high quality systems such as TWSTFT and GPS. REFERENCES [1] J. Levine. “A

Use of multiple sequencing technologies to produce a high-quality genome of the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, the causative agent of bat white-nose syndrome

Treesearch

Kevin P. Drees; Jonathan M. Palmer; Robert Sebra; Jeffrey M. Lorch; Cynthia Chen; Cheng-Cang Wu; Jin Woo Bok; Nancy P. Keller; David S. Blehert; Christina A. Cuomo; Daniel L. Lindner; Jeffrey T. Foster

2016-01-01

White-nose syndrome has recently emerged as one of the most devastating wildlife diseases recorded, causing widespread mortality in numerous bat species throughout eastern North America. Here, we present an improved reference genome of the fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans for use in comparative genomic studies.

Ghost detection and removal based on super-pixel grouping in exposure fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Shenyu; Xu, Zhihai; Li, Qi; Chen, Yueting; Feng, Huajun

2014-09-01

A novel multi-exposure images fusion method for dynamic scenes is proposed. The commonly used techniques for high dynamic range (HDR) imaging are based on the combination of multiple differently exposed images of the same scene. The drawback of these methods is that ghosting artifacts will be introduced into the final HDR image if the scene is not static. In this paper, a super-pixel grouping based method is proposed to detect the ghost in the image sequences. We introduce the zero mean normalized cross correlation (ZNCC) as a measure of similarity between a given exposure image and the reference. The calculation of ZNCC is implemented in super-pixel level, and the super-pixels which have low correlation with the reference are excluded by adjusting the weight maps for fusion. Without any prior information on camera response function or exposure settings, the proposed method generates low dynamic range (LDR) images which can be shown on conventional display devices directly with details preserving and ghost effects reduced. Experimental results show that the proposed method generates high quality images which have less ghost artifacts and provide a better visual quality than previous approaches.

Quality Analysis of Open Street Map Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, M.; Li, Q.; Hu, Q.; Zhou, M.

2013-05-01

Crowd sourcing geographic data is an opensource geographic data which is contributed by lots of non-professionals and provided to the public. The typical crowd sourcing geographic data contains GPS track data like OpenStreetMap, collaborative map data like Wikimapia, social websites like Twitter and Facebook, POI signed by Jiepang user and so on. These data will provide canonical geographic information for pubic after treatment. As compared with conventional geographic data collection and update method, the crowd sourcing geographic data from the non-professional has characteristics or advantages of large data volume, high currency, abundance information and low cost and becomes a research hotspot of international geographic information science in the recent years. Large volume crowd sourcing geographic data with high currency provides a new solution for geospatial database updating while it need to solve the quality problem of crowd sourcing geographic data obtained from the non-professionals. In this paper, a quality analysis model for OpenStreetMap crowd sourcing geographic data is proposed. Firstly, a quality analysis framework is designed based on data characteristic analysis of OSM data. Secondly, a quality assessment model for OSM data by three different quality elements: completeness, thematic accuracy and positional accuracy is presented. Finally, take the OSM data of Wuhan for instance, the paper analyses and assesses the quality of OSM data with 2011 version of navigation map for reference. The result shows that the high-level roads and urban traffic network of OSM data has a high positional accuracy and completeness so that these OSM data can be used for updating of urban road network database.

Comparing the information conveyed by envelope modulation for speech intelligibility, speech quality, and music quality.

PubMed

Kates, James M; Arehart, Kathryn H

2015-10-01

This paper uses mutual information to quantify the relationship between envelope modulation fidelity and perceptual responses. Data from several previous experiments that measured speech intelligibility, speech quality, and music quality are evaluated for normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. A model of the auditory periphery is used to generate envelope signals, and envelope modulation fidelity is calculated using the normalized cross-covariance of the degraded signal envelope with that of a reference signal. Two procedures are used to describe the envelope modulation: (1) modulation within each auditory frequency band and (2) spectro-temporal processing that analyzes the modulation of spectral ripple components fit to successive short-time spectra. The results indicate that low modulation rates provide the highest information for intelligibility, while high modulation rates provide the highest information for speech and music quality. The low-to-mid auditory frequencies are most important for intelligibility, while mid frequencies are most important for speech quality and high frequencies are most important for music quality. Differences between the spectral ripple components used for the spectro-temporal analysis were not significant in five of the six experimental conditions evaluated. The results indicate that different modulation-rate and auditory-frequency weights may be appropriate for indices designed to predict different types of perceptual relationships.

Comparing the information conveyed by envelope modulation for speech intelligibility, speech quality, and music quality

PubMed Central

Kates, James M.; Arehart, Kathryn H.

2015-01-01

This paper uses mutual information to quantify the relationship between envelope modulation fidelity and perceptual responses. Data from several previous experiments that measured speech intelligibility, speech quality, and music quality are evaluated for normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. A model of the auditory periphery is used to generate envelope signals, and envelope modulation fidelity is calculated using the normalized cross-covariance of the degraded signal envelope with that of a reference signal. Two procedures are used to describe the envelope modulation: (1) modulation within each auditory frequency band and (2) spectro-temporal processing that analyzes the modulation of spectral ripple components fit to successive short-time spectra. The results indicate that low modulation rates provide the highest information for intelligibility, while high modulation rates provide the highest information for speech and music quality. The low-to-mid auditory frequencies are most important for intelligibility, while mid frequencies are most important for speech quality and high frequencies are most important for music quality. Differences between the spectral ripple components used for the spectro-temporal analysis were not significant in five of the six experimental conditions evaluated. The results indicate that different modulation-rate and auditory-frequency weights may be appropriate for indices designed to predict different types of perceptual relationships. PMID:26520329

Community Air Sensor Network (CAIRSENSE) project: evaluation of low-cost sensor performance in a suburban environment in the southeastern United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiao, Wan; Hagler, Gayle; Williams, Ronald; Sharpe, Robert; Brown, Ryan; Garver, Daniel; Judge, Robert; Caudill, Motria; Rickard, Joshua; Davis, Michael; Weinstock, Lewis; Zimmer-Dauphinee, Susan; Buckley, Ken

2016-11-01

Advances in air pollution sensor technology have enabled the development of small and low-cost systems to measure outdoor air pollution. The deployment of a large number of sensors across a small geographic area would have potential benefits to supplement traditional monitoring networks with additional geographic and temporal measurement resolution, if the data quality were sufficient. To understand the capability of emerging air sensor technology, the Community Air Sensor Network (CAIRSENSE) project deployed low-cost, continuous, and commercially available air pollution sensors at a regulatory air monitoring site and as a local sensor network over a surrounding ˜ 2 km area in the southeastern United States. Collocation of sensors measuring oxides of nitrogen, ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and particles revealed highly variable performance, both in terms of comparison to a reference monitor as well as the degree to which multiple identical sensors produced the same signal. Multiple ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide sensors revealed low to very high correlation with a reference monitor, with Pearson sample correlation coefficient (r) ranging from 0.39 to 0.97, -0.25 to 0.76, and -0.40 to 0.82, respectively. The only sulfur dioxide sensor tested revealed no correlation (r < 0.5) with a reference monitor and erroneously high concentration values. A wide variety of particulate matter (PM) sensors were tested with variable results - some sensors had very high agreement (e.g., r = 0.99) between identical sensors but moderate agreement with a reference PM2.5 monitor (e.g., r = 0.65). For select sensors that had moderate to strong correlation with reference monitors (r > 0.5), step-wise multiple linear regression was performed to determine if ambient temperature, relative humidity (RH), or age of the sensor in number of sampling days could be used in a correction algorithm to improve the agreement. Maximum improvement in agreement with a reference, incorporating all factors, was observed for an NO2 sensor (multiple correlation coefficient R2adj-orig = 0.57, R2adj-final = 0.81); however, other sensors showed no apparent improvement in agreement. A four-node sensor network was successfully able to capture ozone (two nodes) and PM (four nodes) data for an 8-month period of time and show expected diurnal concentration patterns, as well as potential ozone titration due to nearby traffic emissions. Overall, this study demonstrates the performance of emerging air quality sensor technologies in a real-world setting; the variable agreement between sensors and reference monitors indicates that in situ testing of sensors against benchmark monitors should be a critical aspect of all field studies.

Evidence assessing the diagnostic performance of medical smartphone apps: a systematic review and exploratory meta-analysis.

PubMed

Buechi, Rahel; Faes, Livia; Bachmann, Lucas M; Thiel, Michael A; Bodmer, Nicolas S; Schmid, Martin K; Job, Oliver; Lienhard, Kenny R

2017-12-14

The number of mobile applications addressing health topics is increasing. Whether these apps underwent scientific evaluation is unclear. We comprehensively assessed papers investigating the diagnostic value of available diagnostic health applications using inbuilt smartphone sensors. Systematic Review-MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science inclusive Medical Informatics and Business Source Premier (by citation of reference) were searched from inception until 15 December 2016. Checking of reference lists of review articles and of included articles complemented electronic searches. We included all studies investigating a health application that used inbuilt sensors of a smartphone for diagnosis of disease. The methodological quality of 11 studies used in an exploratory meta-analysis was assessed with the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 tool and the reporting quality with the 'STAndards for the Reporting of Diagnostic accuracy studies' (STARD) statement. Sensitivity and specificity of studies reporting two-by-two tables were calculated and summarised. We screened 3296 references for eligibility. Eleven studies, most of them assessing melanoma screening apps, reported 17 two-by-two tables. Quality assessment revealed high risk of bias in all studies. Included papers studied 1048 subjects (758 with the target conditions and 290 healthy volunteers). Overall, the summary estimate for sensitivity was 0.82 (95 % CI 0.56 to 0.94) and 0.89 (95 %CI 0.70 to 0.97) for specificity. The diagnostic evidence of available health apps on Apple's and Google's app stores is scarce. Consumers and healthcare professionals should be aware of this when using or recommending them. 42016033049. © 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.

Effect of residual gas on structural, electrical and mechanical properties of niobium films deposited by magnetron sputtering deposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Lanruo; Zhong, Yuan; Li, Jinjin; Cao, Wenhui; Zhong, Qing; Wang, Xueshen; Li, Xu

2018-04-01

Magnetron sputtering is an important method in the superconducting thin films deposition. The residual gas inside the vacuum chamber will directly affect the quality of the superconducting films. In this paper, niobium films are deposited by magnetron sputtering under different chamber residual gas conditions. The influence of baking and sputtering process on residual gas are studied as well. Surface morphology, electrical and mechanical properties of the films are analysed. The residual gas analysis result before the sputtering process could be regarded as a reference condition to achieve high quality superconducting thin films.

A comprehensive method for GNSS data quality determination to improve ionospheric data analysis.

PubMed

Kim, Minchan; Seo, Jiwon; Lee, Jiyun

2014-08-14

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are now recognized as cost-effective tools for ionospheric studies by providing the global coverage through worldwide networks of GNSS stations. While GNSS networks continue to expand to improve the observability of the ionosphere, the amount of poor quality GNSS observation data is also increasing and the use of poor-quality GNSS data degrades the accuracy of ionospheric measurements. This paper develops a comprehensive method to determine the quality of GNSS observations for the purpose of ionospheric studies. The algorithms are designed especially to compute key GNSS data quality parameters which affect the quality of ionospheric product. The quality of data collected from the Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) network in the conterminous United States (CONUS) is analyzed. The resulting quality varies widely, depending on each station and the data quality of individual stations persists for an extended time period. When compared to conventional methods, the quality parameters obtained from the proposed method have a stronger correlation with the quality of ionospheric data. The results suggest that a set of data quality parameters when used in combination can effectively select stations with high-quality GNSS data and improve the performance of ionospheric data analysis.

A Comprehensive Method for GNSS Data Quality Determination to Improve Ionospheric Data Analysis

PubMed Central

Kim, Minchan; Seo, Jiwon; Lee, Jiyun

2014-01-01

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are now recognized as cost-effective tools for ionospheric studies by providing the global coverage through worldwide networks of GNSS stations. While GNSS networks continue to expand to improve the observability of the ionosphere, the amount of poor quality GNSS observation data is also increasing and the use of poor-quality GNSS data degrades the accuracy of ionospheric measurements. This paper develops a comprehensive method to determine the quality of GNSS observations for the purpose of ionospheric studies. The algorithms are designed especially to compute key GNSS data quality parameters which affect the quality of ionospheric product. The quality of data collected from the Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) network in the conterminous United States (CONUS) is analyzed. The resulting quality varies widely, depending on each station and the data quality of individual stations persists for an extended time period. When compared to conventional methods, the quality parameters obtained from the proposed method have a stronger correlation with the quality of ionospheric data. The results suggest that a set of data quality parameters when used in combination can effectively select stations with high-quality GNSS data and improve the performance of ionospheric data analysis. PMID:25196005

Minimizing rubidium-82 tracer activity for relative PET myocardial perfusion imaging.

PubMed

Huizing, Eline D; van Dijk, Joris D; van Dalen, Jorn A; Timmer, Jorik R; Arkies, Hester; Slump, Cees H; Jager, Pieter L

2017-08-01

Recommended rubidium-82 activities for relative myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) using present-generation PET scanners may be unnecessarily high. Our aim was to derive the minimum activity for a reliable relative PET MPI assessment. We analyzed 140 scans from 28 consecutive patients who underwent rest-stress MPI-PET (Ingenuity TF). Scans of 852, 682, 511, and 341 MBq were simulated from list-mode data and compared with a reference scan using 1023 MBq. Differences in the summed rest score, total perfusion deficit, and image quality were obtained between the reference and each of the simulated rest scans. Combined stress-rest scans obtained at a selected activity of 682 MBq were diagnostically interpreted by experts and outcome was compared with the reference scan interpretation. Differences in summed rest score more than or equal to 3 were found using 682, 511, and 341 MBq in two (7%), four (14%), and five (18%) patients, respectively. Differences in total perfusion deficit more than 7% were only found at 341 MBq in one patient. Image quality deteriorated significantly only for the 341 MBq scans (P<0.001). Interpretation of stress-rest scans did not differ between 682 and 1023 MBq scans. A significant reduction in administered Rb-82 activity is feasible in relative MPI. An activity of 682 MBq resulted in reliable diagnostic outcomes and image quality, and can therefore be considered for clinical adoption.

Ultrasound for assessing disease activity in IBD patients: a systematic review of activity scores.

PubMed

Bots, S; Nylund, K; Löwenberg, M; Gecse, K; Gilja, O H; D'Haens, G

2018-04-19

Ultrasound (US) indices for assessing disease activity in IBD patients have never been critically reviewed. We aimed to systematically review the quality and reliability of available ultrasound (US) indices compared with reference standards for grading disease activity in IBD patients. Pubmed, Embase and Medline were searched from 1990 until June 2017. Relevant publications were identified through full text review after initial screening by 2 investigators. Data on methodology and index characteristics were collected. Study quality was assessed with a modified version of the Quadas-2 tool for risk of bias assessment. Of 20 studies with an US index, 11 studies met the inclusion criteria. Out of these 11 studies, 7 and 4 studied CD and UC activity indices, respectively. Parameters that were used in these indices included bowel wall thickness (BWT), Doppler signal (DS), wall layer stratification (WLS), compressibility, peristalsis, haustrations, fatty wrapping, contrast enhancement (CE) and strain pattern. Study quality was graded high in 5 studies, moderate in 3 studies and low in 3 studies. Ileocolonoscopy was used as the reference standard in 9 studies. In 1 study a combined index of ileocolonoscopy and barium contrast radiography and in 1 study histology was used as the reference standard. Only 5 studies used an established endoscopic index for comparison with US. Several US indices for assessing disease activity in IBD are available; however the methodology for development was suboptimal in most studies. For the development of future indices stringent methodological design is required.

Reference Values for the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory and the Multidimensional Fatigue Scale in Adolescent Athletes by Sport and Sex.

PubMed

Snyder Valier, Alison R; Welch Bacon, Cailee E; Bay, R Curtis; Molzen, Eileen; Lam, Kenneth C; Valovich McLeod, Tamara C

2017-10-01

Effective use of patient-rated outcome measures to facilitate optimal patient care requires an understanding of the reference values of these measures within the population of interest. Little is known about reference values for commonly used patient-rated outcome measures in adolescent athletes. To determine reference values for the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) and the Multidimensional Fatigue Scale (MFS) in adolescent athletes by sport and sex. Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 3. A convenience sample of interscholastic adolescent athletes from 9 sports was used. Participants completed the PedsQL and MFS during one testing session at the start of their sport season. Data were stratified by sport and sex. Dependent variables included the total PedsQL score and the 5 PedsQL subscale scores: physical functioning, psychosocial functioning, emotional functioning, social functioning, and school functioning. Dependent variables for the MFS included 3 subscale scores: general functioning, sleep functioning, and cognitive functioning. Summary statistics were reported for total and subscale scores by sport and sex. Among 3574 males and 1329 female adolescent athletes, the PedsQL scores (100 possible points) generally indicated high levels of health regardless of sport played. Mean PedsQL total and subscales scores ranged from 82.6 to 95.7 for males and 83.9 to 95.2 for females. Mean MFS subscale scores (100 possible points) ranged from 74.2 to 90.9 for males and 72.8 to 87.4 for females. Healthy male and female adolescent athletes reported relatively high levels of health on the PedsQL subscales and total scores regardless of sport; no mean scores were lower than 82.6 points for males or 83.9 points for females. On the MFS, males and females tended to report low effect of general and cognitive fatigue regardless of sport; mean scores were higher than 83.5 points for males and 83.8 points for females. Clinically, athletes who score below the reference values for their sport have poorer health status than average adolescent athletes participating in that sport. Scores below reference values may warrant consideration of early intervention or treatment.

High light-quality OLEDs with a wet-processed single emissive layer.

PubMed

Singh, Meenu; Jou, Jwo-Huei; Sahoo, Snehasis; S S, Sujith; He, Zhe-Kai; Krucaite, Gintare; Grigalevicius, Saulius; Wang, Ching-Wu

2018-05-08

High light-quality and low color temperature are crucial to justify a comfortable healthy illumination. Wet-process enables electronic devices cost-effective fabrication feasibility. We present herein low color temperature, blue-emission hazards free organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) with very-high light-quality indices, that with a single emissive layer spin-coated with multiple blackbody-radiation complementary dyes, namely deep-red, yellow, green and sky-blue. Specifically, an OLED with a 1,854 K color temperature showed a color rendering index (CRI) of 90 and a spectrum resemblance index (SRI) of 88, whose melatonin suppression sensitivity is only 3% relative to a reference blue light of 480 nm. Its maximum retina permissible exposure limit is 3,454 seconds at 100 lx, 11, 10 and 6 times longer and safer than the counterparts of compact fluorescent lamp (5,920 K), light emitting diode (5,500 K) and OLED (5,000 K). By incorporating a co-host, tris(4-carbazoyl-9-ylphenyl)amine (TCTA), the resulting OLED showed a current efficiency of 24.9 cd/A and an external quantum efficiency of 24.5% at 100 cd/m 2 . It exhibited ultra-high light quality with a CRI of 93 and an SRI of 92. These prove blue-hazard free, high quality and healthy OLED to be fabrication feasible via the easy-to-apply wet-processed single emissive layer with multiple emitters.

Identification of the iron oxidation state and coordination geometry in iron oxide- and zeolite-based catalysts using pre-edge XAS analysis.

PubMed

Boubnov, Alexey; Lichtenberg, Henning; Mangold, Stefan; Grunwaldt, Jan Dierk

2015-03-01

Analysis of the oxidation state and coordination geometry using pre-edge analysis is attractive for heterogeneous catalysis and materials science, especially for in situ and time-resolved studies or highly diluted systems. In the present study, focus is laid on iron-based catalysts. First a systematic investigation of the pre-edge region of the Fe K-edge using staurolite, FePO4, FeO and α-Fe2O3 as reference compounds for tetrahedral Fe(2+), tetrahedral Fe(3+), octahedral Fe(2+) and octahedral Fe(3+), respectively, is reported. In particular, high-resolution and conventional X-ray absorption spectra are compared, considering that in heterogeneous catalysis and material science a compromise between high-quality spectroscopic data acquisition and simultaneous analysis of functional properties is required. Results, which were obtained from reference spectra acquired with different resolution and quality, demonstrate that this analysis is also applicable to conventionally recorded pre-edge data. For this purpose, subtraction of the edge onset is preferentially carried out using an arctangent and a first-degree polynomial, independent of the resolution and quality of the data. For both standard and high-resolution data, multiplet analysis of pre-edge features has limitations due to weak transitions that cannot be identified. On the other hand, an arbitrary empirical peak fitting assists the analysis in that non-local transitions can be isolated. The analysis of the oxidation state and coordination geometry of the Fe sites using a variogram-based method is shown to be effective for standard-resolution data and leads to the same results as for high-resolution spectra. This method, validated by analysing spectra of reference compounds and their well defined mixtures, is finally applied to track structural changes in a 1% Fe/Al2O3 and a 0.5% Fe/BEA zeolite catalyst during reduction in 5% H2/He. The results, hardly accessible by other techniques, show that Fe(3+) is transformed into Fe(2+), while the local Fe-O coordination number of 4-5 is maintained, suggesting that the reduction involves a rearrangement of the oxygen neighbours rather than their removal. In conclusion, the variogram-based analysis of Fe K-edge spectra proves to be very useful in catalysis research.

Information retrieval from holographic interferograms: Fundamentals and problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vest, Charles M.

1987-01-01

Holographic interferograms can contain large amounts of information about flow and temperature fields. Their information content can be very high because they can be viewed from many different directions. This multidirectionality, and fringe localization add to the information contained in the fringe pattern if diffuse illumination is used. Additional information, and increased accuracy can be obtained through the use of dual reference wave holography to add reference fringes or to effect discrete phase shift or hetrodyne interferometry. Automated analysis of fringes is possible if interferograms are of simple structure and good quality. However, in practice a large number of practical problems can arise, so that a difficult image processing task results.

Using cytology to increase small animal practice revenue.

PubMed

Hodges, Joanne

2013-11-01

Diagnostic cytology is a useful, noninvasive test with practical foundations in high-quality medicine and applications to practice building. Cytology will generate practice revenue whether assessed in-house or sent to a clinical pathologist. Thorough in-house evaluation is adequate in some cases, but expert opinion is important in many cases. Specimen slides should at least be reviewed in-house for assessment of cellularity and potential artifacts before submission to a reference laboratory. Reference laboratories also provide special stains and advanced molecular diagnostics to help further characterize many neoplastic processes, search for organisms, identify pigments, and address other important aspects of the lesion. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Clinical librarian support for rapid review of clinical utility of cancer molecular biomarkers.

PubMed

Geng, Yimin; Fowler, Clara S; Fulton, Stephanie

2015-01-01

The clinical librarian used a restricted literature searching and quality-filtering approach to provide relevant clinical evidence for the use of cancer molecular biomarkers by institutional policy makers and clinicians in the rapid review process. The librarian-provided evidence was compared with the cited references in the institutional molecular biomarker algorithm. The overall incorporation rate of the librarian-provided references into the algorithm was above 80%. This study suggests the usefulness of clinical librarian expertise for clinical practice. The searching and filtering methods for high-level evidence can be adopted by information professionals who are involved in the rapid literature review.

[Quality and compliance with the regulations of workers'health examinations in relation to their preventive purpose].

PubMed

Rodríguez-Jareño, Mari Cruz; Molinero, Emilia; De Montserrat, Jaume; Vallès, Antoni; Aymerich, Marta

2016-01-01

To analyze whether examinations for health surveillance in Catalonia are carried out with a high enough degree of quality as to comply with the preventive aim of the regulations, and to identify potential differences by type of prevention service. Qualitative and quantitative techniques. Body of data: Spanish regulations related to health surveillance, and a self-reported questionnaire answered by occupational health professionals who performed health examinations in their usual practice. Content analysis of regulations, identifying concepts, and linking them to survey questions. Quality criteria were established for each concept, referring to the minimum that must be met to ensure that the professional practice can be of quality; quality indicators (percentage of professionals whose practice met the quality criteria) were calculated globally and by type of prevention service; and quality standards (fulfilment of quality criteria by 75% or more of the professionals) were set. The concepts identified were: availability of clinical and exposure information, job-specificity, identification of workers with special susceptibilities, referral to mutual insurance companies for appropriate diagnosis and treatment, development of preventive proposals, and professional independence and non detriment for workers. Quality indicators ranged between 0 and 88%. None of the concepts globally reached the quality standard. The quality of health examinations performed for health surveillance in Catalonia, doesn't seem to be high enough as to comply with the preventive aim of the regulations. The situation is worse in external prevention services. Copyright belongs to the Societat Catalana de Salut Laboral.

No-reference image quality assessment for horizontal-path imaging scenarios

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rios, Carlos; Gladysz, Szymon

2013-05-01

There exist several image-enhancement algorithms and tasks associated with imaging through turbulence that depend on defining the quality of an image. Examples include: "lucky imaging", choosing the width of the inverse filter for image reconstruction, or stopping iterative deconvolution. We collected a number of image quality metrics found in the literature. Particularly interesting are the blind, "no-reference" metrics. We discuss ways of evaluating the usefulness of these metrics, even when a fully objective comparison is impossible because of the lack of a reference image. Metrics are tested on simulated and real data. Field data comes from experiments performed by the NATO SET 165 research group over a 7 km distance in Dayton, Ohio.

High-speed spectral calibration by complex FIR filter in phase-sensitive optical coherence tomography.

PubMed

Kim, Sangmin; Raphael, Patrick D; Oghalai, John S; Applegate, Brian E

2016-04-01

Swept-laser sources offer a number of advantages for Phase-sensitive Optical Coherence Tomography (PhOCT). However, inter- and intra-sweep variability leads to calibration errors that adversely affect phase sensitivity. While there are several approaches to overcoming this problem, our preferred method is to simply calibrate every sweep of the laser. This approach offers high accuracy and phase stability at the expense of a substantial processing burden. In this approach, the Hilbert phase of the interferogram from a reference interferometer provides the instantaneous wavenumber of the laser, but is computationally expensive. Fortunately, the Hilbert transform may be approximated by a Finite Impulse-Response (FIR) filter. Here we explore the use of several FIR filter based Hilbert transforms for calibration, explicitly considering the impact of filter choice on phase sensitivity and OCT image quality. Our results indicate that the complex FIR filter approach is the most robust and accurate among those considered. It provides similar image quality and slightly better phase sensitivity than the traditional FFT-IFFT based Hilbert transform while consuming fewer resources in an FPGA implementation. We also explored utilizing the Hilbert magnitude of the reference interferogram to calculate an ideal window function for spectral amplitude calibration. The ideal window function is designed to carefully control sidelobes on the axial point spread function. We found that after a simple chromatic correction, calculating the window function using the complex FIR filter and the reference interferometer gave similar results to window functions calculated using a mirror sample and the FFT-IFFT Hilbert transform. Hence, the complex FIR filter can enable accurate and high-speed calibration of the magnitude and phase of spectral interferograms.

High-speed spectral calibration by complex FIR filter in phase-sensitive optical coherence tomography

PubMed Central

Kim, Sangmin; Raphael, Patrick D.; Oghalai, John S.; Applegate, Brian E.

2016-01-01

Swept-laser sources offer a number of advantages for Phase-sensitive Optical Coherence Tomography (PhOCT). However, inter- and intra-sweep variability leads to calibration errors that adversely affect phase sensitivity. While there are several approaches to overcoming this problem, our preferred method is to simply calibrate every sweep of the laser. This approach offers high accuracy and phase stability at the expense of a substantial processing burden. In this approach, the Hilbert phase of the interferogram from a reference interferometer provides the instantaneous wavenumber of the laser, but is computationally expensive. Fortunately, the Hilbert transform may be approximated by a Finite Impulse-Response (FIR) filter. Here we explore the use of several FIR filter based Hilbert transforms for calibration, explicitly considering the impact of filter choice on phase sensitivity and OCT image quality. Our results indicate that the complex FIR filter approach is the most robust and accurate among those considered. It provides similar image quality and slightly better phase sensitivity than the traditional FFT-IFFT based Hilbert transform while consuming fewer resources in an FPGA implementation. We also explored utilizing the Hilbert magnitude of the reference interferogram to calculate an ideal window function for spectral amplitude calibration. The ideal window function is designed to carefully control sidelobes on the axial point spread function. We found that after a simple chromatic correction, calculating the window function using the complex FIR filter and the reference interferometer gave similar results to window functions calculated using a mirror sample and the FFT-IFFT Hilbert transform. Hence, the complex FIR filter can enable accurate and high-speed calibration of the magnitude and phase of spectral interferograms. PMID:27446666

Quality of life in relation to physical, psychosocial and socioeconomic conditions among reindeer-herding Sami.

PubMed

Daergo, Laila; Edin-Liljegren, Anette; Sjölander, Per

2008-02-01

To analyse different aspects of health-related quality of life factors among members of reindeer-herding families. Cross-sectional study based on data from a comprehensive survey. The health-related quality of life (SF-36) factors were analysed on 99 (56 men, 43 women) adult members of reindeer-herding families. Comparisons were made between the reindeer-herding family members and a Swedish reference population. Associations between mental and physical component summary measures and a number of sociodemographic, biomedical, physical, psychosocial and socio-economic variables were analysed with multivariate regression statistics. Men scored higher than women on physical and social function and vitality. The average scores on the subscales for the reindeer-herding family members were similar to those of the Swedish reference population, except for reindeer-herding men who scored higher on physical function and lower on bodily pain. For women, the quality of life was related to age, sense of coherence, lifestyle and behavioural variables, as well as to issues such as diseases among close relatives, social networks and the economy of their business. For men, it was mainly related to musculoskeletal pain conditions, age, sense of coherence and physical and psychosocial working conditions. Men and women of the reindeer-herding families need partly different conditions to enjoy a high quality of life. From the results, it might be predicted that poor somatic and psychosocial health, increased intrusion from exploiters on the grazing land and declining profit in reindeer husbandry constitute important threats to a good quality of life among members of reindeer-herding families.

Determinants of quality of life (QoL) and quality of university life (QuL) in Malaysian public university students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haron, Halilah; Osman, Balkish Mohd; Maidinsah, Hamidah; Sari, Maznita Maksari @ Md; Zaki, Nurul Qusna Mohd

2015-02-01

Quality of life (QoL) refers to the degree of satisfaction, or the sense of well being, people experience in organizations including universities. The quality of life students experience in a university increases when they believe their needs are aligned with the goals of the university because they perceive that the university is responsive to their needs. Quality of University Life (QuL) refers to the students' ability to stabilize their life regarding social activities, academic performance, health and spiritual. A study was undertaken to investigate the accountability of Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia, in terms of teaching and learning. The objective of this paper is to identify and evaluate the determinants of QoL and QuL measurement models. Data from 788 students who responded to a set of questionnaire were collected from nine faculties. Factor analysis performed on the data resulted in six determinants for QuL; friendly, skills, satisfaction, interest, learning and feeling. Only two determinants, environment and quality represented QoL. Results indicated that the measures were highly reliable (in terms of internal consistency) based on Cronbach Alpha values ranging from 0.705 to 0.905 for QuL and 0.826 to 0.888 for QoL. Construct validity was supported by Average Variance Extraction values of more than 0.5 for QuL (0.481 - 0.724) and QoL. (0.503 and 0.519). The construct reliability (CR) values ranging between 0.623 to 0.882 for QuL and 0.731 to 0.815 for QoL suggested good reliability construct.

Is energy supply the trigger for reproductive activity in male edible dormice (Glis glis)?

PubMed

Fietz, Joanna; Kager, Timo; Schauer, Sebastian

2009-10-01

In edible dormice (Glis glis) reproduction is synchronised with the intermittent masting of the European beech (Fagus sylvatica). In years of mast failure dormouse males seem to anticipate future low food availability and fail to develop functional testes. We hypothesised that the availability of high-quality food is linked to male reproductive capacity, because of high male energetic demands during gonad maturation. We therefore evaluated the relationship between beech seed production and male reproductivity in the field between 1993 and 2005. In order to know whether the energy content of the food as such triggers sexual capacity, we supplemented high-quality food in the field for 3 years and investigated reproductive output, reproductive capacity, and body mass changes. Results revealed that male reproductive capacity was positively linked with beech seed production. Body mass changes of reference males during the high reproductive year further revealed high energetic demands of male reproduction, which were counter balanced in food-supplemented males. However, in contrast to our assumptions, artificial food supply during a year of mast failure failed to evoke high reproductivity in edible dormice. The availability of high-quality food can therefore be ruled out from being the primary trigger for sexual activity in male edible dormice.

Valid analytical performance specifications for combined analytical bias and imprecision for the use of common reference intervals.

PubMed

Hyltoft Petersen, Per; Lund, Flemming; Fraser, Callum G; Sandberg, Sverre; Sölétormos, György

2018-01-01

Background Many clinical decisions are based on comparison of patient results with reference intervals. Therefore, an estimation of the analytical performance specifications for the quality that would be required to allow sharing common reference intervals is needed. The International Federation of Clinical Chemistry (IFCC) recommended a minimum of 120 reference individuals to establish reference intervals. This number implies a certain level of quality, which could then be used for defining analytical performance specifications as the maximum combination of analytical bias and imprecision required for sharing common reference intervals, the aim of this investigation. Methods Two methods were investigated for defining the maximum combination of analytical bias and imprecision that would give the same quality of common reference intervals as the IFCC recommendation. Method 1 is based on a formula for the combination of analytical bias and imprecision and Method 2 is based on the Microsoft Excel formula NORMINV including the fractional probability of reference individuals outside each limit and the Gaussian variables of mean and standard deviation. The combinations of normalized bias and imprecision are illustrated for both methods. The formulae are identical for Gaussian and log-Gaussian distributions. Results Method 2 gives the correct results with a constant percentage of 4.4% for all combinations of bias and imprecision. Conclusion The Microsoft Excel formula NORMINV is useful for the estimation of analytical performance specifications for both Gaussian and log-Gaussian distributions of reference intervals.

Review of Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance 2009

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

There were 56 articles published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance in 2009. The editors were impressed with the high quality of the submissions, of which our acceptance rate was about 40%. In accordance with open-access publishing, the articles go on-line as they are accepted with no collating of the articles into sections or special thematic issues. We have therefore chosen to briefly summarise the papers in this article for quick reference for our readers in broad areas of interest, which we feel will be useful to practitioners of cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR). In some cases where it is considered useful, the articles are also put into the wider context with a short narrative and recent CMR references. It has been a privilege to serve as the Editor of the JCMR this past year. I hope that you find the open-access system increases wider reading and citation of your papers, and that you will continue to send your quality manuscripts to JCMR for publication. PMID:20302618

Experimental characterization and analysis of the BITalino platforms against a reference device.

PubMed

Batista, Diana; Silva, Hugo; Fred, Ana

2017-07-01

Low-cost hardware platforms for biomedical engineering are becoming increasingly available, which empower the research community in the development of new projects in a wide range of areas related with physiological data acquisition. Building upon previous work by our group, this work compares the quality of the data acquired by means of two different versions of the multimodal physiological computing platform BITalino, with a device that can be considered a reference. We acquired data from 5 sensors, namely Accelerometry (ACC), Electrocardiography (ECG), Electroencephalography (EEG), Electrodermal Activity (EDA) and Electromyography (EMG). Experimental evaluation shows that ACC, ECG and EDA data are highly correlated with the reference in what concerns the raw waveforms. When compared by means of their commonly used features, EEG and EMG data are also quite similar across the different devices.

Recent developments in the field of environmental reference materials at the JRC Ispra.

PubMed

Muntau, H

2001-06-01

The production of reference materials for environmental analysis started in the Joint Research Centre at Ispra/Italy in 1972 with the objective of later certification by the BCR, but for obvious budget reasons only a fraction of the total production achieved at Ispra ever reached certification level, although all materials were produced according to the severe quality requirements requested for certified reference materials. Therefore, the materials not destinated to certification are in growing demand as inter-laboratory test materials and as laboratory reference materials, for internal quality control, e.g., by control charts. The history of reference material production within the Joint Research Centre is briefly reviewed and the latest additions described. New developments such as micro-scale reference materials intended for analytical methods requiring sample intakes at milligram or sub-milligram level and therefor not finding supply on the reference material market, and "wet" environmental reference materials, which meet more precisely the "real-world" environmental analysis conditions, are presented and the state-of-the-art discussed.

References on EPA Quality Assurance Project Plans

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Provides requirements for the conduct of quality management practices, including quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) activities, for all environmental data collection and environmental technology programs performed by or for this Agency.

Experimental Investigation – Magnetic Assisted Electro Discharge Machining

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kesava Reddy, Chirra; Manzoor Hussain, M.; Satyanarayana, S.; Krishna, M. V. S. Murali

2018-04-01

Emerging technology needs advanced machined parts with high strength and temperature resistance, high fatigue life at low production cost with good surface quality to fit into various industrial applications. Electro discharge machine is one of the extensively used machines to manufacture advanced machined parts which cannot be machined by other traditional machine with high precision and accuracy. Machining of DIN 17350-1.2080 (High Carbon High Chromium steel), using electro discharge machining has been discussed in this paper. In the present investigation an effort is made to use permanent magnet at various positions near the spark zone to improve surface quality of the machined surface. Taguchi methodology is used to obtain optimal choice for each machining parameter such as peak current, pulse duration, gap voltage and Servo reference voltage etc. Process parameters have significant influence on machining characteristics and surface finish. Improvement in surface finish is observed when process parameters are set at optimum condition under the influence of magnetic field at various positions.

Automatic Generation of High Quality DSM Based on IRS-P5 Cartosat-1 Stereo Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

d'Angelo, Pablo; Uttenthaler, Andreas; Carl, Sebastian; Barner, Frithjof; Reinartz, Peter

2010-12-01

IRS-P5 Cartosat-1 high resolution stereo satellite imagery is well suited for the creation of digital surface models (DSM). A system for highly automated and operational DSM and orthoimage generation based on IRS-P5 Cartosat-1 imagery is presented, with an emphasis on automated processing and product quality. The proposed system processes IRS-P5 level-1 stereo scenes using the rational polynomial coefficients (RPC) universal sensor model. The described method uses an RPC correction based on DSM alignment instead of using reference images with a lower lateral accuracy, this results in improved geolocation of the DSMs and orthoimages. Following RPC correction, highly detailed DSMs with 5 m grid spacing are derived using Semiglobal Matching. The proposed method is part of an operational Cartosat-1 processor for the generation of a high resolution DSM. Evaluation of 18 scenes against independent ground truth measurements indicates a mean lateral error (CE90) of 6.7 meters and a mean vertical accuracy (LE90) of 5.1 meters.

Testing the quality of images for permanent magnet desktop MRI systems using specially designed phantoms.

PubMed

Qiu, Jianfeng; Wang, Guozhu; Min, Jiao; Wang, Xiaoyan; Wang, Pengcheng

2013-12-21

Our aim was to measure the performance of desktop magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems using specially designed phantoms, by testing imaging parameters and analysing the imaging quality. We designed multifunction phantoms with diameters of 18 and 60 mm for desktop MRI scanners in accordance with the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) report no. 28. We scanned the phantoms with three permanent magnet 0.5 T desktop MRI systems, measured the MRI image parameters, and analysed imaging quality by comparing the data with the AAPM criteria and Chinese national standards. Image parameters included: resonance frequency, high contrast spatial resolution, low contrast object detectability, slice thickness, geometrical distortion, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and image uniformity. The image parameters of three desktop MRI machines could be measured using our specially designed phantoms, and most parameters were in line with MRI quality control criterion, including: resonance frequency, high contrast spatial resolution, low contrast object detectability, slice thickness, geometrical distortion, image uniformity and slice position accuracy. However, SNR was significantly lower than in some references. The imaging test and quality control are necessary for desktop MRI systems, and should be performed with the applicable phantom and corresponding standards.

Sibling relationship quality moderates the associations between parental interventions and siblings' independent conflict strategies and outcomes.

PubMed

Recchia, Holly E; Howe, Nina

2009-08-01

This study extends research on sibling conflict strategies and outcomes by examining unique and interactive associations with age, relative birth order, sibling relationship quality, and caregivers' interventions into conflict. Each of 62 sibling dyads (older sibling mean age = 8.39 years; younger sibling mean age = 6.06 years) discussed 1 recurring conflict alone (dyadic negotiation) and a 2nd conflict with their primary parental caregiver (triadic negotiation). Negotiations were coded for children's conflict strategies, outcomes, and caregiver interventions; each family member provided ratings of sibling relationship quality. Results revealed that age was associated with siblings' constructive strategies, particularly in the dyadic negotiation. With age controlled, younger siblings referred more frequently to their own perspective. Caregivers' future orientation in the triadic negotiation was associated with children's future orientation in the dyadic negotiation; however, this association was most evident when sibling relationship quality was high. Similarly, caregivers' past orientation was positively associated with dyadic compromise, especially when relationship quality was high. Results reveal the value of simultaneously considering associations among parental, affective, and developmental correlates of sibling conflict strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).

Rocky-shore communities as indicators of water quality: a case study in the Northwestern Mediterranean.

PubMed

Pinedo, Susana; García, María; Satta, Maria Paola; de Torres, Mariona; Ballesteros, Enric

2007-01-01

The collection of 152 samples from the upper sublittoral zone along the rocky coasts of Catalonia (Northwestern Mediterranean) was carried out in 1999 in order to test the suitability of littoral communities to be used as indicators of water quality in the frame of the European Water Framework Directive. Detrended correspondence analysis were performed to distinguish between different communities and to relate communities composition to water quality. Samples collected in reference sites were included in the analysis. Mediterranean rocky shore communities situated in the upper sublittoral zone can be used as indicators of the water quality: there is a gradient from high to bad status that comprises from dense Cystoseira mediterranea forests to green algae dominated communities. The geographical patterns in the distribution of these communities show that the best areas are situated in the Northern coast, where tourism is the main economic resource of the area, and the worst area is situated close to the metropolitan zone of Barcelona with high population and industrial development. Thus, Mediterranean sublittoral rocky shore communities are useful indicators of water quality and multivariate analysis are a suitable statistical tool for the assessment of the ecological status.

The Emergent Properties of Conspecific Attraction Can Limit a Species' Ability to Track Environmental Change.

PubMed

Stodola, Kirk W; Ward, Michael P

2017-06-01

Multiple biotic, abiotic, and evolutionary constraints interact to determine a species' range. However, most species are not present in all suitable and accessible locations. Dispersal ability may explain why many species do not occupy all suitable habitat, but highly mobile species also exhibit a mismatch. Habitat selection behavior where individuals are site faithful and settle near conspecifics could create a social pressure that make a species' geographic range resistant to change. We investigated this possibility by using an individual-based model of habitat selection where habitat quality moved each year. Our model demonstrated the benefits of conspecific attraction in relatively stable environments and its detrimental influence when habitat quality shifted rapidly. These results were most apparent when adult survival was high, because site fidelity led to more individuals occupying poor-quality habitat areas as habitat quality changed. These individuals attracted other dispersing individuals, thereby decreasing the ability to track shifts in habitat quality, which we refer to as "social inertia." Consequently, social inertia may arise for species that exhibit site fidelity and conspecific attraction, which may have conservation implications in light of climate change and widespread alteration of natural habitats.

ANMCO/AIIC/SIT Consensus Information Document: definition, precision, and suitability of electrocardiographic signals of electrocardiographs, ergometry, Holter electrocardiogram, telemetry, and bedside monitoring systems.

PubMed

Gulizia, Michele Massimo; Casolo, Giancarlo; Zuin, Guerrino; Morichelli, Loredana; Calcagnini, Giovanni; Ventimiglia, Vincenzo; Censi, Federica; Caldarola, Pasquale; Russo, Giancarmine; Leogrande, Lorenzo; Franco Gensini, Gian

2017-05-01

The electrocardiogram (ECG) signal can be derived from different sources. These include systems for surface ECG, Holter monitoring, ergometric stress tests, and telemetry systems and bedside monitoring of vital parameters, which are useful for rhythm and ST-segment analysis and ECG screening of electrical sudden cardiac death predictors. A precise ECG diagnosis is based upon correct recording, elaboration, and presentation of the signal. Several sources of artefacts and potential external causes may influence the quality of the original ECG waveforms. Other factors that may affect the quality of the information presented depend upon the technical solutions employed to improve the signal. The choice of the instrumentations and solutions used to offer a high-quality ECG signal are, therefore, of paramount importance. Some requirements are reported in detail in scientific statements and recommendations. The aim of this consensus document is to give scientific reference for the choice of systems able to offer high quality ECG signal acquisition, processing, and presentation suitable for clinical use.

ANMCO/AIIC/SIT Consensus Information Document: definition, precision, and suitability of electrocardiographic signals of electrocardiographs, ergometry, Holter electrocardiogram, telemetry, and bedside monitoring systems

PubMed Central

Casolo, Giancarlo; Zuin, Guerrino; Morichelli, Loredana; Calcagnini, Giovanni; Ventimiglia, Vincenzo; Censi, Federica; Caldarola, Pasquale; Russo, Giancarmine; Leogrande, Lorenzo; Franco Gensini, Gian

2017-01-01

Abstract The electrocardiogram (ECG) signal can be derived from different sources. These include systems for surface ECG, Holter monitoring, ergometric stress tests, and telemetry systems and bedside monitoring of vital parameters, which are useful for rhythm and ST-segment analysis and ECG screening of electrical sudden cardiac death predictors. A precise ECG diagnosis is based upon correct recording, elaboration, and presentation of the signal. Several sources of artefacts and potential external causes may influence the quality of the original ECG waveforms. Other factors that may affect the quality of the information presented depend upon the technical solutions employed to improve the signal. The choice of the instrumentations and solutions used to offer a high-quality ECG signal are, therefore, of paramount importance. Some requirements are reported in detail in scientific statements and recommendations. The aim of this consensus document is to give scientific reference for the choice of systems able to offer high quality ECG signal acquisition, processing, and presentation suitable for clinical use. PMID:28751842

Public emergency department: the psychosocial impact on the physical domain of quality of life of nursing professionals

PubMed Central

Kogien, Moisés; Cedaro, José Juliano

2014-01-01

Objectives to determine the psychosocial factors of work related to harm caused in the physical domain of the quality of life of nursing professionals working in a public emergency department. Method cross-sectional, descriptive study addressing 189 nursing professionals. The Job Stress Scale and the short version of an instrument from the World Health Organization to assess quality of life were used to collect data. Robert Karasek's Demand-Control Model was the reference for the analysis of the psychosocial configuration. The risk for damage was computed with a confidence interval of 95%. Results In regard to the psychosocial environment, the largest proportion of workers reported low psychological demands (66.1%) and low social support (52.4%), while 60.9% of the professionals experienced work situations with a greater potential for harm: high demand job (22.8%) and passive work (38.1%). Conclusions low intellectual discernment, low social support and experiencing a high demand job or a passive job were the main risk factors for damage in the physical domain of quality of life. PMID:24553703

Public emergency department: the psychosocial impact on the physical domain of quality of life of nursing professionals.

PubMed

Kogien, Moisés; Cedaro, José Juliano

2014-01-01

to determine the psychosocial factors of work related to harm caused in the physical domain of the quality of life of nursing professionals working in a public emergency department. cross-sectional, descriptive study addressing 189 nursing professionals. The Job Stress Scale and the short version of an instrument from the World Health Organization to assess quality of life were used to collect data. Robert Karasek's Demand-Control Model was the reference for the analysis of the psychosocial configuration. The risk for damage was computed with a confidence interval of 95%. In regard to the psychosocial environment, the largest proportion of workers reported low psychological demands (66.1%) and low social support (52.4%), while 60.9% of the professionals experienced work situations with a greater potential for harm: high demand job (22.8%) and passive work (38.1%). low intellectual discernment, low social support and experiencing a high demand job or a passive job were the main risk factors for damage in the physical domain of quality of life.

On Statistical Approaches for Demonstrating Analytical Similarity in the Presence of Correlation.

PubMed

Yang, Harry; Novick, Steven; Burdick, Richard K

Analytical similarity is the foundation for demonstration of biosimilarity between a proposed product and a reference product. For this assessment, currently the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends a tiered system in which quality attributes are categorized into three tiers commensurate with their risk and approaches of varying statistical rigor are subsequently used for the three-tier quality attributes. Key to the analyses of Tiers 1 and 2 quality attributes is the establishment of equivalence acceptance criterion and quality range. For particular licensure applications, the FDA has provided advice on statistical methods for demonstration of analytical similarity. For example, for Tier 1 assessment, an equivalence test can be used based on an equivalence margin of 1.5 σ R , where σ R is the reference product variability estimated by the sample standard deviation S R from a sample of reference lots. The quality range for demonstrating Tier 2 analytical similarity is of the form X̄ R ± K × σ R where the constant K is appropriately justified. To demonstrate Tier 2 analytical similarity, a large percentage (e.g., 90%) of test product must fall in the quality range. In this paper, through both theoretical derivations and simulations, we show that when the reference drug product lots are correlated, the sample standard deviation S R underestimates the true reference product variability σ R As a result, substituting S R for σ R in the Tier 1 equivalence acceptance criterion and the Tier 2 quality range inappropriately reduces the statistical power and the ability to declare analytical similarity. Also explored is the impact of correlation among drug product lots on Type I error rate and power. Three methods based on generalized pivotal quantities are introduced, and their performance is compared against a two-one-sided tests (TOST) approach. Finally, strategies to mitigate risk of correlation among the reference products lots are discussed. A biosimilar is a generic version of the original biological drug product. A key component of a biosimilar development is the demonstration of analytical similarity between the biosimilar and the reference product. Such demonstration relies on application of statistical methods to establish a similarity margin and appropriate test for equivalence between the two products. This paper discusses statistical issues with demonstration of analytical similarity and provides alternate approaches to potentially mitigate these problems. © PDA, Inc. 2016.

Sentinel-2B image quality commissioning phase results and Sentinel2 constellation performances

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Languille, F.; Gaudel, A.; Vidal, B.; Binet, R.; Poulain, V.; Trémas, T.

2017-09-01

In the frame of the Copernicus program of the European Commission, Sentinel-2 is a constellation of 2 satellites on a polar sun-synchronous orbit with a revisit time of 5 days (with both satellites), a high field of view - 290km, 13 spectral bands in visible and shortwave infrared, and high spatial resolution - 10m, 20m and 60m. The Sentinel-2 mission offers a global coverage over terrestrial surfaces. The satellites acquire systematically terrestrial surfaces under the same viewing conditions in order to have temporal images stacks. The first satellite was launched in June 2015 and the second in March 2017. In cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA), the French space agency (CNES) is in charge of the image quality of the project, and so ensured the CAL/VAL commissioning phase during the months following the launch. This cooperation is also extended to routine phase as CNES supports European Space Research Institute (ESRIN) and the Sentinel-2 Mission performance Centre (MPC) for validation in geometric and radiometric image quality aspects, and in Sentinel-2 Global Reference Image (GRI) geolocation performance assessment. This paper points on geometric image quality on Sentinel-2B commissioning phase. It relates to the methods and the performances obtained, as well as the comparison between S2A and S2B. This deals with geolocation and multispectral registration. A small focus is also done on the Sentinel-2 GRI which is a set of S2A images at 10m resolution covering the whole world with a good and consistent geolocation. This ground reference leads to ensure an accurate multi-temporal registration -on refined Sentinel-2 products over GRI- which is also presented in this paper.

Rethinking clinical governance: healthcare professionals' views: a Delphi study.

PubMed

Veenstra, Gepke L; Ahaus, Kees; Welker, Gera A; Heineman, Erik; van der Laan, Maarten J; Muntinghe, Friso L H

2017-01-12

Although the guiding principle of clinical governance states that healthcare professionals are the leading contributors to quality and safety in healthcare, little is known about what healthcare professionals perceive as important for clinical governance. The aim of this study is to clarify this by exploring healthcare professionals' views on clinical governance. Based on a literature search, a list of 99 elements related to clinical governance was constructed. This list was refined, extended and restricted during a three-round Delphi study. The panel of experts was formed of 24 healthcare professionals from an academic hospital that is seen as a leader in terms of its clinical governance expertise in the Netherlands. Rated importance of each element on a four-point scale. The 50 elements that the panel perceived as most important related to adopting a bottom-up approach to clinical governance, ownership, teamwork, learning from mistakes and feedback. The panel did not reach a consensus concerning elements that referred to patient involvement. Elements that referred to a managerial approach to clinical governance and standardisation of work were rejected by the panel. In the views of the panel of experts, clinical governance is a practice-based, value-driven approach that has the goal of delivering the highest possible quality care and ensuring the safety of patients. Bottom-up approaches and effective teamwork are seen as crucial for high quality and safe healthcare. Striving for high quality and safe healthcare is underpinned by continuous learning, shared responsibility and good relationships and collaboration between healthcare professionals, managers and patients. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Image quality assessment by preprocessing and full reference model combination

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bianco, S.; Ciocca, G.; Marini, F.; Schettini, R.

2009-01-01

This paper focuses on full-reference image quality assessment and presents different computational strategies aimed to improve the robustness and accuracy of some well known and widely used state of the art models, namely the Structural Similarity approach (SSIM) by Wang and Bovik and the S-CIELAB spatial-color model by Zhang and Wandell. We investigate the hypothesis that combining error images with a visual attention model could allow a better fit of the psycho-visual data of the LIVE Image Quality assessment Database Release 2. We show that the proposed quality assessment metric better correlates with the experimental data.

Quality assurance in nuclear medicine facilities; availability of final recommendations--FDA. Notice.

PubMed

1985-05-13

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing the availability of final recommendations prepared by its Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) on quality assurance programs in nuclear medicine facilities. The final recommendations include the agency's rationale for the recommendations as well as references that can be used as well as references that can be used as guides in conducting quality control monitoring. These final recommendations are available as a technical report in CDRH's radiation recommendations series. They are intended to encourage and promote the development of voluntary quality assurance programs in nuclear medicine facilities.

Experimental Design-Based Functional Mining and Characterization of High-Throughput Sequencing Data in the Sequence Read Archive

PubMed Central

Nakazato, Takeru; Ohta, Tazro; Bono, Hidemasa

2013-01-01

High-throughput sequencing technology, also called next-generation sequencing (NGS), has the potential to revolutionize the whole process of genome sequencing, transcriptomics, and epigenetics. Sequencing data is captured in a public primary data archive, the Sequence Read Archive (SRA). As of January 2013, data from more than 14,000 projects have been submitted to SRA, which is double that of the previous year. Researchers can download raw sequence data from SRA website to perform further analyses and to compare with their own data. However, it is extremely difficult to search entries and download raw sequences of interests with SRA because the data structure is complicated, and experimental conditions along with raw sequences are partly described in natural language. Additionally, some sequences are of inconsistent quality because anyone can submit sequencing data to SRA with no quality check. Therefore, as a criterion of data quality, we focused on SRA entries that were cited in journal articles. We extracted SRA IDs and PubMed IDs (PMIDs) from SRA and full-text versions of journal articles and retrieved 2748 SRA ID-PMID pairs. We constructed a publication list referring to SRA entries. Since, one of the main themes of -omics analyses is clarification of disease mechanisms, we also characterized SRA entries by disease keywords, according to the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) extracted from articles assigned to each SRA entry. We obtained 989 SRA ID-MeSH disease term pairs, and constructed a disease list referring to SRA data. We previously developed feature profiles of diseases in a system called “Gendoo”. We generated hyperlinks between diseases extracted from SRA and the feature profiles of it. The developed project, publication and disease lists resulting from this study are available at our web service, called “DBCLS SRA” (http://sra.dbcls.jp/). This service will improve accessibility to high-quality data from SRA. PMID:24167589

Prevalence and burden of chronic kidney disease among the general population and high-risk groups in Africa: a systematic review

PubMed Central

Abd ElHafeez, Samar; Bolignano, Davide; D’Arrigo, Graziella; Dounousi, Evangelia; Tripepi, Giovanni; Zoccali, Carmine

2018-01-01

Objectives While increasing attention is paid to the rising prevalence of chronic diseases in Africa, there is little focus on chronic kidney disease (CKD). This systematic review assesses CKD burden among the general population and high-risk groups on the entire African continent. Design, setting and participants We searched Medline and PubMed databases for articles published between 1 January 1995 and 7 April 2017 by sensitive search strategies focusing on CKD surveys at the community level and high-risk groups. In total, 7918 references were evaluated, of which 7766 articles were excluded because they did not meet the inclusion criteria. Thus, 152 studies were included in the final analysis. Outcome measurement The prevalence of CKD in each study group was expressed as a range and pooled prevalence rate of CKD was calculated as a point estimate and 95% CI. No meta-analysis was done. Data were presented for different populations. Results In the community-level studies, based on available medium-quality and high-quality studies, the prevalence of CKD ranged from 2% to 41% (pooled prevalence: 10.1%; 95% CI 9.8% to 10.5%). The prevalence of CKD in the high-risk groups ranged from 1% to 46% (pooled prevalence: 5.6%; 95% CI 5.4% to 5.8%) in patients with HIV (based on available medium-quality and high-quality studies), 11%–90% (pooled prevalence: 24.7%; 95% CI 23.6% to 25.7%) in patients with diabetes (based on all available studies which are of low quality except four of medium quality) and 13%–51% (pooled prevalence: 34.5%; 95 % CI 34.04% to 36%) in patients with hypertension (based on all available studies which are of low quality except two of medium quality). Conclusion In Africa, CKD is a public health problem, mainly attributed to high-risk conditions as hypertension and diabetes. The poor data quality restricts the validity of the findings and draws the attention to the importance of designing future robust studies. PMID:29326180

Use of Multiple Sequencing Technologies To Produce a High-Quality Genome of the Fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, the Causative Agent of Bat White-Nose Syndrome.

PubMed

Drees, Kevin P; Palmer, Jonathan M; Sebra, Robert; Lorch, Jeffrey M; Chen, Cynthia; Wu, Cheng-Cang; Bok, Jin Woo; Keller, Nancy P; Blehert, David S; Cuomo, Christina A; Lindner, Daniel L; Foster, Jeffrey T

2016-06-30

White-nose syndrome has recently emerged as one of the most devastating wildlife diseases recorded, causing widespread mortality in numerous bat species throughout eastern North America. Here, we present an improved reference genome of the fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans for use in comparative genomic studies. Copyright © 2016 Drees et al.

JPRS Report, Soviet Union, Political Affairs, Republic Language Legislation.

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-12-05

reference materials ( dictionaries , termi- nology glossaries, phrase books, self-taught books, and so on), and qualified specialists in the field of...textbooks; d) to publish self-taught manuals, phrase books, and explanatory and bilingual dictionaries for the aid of persons desiring to study...Armenian. To create the nec- essary printing facility base to publish high-quality illus- trated dictionaries ; to provide uninterrupted delivery of

Study of geomorphological changes by high quality DEMs, obtained from UAVs-Structure from Motion in highest continental cliffs of Europe: A Capelada (Galicia, Spain)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muñoz Narciso, Efrén; García, Horacio; Sierra Pernas, Chema; Pérez-Alberti, Augusto

2017-04-01

This study analyses the geomorphological evolution of a highly dynamic coastal environment, one of the higher cliffs in Continental Europe (A Capelada, NW Spain), using Structure from Motion-Multi View Stereoscan techniques (hereafter referred to as SfM-MVS). Comparing orthoimages from the last 10 years we observed several topographical changes in one specific valley (Teixidelo). Interestingly, these changes were caused by 2 different processes: (i) heavy coastal erosion and (ii) slow complex landslides, working in opposite directions. The main challenge was obtaining high quality topographical data for quantifying the changes during the last few years using low cost-high quality techniques in remote areas. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle platforms (drones, hereafter referred to as UAVs) and SFM-MVS offer ultrahigh-density topographical data. Furthermore, the use of drones and SfM-MVS close range images requires new applications in geomorphology for understanding the workflow and limitations. In this paper we present the 2 main results: (i) a centimeter spatial resolution DEM from august 2016 was obtained using a @DJI Phantom 3 advanced model drone. The pictures were processed in Agisoft PhotoScan Pro 1.2.6 version by SfM-MVS techniques, generating a high-density point cloud (i.e. ˜2000 points/m2) with 3mm of RMSE (i.e. the point cloud was georeferenced in a geographical coordinates system using ˜40 Ground Control Points obtained from differential RTK-GPS and a Total Station network) and (ii) a DEM of Differences, which compares official freely available 2010 LiDAR data (i.e. ˜2 points/m2) with a 2016 DEM derived by UAVs-SfM, where we have observed meter-scale elevation changes (i.e. sediment and erosion processes). During this time, 75% of the sediment has been mobilized. The novel UAVs and SfM-MVS techniques prove to be great for advancing the study of geomorphological processes in remote areas.

Assessment of air quality microsensors versus reference methods: The EuNetAir joint exercise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borrego, C.; Costa, A. M.; Ginja, J.; Amorim, M.; Coutinho, M.; Karatzas, K.; Sioumis, Th.; Katsifarakis, N.; Konstantinidis, K.; De Vito, S.; Esposito, E.; Smith, P.; André, N.; Gérard, P.; Francis, L. A.; Castell, N.; Schneider, P.; Viana, M.; Minguillón, M. C.; Reimringer, W.; Otjes, R. P.; von Sicard, O.; Pohle, R.; Elen, B.; Suriano, D.; Pfister, V.; Prato, M.; Dipinto, S.; Penza, M.

2016-12-01

The 1st EuNetAir Air Quality Joint Intercomparison Exercise organized in Aveiro (Portugal) from 13th-27th October 2014, focused on the evaluation and assessment of environmental gas, particulate matter (PM) and meteorological microsensors, versus standard air quality reference methods through an experimental urban air quality monitoring campaign. The IDAD-Institute of Environment and Development Air Quality Mobile Laboratory was placed at an urban traffic location in the city centre of Aveiro to conduct continuous measurements with standard equipment and reference analysers for CO, NOx, O3, SO2, PM10, PM2.5, temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, solar radiation and precipitation. The comparison of the sensor data generated by different microsensor-systems installed side-by-side with reference analysers, contributes to the assessment of the performance and the accuracy of microsensor-systems in a real-world context, and supports their calibration and further development. The overall performance of the sensors in terms of their statistical metrics and measurement profile indicates significant differences in the results depending on the platform and on the sensors considered. In terms of pollutants, some promising results were observed for O3 (r2: 0.12-0.77), CO (r2: 0.53-0.87), and NO2 (r2: 0.02-0.89). For PM (r2: 0.07-0.36) and SO2 (r2: 0.09-0.20) the results show a poor performance with low correlation coefficients between the reference and microsensor measurements. These field observations under specific environmental conditions suggest that the relevant microsensor platforms, if supported by the proper post processing and data modelling tools, have enormous potential for new strategies in air quality control.

Challenges in the quality assurance of elemental and isotopic analyses in the nuclear domain benefitting from high resolution ICP-OES and sector field ICP-MS.

PubMed

Krachler, Michael; Alvarez-Sarandes, Rafael; Van Winckel, Stefaan

Accurate analytical data reinforces fundamentally the meaningfulness of nuclear fuel performance assessments and nuclear waste characterization. Regularly lacking matrix-matched certified reference materials, quality assurance of elemental and isotopic analysis of nuclear materials remains a challenging endeavour. In this context, this review highlights various dedicated experimental approaches envisaged at the European Commission-Joint Research Centre-Institute for Transuranium Elements to overcome this limitation, mainly focussing on the use of high resolution-inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (HR-ICP-OES) and sector field-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (SF-ICP-MS). However, also α- and γ-spectrometry are included here to help characterise extensively the investigated actinide solutions for their actual concentration, potential impurities and isotopic purity.

Dosimetry and Image Quality in Control Studies in Computerised Tomography Realized to Paediatric Patients

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

Hernandez, M. R.; Gamboa-deBuen, I.; Dies, P.

Computerised tomography (CT) is a favourite method of medical diagnosis. Its use has thus increased rapidly throughout the world, particularly in studies relating to children. However to avoid administering unnecessarily high doses of radiation to paediatric patients it is important to have correct dose reference levels to minimize risk. The research is being developed within the public health sector at the Hospital Infantil de Mexico 'Dr. Federico Gomez.' We measured the entrance surface air kerma (K{sub P}) in paediatric patients, during the radiological studies of control in CT (studies of head, thorax and abdomen). Phantom was used to evaluate imagemore » quality as the tomograph requires a high resolution image in order to operate at its optimum level.« less

A novel no-reference objective stereoscopic video quality assessment method based on visual saliency analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Xinyan; Zhao, Wei; Ye, Long; Zhang, Qin

2017-07-01

This paper proposes a no-reference objective stereoscopic video quality assessment method with the motivation that making the effect of objective experiments close to that of subjective way. We believe that the image regions with different visual salient degree should not have the same weights when designing an assessment metric. Therefore, we firstly use GBVS algorithm to each frame pairs and separate both the left and right viewing images into the regions with strong, general and week saliency. Besides, local feature information like blockiness, zero-crossing and depth are extracted and combined with a mathematical model to calculate a quality assessment score. Regions with different salient degree are assigned with different weights in the mathematical model. Experiment results demonstrate the superiority of our method compared with the existed state-of-the-art no-reference objective Stereoscopic video quality assessment methods.

Deriving video content type from HEVC bitstream semantics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nightingale, James; Wang, Qi; Grecos, Christos; Goma, Sergio R.

2014-05-01

As network service providers seek to improve customer satisfaction and retention levels, they are increasingly moving from traditional quality of service (QoS) driven delivery models to customer-centred quality of experience (QoE) delivery models. QoS models only consider metrics derived from the network however, QoE models also consider metrics derived from within the video sequence itself. Various spatial and temporal characteristics of a video sequence have been proposed, both individually and in combination, to derive methods of classifying video content either on a continuous scale or as a set of discrete classes. QoE models can be divided into three broad categories, full reference, reduced reference and no-reference models. Due to the need to have the original video available at the client for comparison, full reference metrics are of limited practical value in adaptive real-time video applications. Reduced reference metrics often require metadata to be transmitted with the bitstream, while no-reference metrics typically operate in the decompressed domain at the client side and require significant processing to extract spatial and temporal features. This paper proposes a heuristic, no-reference approach to video content classification which is specific to HEVC encoded bitstreams. The HEVC encoder already makes use of spatial characteristics to determine partitioning of coding units and temporal characteristics to determine the splitting of prediction units. We derive a function which approximates the spatio-temporal characteristics of the video sequence by using the weighted averages of the depth at which the coding unit quadtree is split and the prediction mode decision made by the encoder to estimate spatial and temporal characteristics respectively. Since the video content type of a sequence is determined by using high level information parsed from the video stream, spatio-temporal characteristics are identified without the need for full decoding and can be used in a timely manner to aid decision making in QoE oriented adaptive real time streaming.

Reliable Detection of Herpes Simplex Virus Sequence Variation by High-Throughput Resequencing.

PubMed

Morse, Alison M; Calabro, Kaitlyn R; Fear, Justin M; Bloom, David C; McIntyre, Lauren M

2017-08-16

High-throughput sequencing (HTS) has resulted in data for a number of herpes simplex virus (HSV) laboratory strains and clinical isolates. The knowledge of these sequences has been critical for investigating viral pathogenicity. However, the assembly of complete herpesviral genomes, including HSV, is complicated due to the existence of large repeat regions and arrays of smaller reiterated sequences that are commonly found in these genomes. In addition, the inherent genetic variation in populations of isolates for viruses and other microorganisms presents an additional challenge to many existing HTS sequence assembly pipelines. Here, we evaluate two approaches for the identification of genetic variants in HSV1 strains using Illumina short read sequencing data. The first, a reference-based approach, identifies variants from reads aligned to a reference sequence and the second, a de novo assembly approach, identifies variants from reads aligned to de novo assembled consensus sequences. Of critical importance for both approaches is the reduction in the number of low complexity regions through the construction of a non-redundant reference genome. We compared variants identified in the two methods. Our results indicate that approximately 85% of variants are identified regardless of the approach. The reference-based approach to variant discovery captures an additional 15% representing variants divergent from the HSV1 reference possibly due to viral passage. Reference-based approaches are significantly less labor-intensive and identify variants across the genome where de novo assembly-based approaches are limited to regions where contigs have been successfully assembled. In addition, regions of poor quality assembly can lead to false variant identification in de novo consensus sequences. For viruses with a well-assembled reference genome, a reference-based approach is recommended.

Identification and assembly of genomes and genetic elements in complex metagenomic samples without using reference genomes.

PubMed

Nielsen, H Bjørn; Almeida, Mathieu; Juncker, Agnieszka Sierakowska; Rasmussen, Simon; Li, Junhua; Sunagawa, Shinichi; Plichta, Damian R; Gautier, Laurent; Pedersen, Anders G; Le Chatelier, Emmanuelle; Pelletier, Eric; Bonde, Ida; Nielsen, Trine; Manichanh, Chaysavanh; Arumugam, Manimozhiyan; Batto, Jean-Michel; Quintanilha Dos Santos, Marcelo B; Blom, Nikolaj; Borruel, Natalia; Burgdorf, Kristoffer S; Boumezbeur, Fouad; Casellas, Francesc; Doré, Joël; Dworzynski, Piotr; Guarner, Francisco; Hansen, Torben; Hildebrand, Falk; Kaas, Rolf S; Kennedy, Sean; Kristiansen, Karsten; Kultima, Jens Roat; Léonard, Pierre; Levenez, Florence; Lund, Ole; Moumen, Bouziane; Le Paslier, Denis; Pons, Nicolas; Pedersen, Oluf; Prifti, Edi; Qin, Junjie; Raes, Jeroen; Sørensen, Søren; Tap, Julien; Tims, Sebastian; Ussery, David W; Yamada, Takuji; Renault, Pierre; Sicheritz-Ponten, Thomas; Bork, Peer; Wang, Jun; Brunak, Søren; Ehrlich, S Dusko

2014-08-01

Most current approaches for analyzing metagenomic data rely on comparisons to reference genomes, but the microbial diversity of many environments extends far beyond what is covered by reference databases. De novo segregation of complex metagenomic data into specific biological entities, such as particular bacterial strains or viruses, remains a largely unsolved problem. Here we present a method, based on binning co-abundant genes across a series of metagenomic samples, that enables comprehensive discovery of new microbial organisms, viruses and co-inherited genetic entities and aids assembly of microbial genomes without the need for reference sequences. We demonstrate the method on data from 396 human gut microbiome samples and identify 7,381 co-abundance gene groups (CAGs), including 741 metagenomic species (MGS). We use these to assemble 238 high-quality microbial genomes and identify affiliations between MGS and hundreds of viruses or genetic entities. Our method provides the means for comprehensive profiling of the diversity within complex metagenomic samples.

The emerging biofuel crop Camelina sativa retains a highly undifferentiated hexaploid genome structure

PubMed Central

Kagale, Sateesh; Koh, Chushin; Nixon, John; Bollina, Venkatesh; Clarke, Wayne E.; Tuteja, Reetu; Spillane, Charles; Robinson, Stephen J.; Links, Matthew G.; Clarke, Carling; Higgins, Erin E.; Huebert, Terry; Sharpe, Andrew G.; Parkin, Isobel A. P.

2014-01-01

Camelina sativa is an oilseed with desirable agronomic and oil-quality attributes for a viable industrial oil platform crop. Here we generate the first chromosome-scale high-quality reference genome sequence for C. sativa and annotated 89,418 protein-coding genes, representing a whole-genome triplication event relative to the crucifer model Arabidopsis thaliana. C. sativa represents the first crop species to be sequenced from lineage I of the Brassicaceae. The well-preserved hexaploid genome structure of C. sativa surprisingly mirrors those of economically important amphidiploid Brassica crop species from lineage II as well as wheat and cotton. The three genomes of C. sativa show no evidence of fractionation bias and limited expression-level bias, both characteristics commonly associated with polyploid evolution. The highly undifferentiated polyploid genome of C. sativa presents significant consequences for breeding and genetic manipulation of this industrial oil crop. PMID:24759634

A Systematic Review of Genetic Testing and Lifestyle Behaviour Change: Are We Using High-Quality Genetic Interventions and Considering Behaviour Change Theory?

PubMed

Horne, Justine; Madill, Janet; O'Connor, Colleen; Shelley, Jacob; Gilliland, Jason

2018-04-10

Studying the impact of genetic testing interventions on lifestyle behaviour change has been a priority area of research in recent years. Substantial heterogeneity exists in the results and conclusions of this literature, which has yet to be explained using validated behaviour change theory and an assessment of the quality of genetic interventions. The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) helps to explain key contributors to behaviour change. It has been hypothesized that personalization could be added to this theory to help predict changes in health behaviours. This systematic review provides a detailed, comprehensive identification, assessment, and summary of primary research articles pertaining to lifestyle behaviour change (nutrition, physical activity, sleep, and smoking) resulting from genetic testing interventions. The present review further aims to provide in-depth analyses of studies conducted to date within the context of the TPB and the quality of genetic interventions provided to participants while aiming to determine whether or not genetic testing facilitates changes in lifestyle habits. This review is timely in light of a recently published "call-to-action" paper, highlighting the need to incorporate the TPB into personalized healthcare behaviour change research. Three bibliographic databases, one key website, and article reference lists were searched for relevant primary research articles. The PRISMA Flow Diagram and PRISMA Checklist were used to guide the search strategy and manuscript preparation. Out of 32,783 titles retrieved, 26 studies met the inclusion criteria. Three quality assessments were conducted and included: (1) risk of bias, (2) quality of genetic interventions, and (3) consideration of theoretical underpinnings - primarily the TPB. Risk of bias in studies was overall rated to be "fair." Consideration of the TPB was "poor," with no study making reference to this validated theory. While some studies (n = 11; 42%) made reference to other behaviour change theories, these theories were generally mentioned briefly, and were not thoroughly incorporated into the study design or analyses. The genetic interventions provided to participants were overall of "poor" quality. However, a separate analysis of studies using controlled intervention research methods demonstrated the use of higher-quality genetic interventions (overall rated to be "fair"). The provision of actionable recommendations informed by genetic testing was more likely to facilitate behaviour change than the provision of genetic information without actionable lifestyle recommendations. Several studies of good quality demonstrated changes in lifestyle habits arising from the provision of genetic interventions. The most promising lifestyle changes were changes in nutrition. It is possible to facilitate behaviour change using genetic testing as the catalyst. Future research should ensure that high-quality genetic interventions are provided to participants, and should consider validated theories such as the TPB in their study design and analyses. Further recommendations for future research are provided. © 2018 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Reference-free automatic quality assessment of tracheoesophageal speech.

PubMed

Huang, Andy; Falk, Tiago H; Chan, Wai-Yip; Parsa, Vijay; Doyle, Philip

2009-01-01

Evaluation of the quality of tracheoesophageal (TE) speech using machines instead of human experts can enhance the voice rehabilitation process for patients who have undergone total laryngectomy and voice restoration. Towards the goal of devising a reference-free TE speech quality estimation algorithm, we investigate the efficacy of speech signal features that are used in standard telephone-speech quality assessment algorithms, in conjunction with a recently introduced speech modulation spectrum measure. Tests performed on two TE speech databases demonstrate that the modulation spectral measure and a subset of features in the standard ITU-T P.563 algorithm estimate TE speech quality with better correlation (up to 0.9) than previously proposed features.

PDQ: Planning and Development of Quality Services in the Schools, Instructional Guide, Student Manual and Reference Materials.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wright, Sandra Raymore

The instructional guide, student manual, and reference materials were developed by the PDQ Project, Planning and Development of Quality Services in the Schools, an effort by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association to provide public school personnel working with communication disordered children with information and training related to…

Narrative Structure and Emotional References in Parent-Child Reminiscing: Associations with Child Gender, Temperament, and the Quality of Parent-Child Interactions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bost, Kelly K.; Choi, Eunsil; Wong, Maria S.

2010-01-01

The present research examined child gender, temperament, and the quality of parent-child interactions as predictors of narrative style and references to emotion during mother-child and father-child reminiscing. Although models predicting parents' narrative styles were non-significant, results revealed significant interactions between parental…

Stream invertebrate productivity linked to forest subsidies: 37 stream-years of reference and experimental data

Treesearch

J. Bruce Wallace; Susan L Eggert; Judy L. Meyer; Jackson R. Webster

2015-01-01

Riparian habitats provide detrital subsidies of varying quantities and qualities to recipient ecosystems. We used long-term data from three reference streams (covering 24 stream-years) and 13-year whole-stream organic matter manipulations to investigate the influence of terrestrial detrital quantity and quality on benthic invertebrate community structure, abundance,...

Improving Schools through Evaluation: The Experience of Catholic Schools in South Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Potterton, Mark; Northmore, Colin

2014-01-01

This article addresses the development of quality assurance approaches in South Africa, with particular reference to Catholic schools. It also addresses questions of why whole school evaluation in general has failed to play any meaningful role in improving the quality of schools in South Africa. Reference is also made to specific school cases. The…

Effects of urbanization on stream water quality in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, USA

USGS Publications Warehouse

Peters, N.E.

2009-01-01

A long-term stream water quality monitoring network was established in the city of Atlanta, Georgia during 2003 to assess baseline water quality conditions and the effects of urbanization on stream water quality. Routine hydrologically based manual stream sampling, including several concurrent manual point and equal width increment sampling, was conducted ???12 times annually at 21 stations, with drainage areas ranging from 3.7 to 232 km2. Eleven of the stations are real-time (RT) stations having continuous measures of stream stage/ discharge, pH, dissolved oxygen, specific conductance, water temperature and turbidity, and automatic samplers for stormwater collection. Samples were analyzed for field parameters, and a broad suite of water quality and sediment-related constituents. Field parameters and concentrations of major ions, metals, nutrient species and coliform bacteria among stations were evaluated and with respect to watershed characteristics and plausible sources from 2003 through September 2007. Most constituent concentrations are much higher than nearby reference streams. Concentrations are statistically different among stations for several constituents, despite high variability both within and among stations. Routine manual sampling, automatic sampling during stormflows and RT water quality monitoring provided sufficient information about urban stream water quality variability to evaluate causes of water quality differences among streams. Fecal coliform bacteria concentrations of most samples exceeded Georgia's water quality standard for any water-usage class. High chloride concentrations occur at three stations and are hypothesized to be associated with discharges of chlorinated combined sewer overflows, drainage of swimming pool(s) and dissolution and transport during rainstorms of CaCl2, a deicing salt applied to roads during winter storms. One stream was affected by dissolution and transport of ammonium alum [NH4Al(SO4)2] from an alum-manufacturing plant; streamwater has low pH (<5), low alkalinity and high metals concentrations. Several trace metals exceed acute and chronic water quality standards and high concentrations are attributed to washoff from impervious surfaces.

Identification of Shiga-Toxigenic Escherichia coli outbreak isolates by a novel data analysis tool after matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Christner, Martin; Dressler, Dirk; Andrian, Mark; Reule, Claudia; Petrini, Orlando

2017-01-01

The fast and reliable characterization of bacterial and fungal pathogens plays an important role in infectious disease control and tracking of outbreak agents. DNA based methods are the gold standard for epidemiological investigations, but they are still comparatively expensive and time-consuming. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is a fast, reliable and cost-effective technique now routinely used to identify clinically relevant human pathogens. It has been used for subspecies differentiation and typing, but its use for epidemiological tasks, e. g. for outbreak investigations, is often hampered by the complexity of data analysis. We have analysed publicly available MALDI-TOF mass spectra from a large outbreak of Shiga-Toxigenic Escherichia coli in northern Germany using a general purpose software tool for the analysis of complex biological data. The software was challenged with depauperate spectra and reduced learning group sizes to mimic poor spectrum quality and scarcity of reference spectra at the onset of an outbreak. With high quality formic acid extraction spectra, the software's built in classifier accurately identified outbreak related strains using as few as 10 reference spectra (99.8% sensitivity, 98.0% specificity). Selective variation of processing parameters showed impaired marker peak detection and reduced classification accuracy in samples with high background noise or artificially reduced peak counts. However, the software consistently identified mass signals suitable for a highly reliable marker peak based classification approach (100% sensitivity, 99.5% specificity) even from low quality direct deposition spectra. The study demonstrates that general purpose data analysis tools can effectively be used for the analysis of bacterial mass spectra.

Performance of a quality assurance program for assessing dental health in methamphetamine users.

PubMed

Dye, Bruce A; Harrell, Lauren; Murphy, Debra A; Belin, Thomas; Shetty, Vivek

2015-07-05

Systematic characterization of the dental consequences of methamphetamine (MA) abuse presupposes a rigorous quality assurance (QA) program to ensure the credibility of the data collected and the scientific integrity and validity of the clinical study. In this report we describe and evaluate the performance of a quality assurance program implemented in a large cross-sectional study of the dental consequences of MA use. A large community sample of MA users was recruited over a 30 month period during 2011-13 and received comprehensive oral examinations and psychosocial assessments by site examiners based at two large community health centers in Los Angeles. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) protocols for oral health assessments were utilized to characterize dental disease. Using NHANES oral health quality assurance guidelines, examiner reliability statistics such as Cohen's Kappa coefficients and inter-class correlation coefficients were calculated to assess the magnitude of agreement between the site examiners and a reference examiner to ensure conformance and comparability with NHANES practices. Approximately 9% (n = 49) of the enrolled 574 MA users received a repeat dental caries and periodontal examination conducted by the reference examiner. There was high concordance between the reference examiner and the site examiners for identification of untreated dental disease (Kappa statistic values: 0.57-0.75, percent agreement 83-88%). For identification of untreated caries on at least 5 surfaces of anterior teeth, the Kappas ranged from 0.77 to 0.87, and percent agreement from 94 to 97%. The intra-class coefficients (ICCs) ranged from 0.87 to 89 for attachment loss across all periodontal sites assessed and the ICCs ranged from 0.79 to 0.81 for pocket depth. For overall gingival recession, the ICCs ranged from 0.88 to 0.91. When Kappa was calculated based on the CDC/AAP case definitions for severe periodontitis, inter-examiner reliability for site examiners was low (Kappa 0.27-0.67). Overall, the quality assurance program confirmed the procedural adherence of the quality of the data collected on the distribution of dental caries and periodontal disease in MA-users. Examiner concordance was higher for dental caries but lower for specific periodontal assessments.

Learning Receptive Fields and Quality Lookups for Blind Quality Assessment of Stereoscopic Images.

PubMed

Shao, Feng; Lin, Weisi; Wang, Shanshan; Jiang, Gangyi; Yu, Mei; Dai, Qionghai

2016-03-01

Blind quality assessment of 3D images encounters more new challenges than its 2D counterparts. In this paper, we propose a blind quality assessment for stereoscopic images by learning the characteristics of receptive fields (RFs) from perspective of dictionary learning, and constructing quality lookups to replace human opinion scores without performance loss. The important feature of the proposed method is that we do not need a large set of samples of distorted stereoscopic images and the corresponding human opinion scores to learn a regression model. To be more specific, in the training phase, we learn local RFs (LRFs) and global RFs (GRFs) from the reference and distorted stereoscopic images, respectively, and construct their corresponding local quality lookups (LQLs) and global quality lookups (GQLs). In the testing phase, blind quality pooling can be easily achieved by searching optimal GRF and LRF indexes from the learnt LQLs and GQLs, and the quality score is obtained by combining the LRF and GRF indexes together. Experimental results on three publicly 3D image quality assessment databases demonstrate that in comparison with the existing methods, the devised algorithm achieves high consistent alignment with subjective assessment.

CUQI: cardiac ultrasound video quality index

PubMed Central

Razaak, Manzoor; Martini, Maria G.

2016-01-01

Abstract. Medical images and videos are now increasingly part of modern telecommunication applications, including telemedicinal applications, favored by advancements in video compression and communication technologies. Medical video quality evaluation is essential for modern applications since compression and transmission processes often compromise the video quality. Several state-of-the-art video quality metrics used for quality evaluation assess the perceptual quality of the video. For a medical video, assessing quality in terms of “diagnostic” value rather than “perceptual” quality is more important. We present a diagnostic-quality–oriented video quality metric for quality evaluation of cardiac ultrasound videos. Cardiac ultrasound videos are characterized by rapid repetitive cardiac motions and distinct structural information characteristics that are explored by the proposed metric. Cardiac ultrasound video quality index, the proposed metric, is a full reference metric and uses the motion and edge information of the cardiac ultrasound video to evaluate the video quality. The metric was evaluated for its performance in approximating the quality of cardiac ultrasound videos by testing its correlation with the subjective scores of medical experts. The results of our tests showed that the metric has high correlation with medical expert opinions and in several cases outperforms the state-of-the-art video quality metrics considered in our tests. PMID:27014715

Influences of thermal deformation of cavity mirrors induced by high energy DF laser to beam quality under the simulated real physical circumstances

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deng, Shaoyong; Zhang, Shiqiang; He, Minbo; Zhang, Zheng; Guan, Xiaowei

2017-05-01

The positive-branch confocal unstable resonator with inhomogeneous gain medium was studied for the normal used high energy DF laser system. The fast changing process of the resonator's eigenmodes was coupled with the slow changing process of the thermal deformation of cavity mirrors. Influences of the thermal deformation of cavity mirrors to the outcoupled beam quality and transmission loss of high frequency components of high energy laser were computed. The simulations are done through programs compiled by MATLAB and GLAD software and the method of combination of finite elements and Fox-li iteration algorithm was used. Effects of thermal distortion, misaligned of cavity mirrors and inhomogeneous distribution of gain medium were introduced to simulate the real physical circumstances of laser cavity. The wavefront distribution and beam quality (including RMS of wavefront, power in the bucket, Strehl ratio, diffraction limit β, position of the beam spot center, spot size and intensity distribution in far-field ) of the distorted outcoupled beam were studied. The conclusions of the simulation agree with the experimental results. This work would supply references of wavefront correction range to the adaptive optics system of interior alleyway.

Complementary and alternative medicine for lowering blood lipid levels: A systematic review of systematic reviews.

PubMed

Posadzki, Paul; AlBedah, Abdullah M N; Khalil, Mohamed M K; AlQaed, Meshari S

2016-12-01

The aim of this article is to summarize and critically evaluate the evidence from systematic reviews (SRs) of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) for lowering blood lipid levels (BLL). Eight electronic databases were searched until March 2016. Additionally, all the retrieved references were inspected manually for further relevant papers. Systematic reviews were considered eligible, if they included patients of any age and/or gender with elevated blood lipid levels using any type of CAM. We used the Oxman and AMSTAR criteria to critically appraise the methodological quality of the included SRs. Twenty-seven SRs were included in the analyses. The majority of the SRs were of high methodological quality (mean Oxman score=4.81, SD=4.88; and the mean AMSTAR score=7.22, SD=3.38). The majority of SRs (56%) arrived at equivocal conclusions (of these 8 were of high quality); 7 SRs (37%) arrived at positive conclusions (of these 6 were of high quality), and 2 (7%) arrived at negative conclusions (both were of high quality). There was conflicting evidence regarding the effectiveness of garlic; and promising evidence for yoga. To conclude, the evidence from SRs evaluating the effectiveness of CAM in lowering BLL is predominantly equivocal and confusing. Several limitations exist, such as variety of doses and preparations, confounding effects of diets and lifestyle factors, or heterogeneity of the primary trials among others. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Learning a No-Reference Quality Assessment Model of Enhanced Images With Big Data.

PubMed

Gu, Ke; Tao, Dacheng; Qiao, Jun-Fei; Lin, Weisi

2018-04-01

In this paper, we investigate into the problem of image quality assessment (IQA) and enhancement via machine learning. This issue has long attracted a wide range of attention in computational intelligence and image processing communities, since, for many practical applications, e.g., object detection and recognition, raw images are usually needed to be appropriately enhanced to raise the visual quality (e.g., visibility and contrast). In fact, proper enhancement can noticeably improve the quality of input images, even better than originally captured images, which are generally thought to be of the best quality. In this paper, we present two most important contributions. The first contribution is to develop a new no-reference (NR) IQA model. Given an image, our quality measure first extracts 17 features through analysis of contrast, sharpness, brightness and more, and then yields a measure of visual quality using a regression module, which is learned with big-data training samples that are much bigger than the size of relevant image data sets. The results of experiments on nine data sets validate the superiority and efficiency of our blind metric compared with typical state-of-the-art full-reference, reduced-reference and NA IQA methods. The second contribution is that a robust image enhancement framework is established based on quality optimization. For an input image, by the guidance of the proposed NR-IQA measure, we conduct histogram modification to successively rectify image brightness and contrast to a proper level. Thorough tests demonstrate that our framework can well enhance natural images, low-contrast images, low-light images, and dehazed images. The source code will be released at https://sites.google.com/site/guke198701/publications.

Separating the Wheat From the Chaff: An Evaluation of Readability, Quality, and Accuracy of Online Health Information for Treatment of Peyronie Disease.

PubMed

Bompastore, Nicholas J; Cisu, Theodore; Holoch, Peter

2018-04-30

To characterize available information about Peyronie disease online and evaluate its readability, quality, accuracy, and respective associations with HONcode certification and website category. The search term "Peyronie disease" was queried on 3 major search engines (Google, Bing, and Yahoo) and the first 50 search results on each search engine were assessed. All websites were categorized as institutional or reference, commercial, charitable, personal or patient support, or alternative medicine, and cross-referenced with the Health on the Net (HON) Foundation. Websites that met the inclusion criteria were analyzed for readability using 3 validated algorithms, for quality using the DISCERN instrument, and for accuracy by a fellowship-trained urologist. On average, online health information about treatment of Peyronie disease is written at or above the 11th grade level, exceeding the current reading guidelines of 6th-8th grade. The mean total DISCERN score for all website categories was 50.44 (standard deviation [SD] 11.94), the upper range of "fair" quality. The mean accuracy score of all online Peyronie treatment information was 2.76 (SD 1.23), corresponding to only 25%-50% accurate information. Both institutional or reference and HONcode-certified websites were of "good" quality (53.44, SD 11.64 and 60.86, SD 8.74, respectively). Institutional or reference websites were 50%-75% accurate (3.13, SD 1.20). Most of the online Peyronie disease treatment information is of mediocre quality and accuracy. The information from institutional or reference websites is of better quality and accuracy, and the information from HONcode-certified websites is of better quality. The mean readability of all websites exceeds the reading ability of most US adults by several grade levels. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Non-linear control of the output stage of a solar microinverter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lopez-Santos, Oswaldo; Garcia, Germain; Martinez-Salamero, Luis; Avila-Martinez, Juan C.; Seguier, Lionel

2017-01-01

This paper presents a proposal to control the output stage of a two-stage solar microinverter to inject real power into the grid. The input stage of the microinverter is used to extract the maximum available power of a photovoltaic module enforcing a power source behavior in the DC-link to feed the output stage. The work here reported is devoted to control a grid-connected power source inverter with a high power quality level at the grid side ensuring the power balance of the microinverter regulating the voltage of the DC-link. The proposed control is composed of a sinusoidal current reference generator and a cascade type controller composed by a current tracking loop and a voltage regulation loop. The current reference is obtained using a synchronized generator based on phase locked loop (PLL) which gives the shape, the frequency and phase of the current signal. The amplitude of the reference is obtained from a simple controller regulating the DC-link voltage. The tracking of the current reference is accomplished by means of a first-order sliding mode control law. The solution takes advantage of the rapidity and inherent robustness of the sliding mode current controller allowing a robust behavior in the regulation of the DC-link using a simple linear controller. The analytical expression to determine the power quality indicators of the micro-inverter's output is theoretically solved giving expressions relating the converter parameters. The theoretical approach is validated using simulation and experimental results.

Water quality of potential reference lakes in the Arkansas Valley and Ouachita Mountain ecoregions, Arkansas

USGS Publications Warehouse

Justus, B.G.; Meredith, Bradley J.

2014-01-01

This report describes a study to identify reference lakes in two lake classifications common to parts of two level III ecoregions in western Arkansas—the Arkansas Valley and Ouachita Mountains. Fifty-two lakes were considered. A screening process that relied on land-use data was followed by reconnaissance water-quality sampling, and two lakes from each ecoregion were selected for intensive water-quality sampling. Our data suggest that Spring Lake is a suitable reference lake for the Arkansas Valley and that Hot Springs Lake is a suitable reference lake for the Ouachita Mountains. Concentrations for five nutrient constituents—orthophosphorus, total phosphorus, total kjeldahl nitrogen, total nitrogen, and total organic carbon—were lower at Spring Lake on all nine sampling occasions and transparency measurements at Spring Lake were significantly deeper than measurements at Cove Lake. For the Ouachita Mountains ecoregion, water quality at Hot Springs Lake slightly exceeded that of Lake Winona. The most apparent water-quality differences for the two lakes were related to transparency and total organic carbon concentrations, which were deeper and lower at Hot Springs Lake, respectively. Our results indicate that when nutrient concentrations are low, transparency may be more valuable for differentiating between lake water quality than chemical constituents that have been useful for distinguishing between water-quality conditions in mesotrophic and eutrophic settings. For example, in this oligotrophic setting, concentrations for chlorophyll a can be less than 5 μg/L and diurnal variability that is typically associated with dissolved oxygen in more productive settings was not evident.

Design Quality in the Context of Healthcare Environments: A Scoping Review.

PubMed

Anåker, Anna; Heylighen, Ann; Nordin, Susanna; Elf, Marie

2017-07-01

We explored the concept of design quality in relation to healthcare environments. In addition, we present a taxonomy that illustrates the wide range of terms used in connection with design quality in healthcare. High-quality physical environments can promote health and well-being. Developments in healthcare technology and methodology put high demands on the design quality of care environments, coupled with increasing expectations and demands from patients and staff that care environments be person centered, welcoming, and accessible while also supporting privacy and security. In addition, there are demands that decisions about the design of healthcare architecture be based on the best available information from credible research and the evaluation of existing building projects. The basic principles of Arksey and O'Malley's model of scoping review design were used. Data were derived from literature searches in scientific databases. A total of 18 articles and books were found that referred to design quality in a healthcare context. Design quality of physical healthcare environments involves three different themes: (i) environmental sustainability and ecological values, (ii) social and cultural interactions and values, and (iii) resilience of the engineering and building construction. Design quality was clarified herein with a definition. Awareness of what is considered design quality in relation to healthcare architecture could help to design healthcare environments based on evidence. To operationalize the concept, its definition must be clear and explicit and able to meet the complex needs of the stakeholders in a healthcare context, including patients, staff, and significant others.

Automated filtering of common-mode artifacts in multichannel physiological recordings.

PubMed

Kelly, John W; Siewiorek, Daniel P; Smailagic, Asim; Wang, Wei

2013-10-01

The removal of spatially correlated noise is an important step in processing multichannel recordings. Here, a technique termed the adaptive common average reference (ACAR) is presented as an effective and simple method for removing this noise. The ACAR is based on a combination of the well-known common average reference (CAR) and an adaptive noise canceling (ANC) filter. In a convergent process, the CAR provides a reference to an ANC filter, which in turn provides feedback to enhance the CAR. This method was effective on both simulated and real data, outperforming the standard CAR when the amplitude or polarity of the noise changes across channels. In many cases, the ACAR even outperformed independent component analysis. On 16 channels of simulated data, the ACAR was able to attenuate up to approximately 290 dB of noise and could improve signal quality if the original SNR was as high as 5 dB. With an original SNR of 0 dB, the ACAR improved signal quality with only two data channels and performance improved as the number of channels increased. It also performed well under many different conditions for the structure of the noise and signals. Analysis of contaminated electrocorticographic recordings further showed the effectiveness of the ACAR.

Automated Filtering of Common Mode Artifacts in Multi-Channel Physiological Recordings

PubMed Central

Kelly, John W.; Siewiorek, Daniel P.; Smailagic, Asim; Wang, Wei

2014-01-01

The removal of spatially correlated noise is an important step in processing multi-channel recordings. Here, a technique termed the adaptive common average reference (ACAR) is presented as an effective and simple method for removing this noise. The ACAR is based on a combination of the well-known common average reference (CAR) and an adaptive noise canceling (ANC) filter. In a convergent process, the CAR provides a reference to an ANC filter, which in turn provides feedback to enhance the CAR. This method was effective on both simulated and real data, outperforming the standard CAR when the amplitude or polarity of the noise changes across channels. In many cases the ACAR even outperformed independent component analysis (ICA). On 16 channels of simulated data the ACAR was able to attenuate up to approximately 290 dB of noise and could improve signal quality if the original SNR was as high as 5 dB. With an original SNR of 0 dB, the ACAR improved signal quality with only two data channels and performance improved as the number of channels increased. It also performed well under many different conditions for the structure of the noise and signals. Analysis of contaminated electrocorticographic (ECoG) recordings further showed the effectiveness of the ACAR. PMID:23708770

A Standard-Based and Context-Aware Architecture for Personal Healthcare Smart Gateways.

PubMed

Santos, Danilo F S; Gorgônio, Kyller C; Perkusich, Angelo; Almeida, Hyggo O

2016-10-01

The rising availability of Personal Health Devices (PHDs) capable of Personal Network Area (PAN) communication and the desire of keeping a high quality of life are the ingredients of the Connected Health vision. In parallel, a growing number of personal and portable devices, like smartphones and tablet computers, are becoming capable of taking the role of health gateway, that is, a data collector for the sensor PHDs. However, as the number of PHDs increase, the number of other peripherals connected in PAN also increases. Therefore, PHDs are now competing for medium access with other devices, decreasing the Quality of Service (QoS) of health applications in the PAN. In this article we present a reference architecture to prioritize PHD connections based on their state and requirements, creating a healthcare Smart Gateway. Healthcare context information is extracted by observing the traffic through the gateway. A standard-based approach was used to identify health traffic based on ISO/IEEE 11073 family of standards. A reference implementation was developed showing the relevance of the problem and how the proposed architecture can assist in the prioritization. The reference Smart Gateway solution was integrated with a Connected Health System for the Internet of Things, validating its use in a real case scenario.

Advanced strategies for quality control of Chinese medicines.

PubMed

Zhao, Jing; Ma, Shuang-Cheng; Li, Shao-Ping

2018-01-05

Quality control is always the critical issue for Chinese medicines (CMs) with their worldwide increasing use. Different from western medicine, CMs are usually considered that multiple constituents are responsible for the therapeutic effects. Therefore, quality control of CMs is a challenge. In 2011, the strategies for quantification, related to the markers, reference compounds and approaches, in quality control of CMs were reviewed (Li, et al., J. Pharm. Biomed. Anal., 2011, 55, 802-809). Since then, some new strategies have been proposed in these fields. Therefore, the review on the strategies for quality control of CMs should be updated to improve the safety and efficacy of CMs. Herein, novel strategies related to quality marker discovery, reference compound development and advanced approaches (focused on glyco-analysis) for quality control, during 2011-2016, were summarized and discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Industry guidelines, laws and regulations ignored: quality of drug advertising in medical journals.

PubMed

Lankinen, Kari S; Levola, Tero; Marttinen, Kati; Puumalainen, Inka; Helin-Salmivaara, Arja

2004-11-01

To document the quality of evidence base for marketing claims in prescription drug advertisements, to facilitate identification of potential targets for quality improvement. A sample of 1036 advertisements from four major Finnish medical journals published in 2002. Marketing claims were classified in four groups: unambiguous clinical outcome, vague clinical outcome, emotive or immeasurable outcome and non-clinical outcome. Medline references were traced and classified according to the level of evidence available. The statistical variables used in the advertisements were also documented. The sample included 245 distinct advertisements with 883 marketing claims, 1-10 claims per advertisement. Three hundred thirty seven (38%) of the claims were referenced. Each claim could be supported by one reference or more, so the number of references analysed totalled 381, 1-9 references per advertisement. Nine percent of the claims implied unambiguous clinical outcomes, 68% included vague or emotive statements. Twenty one percent of the references were irrelevant to the claim. There was a fair amount of non-scientific and scientific support for the 73 unambiguous claims, but not a single claim was supported by strong scientific evidence. Vague, emotive and non-clinical claims were significantly more often supported by non-Medline or irrelevant references than unambiguous claims. Statistical parameters were stated only 34 times. Referenced marketing claims may appear more scientific, but the use of references does not guarantee the quality of the claims. For the benefit of all stakeholders, both the regulatory control and industry's self-control of drug marketing should adopt more active monitoring roles, and apply sanctions when appropriate. Concerted efforts by several stakeholders might be more effective. Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

HUGO: Hierarchical mUlti-reference Genome cOmpression for aligned reads

PubMed Central

Li, Pinghao; Jiang, Xiaoqian; Wang, Shuang; Kim, Jihoon; Xiong, Hongkai; Ohno-Machado, Lucila

2014-01-01

Background and objective Short-read sequencing is becoming the standard of practice for the study of structural variants associated with disease. However, with the growth of sequence data largely surpassing reasonable storage capability, the biomedical community is challenged with the management, transfer, archiving, and storage of sequence data. Methods We developed Hierarchical mUlti-reference Genome cOmpression (HUGO), a novel compression algorithm for aligned reads in the sorted Sequence Alignment/Map (SAM) format. We first aligned short reads against a reference genome and stored exactly mapped reads for compression. For the inexact mapped or unmapped reads, we realigned them against different reference genomes using an adaptive scheme by gradually shortening the read length. Regarding the base quality value, we offer lossy and lossless compression mechanisms. The lossy compression mechanism for the base quality values uses k-means clustering, where a user can adjust the balance between decompression quality and compression rate. The lossless compression can be produced by setting k (the number of clusters) to the number of different quality values. Results The proposed method produced a compression ratio in the range 0.5–0.65, which corresponds to 35–50% storage savings based on experimental datasets. The proposed approach achieved 15% more storage savings over CRAM and comparable compression ratio with Samcomp (CRAM and Samcomp are two of the state-of-the-art genome compression algorithms). The software is freely available at https://sourceforge.net/projects/hierachicaldnac/with a General Public License (GPL) license. Limitation Our method requires having different reference genomes and prolongs the execution time for additional alignments. Conclusions The proposed multi-reference-based compression algorithm for aligned reads outperforms existing single-reference based algorithms. PMID:24368726

Quality assurance of reference standards from nine European solar-ultraviolet monitoring laboratories.

PubMed

Gröbner, Julian; Rembges, Diana; Bais, Alkiviadis F; Blumthaler, Mario; Cabot, Thierry; Josefsson, Weine; Koskela, Tapani; Thorseth, Trond M; Webb, Ann R; Wester, Ulf

2002-07-20

A program for quality assurance of reference standards has been initiated among nine solar-UV monitoring laboratories. By means of a traveling lamp package that comprises several 1000-W ANSI code DXW-type quartz-halogen lamps, a 0.1-ohm shunt, and a 6-1/2 digit voltmeter, the irradiance scales used by the nine laboratories were compared with one another; a relative uncertainty of 1.2% was found. The comparison of 15 reference standards yielded differences of as much as 9%; the average difference was less than 3%.

Breast imaging. A practical look at its capabilities and its limitations.

PubMed

Clark, R; Nemec, L; Love, N

1992-10-01

The film-screen technique is evolving as the standard for mammography. Sonography is the only other method that currently has a defined role in breast imaging. Mammography should be performed at facilities that have received American College of Radiology accreditation or its equivalent, because technical quality assurance is an important part of mammographic practice. Interpretive quality may be assured by outcome audits performed by mammography facilities. Primary care physicians are best suited to encouraging eligible women to undergo screening studies and should consider these recommendations: Refer patients for screening mammography to accredited facilities according to established guidelines. Educate patients about the need for regular screening. Provide annual breast physical examination. Refresh your knowledge on breast health and the techniques of physical examination if necessary. Teach patients breast self-examination techniques. Demand low-cost, high-quality screening mammography; be aware of local variability of charges and quality.

Improvement of the System of Training of Specialists by University for Coal Mining Enterprises

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mikhalchenko, Vadim; Seredkina, Irina

2017-11-01

In the article the ingenious technique of the Quality Function Deployment with reference to the process of training of specialists with higher education by university is considered. The method is based on the step-by-step conversion of customer requirements into specific organizational, meaningful and functional transformations of the technological process of the university. A fully deployed quality function includes four stages of tracking customer requirements while creating a product: product planning and design, process design, production design. The Quality Function Deployment can be considered as one of the methods for optimizing the technological processes of training of specialists with higher education in the current economic conditions. Implemented at the initial stages of the life cycle of the technological process, it ensures not only the high quality of the "product" of graduate school, but also the fullest possible satisfaction of consumer's requests and expectations.

Bioengineering a Human Plasma-Based Epidermal Substitute With Efficient Grafting Capacity and High Content in Clonogenic Cells

PubMed Central

Alexaline, Maia M.; Trouillas, Marina; Nivet, Muriel; Bourreau, Emilie; Leclerc, Thomas; Duhamel, Patrick; Martin, Michele T.; Doucet, Christelle; Fortunel, Nicolas O.

2015-01-01

Cultured epithelial autografts (CEAs) produced from a small, healthy skin biopsy represent a lifesaving surgical technique in cases of full-thickness skin burn covering >50% of total body surface area. CEAs also present numerous drawbacks, among them the use of animal proteins and cells, the high fragility of keratinocyte sheets, and the immaturity of the dermal-epidermal junction, leading to heavy cosmetic and functional sequelae. To overcome these weaknesses, we developed a human plasma-based epidermal substitute (hPBES) for epidermal coverage in cases of massive burn, as an alternative to traditional CEA, and set up critical quality controls for preclinical and clinical studies. In this study, phenotypical analyses in conjunction with functional assays (clonal analysis, long-term culture, or in vivo graft) showed that our new substitute fulfills the biological requirements for epidermal regeneration. hPBES keratinocytes showed high potential for cell proliferation and subsequent differentiation similar to healthy skin compared with a well-known reference material, as ascertained by a combination of quality controls. This work highlights the importance of integrating relevant multiparameter quality controls into the bioengineering of new skin substitutes before they reach clinical development. Significance This work involves the development of a new bioengineered epidermal substitute with pertinent functional quality controls. The novelty of this work is based on this quality approach. PMID:25848122

Bioengineering a human plasma-based epidermal substitute with efficient grafting capacity and high content in clonogenic cells.

PubMed

Alexaline, Maia M; Trouillas, Marina; Nivet, Muriel; Bourreau, Emilie; Leclerc, Thomas; Duhamel, Patrick; Martin, Michele T; Doucet, Christelle; Fortunel, Nicolas O; Lataillade, Jean-Jacques

2015-06-01

Cultured epithelial autografts (CEAs) produced from a small, healthy skin biopsy represent a lifesaving surgical technique in cases of full-thickness skin burn covering >50% of total body surface area. CEAs also present numerous drawbacks, among them the use of animal proteins and cells, the high fragility of keratinocyte sheets, and the immaturity of the dermal-epidermal junction, leading to heavy cosmetic and functional sequelae. To overcome these weaknesses, we developed a human plasma-based epidermal substitute (hPBES) for epidermal coverage in cases of massive burn, as an alternative to traditional CEA, and set up critical quality controls for preclinical and clinical studies. In this study, phenotypical analyses in conjunction with functional assays (clonal analysis, long-term culture, or in vivo graft) showed that our new substitute fulfills the biological requirements for epidermal regeneration. hPBES keratinocytes showed high potential for cell proliferation and subsequent differentiation similar to healthy skin compared with a well-known reference material, as ascertained by a combination of quality controls. This work highlights the importance of integrating relevant multiparameter quality controls into the bioengineering of new skin substitutes before they reach clinical development. This work involves the development of a new bioengineered epidermal substitute with pertinent functional quality controls. The novelty of this work is based on this quality approach. ©AlphaMed Press.

Developmental validation of the DNAscan™ Rapid DNA Analysis™ instrument and expert system for reference sample processing.

PubMed

Della Manna, Angelo; Nye, Jeffrey V; Carney, Christopher; Hammons, Jennifer S; Mann, Michael; Al Shamali, Farida; Vallone, Peter M; Romsos, Erica L; Marne, Beth Ann; Tan, Eugene; Turingan, Rosemary S; Hogan, Catherine; Selden, Richard F; French, Julie L

2016-11-01

Since the implementation of forensic DNA typing in labs more than 20 years ago, the analysis procedures and data interpretation have always been conducted in a laboratory by highly trained and qualified scientific personnel. Rapid DNA technology has the potential to expand testing capabilities within forensic laboratories and to allow forensic STR analysis to be performed outside the physical boundaries of the traditional laboratory. The developmental validation of the DNAscan/ANDE Rapid DNA Analysis System was completed using a BioChipSet™ Cassette consumable designed for high DNA content samples, such as single source buccal swabs. A total of eight laboratories participated in the testing which totaled over 2300 swabs, and included nearly 1400 unique individuals. The goal of this extensive study was to obtain, document, analyze, and assess DNAscan and its internal Expert System to reliably genotype reference samples in a manner compliant with the FBI's Quality Assurance Standards (QAS) and the NDIS Operational Procedures. The DNAscan System provided high quality, concordant results for reference buccal swabs, including automated data analysis with an integrated Expert System. Seven external laboratories and NetBio, the developer of the technology, participated in the validation testing demonstrating the reproducibility and reliability of the system and its successful use in a variety of settings by numerous operators. The DNAscan System demonstrated limited cross reactivity with other species, was resilient in the presence of numerous inhibitors, and provided reproducible results for both buccal and purified DNA samples with sensitivity at a level appropriate for buccal swabs. The precision and resolution of the system met industry standards for detection of micro-variants and displayed single base resolution. PCR-based studies provided confidence that the system was robust and that the amplification reaction had been optimized to provide high quality results. The DNAscan integrated Expert System was examined as part of the Developmental Validation and successfully interpreted the over 2000 samples tested with over 99.998% concordant alleles. The system appropriately flagged samples for human review and failed both mixed samples and samples with insufficient genetic information. These results demonstrated the integrated Expert System makes correct allele calls without human intervention. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.. All rights reserved.

The development of a population of 4D pediatric XCAT phantoms for CT imaging research and optimization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Norris, Hannah; Zhang, Yakun; Frush, Jack; Sturgeon, Gregory M.; Minhas, Anum; Tward, Daniel J.; Ratnanather, J. Tilak; Miller, M. I.; Frush, Donald; Samei, Ehsan; Segars, W. Paul

2014-03-01

With the increased use of CT examinations, the associated radiation dose has become a large concern, especially for pediatrics. Much research has focused on reducing radiation dose through new scanning and reconstruction methods. Computational phantoms provide an effective and efficient means for evaluating image quality, patient-specific dose, and organ-specific dose in CT. We previously developed a set of highly-detailed 4D reference pediatric XCAT phantoms at ages of newborn, 1, 5, 10, and 15 years with organ and tissues masses matched to ICRP Publication 89 values. We now extend this reference set to a series of 64 pediatric phantoms of a variety of ages and height and weight percentiles, representative of the public at large. High resolution PET-CT data was reviewed by a practicing experienced radiologist for anatomic regularity and was then segmented with manual and semi-automatic methods to form a target model. A Multi-Channel Large Deformation Diffeomorphic Metric Mapping (MC-LDDMM) algorithm was used to calculate the transform from the best age matching pediatric reference phantom to the patient target. The transform was used to complete the target, filling in the non-segmented structures and defining models for the cardiac and respiratory motions. The complete phantoms, consisting of thousands of structures, were then manually inspected for anatomical accuracy. 3D CT data was simulated from the phantoms to demonstrate their ability to generate realistic, patient quality imaging data. The population of pediatric phantoms developed in this work provides a vital tool to investigate dose reduction techniques in 3D and 4D pediatric CT.

Contribution to the study of turbulence spectra

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dumas, R.

1979-01-01

An apparatus suitable for turbulence measurement between ranges of 1 to 5000 cps and from 6 to 16,000 cps was developed and is described. Turbulence spectra downstream of the grills were examined with reference to their general characteristics, their LF qualities, and the effects of periodic turbulence. Medium and HF are discussed. Turbulence spectra in the boundary layers are similarly examined, with reference to their fluctuations at right angles to the wall, and to lateral fluctuations. Turbulence spectra in a boundary layer with suction to the wall is discussed. Induced turbulence, and turbulence spectra at high Reynolds numbers. Calculations are presented relating to the effect of filtering on the value of the correlations in time and space.

Marketing the interventional clinical practice to the referring community and to patients.

PubMed

Murphy, Timothy P; Soares, Gregory M

2005-03-01

If interventionalists are able to set up clinical practices and promote themselves along service lines, especially peripheral arterial disease, it is likely that they will have some market share and that market share will grow as new devices and technologies become available. The key to success will be changing the impression of the referring community that interventional radiologists are technical specialists and don't see patients. Marketing experts tell us that several impressions are required for a concept to stick with the target audience. One of the most important points that an interventionalist can make to establish themselves as a clinical specialty is high-quality work and effective communications.

Thyroid Function Variations Within the Reference Range Do Not Affect Quality of Life, Mood, or Cognitive Function in Community-Dwelling Older Men.

PubMed

Samuels, Mary H; Kaimal, Rajani; Waring, Avantika; Fink, Howard A; Yaffe, Kristine; Hoffman, Andrew R; Orwoll, Eric; Bauer, Douglas

2016-09-01

Variations in thyroid function within the laboratory reference range have been associated with a number of clinical outcomes. However, quality of life, mood, and cognitive function have not been extensively studied, and it is not clear whether mild variations in thyroid function have major effects on these neurocognitive outcomes. Data were analyzed from the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) Study, a cohort of community-dwelling men aged 65 years and older in the United States. A total of 539 participants who were not taking thyroid medications and had age-adjusted TSH levels within the reference range underwent detailed testing of quality of life, mood, and cognitive function at baseline. The same quality of life, mood, and cognitive outcomes were measured again in 193 of the men after a mean follow-up of 6 years. Outcomes were analyzed using thyrotropin (TSH) and free thyroxine (FT4) levels as continuous independent variables, adjusting for relevant covariates. At baseline, there were no associations between TSH or FT4 levels and measures of quality of life, mood, or cognition in the 539 euthyroid men. Baseline thyroid function did not predict changes in these outcomes over a mean of 6 years in the 193 men in the longitudinal analysis. Variations in thyroid function within the age-adjusted laboratory reference range are not associated with variations in quality of life, mood, or cognitive function in community-dwelling older men.

Hepatitis C Core Antigen Testing for Diagnosis of Hepatitis C Virus Infection: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

PubMed

Freiman, J Morgan; Tran, Trang M; Schumacher, Samuel G; White, Laura F; Ongarello, Stefano; Cohn, Jennifer; Easterbrook, Philippa J; Linas, Benjamin P; Denkinger, Claudia M

2016-09-06

Diagnosis of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection requires both a positive HCV antibody screen and confirmatory nucleic acid testing (NAT). Testing for hepatitis C virus core antigen (HCVcAg) is a potential alternative to NAT. To evaluate the accuracy of diagnosis of active HCV infection among adults and children for 5 HCVcAg tests compared with NAT. EMBASE, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews from 1990 through 31 March 2016. Case-control, cross-sectional, cohort, or randomized trials that compared any of 5 HCVcAg tests with an NAT reference standard. 2 independent reviewers extracted data and assessed quality using an adapted QUADAS-2 (Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2) tool. 44 studies evaluated 5 index tests. Studies for the Abbott ARCHITECT HCV Ag assay had the highest quality, whereas those for the Ortho HCV Ag enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) had the lowest quality. From bivariate analyses, the sensitivity and specificity of the assays were as follows: Abbott ARCHITECT, 93.4% (95% CI, 90.1% to 96.4%) and 98.8% (CI, 97.4% to 99.5%); Ortho ELISA, 93.2% (CI, 81.6% to 97.7%) and 99.2% (CI, 87.9% to 100%); and Hunan Jynda Bioengineering Group HCV Ag ELISA, 59.5% (CI, 46.0% to 71.7%) and 82.9% (CI, 58.6% to 94.3%). Insufficient data were available for a meta-analysis about the Fujirebio Lumipulse Ortho HCV Ag and Eiken Lumispot HCV Ag assays. In 3 quantitative studies using Abbott ARCHITECT, HCVcAg correlated closely with HCV RNA levels greater than 3000 IU/mL. Insufficient data were available on covariates, such as HIV or hepatitis B virus status, for subgroup analyses. Few studies reported genotypes of isolates, and data for genotypes 4, 5, and 6 were scant. Most studies were conducted in high-resource settings and reference laboratories. The HCVcAg assays with signal amplification have high sensitivity, high specificity, and good correlation with HCV RNA levels greater than 3000 IU/mL and have the potential to replace NAT in settings with high HCV prevalence. National Institutes of Health.

[Thinking on designation of sham acupuncture in clinical research].

PubMed

Pan, Li-Jia; Chen, Bo; Zhao, Xue; Guo, Yi

2014-01-01

Randomized controlled trials (RCT) is the source of the raw data of evidence-based medicine. Blind method is adopted in most of the high-quality RCT. Sham acupuncture is the main form of blinded in acupuncture clinical trial. In order to improve the quality of acupuncture clinical trail, based on the necessity of sham acupuncture in clinical research, the current situation as well as the existing problems of sham acupuncture, suggestions were put forward from the aspects of new way and new designation method which can be adopted as reference, and factors which have to be considered during the process of implementing. Various subjective and objective factors involving in the process of trial should be considered, and used of the current international standards, try to be quantification, and carry out strict quality monitoring.

New Robust Reference Materials for In Situ Single Grain Rutile U-Pb Geochronology and Method Refinements for Detrital Rutile Analysis by LA-MC-ICP-MS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parrish, R. R.; Bracciali, L.; Condon, D. J.; Horstwood, M. S.; Najman, Y.

2012-12-01

While rutile (TiO2) occurs in the heavy mineral suite of detrital sediments and originates mainly in medium- to high-grade metamorphic and some igneous rocks, there are very few applications of U-Pb dating of rutile to provenance studies; this is due to an overreliance on zircon, low U content of rutile limiting measurement quality by in situ methods, a higher proportion of common Pb relative to zircon, and a lack of widely available good quality reference materials. We have addressed these issues and characterized two ~ 1.8 Ga rutile reference materials by SEM, trace elements, U-Pb ID-TIMS, and intra-grain and inter-grain U-Pb LA-MC-ICP-MS analysis using mixed faraday and multiple ion counting detectors with high sensitivity. We have assessed U-Pb discordance and in situ variations in relative common Pb and age and their bearing on the quality of the reference materials for in situ U-Pb dating. The rutiles (Sugluk-4 and PCA-S207) come from granulite facies belts of the Canadian Shield, namely the northern Cape Smith Belt of Quebec and the Snowbird Tectonic Zone (Sasatchewan). The ID-TIMS data are slightly discordant due to variable common Pb and limited Pb loss; the variation in 6 single grains of Sugluk-4, that we use as the primary reference material, is <1% in 206Pb/238U, and <2% for 207Pb/206Pb (95 % conf.); after common Pb correction these variations are <1%. The measured variations are smaller than in existing reference materials (i.e. R10) in current use. LA-ICP-MC-MS data (n ~ 500 for each) have a reproducibility of 206Pb/238U and 207Pb/206Pb of ~2-4% (at the 2S level), which is only modestly worse than long-term data for multiple zircon standards, this being due to the real variation in measured values arising from limited Pb loss, age variation, and common Pb variability [1]. We have applied our refined method to the provenance of rutile from drainages from British Columbia, Bhutan, and the Brahmaputra River of NE India (predominant rutile ages ~ 50, 15, and 2 Ma, respectively; Bracciali et al., this meeting). Our method successfully dates >75% of all rutile grains in a sediment; unsuccessful analyses are due to poor quality rutiles with massive common Pb and/or U contents < ~1ppm. While some analyses are therefore unusable, unlike zircon age zoning is rare to absent in rutile and there is little need to image grains to identify 'inheritance' to arrive at a correct interpretation of measured ages. Rutile has a ~ 500°C closure temperature and thus records mainly the time of cooling; it is therefore a sensitive recorder of metamorphic thermochronological information, and an excellent complement to detrital zircon analysis. There appears to be huge scope of in situ application of U-Pb dating to detrital rutile in provenance studies in the future. [1] Bracciali L., Parrish R.R., Condon D., Horstwood M.S.A., Najman,Y., Two new rutile reference materials for in situ U-Pb LA-MC-ICP-MS dating and applications to sedimentary provenance, submitted to Chem. Geol.

Real time radiation dosimeters based on vertically aligned multiwall carbon nanotubes and graphene.

PubMed

Funaro, Maria; Sarno, Maria; Ciambelli, Paolo; Altavilla, Claudia; Proto, Antonio

2013-02-22

Measurements of the absorbed dose and quality assurance programs play an important role in radiotherapy. Ionization chambers (CIs) are considered the most important dosimeters for their high accuracy, practicality and reliability, allowing absolute dose measurements. However, they have a relative large physical size, which limits their spatial resolution, and require a high bias voltage to achieve an acceptable collection of charges, excluding their use for in vivo dosimetry. In this paper, we propose new real time radiation detectors with electrodes based on graphene or vertically aligned multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). We have investigated their charge collection efficiency and compared their performance with electrodes made of a conventional material. Moreover, in order to highlight the effect of nanocarbons, reference radiation detectors were also tested. The proposed dosimeters display an excellent linear response to dose and collect more charge than reference ones at a standard bias voltage, permitting the construction of miniaturized CIs. Moreover, an MWCNT based CI gives the best charge collection efficiency and it enables working also to lower bias voltages and zero volts, allowing in vivo applications. Graphene based CIs show better performance with respect to reference dosimeters at a standard bias voltage. However, at decreasing bias voltage the charge collection efficiency becomes worse if compared to a reference detector, likely due to graphene's semiconducting behavior.

Educational background of nurses and their perceptions of the quality and safety of patient care.

PubMed

Swart, Reece P; Pretorius, Ronel; Klopper, Hester

2015-04-30

International health systems research confirms the critical role that nurses play in ensuring the delivery of high quality patient care and subsequent patient safety. It is therefore important that the education of nurses should prepare them for the provision of safe care of a high quality. The South African healthcare system is made up of public and private hospitals that employ various categories of nurses. The perceptions of the various categories of nurses with reference to quality of care and patient safety are unknown in South Africa (SA). To determine the relationship between the educational background of nurses and their perceptions of quality of care and patient safety in private surgical units in SA. A descriptive correlational design was used. A questionnaire was used for data collection, after which hierarchical linear modelling was utilised to determine the relationships amongst the variables. Both the registered- and enrolled nurses seemed satisfied with the quality of care and patient safety in the units were they work. Enrolled nurses (ENs) indicated that current efforts to prevent errors are adequate, whilst the registered nurses (RNs) obtained high scores in reporting incidents in surgical wards. From the results it was evident that perceptions of RNs and ENs related to the quality of care and patient safety differed. There seemed to be a statistically-significant difference between RNs and ENs perceptions of the prevention of errors in the unit, losing patient information between shifts and patient incidents related to medication errors, pressure ulcers and falls with injury.

[Introduction of Quality Management System Audit in Medical Device Single Audit Program].

PubMed

Wen, Jing; Xiao, Jiangyi; Wang, Aijun

2018-01-30

The audit of the quality management system in the medical device single audit program covers the requirements of several national regulatory authorities, which has a very important reference value. This paper briefly described the procedures and contents of this audit. Some enlightenment on supervision and inspection are discussed in China, for reference by the regulatory authorities and auditing organizations.

Reference-quality genome sequence of Aegilops tauschii, the source of wheat D genome, shows that recombination shapes genome structure and evolution

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Aegilops tauschii is the diploid progenitor of the D genome of hexaploid wheat and an important genetic resource for wheat. A reference-quality sequence for the Ae. tauschii genome was produced with a combination of ordered-clone sequencing, whole-genome shotgun sequencing, and BioNano optical geno...

The study of surgical image quality evaluation system by subjective quality factor method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Jian J.; Xuan, Jason R.; Yang, Xirong; Yu, Honggang; Koullick, Edouard

2016-03-01

GreenLightTM procedure is an effective and economical way of treatment of benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH); there are almost a million of patients treated with GreenLightTM worldwide. During the surgical procedure, the surgeon or physician will rely on the monitoring video system to survey and confirm the surgical progress. There are a few obstructions that could greatly affect the image quality of the monitoring video, like laser glare by the tissue and body fluid, air bubbles and debris generated by tissue evaporation, and bleeding, just to name a few. In order to improve the physician's visual experience of a laser surgical procedure, the system performance parameter related to image quality needs to be well defined. However, since image quality is the integrated set of perceptions of the overall degree of excellence of an image, or in other words, image quality is the perceptually weighted combination of significant attributes (contrast, graininess …) of an image when considered in its marketplace or application, there is no standard definition on overall image or video quality especially for the no-reference case (without a standard chart as reference). In this study, Subjective Quality Factor (SQF) and acutance are used for no-reference image quality evaluation. Basic image quality parameters, like sharpness, color accuracy, size of obstruction and transmission of obstruction, are used as subparameter to define the rating scale for image quality evaluation or comparison. Sample image groups were evaluated by human observers according to the rating scale. Surveys of physician groups were also conducted with lab generated sample videos. The study shows that human subjective perception is a trustworthy way of image quality evaluation. More systematic investigation on the relationship between video quality and image quality of each frame will be conducted as a future study.

Quality assurance and stability reference (QUASAR) monitoring concept for calibration/validation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Teillet, Philippe M.; Horler, D. N.; O'Neill, Norman T.

1997-12-01

The paper introduces the concept that calibration/validation (cal/val) can play an essential role in bringing remote sensing to mainstream consumers in an information-based society, provided that cal/val is an integral part of a quality-assurance strategy. A market model for remote sensing is introduced and used to demonstrate that quality assurance is the key to bridging the gap between early adopters of technology and mainstream markets. The paper goes on to propose the semi-continuous monitoring of quality assurance and stability reference (QUASAR) sites as an important first step towards a cal/val infrastructure beneficial to mainstream users. Prospective QUASAR test sites are described.

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

Kalavapudi, M.; Iyengar, V.

Increased industrial activities in developing countries have degraded the environment, and the impact on the environment is further magnified because of an ever-increasing population, the prime receptors. Independent of the geographical location, it is possible to adopt effective strategies to solve environmental problems. In the United States, waste characterization and remediation practices are commonly used for quantifying toxic contaminants in air, water, and soil. Previously, such procedures were extraneous, ineffective, and cost-intensive. Reconciliation between the government and stakeholders, reinforced by valid data analysis and environmental exposure assessments, has allowed the {open_quotes}Brownfields{close_quotes} to be a successful approach. Certified reference materials andmore » standard reference materials from the National Institute of Standards (NIST) are indispensable tools for solving environmental problems and help to validate data quality and the demands of legal metrology. Certified reference materials are commonly available, essential tools for developing good quality secondary and in-house reference materials that also enhance analytical quality. This paper cites examples of environmental conditions in developing countries, i.e., industrial pollution problems in India, polluted beaches in Brazil, and deteriorating air quality in countries, such as Korea, China, and Japan. The paper also highlights practical and effective approaches for remediating these problems. 23 refs., 7 figs., 1 tab.« less

Routine development of objectively derived search strategies.

PubMed

Hausner, Elke; Waffenschmidt, Siw; Kaiser, Thomas; Simon, Michael

2012-02-29

Over the past few years, information retrieval has become more and more professionalized, and information specialists are considered full members of a research team conducting systematic reviews. Research groups preparing systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines have been the driving force in the development of search strategies, but open questions remain regarding the transparency of the development process and the available resources. An empirically guided approach to the development of a search strategy provides a way to increase transparency and efficiency. Our aim in this paper is to describe the empirically guided development process for search strategies as applied by the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (Institut für Qualität und Wirtschaftlichkeit im Gesundheitswesen, or "IQWiG"). This strategy consists of the following steps: generation of a test set, as well as the development, validation and standardized documentation of the search strategy. We illustrate our approach by means of an example, that is, a search for literature on brachytherapy in patients with prostate cancer. For this purpose, a test set was generated, including a total of 38 references from 3 systematic reviews. The development set for the generation of the strategy included 25 references. After application of textual analytic procedures, a strategy was developed that included all references in the development set. To test the search strategy on an independent set of references, the remaining 13 references in the test set (the validation set) were used. The validation set was also completely identified. Our conclusion is that an objectively derived approach similar to that used in search filter development is a feasible way to develop and validate reliable search strategies. Besides creating high-quality strategies, the widespread application of this approach will result in a substantial increase in the transparency of the development process of search strategies.

Sleep Disorders and Their Management in Children With Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Referred to Sleep Clinics.

PubMed

Domany, Keren Armoni; Hantragool, Sumalee; Smith, David F; Xu, Yuanfang; Hossain, Monir; Simakajornboon, Narong

2018-04-15

The nature of sleep disorders in children with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) is unknown. We aimed to describe the type, the management, and the short-term outcome of sleep disorders in children with EDS referred to sleep clinics. This is a retrospective review of medical records and polysomnography tests of children with EDS younger than 18 years who were referred to the sleep clinic. Demographic information and medical history were collected, and polysomnography tests were reviewed. Questionnaires completed during previous clinic visits, including the Pediatrics Sleep Questionnaire (PSQ), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL), were also evaluated. Sixty-five patients with EDS-hypermobility type were included. The mean age was 13.15 ± 3.9 years. There were 68% of patients who were female, and 91% of patients were Caucasian. The mean follow-up period was 1.14 ± 1.55 years. Common sleep diagnoses included insomnia (n = 14, 22%), obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) (n = 17, 26%), periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD) (n = 11, 17%), and hypersomnia (n = 10, 15%). In addition, 65% required pharmacologic treatment and 29% were referred to behavioral sleep medicine. For OSA, two patients required continuous positive airway pressure. A significant improvement was observed in the PSQ, ESS, and PedsQL scores during follow-up visits after treatment (n = 34; P = .0004, 0.03, and 0.01, respectively). There is a high prevalence of sleep disorders, including OSA, insomnia, PLMD, and hypersomnia in children with EDS referred to sleep clinics. Specific management can improve quality of life and questionnaire scores of this patient population. Our study emphasizes the importance of screening for sleep disorders in children with EDS. © 2018 American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

1000 Norms Project: protocol of a cross-sectional study cataloging human variation.

PubMed

McKay, Marnee J; Baldwin, Jennifer N; Ferreira, Paulo; Simic, Milena; Vanicek, Natalie; Hiller, Claire E; Nightingale, Elizabeth J; Moloney, Niamh A; Quinlan, Kate G; Pourkazemi, Fereshteh; Sman, Amy D; Nicholson, Leslie L; Mousavi, Seyed J; Rose, Kristy; Raymond, Jacqueline; Mackey, Martin G; Chard, Angus; Hübscher, Markus; Wegener, Caleb; Fong Yan, Alycia; Refshauge, Kathryn M; Burns, Joshua

2016-03-01

Clinical decision-making regarding diagnosis and management largely depends on comparison with healthy or 'normal' values. Physiotherapists and researchers therefore need access to robust patient-centred outcome measures and appropriate reference values. However there is a lack of high-quality reference data for many clinical measures. The aim of the 1000 Norms Project is to generate a freely accessible database of musculoskeletal and neurological reference values representative of the healthy population across the lifespan. In 2012 the 1000 Norms Project Consortium defined the concept of 'normal', established a sampling strategy and selected measures based on clinical significance, psychometric properties and the need for reference data. Musculoskeletal and neurological items tapping the constructs of dexterity, balance, ambulation, joint range of motion, strength and power, endurance and motor planning will be collected in this cross-sectional study. Standardised questionnaires will evaluate quality of life, physical activity, and musculoskeletal health. Saliva DNA will be analysed for the ACTN3 genotype ('gene for speed'). A volunteer cohort of 1000 participants aged 3 to 100 years will be recruited according to a set of self-reported health criteria. Descriptive statistics will be generated, creating tables of mean values and standard deviations stratified for age and gender. Quantile regression equations will be used to generate age charts and age-specific centile values. This project will be a powerful resource to assist physiotherapists and clinicians across all areas of healthcare to diagnose pathology, track disease progression and evaluate treatment response. This reference dataset will also contribute to the development of robust patient-centred clinical trial outcome measures. Copyright © 2015 Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of endogenous reference genes on digital PCR assessment of genetically engineered canola events.

PubMed

Demeke, Tigst; Eng, Monika

2018-05-01

Droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) has been used for absolute quantification of genetically engineered (GE) events. Absolute quantification of GE events by duplex ddPCR requires the use of appropriate primers and probes for target and reference gene sequences in order to accurately determine the amount of GE materials. Single copy reference genes are generally preferred for absolute quantification of GE events by ddPCR. Study has not been conducted on a comparison of reference genes for absolute quantification of GE canola events by ddPCR. The suitability of four endogenous reference sequences ( HMG-I/Y , FatA(A), CruA and Ccf) for absolute quantification of GE canola events by ddPCR was investigated. The effect of DNA extraction methods and DNA quality on the assessment of reference gene copy numbers was also investigated. ddPCR results were affected by the use of single vs. two copy reference genes. The single copy, FatA(A), reference gene was found to be stable and suitable for absolute quantification of GE canola events by ddPCR. For the copy numbers measured, the HMG-I/Y reference gene was less consistent than FatA(A) reference gene. The expected ddPCR values were underestimated when CruA and Ccf (two copy endogenous Cruciferin sequences) were used because of high number of copies. It is important to make an adjustment if two copy reference genes are used for ddPCR in order to obtain accurate results. On the other hand, real-time quantitative PCR results were not affected by the use of single vs. two copy reference genes.

Lifestyle interventions to improve the quality of life of men with prostate cancer: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials.

PubMed

Menichetti, Julia; Villa, Silvia; Magnani, Tiziana; Avuzzi, Barbara; Bosetti, Davide; Marenghi, Cristina; Morlino, Sara; Rancati, Tiziana; Van Poppel, Hein; Salvioni, Roberto; Valdagni, Riccardo; Bellardita, Lara

2016-12-01

Improving quality of life is a key issue for patients with prostate cancer (PCa). Lifestyle interventions could positively impact the quality of life of patients. However, there is no clear-cut understanding of the role of diet, exercise and risky behaviour reduction in improving the quality of life of men with PCa. The aim of this review was to systematically summarize randomized controlled trials on lifestyle in PCa patients with quality of life as main outcome. 17 trials were included. Most of them referred to exercise interventions (71%) and involved men undergoing androgen deprivation therapy (47%). Exercise studies yielded the greater amount of positive results on quality of life outcomes (67%), followed by dietary interventions (50%) and combined lifestyle interventions (33%). In particular, supervised exercise programs with resistance training sessions were the ones producing greater convincing evidence for benefits on quality of life. Further studies with high methodological quality providing adequate information to develop evidence-based, personalized lifestyle interventions that can effectively ameliorate PCa-related quality of life are needed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Interventions to Prevent Child Marriage Among Young People in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review of the Published and Gray Literature.

PubMed

Kalamar, Amanda M; Lee-Rife, Susan; Hindin, Michelle J

2016-09-01

Child marriage, defined as marriage before the age of 18 years, is a human rights violation that can have lasting adverse educational and economic impacts. The objective of this review was to identify high-quality interventions and evaluations to decease child marriage in low- and middle-income countries. PubMed, Embase, PsycInfo, CINAHL Plus, Popline, and the Cochrane Databases were searched without language limitations for articles published through November 2015. Gray literature was searched by hand. Reference tracing was used, as well as the unpacking of systematic reviews. Retained articles were those that were evaluated as having high-quality interventions and evaluations using standardized scoring. Eleven high-quality interventions and evaluations were abstracted. Six found positive results in decreasing the proportion married or increasing age at marriage, one had both positive and negative findings, and four had no statistical impact on the proportion married or age at marriage. There is wide range of high-quality, impactful interventions included in this review which can inform researchers, donors, and policy makers about where to make strategic investments to eradicate marriage, a current target of the Sustainable Development Goals. Despite the cultural factors that promote child marriage, the diversity of interventions can allow decision makers to tailor interventions to the cultural context of the target population. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

A new organic-rich soil reference material certified for its EDTA- and acetic acid- extractable contents of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn, following collaboratively tested and harmonised procedures.

PubMed

Pueyo, M; Rauret, G; Bacon, J R; Gomez, A; Muntau, H; Quevauviller, P; López-Sánchez, J F

2001-02-01

There is an increasing requirement for assessment of the bioavailable metal fraction and the mobility of trace elements in soils upon disposal. One of the approaches is the use of leaching procedures, but the results obtained are operationally defined; therefore, their significance is highly dependent on the extraction protocol performed. So, for this type of study, there is a need for reference materials that allow the quality of measurements to be controlled. This paper describes the steps involved in the certification of an organic-rich soil reference material, BCR-700, for the EDTA- and acetic acid-extractable contents of some trace elements, following collaboratively tested and harmonised extraction procedures. Details are given for the preparation of the soil, homogeneity and stability testing, analytical procedures and the statistical selection of data to be included in the certification.

Are referring doctors ready for enterprise and community wide immediate image and report access?

PubMed

Wadley, Brian D; Hayward, Ulrike; Trambert, Michael; Kywi, Alberto; Hartzman, Steve

2002-01-01

At most medical centers film-based radiology requires that single or multiple copies of patient exams and reports be distributed for results communication. A successful picture archiving and communication system (PACS) should provide a means to improve upon this inefficient paradigm, with universal access to imagery and exam results on demand at the user's convenience. Enterprise and community-wide experience with universal PACS access is reviewed. Referring physicians were surveyed about their experience with PACS, with regard to acceptance, productivity, frequency of usage, and impact on patient care. Web audit trails were used to assess physician usage. Film printing logs were reviewed. The filmless paradigm was highly regarded and frequently used by nearly all users. Significant productivity benefits were gleaned by all of the referring physicians. Patient quality of care benefitted from more efficient communication of results. Very small quantities of film were used for printing of exams, typically for patient copies.

Integration of remote sensing and geographic information systems for Great Lakes water quality monitoring

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

Lathrop, R.G. Jr.

1988-01-01

The utility of three operational satellite remote sensing systems, namely, the Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM), the SPOT High Resolution Visible (HRV) sensors and the NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), were evaluated as a means of estimating water quality and surface temperature. Empirical calibration through linear regression techniques was used to relate near-simultaneously acquired satellite radiance/reflectance data and water quality observations obtained in Green Bay and the nearshore waters of Lake Michigan. Four dates of TM and one date each of SPOT and AVHRR imagery/surface reference data were acquired and analyzed. Highly significant relationships were identified between the TMmore » and SPOT data and secchi disk depth, nephelometric turbidity, chlorophyll a, total suspended solids (TSS), absorbance, and surface temperature (TM only). The AVHRR data were not analyzed independently but were used for comparison with the TM data. Calibrated water quality image maps were input to a PC-based raster GIS package, EPPL7. Pattern interpretation and spatial analysis techniques were used to document the circulation dynamics and model mixing processes in Green Bay. A GIS facilitates the retrieval, query and spatial analysis of mapped information and provides the framework for an integrated operational monitoring system for the Great Lakes.« less

The association between shift work and sick leave: a systematic review

PubMed Central

van Drongelen, Alwin; Holte, Kari Anne; Labriola, Merete; Lund, Thomas; van Mechelen, Willem; van der Beek, Allard J

2012-01-01

Shift work is associated with a number of negative health outcomes, although it is not known whether it is associated with sick leave. This systematic review therefore aimed to determine whether an association exists between shift work and sick leave. A systematic literature search was conducted in six databases on observational studies. Two reviewers independently selected relevant articles and appraised methodological quality. Data extraction was performed independently by review couples. Articles were categorised according to shift work characteristics and summarised using a levels of evidence synthesis. In total, the search strategy yielded 1207 references, of which 24 studies met the inclusion criteria. Nine studies were appraised as high quality and used in the levels of evidence synthesis. Two high quality longitudinal studies found a positive association between fixed evening shifts and longer sick leave for female healthcare workers. The evidence was assessed as strong. Evidence was inconclusive for rotating shifts, shift work including nights, for fixed night work, and for 8-hour and 12-hour shifts. The association found between evening work and sick leave in female healthcare workers implies that the association between shift work and sick leave might be schedule and population specific. To study the association further, more high quality studies are necessary that assess and adjust for detailed shift work exposure. PMID:22767871

A User's Guide to the Meta-Analysis of Research Studies. Meta-Stat: Software To Aid in the Meta-Analysis of Research Findings.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rudner, Lawrence M.; Glass Gene V.; Evartt, David L.; Emery, Patrick J.

This manual and the accompanying software are intended to provide a step-by-step guide to conducting a meta-analytic study along with references for further reading and free high-quality software, "Meta-Stat.""Meta-Stat" is a comprehensive package designed to help in the meta-analysis of research studies in the social and behavioral sciences.…

Seismic Motion Stability, Measurement and Precision Control.

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-12-01

tiltmeter . Tilt was corrected by changing air pressure in one bank of isolators to maintain the reference tiltmeter at null well within the 0.1 arcsecond...frequency rotations (0-0.1 Hz), a high quality, two-axis tiltmeter is used. The azimuth orientation angle could be measured with a four-position gyro...compassing system with considerably less accuracy than the tiltmeters . However, it would provide a continuous automatic azimuth determination update every

A new strategy for statistical analysis-based fingerprint establishment: Application to quality assessment of Semen sojae praeparatum.

PubMed

Guo, Hui; Zhang, Zhen; Yao, Yuan; Liu, Jialin; Chang, Ruirui; Liu, Zhao; Hao, Hongyuan; Huang, Taohong; Wen, Jun; Zhou, Tingting

2018-08-30

Semen sojae praeparatum with homology of medicine and food is a famous traditional Chinese medicine. A simple and effective quality fingerprint analysis, coupled with chemometrics methods, was developed for quality assessment of Semen sojae praeparatum. First, similarity analysis (SA) and hierarchical clusting analysis (HCA) were applied to select the qualitative markers, which obviously influence the quality of Semen sojae praeparatum. 21 chemicals were selected and characterized by high resolution ion trap/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-IT-TOF-MS). Subsequently, principal components analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) were conducted to select the quantitative markers of Semen sojae praeparatum samples from different origins. Moreover, 11 compounds with statistical significance were determined quantitatively, which provided an accurate and informative data for quality evaluation. This study proposes a new strategy for "statistic analysis-based fingerprint establishment", which would be a valuable reference for further study. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Determination of quality factors by microdosimetry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Al-Affan, I. A. M.; Watt, D. E.

1987-03-01

The application of microdose parameters for the specification of a revised scale of quality factors which would be applicable at low doses and dose rates is examined in terms of an original proposal by Rossi. Two important modifications are suggested to enable an absolute scale of quality factors to be constructed. Allowance should be made to allow for the dependence of the saturation threshold of lineal energy on the type of heavy charged particle. Also, an artificial saturation threshold should be introduced for electron tracks as a mean of modifying the measurements made in the microdosimeter to the more realistic site sizes of nanometer dimensions. The proposed absolute scale of quality factors nicely encompasses the high RBEs of around 3 observed at low doses for tritium β rays and is consistent with the recent recommendation of the ICRP that the quality factor for fast neutrons be increased by a factor of two, assuming that there is no biological repair for the reference radiation.

Using the Wisconsin-Ohio Reference Evaluation Program (WOREP) to Improve Training and Reference Services

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Novotny, Eric; Rimland, Emily

2007-01-01

This article discusses a service quality study conducted in the Pennsylvania State University Libraries. The Wisconsin-Ohio Reference Evaluation Program survey was selected as a valid, standardized instrument. We present our results, highlighting the impact on reference training. A second survey a year later demonstrated that focusing on…

DNA Barcoding for Species Identification of Insect Skins: A Test on Chironomidae (Diptera) Pupal Exuviae

PubMed Central

Ekrem, Torbjørn; Stur, Elisabeth

2017-01-01

Abstract Chironomidae (Diptera) pupal exuviae samples are commonly used for biological monitoring of aquatic habitats. DNA barcoding has proved useful for species identification of chironomid life stages containing cellular tissue, but the barcoding success of chironomid pupal exuviae is unknown. We assessed whether standard DNA barcoding could be efficiently used for species identification of chironomid pupal exuviae when compared with morphological techniques and if there were differences in performance between temperate and tropical ecosystems, subfamilies, and tribes. PCR, sequence, and identification success differed significantly between geographic regions and taxonomic groups. For Norway, 27 out of 190 (14.2%) of pupal exuviae resulted in high-quality chironomid sequences that match species. For Costa Rica, 69 out of 190 (36.3%) Costa Rican pupal exuviae resulted in high-quality sequences, but none matched known species. Standard DNA barcoding of chironomid pupal exuviae had limited success in species identification of unknown specimens due to contaminations and lack of matching references in available barcode libraries, especially from Costa Rica. Therefore, we recommend future biodiversity studies that focus their efforts on understudied regions, to simultaneously use morphological and molecular identification techniques to identify all life stages of chironomids and populate the barcode reference library with identified sequences.

Pseudomonas Genome Database: facilitating user-friendly, comprehensive comparisons of microbial genomes.

PubMed

Winsor, Geoffrey L; Van Rossum, Thea; Lo, Raymond; Khaira, Bhavjinder; Whiteside, Matthew D; Hancock, Robert E W; Brinkman, Fiona S L

2009-01-01

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a well-studied opportunistic pathogen that is particularly known for its intrinsic antimicrobial resistance, diverse metabolic capacity, and its ability to cause life threatening infections in cystic fibrosis patients. The Pseudomonas Genome Database (http://www.pseudomonas.com) was originally developed as a resource for peer-reviewed, continually updated annotation for the Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 reference strain genome. In order to facilitate cross-strain and cross-species genome comparisons with other Pseudomonas species of importance, we have now expanded the database capabilities to include all Pseudomonas species, and have developed or incorporated methods to facilitate high quality comparative genomics. The database contains robust assessment of orthologs, a novel ortholog clustering method, and incorporates five views of the data at the sequence and annotation levels (Gbrowse, Mauve and custom views) to facilitate genome comparisons. A choice of simple and more flexible user-friendly Boolean search features allows researchers to search and compare annotations or sequences within or between genomes. Other features include more accurate protein subcellular localization predictions and a user-friendly, Boolean searchable log file of updates for the reference strain PAO1. This database aims to continue to provide a high quality, annotated genome resource for the research community and is available under an open source license.

48 CFR 246.704 - Authority for use of warranties.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... SYSTEM, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE CONTRACT MANAGEMENT QUALITY ASSURANCE Warranties 246.704 Authority for use... quality assurance provisions that reference higher-level contract quality requirements (see 246.202-4); or...

Benefits of a Pharmacology Antimalarial Reference Standard and Proficiency Testing Program Provided by the Worldwide Antimalarial Resistance Network (WWARN)

PubMed Central

Lourens, Chris; Lindegardh, Niklas; Barnes, Karen I.; Guerin, Philippe J.; Sibley, Carol H.; White, Nicholas J.

2014-01-01

Comprehensive assessment of antimalarial drug resistance should include measurements of antimalarial blood or plasma concentrations in clinical trials and in individual assessments of treatment failure so that true resistance can be differentiated from inadequate drug exposure. Pharmacometric modeling is necessary to assess pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic relationships in different populations to optimize dosing. To accomplish both effectively and to allow comparison of data from different laboratories, it is essential that drug concentration measurement is accurate. Proficiency testing (PT) of laboratory procedures is necessary for verification of assay results. Within the Worldwide Antimalarial Resistance Network (WWARN), the goal of the quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) program is to facilitate and sustain high-quality antimalarial assays. The QA/QC program consists of an international PT program for pharmacology laboratories and a reference material (RM) program for the provision of antimalarial drug standards, metabolites, and internal standards for laboratory use. The RM program currently distributes accurately weighed quantities of antimalarial drug standards, metabolites, and internal standards to 44 pharmacology, in vitro, and drug quality testing laboratories. The pharmacology PT program has sent samples to eight laboratories in four rounds of testing. WWARN technical experts have provided advice for correcting identified problems to improve performance of subsequent analysis and ultimately improved the quality of data. Many participants have demonstrated substantial improvements over subsequent rounds of PT. The WWARN QA/QC program has improved the quality and value of antimalarial drug measurement in laboratories globally. It is a model that has potential to be applied to strengthening laboratories more widely and improving the therapeutics of other infectious diseases. PMID:24777099

Analytical Bias Exceeding Desirable Quality Goal in 4 out of 5 Common Immunoassays: Results of a Native Single Serum Sample External Quality Assessment Program for Cobalamin, Folate, Ferritin, Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone, and Free T4 Analyses.

PubMed

Kristensen, Gunn B B; Rustad, Pål; Berg, Jens P; Aakre, Kristin M

2016-09-01

We undertook this study to evaluate method differences for 5 components analyzed by immunoassays, to explore whether the use of method-dependent reference intervals may compensate for method differences, and to investigate commutability of external quality assessment (EQA) materials. Twenty fresh native single serum samples, a fresh native serum pool, Nordic Federation of Clinical Chemistry Reference Serum X (serum X) (serum pool), and 2 EQA materials were sent to 38 laboratories for measurement of cobalamin, folate, ferritin, free T4, and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) by 5 different measurement procedures [Roche Cobas (n = 15), Roche Modular (n = 4), Abbott Architect (n = 8), Beckman Coulter Unicel (n = 2), and Siemens ADVIA Centaur (n = 9)]. The target value for each component was calculated based on the mean of method means or measured by a reference measurement procedure (free T4). Quality specifications were based on biological variation. Local reference intervals were reported from all laboratories. Method differences that exceeded acceptable bias were found for all components except folate. Free T4 differences from the uncommonly used reference measurement procedure were large. Reference intervals differed between measurement procedures but also within 1 measurement procedure. The serum X material was commutable for all components and measurement procedures, whereas the EQA materials were noncommutable in 13 of 50 occasions (5 components, 5 methods, 2 EQA materials). The bias between the measurement procedures was unacceptably large in 4/5 tested components. Traceability to reference materials as claimed by the manufacturers did not lead to acceptable harmonization. Adjustment of reference intervals in accordance with method differences and use of commutable EQA samples are not implemented commonly. © 2016 American Association for Clinical Chemistry.

External quality assurance programs as a tool for verifying standardization of measurement procedures: Pilot collaboration in Europe.

PubMed

Perich, C; Ricós, C; Alvarez, V; Biosca, C; Boned, B; Cava, F; Doménech, M V; Fernández-Calle, P; Fernández-Fernández, P; García-Lario, J V; Minchinela, J; Simón, M; Jansen, R

2014-05-15

Current external quality assurance schemes have been classified into six categories, according to their ability to verify the degree of standardization of the participating measurement procedures. SKML (Netherlands) is a Category 1 EQA scheme (commutable EQA materials with values assigned by reference methods), whereas SEQC (Spain) is a Category 5 scheme (replicate analyses of non-commutable materials with no values assigned by reference methods). The results obtained by a group of Spanish laboratories participating in a pilot study organized by SKML are examined, with the aim of pointing out the improvements over our current scheme that a Category 1 program could provide. Imprecision and bias are calculated for each analyte and laboratory, and compared with quality specifications derived from biological variation. Of the 26 analytes studied, 9 had results comparable with those from reference methods, and 10 analytes did not have comparable results. The remaining 7 analytes measured did not have available reference method values, and in these cases, comparison with the peer group showed comparable results. The reasons for disagreement in the second group can be summarized as: use of non-standard methods (IFCC without exogenous pyridoxal phosphate for AST and ALT, Jaffé kinetic at low-normal creatinine concentrations and with eGFR); non-commutability of the reference material used to assign values to the routine calibrator (calcium, magnesium and sodium); use of reference materials without established commutability instead of reference methods for AST and GGT, and lack of a systematic effort by manufacturers to harmonize results. Results obtained in this work demonstrate the important role of external quality assurance programs using commutable materials with values assigned by reference methods to correctly monitor the standardization of laboratory tests with consequent minimization of risk to patients. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

acdc – Automated Contamination Detection and Confidence estimation for single-cell genome data

DOE PAGES

Lux, Markus; Kruger, Jan; Rinke, Christian; ...

2016-12-20

A major obstacle in single-cell sequencing is sample contamination with foreign DNA. To guarantee clean genome assemblies and to prevent the introduction of contamination into public databases, considerable quality control efforts are put into post-sequencing analysis. Contamination screening generally relies on reference-based methods such as database alignment or marker gene search, which limits the set of detectable contaminants to organisms with closely related reference species. As genomic coverage in the tree of life is highly fragmented, there is an urgent need for a reference-free methodology for contaminant identification in sequence data. We present acdc, a tool specifically developed to aidmore » the quality control process of genomic sequence data. By combining supervised and unsupervised methods, it reliably detects both known and de novo contaminants. First, 16S rRNA gene prediction and the inclusion of ultrafast exact alignment techniques allow sequence classification using existing knowledge from databases. Second, reference-free inspection is enabled by the use of state-of-the-art machine learning techniques that include fast, non-linear dimensionality reduction of oligonucleotide signatures and subsequent clustering algorithms that automatically estimate the number of clusters. The latter also enables the removal of any contaminant, yielding a clean sample. Furthermore, given the data complexity and the ill-posedness of clustering, acdc employs bootstrapping techniques to provide statistically profound confidence values. Tested on a large number of samples from diverse sequencing projects, our software is able to quickly and accurately identify contamination. Results are displayed in an interactive user interface. Acdc can be run from the web as well as a dedicated command line application, which allows easy integration into large sequencing project analysis workflows. Acdc can reliably detect contamination in single-cell genome data. In addition to database-driven detection, it complements existing tools by its unsupervised techniques, which allow for the detection of de novo contaminants. Our contribution has the potential to drastically reduce the amount of resources put into these processes, particularly in the context of limited availability of reference species. As single-cell genome data continues to grow rapidly, acdc adds to the toolkit of crucial quality assurance tools.« less

acdc – Automated Contamination Detection and Confidence estimation for single-cell genome data

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

Lux, Markus; Kruger, Jan; Rinke, Christian

A major obstacle in single-cell sequencing is sample contamination with foreign DNA. To guarantee clean genome assemblies and to prevent the introduction of contamination into public databases, considerable quality control efforts are put into post-sequencing analysis. Contamination screening generally relies on reference-based methods such as database alignment or marker gene search, which limits the set of detectable contaminants to organisms with closely related reference species. As genomic coverage in the tree of life is highly fragmented, there is an urgent need for a reference-free methodology for contaminant identification in sequence data. We present acdc, a tool specifically developed to aidmore » the quality control process of genomic sequence data. By combining supervised and unsupervised methods, it reliably detects both known and de novo contaminants. First, 16S rRNA gene prediction and the inclusion of ultrafast exact alignment techniques allow sequence classification using existing knowledge from databases. Second, reference-free inspection is enabled by the use of state-of-the-art machine learning techniques that include fast, non-linear dimensionality reduction of oligonucleotide signatures and subsequent clustering algorithms that automatically estimate the number of clusters. The latter also enables the removal of any contaminant, yielding a clean sample. Furthermore, given the data complexity and the ill-posedness of clustering, acdc employs bootstrapping techniques to provide statistically profound confidence values. Tested on a large number of samples from diverse sequencing projects, our software is able to quickly and accurately identify contamination. Results are displayed in an interactive user interface. Acdc can be run from the web as well as a dedicated command line application, which allows easy integration into large sequencing project analysis workflows. Acdc can reliably detect contamination in single-cell genome data. In addition to database-driven detection, it complements existing tools by its unsupervised techniques, which allow for the detection of de novo contaminants. Our contribution has the potential to drastically reduce the amount of resources put into these processes, particularly in the context of limited availability of reference species. As single-cell genome data continues to grow rapidly, acdc adds to the toolkit of crucial quality assurance tools.« less

Automatic dynamic range adjustment for ultrasound B-mode imaging.

PubMed

Lee, Yeonhwa; Kang, Jinbum; Yoo, Yangmo

2015-02-01

In medical ultrasound imaging, dynamic range (DR) is defined as the difference between the maximum and minimum values of the displayed signal to display and it is one of the most essential parameters that determine its image quality. Typically, DR is given with a fixed value and adjusted manually by operators, which leads to low clinical productivity and high user dependency. Furthermore, in 3D ultrasound imaging, DR values are unable to be adjusted during 3D data acquisition. A histogram matching method, which equalizes the histogram of an input image based on that from a reference image, can be applied to determine the DR value. However, it could be lead to an over contrasted image. In this paper, a new Automatic Dynamic Range Adjustment (ADRA) method is presented that adaptively adjusts the DR value by manipulating input images similar to a reference image. The proposed ADRA method uses the distance ratio between the log average and each extreme value of a reference image. To evaluate the performance of the ADRA method, the similarity between the reference and input images was measured by computing a correlation coefficient (CC). In in vivo experiments, the CC values were increased by applying the ADRA method from 0.6872 to 0.9870 and from 0.9274 to 0.9939 for kidney and liver data, respectively, compared to the fixed DR case. In addition, the proposed ADRA method showed to outperform the histogram matching method with in vivo liver and kidney data. When using 3D abdominal data with 70 frames, while the CC value from the ADRA method is slightly increased (i.e., 0.6%), the proposed method showed improved image quality in the c-plane compared to its fixed counterpart, which suffered from a shadow artifact. These results indicate that the proposed method can enhance image quality in 2D and 3D ultrasound B-mode imaging by improving the similarity between the reference and input images while eliminating unnecessary manual interaction by the user. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Ultralow-dose CT of the craniofacial bone for navigated surgery using adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction and model-based iterative reconstruction: 2D and 3D image quality.

PubMed

Widmann, Gerlig; Schullian, Peter; Gassner, Eva-Maria; Hoermann, Romed; Bale, Reto; Puelacher, Wolfgang

2015-03-01

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this article is to evaluate 2D and 3D image quality of high-resolution ultralow-dose CT images of the craniofacial bone for navigated surgery using adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR) and model-based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) in comparison with standard filtered backprojection (FBP). MATERIALS AND METHODS. A formalin-fixed human cadaver head was scanned using a clinical reference protocol at a CT dose index volume of 30.48 mGy and a series of five ultralow-dose protocols at 3.48, 2.19, 0.82, 0.44, and 0.22 mGy using FBP and ASIR at 50% (ASIR-50), ASIR at 100% (ASIR-100), and MBIR. Blinded 2D axial and 3D volume-rendered images were compared with each other by three readers using top-down scoring. Scores were analyzed per protocol or dose and reconstruction. All images were compared with the FBP reference at 30.48 mGy. A nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test was used. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. RESULTS. For 2D images, the FBP reference at 30.48 mGy did not statistically significantly differ from ASIR-100 at 3.48 mGy, ASIR-100 at 2.19 mGy, and MBIR at 0.82 mGy. MBIR at 2.19 and 3.48 mGy scored statistically significantly better than the FBP reference (p = 0.032 and 0.001, respectively). For 3D images, the FBP reference at 30.48 mGy did not statistically significantly differ from all reconstructions at 3.48 mGy; FBP and ASIR-100 at 2.19 mGy; FBP, ASIR-100, and MBIR at 0.82 mGy; MBIR at 0.44 mGy; and MBIR at 0.22 mGy. CONCLUSION. MBIR (2D and 3D) and ASIR-100 (2D) may significantly improve subjective image quality of ultralow-dose images and may allow more than 90% dose reductions.

Linking water quality guidelines to the natural characteristics of catchments in order to support distinct aquatic ecosystems: Water quality guidelines for suspended particulate matter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bilotta, G. S.; Grove, M. K.; Harrison, C.; Joyce, C. B.; Peacock, C.

2012-12-01

The natural characteristics of a catchment provide a template that controls the background rates of geomorphological processes operating within that catchment, which in-turn determines the background physico-chemical and hydro-morphological characteristics of the catchment's surface waters. Large differences in the natural characteristics of catchments (e.g. geology, topography, climate), lead to unique physico-chemical and hydro-morphological conditions that support unique freshwater communities. However, this uniqueness is not always recognised in international water quality guidelines, which often attempt to apply blanket water-quality guidelines to 'protect' a wide range of ecosystems. In this paper we investigate the natural characteristics that control background concentrations of suspended particulate matter (SPM - including nano-scale particles to sand-sized sediments), which is a well-known cause of ecological degradation. At present, the management of SPM is hampered by a lack of understanding of the SPM conditions that water quality managers should aim to achieve in contrasting environments in order to support good ecological status. To address this, in this paper we examine the SPM preferences of contrasting biological communities that are in reference condition (minimal anthropogenic disturbance and high ecological status). We analyse historical SPM data collected on a monthly basis from a wide range of reference-condition temperate environments (638 stream/river sites comprising 42 different biological community-types). This analysis reveals that there are statistically significant differences (One-way ANOVA p < 0.001) between the background SPM concentrations observed in contrasting communities that are in reference condition. Mean background SPM concentrations for contrasting communities ranged from 1.7 to 26.2 mg L-1 (i.e. more than a 15-fold difference). We propose a model for predicting environment-specific water quality guidelines for SPM. In order to develop this model, the 638 reference-condition sites were first classified into one of five mean background SPM ranges (0.00-5.99, 6.00-11.99, 12.00-17.99, 18.00-23.99 and >24.00 mg L-1). Stepwise Multiple Discriminant Analysis (MDA) of these ranges showed that a site's SPM range can be predicted as a function of: mean annual air temperature, mean annual precipitation, mean altitude of upstream catchment, distance from source, slope to source, channel width and depth, the percentage of catchment area comprised of clay, chalk, and hard rock solid geology, and the percentage of the catchment area comprised of blown sand/landslide material as the surface (drift) material. Although the model is still being improved and developed, this research highlights the need to link water quality guidelines to the natural characteristics of catchments and the physico-chemical preferences of the biological communities that would naturally inhabit them.

Recent trends in SELEX technique and its application to food safety monitoring

PubMed Central

Mei, Zhanlong; Yao, Li; Wang, Xin; Zheng, Lei; Liu, Jian; Liu, Guodong; Peng, Chifang; Chen, Wei

2014-01-01

The method referred to as “systemic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment” (SELEX) was introduced in 1990 and ever since has become an important tool for the identification and screening of aptamers. Such nucleic acids can recognize and bind to their corresponding targets (analytes) with high selectivity and affinity, and aptamers therefore have become attractive alternatives to traditional antibodies not the least because they are much more stable. Meanwhile, they have found numerous applications in different fields including food quality and safety monitoring. This review first gives an introduction into the selection process and to the evolution of SELEX, then covers applications of aptamers in the surveillance of food safety (with subsections on absorptiometric, electrochemical, fluorescent and other methods), and then gives conclusions and perspectives. The SELEX method excels by its features of in vitro, high throughput and ease of operation. This review contains 86 references. PMID:25419005

Evaluation of an in-practice wet-chemistry analyzer using canine and feline serum samples.

PubMed

Irvine, Katherine L; Burt, Kay; Papasouliotis, Kostas

2016-01-01

A wet-chemistry biochemical analyzer was assessed for in-practice veterinary use. Its small size may mean a cost-effective method for low-throughput in-house biochemical analyses for first-opinion practice. The objectives of our study were to determine imprecision, total observed error, and acceptability of the analyzer for measurement of common canine and feline serum analytes, and to compare clinical sample results to those from a commercial reference analyzer. Imprecision was determined by within- and between-run repeatability for canine and feline pooled samples, and manufacturer-supplied quality control material (QCM). Total observed error (TEobs) was determined for pooled samples and QCM. Performance was assessed for canine and feline pooled samples by sigma metric determination. Agreement and errors between the in-practice and reference analyzers were determined for canine and feline clinical samples by Bland-Altman and Deming regression analyses. Within- and between-run precision was high for most analytes, and TEobs(%) was mostly lower than total allowable error. Performance based on sigma metrics was good (σ > 4) for many analytes and marginal (σ > 3) for most of the remainder. Correlation between the analyzers was very high for most canine analytes and high for most feline analytes. Between-analyzer bias was generally attributed to high constant error. The in-practice analyzer showed good overall performance, with only calcium and phosphate analyses identified as significantly problematic. Agreement for most analytes was insufficient for transposition of reference intervals, and we recommend that in-practice-specific reference intervals be established in the laboratory. © 2015 The Author(s).

Dosimetry quality audit of high energy photon beams in greek radiotherapy centers.

PubMed

Hourdakis, Constantine J; Boziari, A

2008-04-01

Dosimetry quality audits and intercomparisons in radiotherapy centers is a useful tool in order to enhance the confidence for an accurate therapy and to explore and dissolve discrepancies in dose delivery. This is the first national comprehensive study that has been carried out in Greece. During 2002--2006 the Greek Atomic Energy Commission performed a dosimetry quality audit of high energy external photon beams in all (23) Greek radiotherapy centers, where 31 linacs and 13 Co-60 teletherapy units were assessed in terms of their mechanical performance characteristics and relative and absolute dosimetry. The quality audit in dosimetry of external photon beams took place by means of on-site visits, where certain parameters of the photon beams were measured, calculated and assessed according to a specific protocol and the IAEA TRS 398 dosimetry code of practice. In each radiotherapy unit (Linac or Co-60), certain functional parameters were measured and the results were compared to tolerance values and limits. Doses in water under reference and non reference conditions were measured and compared to the stated values. Also, the treatment planning systems (TPS) were evaluated with respect to irradiation time calculations. The results of the mechanical tests, dosimetry measurements and TPS evaluation have been presented in this work and discussed in detail. This study showed that Co-60 units had worse performance mechanical characteristics than linacs. 28% of all irradiation units (23% of linacs and 42% of Co-60 units) exceeded the acceptance limit at least in one mechanical parameter. Dosimetry accuracy was much worse in Co60 units than in linacs. 61% of the Co60 units exhibited deviations outside +/-3% and 31% outside +/-5%. The relevant percentages for the linacs were 24% and 7% respectively. The results were grouped for each hospital and the sources of errors (functional and human) have been investigated and discussed in details. This quality audit proved to be a useful tool for the improvement of quality in radiotherapy. It succeeded to disseminate the IAEA TRS-398 protocol in nearly all radiotherapy centers achieving homogenization and consistency of dosimetry within the country. Also, it detected discrepancies in dosimetry and provided guidance and recommendations to eliminate sources of errors. Finally, it proved that quality assurance programs, periodic quality control tests, maintenance and service play an important role for achieving accuracy and safe operation in radiotherapy.

International Metadata Standards and Enterprise Data Quality Metadata Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Habermann, T.

2016-12-01

Well-documented data quality is critical in situations where scientists and decision-makers need to combine multiple datasets from different disciplines and collection systems to address scientific questions or difficult decisions. Standardized data quality metadata could be very helpful in these situations. Many efforts at developing data quality standards falter because of the diversity of approaches to measuring and reporting data quality. The "one size fits all" paradigm does not generally work well in this situation. The ISO data quality standard (ISO 19157) takes a different approach with the goal of systematically describing how data quality is measured rather than how it should be measured. It introduces the idea of standard data quality measures that can be well documented in a measure repository and used for consistently describing how data quality is measured across an enterprise. The standard includes recommendations for properties of these measures that include unique identifiers, references, illustrations and examples. Metadata records can reference these measures using the unique identifier and reuse them along with details (and references) that describe how the measure was applied to a particular dataset. A second important feature of ISO 19157 is the inclusion of citations to existing papers or reports that describe quality of a dataset. This capability allows users to find this information in a single location, i.e. the dataset metadata, rather than searching the web or other catalogs. I will describe these and other capabilities of ISO 19157 with examples of how they are being used to describe data quality across the NASA EOS Enterprise and also compare these approaches with other standards.

40 CFR Appendix A to Subpart E of... - References

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

..., WI 53202 (http://qualitypress.asq.org). (2) American National Standard Quality Systems for... American Society for Quality, P.O. Box 3005, Milwaukee, WI 53202 (http://qualitypress.asq.org). (3) Quality...

Determination of osmium concentrations and (187)Os/(188)Os of crude oils and source rocks by coupling high-pressure, high-temperature digestion with sparging OsO(4) into a multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer.

PubMed

Sen, Indra S; Peucker-Ehrenbrink, Bernhard

2014-03-18

The (187)Os/(188)Os ratio that is based on the β(-)-decay of (187)Re to (187)Os (t1/2 = 41.6 billion years) is widely used to investigate petroleum system processes. Despite its broad applicability to studies of hydrocarbon deposits worldwide, a suitable matrix-matched reference material for Os analysis does not exist. In this study, a method that enables Os isotope measurement of crude oil with in-line Os separation and purification from the sample matrix is proposed. The method to analyze Os concentration and (187)Os/(187)Os involves sample digestion under high pressure and high temperature using a high pressure asher (HPA-S, Anton Paar), sparging of volatile osmium tetroxide from the sample solution, and measurements using multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICPMS). This methods significantly reduced the total procedural time compared to conventional Carius tube digestion followed by Os separation and purification using solvent extraction, microdistillation and N-TIMS analysis. The method yields Os concentration (28 ± 4 pg g(-1)) and (187)Os/(188)Os (1.62 ± 0.15) of commercially available crude oil reference material NIST 8505 (1 S.D., n = 6). The reference material NIST 8505 is homogeneous with respect to Os concentration at a test portion size of 0.2 g. Therefore, (187)Os/(188)Os composition and Os concentration of NIST 8505 can serve as a matrix-matched reference material for Os analysis. Data quality was assessed by repeated measurements of the USGS shale reference material SCo-1 (sample matrix similar to petroleum source rock) and the widely used Liquid Os Standard solution (LOsSt). The within-laboratory reproducibility of (187)Os/(188)Os for a 5 pg of LOsSt solution, analyzed with this method over a period of 12 months was ∼1.4% (1 S.D., n = 26), respectively.

Undergoing Diagnostic Evaluation for Possible Cancer Affects the Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients Presenting with Non-Specific Symptoms

PubMed Central

Moseholm, Ellen; Rydahl-Hansen, Susan; Lindhardt, Bjarne Ørskov

2016-01-01

Aim Undergoing diagnostic evaluation for possible cancer can affect health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The aims of this study were to examine the HRQoL in patients undergoing a diagnostic evaluation for possible cancer due to non-specific symptoms and further to investigate the impact of socio-demographic and medical factors associated with HRQoL at the time of diagnosis. Methods This was a prospective, multicenter survey study that included patients who were referred for a diagnostic evaluation due to non-specific cancer symptoms. Participants completed the EORTC-QLQ-C30 quality of life scale before and after completing the diagnostic evaluation. The baseline and follow-up EORTC-QLQ-C30 scores were compared with reference populations. The impact of socio-demographic and medical factors on HRQoL at follow-up was explored by bootstrapped multivariate linear regression. Results A total of 838 patients participated in the study; 680 (81%) also completed follow-up. Twenty-two percent of the patients received a cancer diagnosis at the end of follow-up. Patients presented initially with a high burden of symptoms, less role and emotional functioning and a lower global health/QoL. Most domains improved after diagnosis and no clinically important difference between baseline and follow-up scores was found. Patients reported effects on HRQoL both at baseline and at follow-up compared with the Danish reference population and had similar scores as a cancer reference population. Co-morbidity, being unemployed and receiving a cancer diagnosis had the greatest effect on HRQoL around the time of diagnosis. Conclusions Patients with non-specific symptoms reported an affected HRQoL while undergoing a diagnostic evaluation for possible cancer. Morbidity, being unemployed and receiving a cancer diagnosis had the greatest effect on HRQoL around the time of diagnosis. PMID:26840866

Undergoing Diagnostic Evaluation for Possible Cancer Affects the Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients Presenting with Non-Specific Symptoms.

PubMed

Moseholm, Ellen; Rydahl-Hansen, Susan; Lindhardt, Bjarne Ørskov

2016-01-01

Undergoing diagnostic evaluation for possible cancer can affect health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The aims of this study were to examine the HRQoL in patients undergoing a diagnostic evaluation for possible cancer due to non-specific symptoms and further to investigate the impact of socio-demographic and medical factors associated with HRQoL at the time of diagnosis. This was a prospective, multicenter survey study that included patients who were referred for a diagnostic evaluation due to non-specific cancer symptoms. Participants completed the EORTC-QLQ-C30 quality of life scale before and after completing the diagnostic evaluation. The baseline and follow-up EORTC-QLQ-C30 scores were compared with reference populations. The impact of socio-demographic and medical factors on HRQoL at follow-up was explored by bootstrapped multivariate linear regression. A total of 838 patients participated in the study; 680 (81%) also completed follow-up. Twenty-two percent of the patients received a cancer diagnosis at the end of follow-up. Patients presented initially with a high burden of symptoms, less role and emotional functioning and a lower global health/QoL. Most domains improved after diagnosis and no clinically important difference between baseline and follow-up scores was found. Patients reported effects on HRQoL both at baseline and at follow-up compared with the Danish reference population and had similar scores as a cancer reference population. Co-morbidity, being unemployed and receiving a cancer diagnosis had the greatest effect on HRQoL around the time of diagnosis. Patients with non-specific symptoms reported an affected HRQoL while undergoing a diagnostic evaluation for possible cancer. Morbidity, being unemployed and receiving a cancer diagnosis had the greatest effect on HRQoL around the time of diagnosis.

Protein quality of insects as potential ingredients for dog and cat foods.

PubMed

Bosch, Guido; Zhang, Sheng; Oonincx, Dennis G A B; Hendriks, Wouter H

2014-01-01

Insects have been proposed as a high-quality, efficient and sustainable dietary protein source. The present study evaluated the protein quality of a selection of insect species. Insect substrates were housefly pupae, adult house cricket, yellow mealworm larvae, lesser mealworm larvae, Morio worm larvae, black soldier fly larvae and pupae, six spot roach, death's head cockroach and Argentinean cockroach. Reference substrates were poultry meat meal, fish meal and soyabean meal. Substrates were analysed for DM, N, crude fat, ash and amino acid (AA) contents and for in vitro digestibility of organic matter (OM) and N. The nutrient composition, AA scores as well as in vitro OM and N digestibility varied considerably between insect substrates. For the AA score, the first limiting AA for most substrates was the combined requirement for Met and Cys. The pupae of the housefly and black soldier fly were high in protein and had high AA scores but were less digestible than other insect substrates. The protein content and AA score of house crickets were high and similar to that of fish meal; however, in vitro N digestibility was higher. The cockroaches were relatively high in protein but the indispensable AA contents, AA scores and the in vitro digestibility values were relatively low. In addition to the indices of protein quality, other aspects such as efficiency of conversion of organic side streams, feasibility of mass-production, product safety and pet owner perception are important for future dog and cat food application of insects as alternative protein source.

High performance thin layer chromatography fingerprint analysis of guava (Psidium guajava) leaves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Astuti, M.; Darusman, L. K.; Rafi, M.

2017-05-01

High-performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) fingerprint analysis is commonly used for quality control of medicinal plants in term of identification and authentication. In this study, we have been developed HPTLC fingerprint analysis for identification of guava (Psidium guajava) leaves raw material. A mixture of chloroform, acetone, and formic acid in the ratio 10:2:1 was used as the optimum mobile phase in HPTLC silica plate and with 13 bands were detected. As reference marker we chose gallic acid (Rf = 0.21) and catechin (Rf = 0.11). The two compound were detected as pale black bands at 366 nm after derivatization with sulfuric acid 10% v/v (in methanol) reagent. Validation of the method was met within validation criteria, so the developed method could be used for quality control of guava leaves.

Strategy, Structure and Quality Service: Developing School Wide Quality Improvement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murgatroyd, Stephen

1991-01-01

Builds on earlier contributions to the literature on educational leadership and total quality management in education. Introduces two new tools--the service guarantee and the House of Quality, placing them in the context of strategic marketing, structural change, and other total quality management methods. (19 references) (MLH)

77 FR 10423 - Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; West Virginia; Amendments to West...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-02-22

... Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; West Virginia; Amendments to West Virginia's Ambient Air... ambient air quality standards (45CSR8- Ambient Air Quality Standards). These amendments incorporate by reference the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, carbon...

78 FR 63933 - Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Virginia; Revised Ambient Air...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-10-25

...] Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Virginia; Revised Ambient Air Quality... of Virginia adding ambient air quality standards and associated reference conditions for Fine Particulate Matter (PM 2.5 ) that are consistent with the 2013 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS...

Comparability of ecological quality boundaries in the Mediterranean basin using freshwater benthic invertebrates. Statistical options and implications.

PubMed

Feio, M J; Ferreira, J; Buffagni, A; Erba, S; Dörflinger, G; Ferréol, M; Munné, A; Prat, N; Tziortzis, I; Urbanič, G

2014-04-01

Within the Mediterranean region each country has its own assessment method based on aquatic macroinvertebrates. However, independently of the classification system, quality assessments should be comparable across members of the European Commission, which means, among others, that the boundaries between classes should not deviate significantly. Here we check for comparability between High-Good and Good-Moderate classifications, through the use of a common metric. Additionally, we discuss the influence of the conceptual and statistical approaches used to calculate a common boundary within the Mediterranean countries participating in the Intercalibration Exercise (e.g., using individual national type-boundaries, one value for each common type or an average boundary by country; weighted average, median) in the overall outcome. All methods, except for the IBMWP (the Iberian BMWP) when applied to temporary rivers, were highly correlated (0.82

Trace gas retrievals from Airborne Compact Atmospheric Mapper (ACAM) observations during the 2011 DISCOVER-AQ flight campaign

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, X.; Kowalewski, M. G.; Janz, S. J.; Bhartia, P. K.; Chance, K.; Krotkov, N. A.; Pickering, K. E.; Crawford, J. H.

2011-12-01

The DISCOVER-AQ (Deriving Information on Surface Conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality) mission has just finished its first flight campaign in the Baltimore-Washington D.C. area in July 2011. The ACAM, flown on board the NASA UC-12 aircraft, includes two spectrographs covering the spectral region 304-900 nm and a high-definition video camera, and is expected to provide column measurements of several important air quality trace gases and aerosols for the DISCOVER-AQ mission. The quick look results for NO2 have been shown to very useful in capturing the strong spatiotemporal variability of NO2. Preliminary fitting of UV/Visible spectra has shown that ACAM measurements have adequate signal to noise ratio to measure the trace gases O2, NO2, HCHO, and maybe SO2 and CHOCHO, at individual pixel resolution, although a great deal of effort is needed to improve the instrument calibration and derive proper reference spectrum for retrieving absolute trace gas column densities. In this study, we present analysis of ACAM instrument calibration including slit function, wavelength registration, and radiometric calibration for both nadir-viewing and zenith-sky measurements. Based on this analysis, an irradiance reference spectrum at ACAM resolution will be derived from a high-resolution reference spectrum with additional correction to account for instrument calibration. Using the derived reference spectrum and/or the measured zenith sky measurements, we will perform non-linear least squares fitting to investigate the retrievals of slant column densities of these trace gases from ACAM measurements, and also use an optimal estimation based algorithm including full radiative transfer calculations to derive the vertical column densities of these trace gases. The initial results will be compared with available in-situ and ground-based measurements taken during the DISCOVER-AQ campaign.

Self-Reported Physical Quality of Life Before Thoracic Operations Is Associated With Long-Term Survival.

PubMed

Al-Ameri, Mamdoh; Bergman, Per; Franco-Cereceda, Anders; Sartipy, Ulrik

2017-02-01

The aim was to analyze the association between baseline self-reported health-related quality of life and long-term survival after thoracic operations. In a prospective population-based cohort study, we included patients scheduled for thoracic operations and obtained information about preoperative health-related quality of life using the validated quality-of-life instrument Short Form-36. Patients were categorized according to higher or lower physical and mental component scores, compared with an age- and sex-matched reference population. The primary outcome measure was all-cause mortality and was ascertained from Swedish national registers. We used Cox regression for estimation of hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between preoperative physical/mental quality of life and long-term survival while adjusting for differences in baseline characteristics, cancer stage, histopathologic process, and other factors. We included 249 patients between 2006 and 2008. During a median follow-up time of 8.0 years, 119 patients (48%) died. Having a physical component summary score less than reference was significantly associated with mortality (multivariable adjusted HR 2.02, 95% CI: 1.34 to 3.06, p = 0.001). A mental component summary score less than reference was not associated with mortality (adjusted HR 1.32, 95% CI: 0.84 to 3.06, p = 0.233). In patients who underwent thoracic operations, a self-reported physical quality of life lower than reference value was associated with significantly worse survival independent of histopathologic process, cancer stage, extent of operations, and other patient-related factors. The preoperative mental component of quality of life was not associated with long-term survival. Copyright © 2017 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Is Real-World Evidence Used in P&T Monographs and Therapeutic Class Reviews?

PubMed

Hurwitz, Jason T; Brown, Mary; Graff, Jennifer S; Peters, Loretta; Malone, Daniel C

2017-06-01

Payers are faced with making coverage and reimbursement decisions based on the best available evidence. Often these decisions apply to patient populations, provider networks, and care settings not typically studied in clinical trials. Treatment effectiveness evidence is increasingly available from electronic health records, registries, and administrative claims. However, little is known about when and what types of real-world evidence (RWE) studies inform pharmacy and therapeutic (P&T) committee decisions. To evaluate evidence sources cited in P&T committee monographs and therapeutic class reviews and assess the design features and quality of cited RWE studies. A convenience sample of representatives from pharmacy benefit management, health system, and health plan organizations provided recent P&T monographs and therapeutic class reviews (or references from such documents). Two investigators examined and grouped references into major categories (published studies, unpublished studies, and other/unknown) and multiple subcategories (e.g., product label, clinical trials, RWE, systematic reviews). Cited comparative RWE was reviewed to assess design features (e.g., population, data source, comparators) and quality using the Good ReseArch for Comparative Effectiveness (GRACE) Checklist. Investigators evaluated 565 references cited in 27 monographs/therapeutic class reviews from 6 managed care organizations. Therapeutic class reviews mostly cited published clinical trials (35.3%, 155/439), while single-product monographs relied most on manufacturer-supplied information (42.1%, 53/126). Published RWE comprised 4.8% (21/439) of therapeutic class review references, and none (0/126) of the monograph references. Of the 21 RWE studies, 12 were comparative and assessed patient care settings and outcomes typically not included in clinical trials (community ambulatory settings [10], long-term safety [8]). RWE studies most frequently were based on registry data (6), conducted in the United States (6), and funded by the pharmaceutical industry (5). GRACE Checklist ratings suggested the data and methods of these comparative RWE studies were of high quality. RWE was infrequently cited in P&T materials, even among therapeutic class reviews where RWE is more readily available. Although few P&T materials cited RWE, the comparative RWE studies were generally high quality. More research is needed to understand when and what types of real-world studies can more routinely inform coverage and reimbursement decisions. This project was funded by the National Pharmaceutical Council. Hurwitz, Brown, Peters, and Malone have nothing to disclose. Graff is employed by the National Pharmaceutical Council Part of this study was presented as a poster presentation at the AMCP Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy 2016 Annual Meeting; April 19-22, 2016; San Francisco, CA. Study concept and design were primarily contributed by Malone and Graff, along with Hurwitz and Brown. All authors participated in data collection, and data interpretation was performed by Malone, Hurwitz, and Graff, with assistance from Brown and Peters. The manuscript was written primarily by Hurwitz and Malone, along with Graff, Brown, and Peters, and revised by Malone, Brown, Peters, Hurwitz, and Graff.

Reference Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bivens-Tatum, Wayne

2006-01-01

This article presents interesting articles that explore several different areas of reference assessment, including practical case studies and theoretical articles that address a range of issues such as librarian behavior, patron satisfaction, virtual reference, or evaluation design. They include: (1) "Evaluating the Quality of a Chat Service"…

The construction of control chart for PM10 functional data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shaadan, Norshahida; Jemain, Abdul Aziz; Deni, Sayang Mohd

2014-06-01

In this paper, a statistical procedure to construct a control chart for monitoring air quality (PM10) using functional data is proposed. A set of daily indices that represent the daily PM10 curves were obtained using Functional Principal Component Analysis (FPCA). By means of an iterative charting procedure, a reference data set that represented a stable PM10 process was obtained. The data were then used as a reference for monitoring future data. The application of the procedure was conducted using seven-year (2004-2010) period of recorded data from the Klang air quality monitoring station located in the Klang Valley region of Peninsular Malaysia. The study showed that the control chart provided a useful visualization tool for monitoring air quality and was capable in detecting abnormality in the process system. As in the case of Klang station, the results showed that with reference to 2004-2008, the air quality (PM10) in 2010 was better than that in 2009.

Draft genome of the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus).

PubMed

Li, Zhipeng; Lin, Zeshan; Ba, Hengxing; Chen, Lei; Yang, Yongzhi; Wang, Kun; Qiu, Qiang; Wang, Wen; Li, Guangyu

2017-12-01

The reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) is the only fully domesticated species in the Cervidae family, and it is the only cervid with a circumpolar distribution. Unlike all other cervids, female reindeer, as well as males, regularly grow cranial appendages (antlers, the defining characteristics of cervids). Moreover, reindeer milk contains more protein and less lactose than bovids' milk. A high-quality reference genome of this species will assist efforts to elucidate these and other important features in the reindeer. We obtained 615 Gb (Gigabase) of usable sequences by filtering the low-quality reads of the raw data generated from the Illumina Hiseq 4000 platform, and a 2.64-Gb final assembly, representing 95.7% of the estimated genome (2.76 Gb according to k-mer analysis), including 92.6% of expected genes according to BUSCO analysis. The contig N50 and scaffold N50 sizes were 89.7 kilo base (kb) and 0.94 mega base (Mb), respectively. We annotated 21 555 protein-coding genes and 1.07 Gb of repetitive sequences by de novo and homology-based prediction. Homology-based searches detected 159 rRNA, 547 miRNA, 1339 snRNA, and 863 tRNA sequences in the genome of R. tarandus. The divergence time between R. tarandus and ancestors of Bos taurus and Capra hircus is estimated to be about 29.5 million years ago. Our results provide the first high-quality reference genome for the reindeer and a valuable resource for studying the evolution, domestication, and other unusual characteristics of the reindeer. © The Authors 2017. Published by Oxford University Press.

An effective XML based name mapping mechanism within StoRM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Corso, E.; Forti, A.; Ghiselli, A.; Magnoni, L.; Zappi, R.

2008-07-01

In a Grid environment the naming capability allows users to refer to specific data resources in a physical storage system using a high level logical identifier. This logical identifier is typically organized in a file system like structure, a hierarchical tree of names. Storage Resource Manager (SRM) services map the logical identifier to the physical location of data evaluating a set of parameters as the desired quality of services and the VOMS attributes specified in the requests. StoRM is a SRM service developed by INFN and ICTP-EGRID to manage file and space on standard POSIX and high performing parallel and cluster file systems. An upcoming requirement in the Grid data scenario is the orthogonality of the logical name and the physical location of data, in order to refer, with the same identifier, to different copies of data archived in various storage areas with different quality of service. The mapping mechanism proposed in StoRM is based on a XML document that represents the different storage components managed by the service, the storage areas defined by the site administrator, the quality of service they provide and the Virtual Organization that want to use the storage area. An appropriate directory tree is realized in each storage component reflecting the XML schema. In this scenario StoRM is able to identify the physical location of a requested data evaluating the logical identifier and the specified attributes following the XML schema, without querying any database service. This paper presents the namespace schema defined, the different entities represented and the technical details of the StoRM implementation.

76 FR 43183 - Revisions to the California State Implementation Plan, Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-07-20

... the California State Implementation Plan, Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District... Metropolitan Air Quality Management District (SMAQMD or District) portion of the California State... Designee. (i) Incorporation by Reference. (A) Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District. (1...

Development and Characterization of Reference Materials for Genetic Testing: Focus on Public Partnerships.

PubMed

Kalman, Lisa V; Datta, Vivekananda; Williams, Mickey; Zook, Justin M; Salit, Marc L; Han, Jin Yeong

2016-11-01

Characterized reference materials (RMs) are needed for clinical laboratory test development and validation, quality control procedures, and proficiency testing to assure their quality. In this article, we review the development and characterization of RMs for clinical molecular genetic tests. We describe various types of RMs and how to access and utilize them, especially focusing on the Genetic Testing Reference Materials Coordination Program (Get-RM) and the Genome in a Bottle (GIAB) Consortium. This review also reinforces the need for collaborative efforts in the clinical genetic testing community to develop additional RMs.

Perceptual video quality assessment in H.264 video coding standard using objective modeling.

PubMed

Karthikeyan, Ramasamy; Sainarayanan, Gopalakrishnan; Deepa, Subramaniam Nachimuthu

2014-01-01

Since usage of digital video is wide spread nowadays, quality considerations have become essential, and industry demand for video quality measurement is rising. This proposal provides a method of perceptual quality assessment in H.264 standard encoder using objective modeling. For this purpose, quality impairments are calculated and a model is developed to compute the perceptual video quality metric based on no reference method. Because of the shuttle difference between the original video and the encoded video the quality of the encoded picture gets degraded, this quality difference is introduced by the encoding process like Intra and Inter prediction. The proposed model takes into account of the artifacts introduced by these spatial and temporal activities in the hybrid block based coding methods and an objective modeling of these artifacts into subjective quality estimation is proposed. The proposed model calculates the objective quality metric using subjective impairments; blockiness, blur and jerkiness compared to the existing bitrate only calculation defined in the ITU G 1070 model. The accuracy of the proposed perceptual video quality metrics is compared against popular full reference objective methods as defined by VQEG.

SU‐C‐105‐05: Reference Dosimetry of High‐Energy Electron Beams with a Farmer‐Type Ionization Chamber

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

Muir, B; Rogers, D

2013-06-15

Purpose: To investigate gradient effects and provide Monte Carlo calculated beam quality conversion factors to characterize the Farmer‐type NE2571 ion chamber for high‐energy reference dosimetry of clinical electron beams. Methods: The EGSnrc code system is used to calculate the absorbed dose to water and to the gas in a fully modeled NE2571 chamber as a function of depth in a water phantom. Electron beams incident on the surface of the phantom are modeled using realistic BEAMnrc accelerator simulations and electron beam spectra. Beam quality conversion factors are determined using calculated doses to water and to air in the chamber inmore » high‐energy electron beams and in a cobalt‐60 reference field. Calculated water‐to‐air stopping power ratios are employed for investigation of the overall ion chamber perturbation factor. Results: An upstream shift of 0.3–0.4 multiplied by the chamber radius, r-cav, both minimizes the variation of the overall ion chamber perturbation factor with depth and reduces the difference between the beam quality specifier (R{sub 5} {sub 0}) calculated using ion chamber simulations and that obtained with simulations of dose‐to‐water in the phantom. Beam quality conversion factors are obtained at the reference depth and gradient effects are optimized using a shift of 0.2r-cav. The photon‐electron conversion factor, k-ecal, amounts to 0.906 when gradient effects are minimized using the shift established here and 0.903 if no shift of the data is used. Systematic uncertainties in beam quality conversion factors are investigated and amount to between 0.4 to 1.1% depending on assumptions used. Conclusion: The calculations obtained in this work characterize the use of an NE2571 ion chamber for reference dosimetry of high‐energy electron beams. These results will be useful as the AAPM continues to review their reference dosimetry protocols.« less

Evaluation of karst water quality as an early reference of land suitability mapping for vaname shrimp (Litopenaeusvannamei) culture media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wildan, D. M.; Affandi, R.; Pratiwi, N. T. M.; Krisanti, M.; Ayu, I. P.; Iswantari, A.

2017-01-01

Vaname shrimp (Litopenaeusvannamei) is one of the excellent fishery commodities in Indonesia. Vaname shrimp farming can be conducted in low salinity water. Low salinity water sources which could be used as culture media is karst water because it has a high mineral. The research was aimedto evaluate land suitability mapping for pond as the vaname shrimpculture mediaseen from the water quality. Research was conducted in May and August 2016. Water sampling was conducted in several locations; Ancol-Jakarta (seawater), Ciseeng-Bogor (karst water salinity), Ciampea-Bogor (karst freshwater), and Situ Gede Bogor (freshwater). Evaluating the suitability of karst water quality for vaname shrimp culture media, done by the results of karst water quality analysis compared with seawater and SNI 01-7246-2006 on shrimp vaname culture media. The results showed that Karst water of Ciseeng and Ciampea could not directly use as vaname shrimp culture media. It is needed water quality treatment of ozonation and aeration of karst water to improve water quality. Ozonation and aeration treatments were able to improve the quality of karst water up to approach the living quality standard of vaname shrimp media.

Standardizing Quality Assessment of Fused Remotely Sensed Images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pohl, C.; Moellmann, J.; Fries, K.

2017-09-01

The multitude of available operational remote sensing satellites led to the development of many image fusion techniques to provide high spatial, spectral and temporal resolution images. The comparison of different techniques is necessary to obtain an optimized image for the different applications of remote sensing. There are two approaches in assessing image quality: 1. Quantitatively by visual interpretation and 2. Quantitatively using image quality indices. However an objective comparison is difficult due to the fact that a visual assessment is always subject and a quantitative assessment is done by different criteria. Depending on the criteria and indices the result varies. Therefore it is necessary to standardize both processes (qualitative and quantitative assessment) in order to allow an objective image fusion quality evaluation. Various studies have been conducted at the University of Osnabrueck (UOS) to establish a standardized process to objectively compare fused image quality. First established image fusion quality assessment protocols, i.e. Quality with No Reference (QNR) and Khan's protocol, were compared on varies fusion experiments. Second the process of visual quality assessment was structured and standardized with the aim to provide an evaluation protocol. This manuscript reports on the results of the comparison and provides recommendations for future research.

Exploring the impact of word-of-mouth about Physicians' service quality on patient choice based on online health communities.

PubMed

Lu, Naiji; Wu, Hong

2016-11-26

Health care service is a high-credence service and patients may face difficulties ascertaining service quality in order to make choices about their available treatment options. Online health communities (OHCs) provide a convenient channel for patients to search for physicians' information, such as Word-of-Mouth (WOM), particularly on physicians' service quality evaluated by other patients. Existing studies from other service domains have proved that WOM impacts consumer choice. However, how patients make a choice based on physicians' WOM has not been studied, particularly with reference to different patient characteristics and by using real data. One thousand eight hundred fifty three physicians' real data were collected from a Chinese online health community. The data were analyzed using ordinary least squares (OLS) method. The study found that functional quality negatively moderated the relationship between technical quality and patient choice, and disease risk moderated the relationship between physicians' service quality and patient choice. Our study recommends that hospital managers need to consider the roles of both technical quality and functional quality seriously. Physicians should improve their medical skills and bedside manners based on the severity and type of disease to provide better service.

The Predictive Validity of Teacher Candidate Letters of Reference

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mason, Richard W.; Schroeder, Mark P.

2014-01-01

Letters of reference are widely used as an essential part of the hiring process of newly licensed teachers. While the predictive validity of these letters of reference has been called into question it has never been empirically studied. The current study examined the predictive validity of the quality of letters of reference for forty-one student…

Non-ECG-gated unenhanced MRA of the carotids: optimization and clinical feasibility.

PubMed

Raoult, H; Gauvrit, J Y; Schmitt, P; Le Couls, V; Bannier, E

2013-11-01

To optimise and assess the clinical feasibility of a carotid non-ECG-gated unenhanced MRA sequence. Sixteen healthy volunteers and 11 patients presenting with internal carotid artery (ICA) disease underwent large field-of-view balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) unenhanced MRA at 3T. Sampling schemes acquiring the k-space centre either early (kCE) or late (kCL) in the acquisition window were evaluated. Signal and image quality was scored in comparison to ECG-gated kCE unenhanced MRA and TOF. For patients, computed tomography angiography was used as the reference. In volunteers, kCE sampling yielded higher image quality than kCL and TOF, with fewer flow artefacts and improved signal homogeneity. kCE unenhanced MRA image quality was higher without ECG-gating. Arterial signal and artery/vein contrast were higher with both bSSFP sampling schemes than with TOF. The kCE sequence allowed correct quantification of ten significant stenoses, and it facilitated the identification of an infrapetrous dysplasia, which was outside of the TOF imaging coverage. Non-ECG-gated bSSFP carotid imaging offers high-quality images and is a promising sequence for carotid disease diagnosis in a short acquisition time with high spatial resolution and a large field of view. • Non-ECG-gated unenhanced bSSFP MRA offers high-quality imaging of the carotid arteries. • Sequences using early acquisition of the k-space centre achieve higher image quality. • Non-ECG-gated unenhanced bSSFP MRA allows quantification of significant carotid stenosis. • Short MR acquisition times and ungated sequences are helpful in clinical practice. • High 3D spatial resolution and a large field of view improve diagnostic performance.

Low level laser therapy (Photobiomodulation therapy) for breast cancer-related lymphedema: a systematic review.

PubMed

Baxter, G David; Liu, Lizhou; Petrich, Simone; Gisselman, Angela Spontelli; Chapple, Cathy; Anders, Juanita J; Tumilty, Steve

2017-12-07

Breast cancer related lymphedema (BCRL) is a prevalent complication secondary to cancer treatments which significantly impacts the physical and psychological health of breast cancer survivors. Previous research shows increasing use of low level laser therapy (LLLT), now commonly referred to as photobiomodulation (PBM) therapy, for BCRL. This systematic review evaluated the effectiveness of LLLT (PBM) in the management of BCRL. Clinical trials were searched in PubMed, AMED, Web of Science, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure up to November 2016. Two reviewers independently assessed the methodological quality and adequacy of LLLT (PBM) in these clinical trials. Primary outcome measures were limb circumference/volume, and secondary outcomes included pain intensity and range of motion. Because data were clinically heterogeneous, best evidence synthesis was performed. Eleven clinical trials were identified, of which seven randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were chosen for analysis. Overall, the methodological quality of included RCTs was high, whereas the reporting of treatment parameters was poor. Results indicated that there is strong evidence (three high quality trials) showing LLLT (PBM) was more effective than sham treatment for limb circumference/volume reduction at a short-term follow-up. There is moderate evidence (one high quality trial) indicating that LLLT (PBM) was more effective than sham laser for short-term pain relief, and limited evidence (one low quality trial) that LLLT (PBM) was more effective than no treatment for decreasing limb swelling at short-term follow-up. Based upon the current systematic review, LLLT (PBM) may be considered an effective treatment approach for women with BCRL. Due to the limited numbers of published trials available, there is a clear need for well-designed high-quality trials in this area. The optimal treatment parameters for clinical application have yet to be elucidated.

A systematic review of goal directed fluid therapy: rating of evidence for goals and monitoring methods.

PubMed

Wilms, Heath; Mittal, Anubhav; Haydock, Matthew D; van den Heever, Marc; Devaud, Marcello; Windsor, John A

2014-04-01

To review the literature on goal directed fluid therapy and evaluate the quality of evidence for each combination of goal and monitoring method. A search of major digital databases and hand search of references was conducted. All studies assessing the clinical utility of a specific fluid therapy goal or set of goals using any monitoring method were included. Data was extracted using a pre-determined pro forma and papers were evaluated using GRADE principles to assess evidence quality. Eighty-one papers met the inclusion criteria, investigating 31 goals and 22 methods for monitoring fluid therapy in 13052 patients. In total there were 118 different goal/method combinations. Goals with high evidence quality were central venous lactate and stroke volume index. Goals with moderate quality evidence were sublingual microcirculation flow, the oxygen extraction ratio, cardiac index, cardiac output, and SVC collapsibility index. This review has highlighted the plethora of goals and methods for monitoring fluid therapy. Strikingly, there is scant high quality evidence, in particular for non-invasive G/M combinations in non-operative and non-intensive care settings. There is an urgent need to address this research gap, which will be helped by methodologies to compare utility of G/M combinations. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated simultaneous measurement of the δ(13) C and δ(2) H values of methane and the δ(13) C and δ(18) O values of carbon dioxide in flask air samples using a new multi cryo-trap/gas chromatography/isotope ratio mass spectrometry system.

PubMed

Brand, Willi A; Rothe, Michael; Sperlich, Peter; Strube, Martin; Wendeberg, Magnus

2016-07-15

The isotopic composition of greenhouse gases helps to constrain global budgets and to study sink and source processes. We present a new system for high-precision stable isotope measurements of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen in atmospheric methane and carbon dioxide. The design is intended for analyzing flask air samples from existing sampling programs without the need for extra sample air for methane analysis. CO2 and CH4 isotopes are measured simultaneously using two isotope ratio mass spectrometers, one for the analysis of δ(13) C and δ(18) O values and the second one for δ(2) H values. The inlet carousel delivers air from 16 sample positions (glass flasks 1-5 L and high-pressure cylinders). Three 10-port valves take aliquots from the sample stream. CH4 from 100-mL air aliquots is preconcentrated in 0.8-mL sample loops using a new cryo-trap system. A precisely calibrated working reference air is used in parallel with the sample according to the Principle of Identical Treatment. It takes about 36 hours for a fully calibrated analysis of a complete carousel including extractions of four working reference and one quality control reference air. Long-term precision values, as obtained from the quality control reference gas since 2012, account for 0.04 ‰ (δ(13) C values of CO2 ), 0.07 ‰ (δ(18) O values of CO2 ), 0.11 ‰ (δ(13) C values of CH4 ) and 1.0 ‰ (δ(2) H values of CH4 ). Within a single day, the system exhibits a typical methane δ(13) C standard deviation (1σ) of 0.06 ‰ for 10 repeated measurements. The system has been in routine operation at the MPI-BGC since 2012. Consistency of the data and compatibility with results from other laboratories at a high precision level are of utmost importance. A high sample throughput and reliability of operation are important achievements of the presented system to cope with the large number of air samples to be analyzed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Hybrid pregnant reference phantom series based on adult female ICRP reference phantom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rafat-Motavalli, Laleh; Miri-Hakimabad, Hashem; Hoseinian-Azghadi, Elie

2018-03-01

This paper presents boundary representation (BREP) models of pregnant female and her fetus at the end of each trimester. The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) female reference voxel phantom was used as a base template in development process of the pregnant hybrid phantom series. The differences in shape and location of the displaced maternal organs caused by enlarging uterus were also taken into account. The CT and MR images of fetus specimens and pregnant patients of various ages were used to replace the maternal abdominal pelvic organs of template phantom and insert the fetus inside the gravid uterus. Each fetal model contains 21 different organs and tissues. The skeletal model of the fetus also includes age-dependent cartilaginous and ossified skeletal components. The replaced maternal organ models were converted to NURBS surfaces and then modified to conform to reference values of ICRP Publication 89. The particular feature of current series compared to the previously developed pregnant phantoms is being constructed upon the basis of ICRP reference phantom. The maternal replaced organ models are NURBS surfaces. With this great potential, they might have the feasibility of being converted to high quality polygon mesh phantoms.

Reference Pricing Changes The 'Choice Architecture' Of Health Care For Consumers.

PubMed

Robinson, James C; Brown, Timothy T; Whaley, Christopher

2017-03-01

Reference pricing in health insurance creates incentives for patients to select for nonemergency services providers that charge relatively low prices and still offer high quality of care. It changes the "choice architecture" by offering standard coverage if the patient chooses cost-effective providers but requires considerable consumer cost sharing if more expensive alternatives are selected. The short-term impact of reference pricing has been to shift patient volumes from hospital-based to freestanding surgical, diagnostic, imaging, and laboratory facilities. This article summarizes reference pricing's impacts to date on patient choice, provider prices, surgical complications, and employer spending and estimates its potential impacts if expanded to more services and a broader population. Reference pricing induces consumers to select lower-price alternatives for all of the forms of care studied, leading to significant reductions in prices paid and spending incurred by insurers and employers. The impact on consumer cost sharing is mixed, with some studies finding higher copayments and some lower. We conclude with a discussion of the incentives created for providers to redesign their clinical processes and for efficient providers to expand into price-sensitive markets. Over time, reference pricing may increase pressures for price competition and lead to further cost-reducing innovations in health care products and processes. Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

Standardized protocols for quality control of MRM-based plasma proteomic workflows.

PubMed

Percy, Andrew J; Chambers, Andrew G; Smith, Derek S; Borchers, Christoph H

2013-01-04

Mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics is rapidly emerging as a viable technology for the identification and quantitation of biological samples, such as human plasma--the most complex yet commonly employed biofluid in clinical analyses. The transition from a qualitative to quantitative science is required if proteomics is going to successfully make the transition to a clinically useful technique. MS, however, has been criticized for a lack of reproducibility and interlaboratory transferability. Currently, the MS and plasma proteomics communities lack standardized protocols and reagents to ensure that high-quality quantitative data can be accurately and precisely reproduced by laboratories across the world using different MS technologies. Toward addressing this issue, we have developed standard protocols for multiple reaction monitoring (MRM)-based assays with customized isotopically labeled internal standards for quality control of the sample preparation workflow and the MS platform in quantitative plasma proteomic analyses. The development of reference standards and their application to a single MS platform is discussed herein, along with the results from intralaboratory tests. The tests highlighted the importance of the reference standards in assessing the efficiency and reproducibility of the entire bottom-up proteomic workflow and revealed errors related to the sample preparation and performance quality and deficits of the MS and LC systems. Such evaluations are necessary if MRM-based quantitative plasma proteomics is to be used in verifying and validating putative disease biomarkers across different research laboratories and eventually in clinical laboratories.

Development of an environmental chamber for evaluating the performance of low-cost air quality sensors under controlled conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Papapostolou, Vasileios; Zhang, Hang; Feenstra, Brandon J.; Polidori, Andrea

2017-12-01

A state-of-the-art integrated chamber system has been developed for evaluating the performance of low-cost air quality sensors. The system contains two professional grade chamber enclosures. A 1.3 m3 stainless-steel outer chamber and a 0.11 m3 Teflon-coated stainless-steel inner chamber are used to create controlled aerosol and gaseous atmospheres, respectively. Both chambers are temperature and relative humidity controlled with capability to generate a wide range of environmental conditions. The system is equipped with an integrated zero-air system, an ozone and two aerosol generation systems, a dynamic dilution calibrator, certified gas cylinders, an array of Federal Reference Method (FRM), Federal Equivalent Method (FEM), and Best Available Technology (BAT) reference instruments and an automated control and sequencing software. Our experiments have demonstrated that the chamber system is capable of generating stable and reproducible aerosol and gas concentrations at low, medium, and high levels. This paper discusses the development of the chamber system along with the methods used to quantitatively evaluate sensor performance. Considering that a significant number of academic and research institutions, government agencies, public and private institutions, and individuals are becoming interested in developing and using low-cost air quality sensors, it is important to standardize the procedures used to evaluate their performance. The information discussed herein provides a roadmap for entities who are interested in characterizing air quality sensors in a rigorous, systematic and reproducible manner.

32 CFR 651.2 - References.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 32 National Defense 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true References. 651.2 Section 651.2 National Defense Department of Defense (Continued) DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY (CONTINUED) ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS OF ARMY ACTIONS (AR 200-2) Introduction § 651.2 References. Required and related publications and...

SNP Discovery in the Transcriptome of White Pacific Shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei by Next Generation Sequencing

PubMed Central

Yu, Yang; Wei, Jiankai; Zhang, Xiaojun; Liu, Jingwen; Liu, Chengzhang; Li, Fuhua; Xiang, Jianhai

2014-01-01

The application of next generation sequencing technology has greatly facilitated high throughput single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) discovery and genotyping in genetic research. In the present study, SNPs were discovered based on two transcriptomes of Litopenaeus vannamei (L. vannamei) generated from Illumina sequencing platform HiSeq 2000. One transcriptome of L. vannamei was obtained through sequencing on the RNA from larvae at mysis stage and its reference sequence was de novo assembled. The data from another transcriptome were downloaded from NCBI and the reads of the two transcriptomes were mapped separately to the assembled reference by BWA. SNP calling was performed using SAMtools. A total of 58,717 and 36,277 SNPs with high quality were predicted from the two transcriptomes, respectively. SNP calling was also performed using the reads of two transcriptomes together, and a total of 96,040 SNPs with high quality were predicted. Among these 96,040 SNPs, 5,242 and 29,129 were predicted as non-synonymous and synonymous SNPs respectively. Characterization analysis of the predicted SNPs in L. vannamei showed that the estimated SNP frequency was 0.21% (one SNP per 476 bp) and the estimated ratio for transition to transversion was 2.0. Fifty SNPs were randomly selected for validation by Sanger sequencing after PCR amplification and 76% of SNPs were confirmed, which indicated that the SNPs predicted in this study were reliable. These SNPs will be very useful for genetic study in L. vannamei, especially for the high density linkage map construction and genome-wide association studies. PMID:24498047

Effects of Urbanization on Stream Water Quality in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, USA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peters, N. E.

2009-05-01

A long-term stream water-quality monitoring network was established in the City of Atlanta (COA) during 2003 to assess baseline water-quality conditions and the effects of urbanization on stream water quality. Routine hydrologically-based manual stream sampling, including several concurrent manual point and equal width increment sampling, was conducted approximately 12 times per year at 21 stations, with drainage areas ranging from 3.7 to 232 km2. Eleven of the stations are real-time (RT) water-quality stations having continuous measures of stream stage/discharge, pH, dissolved oxygen, specific conductance, water temperature, and turbidity, and automatic samplers for stormwater collection. Samples were analyzed for field parameters, and a broad suite of water-quality and sediment-related constituents. This paper summarizes an evaluation of field parameters and concentrations of major ions, minor and trace metals, nutrient species (nitrogen and phosphorus), and coliform bacteria among stations and with respect to watershed characteristics and plausible sources from 2003 through September 2007. The concentrations of most constituents in the COA streams are statistically higher than those of two nearby reference streams. Concentrations are statistically different among stations for several constituents, despite high variability both within and among stations. The combination of routine manual sampling, automatic sampling during stormflows, and real-time water-quality monitoring provided sufficient information about the variability of urban stream water quality to develop hypotheses for causes of water-quality differences among COA streams. Fecal coliform bacteria concentrations of most individual samples at each station exceeded Georgia's water-quality standard for any water-usage class. High chloride concentrations occur at three stations and are hypothesized to be associated with discharges of chlorinated combined sewer overflows, drainage of swimming pool(s), and dissolution and transport during rainstorms of CaCl2, a deicing salt applied to roads during winter storms. Water quality of one stream was highly affected by the dissolution and transport of ammonium alum [NH4Al(SO4)2] from an alum manufacturing plant in the watershed; streamwater has low pH (<5), low alkalinity and high concentrations of minor and trace metals. Several trace metals (Cu, Pb and Zn) exceed acute and chronic water-quality standards and the high concentrations are attributed to washoff from impervious surfaces.

Defining Chlorophyll-a Reference Conditions in European Lakes

PubMed Central

Alves, Maria Helena; Argillier, Christine; van den Berg, Marcel; Buzzi, Fabio; Hoehn, Eberhard; de Hoyos, Caridad; Karottki, Ivan; Laplace-Treyture, Christophe; Solheim, Anne Lyche; Ortiz-Casas, José; Ott, Ingmar; Phillips, Geoff; Pilke, Ansa; Pádua, João; Remec-Rekar, Spela; Riedmüller, Ursula; Schaumburg, Jochen; Serrano, Maria Luisa; Soszka, Hanna; Tierney, Deirdre; Urbanič, Gorazd; Wolfram, Georg

2010-01-01

The concept of “reference conditions” describes the benchmark against which current conditions are compared when assessing the status of water bodies. In this paper we focus on the establishment of reference conditions for European lakes according to a phytoplankton biomass indicator—the concentration of chlorophyll-a. A mostly spatial approach (selection of existing lakes with no or minor human impact) was used to set the reference conditions for chlorophyll-a values, supplemented by historical data, paleolimnological investigations and modelling. The work resulted in definition of reference conditions and the boundary between “high” and “good” status for 15 main lake types and five ecoregions of Europe: Alpine, Atlantic, Central/Baltic, Mediterranean, and Northern. Additionally, empirical models were developed for estimating site-specific reference chlorophyll-a concentrations from a set of potential predictor variables. The results were recently formulated into the EU legislation, marking the first attempt in international water policy to move from chemical quality standards to ecological quality targets. PMID:20401659