Is First-Order Vector Autoregressive Model Optimal for fMRI Data?

PubMed

Ting, Chee-Ming; Seghouane, Abd-Krim; Khalid, Muhammad Usman; Salleh, Sh-Hussain

2015-09-01

We consider the problem of selecting the optimal orders of vector autoregressive (VAR) models for fMRI data. Many previous studies used model order of one and ignored that it may vary considerably across data sets depending on different data dimensions, subjects, tasks, and experimental designs. In addition, the classical information criteria (IC) used (e.g., the Akaike IC (AIC)) are biased and inappropriate for the high-dimensional fMRI data typically with a small sample size. We examine the mixed results on the optimal VAR orders for fMRI, especially the validity of the order-one hypothesis, by a comprehensive evaluation using different model selection criteria over three typical data types--a resting state, an event-related design, and a block design data set--with varying time series dimensions obtained from distinct functional brain networks. We use a more balanced criterion, Kullback's IC (KIC) based on Kullback's symmetric divergence combining two directed divergences. We also consider the bias-corrected versions (AICc and KICc) to improve VAR model selection in small samples. Simulation results show better small-sample selection performance of the proposed criteria over the classical ones. Both bias-corrected ICs provide more accurate and consistent model order choices than their biased counterparts, which suffer from overfitting, with KICc performing the best. Results on real data show that orders greater than one were selected by all criteria across all data sets for the small to moderate dimensions, particularly from small, specific networks such as the resting-state default mode network and the task-related motor networks, whereas low orders close to one but not necessarily one were chosen for the large dimensions of full-brain networks.

THE CLASSIFICATION OF SERBO-CROATIAN DIALECTS.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

NAYLOR, KENNETH E.

THE CAKAVIAN GROUP OF SERBO-CROATIAN DIALECTS CAN BE RECLASSIFIED USING SYNCHRONIC CRITERIA RATHER THAN TRADITIONALLY USED DIACHRONIC CRITERIA. THE APPROACH IS TYPOLOGICAL RATHER THAN GENETIC AND COMPARES THE NOMINAL MORPHOLOGICAL AND MORPHOPHONEMIC SYSTEMS OF SEVEN DIALECTS SELECTED TO PROVIDE A GEOGRAPHICAL SAMPLING OF THE CAKAVIAN GROUP.…

BP Spill Sampling and Monitoring Data

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This dataset analyzes waste from the the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon Rig Explosion Emergency Response, providing opportunity to query data sets by metadata criteria and find resulting raw datasets in CSV format.The data query tool allows users to download EPA's air, water and sediment sampling and monitoring data that has been collected in response to the BP oil spill. All sampling and monitoring data that has been collected to date is available for download as raw structured data.The query tools enables CSV file creation to be refined based on the following search criteria: date range (between April 28, 2010 and 9/29/2010); location by zip, city, or county; media (solid waste, weathered oil, air, surface water, liquid waste, tar, sediment, water); substance categories (based on media selection) and substances (based on substance category selection).

Hair Mineral Analysis and Disruptive Behavior in Clinically Normal Young Men.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Struempler, Richard E.; And Others

1985-01-01

Forty young navy recruits were selected for hair mineral analysis on the basis of three criteria: mental test scores, demerits during training, and premature discharge from the navy. Statistical analysis revealed several significant relationships between behavioral criteria and mineral measures. Findings confirmed, in a nonclinical sample, hair…

Transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF-alpha) in a semisolid dosage form: preservative and vehicle selection.

PubMed

Tan, E L; Shah, H S; Leister, K J; Kozick, L M; Pasciak, P; Vanderlaan, R K; Yu, C D; Patel, B

1993-08-01

The selection of an ideal semisolid vehicle for growth factors presents a challenge. Some antimicrobial agents are known to delay wound healing. The objective of this investigation was to identify appropriate preservatives and vehicles for TGF-alpha. Criteria for acceptance are noninterference with the mitogenic activity of TGF-alpha as well as adequate product preservation. Vehicles considered were o/w creams, ointments, and a gel. Combinations of six preservatives were tested. Selection was determined using both microbial preservative challenge and TGF-alpha mitogenic assay. In the former, 10 species of microorganisms were inoculated into formulation samples. At selected time intervals, it was determined whether colonies decreased, increased, or remained constant. In the mitogenic assay, samples of either preservatives or formulation prototypes were introduced to TGF-alpha-stimulated fibroblast cell cultures. Mitogenesis was determined by measuring 3H-dThd uptake into newly synthesized DNA. As preservatives, sorbic acid and quaternium-15 appear to satisfy both selection criteria. A thermosetting gel appears most promising as vehicle.

Classifier transfer with data selection strategies for online support vector machine classification with class imbalance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krell, Mario Michael; Wilshusen, Nils; Seeland, Anett; Kim, Su Kyoung

2017-04-01

Objective. Classifier transfers usually come with dataset shifts. To overcome dataset shifts in practical applications, we consider the limitations in computational resources in this paper for the adaptation of batch learning algorithms, like the support vector machine (SVM). Approach. We focus on data selection strategies which limit the size of the stored training data by different inclusion, exclusion, and further dataset manipulation criteria like handling class imbalance with two new approaches. We provide a comparison of the strategies with linear SVMs on several synthetic datasets with different data shifts as well as on different transfer settings with electroencephalographic (EEG) data. Main results. For the synthetic data, adding only misclassified samples performed astoundingly well. Here, balancing criteria were very important when the other criteria were not well chosen. For the transfer setups, the results show that the best strategy depends on the intensity of the drift during the transfer. Adding all and removing the oldest samples results in the best performance, whereas for smaller drifts, it can be sufficient to only add samples near the decision boundary of the SVM which reduces processing resources. Significance. For brain-computer interfaces based on EEG data, models trained on data from a calibration session, a previous recording session, or even from a recording session with another subject are used. We show, that by using the right combination of data selection criteria, it is possible to adapt the SVM classifier to overcome the performance drop from the transfer.

Use of Enterococcus faecalis and Bacillus atrophaeus as surrogates to establish and maintain laboratory proficiency for concentration of water samples using ultrafiltration.

PubMed

Mapp, Latisha; Klonicki, Patricia; Takundwa, Prisca; Hill, Vincent R; Schneeberger, Chandra; Knee, Jackie; Raynor, Malik; Hwang, Nina; Chambers, Yildiz; Miller, Kenneth; Pope, Misty

2015-11-01

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Water Laboratory Alliance (WLA) currently uses ultrafiltration (UF) for concentration of biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) agents from large volumes (up to 100-L) of drinking water prior to analysis. Most UF procedures require comprehensive training and practice to achieve and maintain proficiency. As a result, there was a critical need to develop quality control (QC) criteria. Because select agents are difficult to work with and pose a significant safety hazard, QC criteria were developed using surrogates, including Enterococcus faecalis and Bacillus atrophaeus. This article presents the results from the QC criteria development study and results from a subsequent demonstration exercise in which E. faecalis was used to evaluate proficiency using UF to concentrate large volume drinking water samples. Based on preliminary testing EPA Method 1600 and Standard Methods 9218, for E. faecalis and B. atrophaeus respectively, were selected for use during the QC criteria development study. The QC criteria established for Method 1600 were used to assess laboratory performance during the demonstration exercise. Based on the results of the QC criteria study E. faecalis and B. atrophaeus can be used effectively to demonstrate and maintain proficiency using ultrafiltration. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Sampling Operations on Big Data

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-11-29

gories. These include edge sampling methods where edges are selected by a predetermined criteria; snowball sampling methods where algorithms start... Sampling Operations on Big Data Vijay Gadepally, Taylor Herr, Luke Johnson, Lauren Milechin, Maja Milosavljevic, Benjamin A. Miller Lincoln...process and disseminate information for discovery and exploration under real-time constraints. Common signal processing operations such as sampling and

Emerging criteria for the low-coherence cannot classify category.

PubMed

Speranza, Anna Maria; Nicolais, Giampaolo; Maggiora Vergano, Carola; Dazzi, Nino

2017-12-01

As suggested by Main et al., to respond to the need for an adaptation of the existing Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) coding system, especially regarding the application to nonnormative samples, this study presents additional criteria that characterize the low-coherence cannot classify (CC) category. Three AAIs were selected from a sample of parents of maltreated children. All transcripts indicated a very low coherence, with no evidence of contradictory insecure discourse strategies. Moreover, global category descriptors were identified, together with specific indices of discourse characteristics and features that highlight the breakdown in reasoning and discourse experienced by the speakers. The aim of the study is to illustrate new criteria to identify and rate a low-coherence CC profile toward the operationalization of this pervasively unintegrated state of mind. Through the definition of additional criteria for low-coherence CC category, our study helps the AAI and its coding system be more flexible and effective when dealing with clinical samples.

78 FR 42099 - Announcement of Requirements and Registration for the “Stay Covered Challenge” and the “Churn...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-07-15

... criteria Analytic design plan includes: selecting sample based on criteria and running descriptive... to behavioral health treatment and recovery. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimates... ``Stay Covered Challenge'' calls for the development of a marketing/outreach campaign designed for use by...

Judging Statistical Models of Individual Decision Making under Risk Using In- and Out-of-Sample Criteria

PubMed Central

Drichoutis, Andreas C.; Lusk, Jayson L.

2014-01-01

Despite the fact that conceptual models of individual decision making under risk are deterministic, attempts to econometrically estimate risk preferences require some assumption about the stochastic nature of choice. Unfortunately, the consequences of making different assumptions are, at present, unclear. In this paper, we compare three popular error specifications (Fechner, contextual utility, and Luce error) for three different preference functionals (expected utility, rank-dependent utility, and a mixture of those two) using in- and out-of-sample selection criteria. We find drastically different inferences about structural risk preferences across the competing functionals and error specifications. Expected utility theory is least affected by the selection of the error specification. A mixture model combining the two conceptual models assuming contextual utility provides the best fit of the data both in- and out-of-sample. PMID:25029467

Judging statistical models of individual decision making under risk using in- and out-of-sample criteria.

PubMed

Drichoutis, Andreas C; Lusk, Jayson L

2014-01-01

Despite the fact that conceptual models of individual decision making under risk are deterministic, attempts to econometrically estimate risk preferences require some assumption about the stochastic nature of choice. Unfortunately, the consequences of making different assumptions are, at present, unclear. In this paper, we compare three popular error specifications (Fechner, contextual utility, and Luce error) for three different preference functionals (expected utility, rank-dependent utility, and a mixture of those two) using in- and out-of-sample selection criteria. We find drastically different inferences about structural risk preferences across the competing functionals and error specifications. Expected utility theory is least affected by the selection of the error specification. A mixture model combining the two conceptual models assuming contextual utility provides the best fit of the data both in- and out-of-sample.

BP Spill Sampling and Monitoring Data April-September 2010 - Data Download Tool

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This dataset analyzes waste from the the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon Rig Explosion Emergency Response, providing opportunity to query data sets by metadata criteria and find resulting raw datasets in CSV format.The data query tool allows users to download air, water and sediment sampling and monitoring data that has been collected in response to the BP oil spill. All sampling and monitoring data that has been collected to date is available for download as raw structured data.The query tools enables CSV file creation to be refined based on the following search criteria: date range (between April 28, 2010 and 9/29/2010); location by zip, city, or county; media (solid waste, weathered oil, air, surface water, liquid waste, tar, sediment, water); substance categories (based on media selection) and substances (based on substance category selection).

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Improved emission lines measurements in four representative samples at 0.07

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodrigues, M.; Foster, C.; Taylor, E. N.; Wright, A. H.; Hopkins, A. M.; Baldry, I.; Brough, S.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Cluver, M. E.; Lara-López, M. A.; Liske, J.; López-Sánchez, Á. R.; Pimbblet, K. A.

2016-05-01

This paper presents a new catalog of emission lines based on the GAMA II data for galaxies between 0.07 9.4 at z ~ 0.1 and log M∗> 10.6 at z ~ 0.30. We have developed a dedicated code called MARVIN that automates the main steps of the data analysis, but imposes visual individual quality control of each measurement. We use this catalog to investigate how the sample selection influences the shape of the stellar mass - metallicity relation. We find that commonly used selection criteria on line detections and by AGN rejection could affect the shape and dispersion of the high-mass end of the M - Z relation. For log M∗> 10.6, common selection criteria reject about 65% of the emission-line galaxies. We also find that the relation does not evolve significantly from z = 0.07 to z = 0.34 in the range of stellar mass for which the samples are representative (log M∗> 10.6). For lower stellar masses (log M∗< 10.2) we are able to show that the observed 0.15 dex metallicity decrease in the same redshift range is a consequence of a color bias arising from selecting targets in the r-band. We highlight that this color selection bias affects all samples selected in r-band (e.g., GAMA and SDSS), even those drawn from volume-limited samples. Previously reported evolution of the M - Z relation at various redshifts may need to be revised to evaluate the effect of this selection bias.

DATA QUALITY OBJECTIVES FOR SELECTING WASTE SAMPLES FOR THE BENCH STEAM REFORMER TEST

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

BANNING DL

2010-08-03

This document describes the data quality objectives to select archived samples located at the 222-S Laboratory for Fluid Bed Steam Reformer testing. The type, quantity and quality of the data required to select the samples for Fluid Bed Steam Reformer testing are discussed. In order to maximize the efficiency and minimize the time to treat Hanford tank waste in the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, additional treatment processes may be required. One of the potential treatment processes is the fluid bed steam reformer (FBSR). A determination of the adequacy of the FBSR process to treat Hanford tank waste is required.more » The initial step in determining the adequacy of the FBSR process is to select archived waste samples from the 222-S Laboratory that will be used to test the FBSR process. Analyses of the selected samples will be required to confirm the samples meet the testing criteria.« less

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome versus Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease

PubMed Central

Jason, Leonard A.; Sunnquist, Madison; Brown, Abigail; Newton, Julia L.; Strand, Elin Bolle; Vernon, Suzanne D.

2015-01-01

Background The Institute of Medicine has recommended a change in the name and criteria for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), renaming the illness Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease (SEID). The new SEID case definition requires substantial reductions or impairments in the ability to engage in pre-illness activities, unrefreshing sleep, post-exertional malaise, and either cognitive impairment or orthostatic intolerance. Purpose In the current study, samples were generated through several different methods and were used to compare this new case definition to previous case definitions for CFS, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME-ICC), Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), as well as a case definition developed through empirical methods. Methods We used a cross-sectional design with samples from tertiary care settings, a biobank sample, and other forums. 796 patients from the US, Great Britain, and Norway completed the DePaul Symptom Questionnaire. Results Findings indicated that the SEID criteria identified 88% of participants in the samples analyzed, which is comparable to the 92% that met the Fukuda criteria. The SEID case definition was compared to a four item empiric criteria, and findings indicated that the four item empiric criteria identified a smaller, more functionally limited and symptomatic group of patients. Conclusion The recently developed SEID criteria appears to identify a group comparable in size to the Fukuda et al. criteria, but a larger group of patients than the Canadian ME/CFS and ME criteria, and selects more patients who have less impairment and fewer symptoms than a four item empiric criteria. PMID:26345409

Accelerating assimilation development for new observing systems using EFSO

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lien, Guo-Yuan; Hotta, Daisuke; Kalnay, Eugenia; Miyoshi, Takemasa; Chen, Tse-Chun

2018-03-01

To successfully assimilate data from a new observing system, it is necessary to develop appropriate data selection strategies, assimilating only the generally useful data. This development work is usually done by trial and error using observing system experiments (OSEs), which are very time and resource consuming. This study proposes a new, efficient methodology to accelerate the development using ensemble forecast sensitivity to observations (EFSO). First, non-cycled assimilation of the new observation data is conducted to compute EFSO diagnostics for each observation within a large sample. Second, the average EFSO conditionally sampled in terms of various factors is computed. Third, potential data selection criteria are designed based on the non-cycled EFSO statistics, and tested in cycled OSEs to verify the actual assimilation impact. The usefulness of this method is demonstrated with the assimilation of satellite precipitation data. It is shown that the EFSO-based method can efficiently suggest data selection criteria that significantly improve the assimilation results.

Four studies on effects of environmental factors on the quality of National Atmospheric Deposition Program measurements

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wetherbee, Gregory A.; Latysh, Natalie E.; Lehmann, Christopher M.B.; Rhodes, Mark F.

2011-01-01

Selected aspects of National Atmospheric Deposition Program / National Trends Network (NADP/NTN) protocols are evaluated in four studies. Meteorological conditions have minor impacts on the error in NADP/NTN sampling. Efficiency of frozen precipitation sample collection is lower than for liquid precipitation samples. Variability of NTN measurements is higher for relatively low-intensity deposition of frozen precipitation than for higher-intensity deposition of liquid precipitation. Urbanization of the landscape surrounding NADP/NTN sites is not affecting trends in wet-deposition chemistry data to a measureable degree. Five NADP siting criteria intended to preserve wet-deposition sample integrity have varying degrees of effectiveness. NADP siting criteria for objects within the 90 degrees cones and trees within the 120 degrees cones projected from the collector bucket to sky are important for protecting sample integrity. Tall vegetation, fences, and other objects located within 5 meters of the collectors are related to the frequency of visible sample contamination, indicating the importance of these factors in NADP siting criteria.

Segregation in the Classroom: What Does It Take to Be Accepted as a Friend?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pijl, Sip Jan; Frostad, Per; Mjaavatn, Per-Egil

2011-01-01

Research on students' social relationships shows their preference to associate with similar peers. This study focused on the similarity in selection criteria used by students to form groups and similarity of characteristics of existing groups in schools. It compared these criteria to those of isolated students. The sample consisted of 124 students…

Maximizing the reliability of genomic selection by optimizing the calibration set of reference individuals: comparison of methods in two diverse groups of maize inbreds (Zea mays L.).

PubMed

Rincent, R; Laloë, D; Nicolas, S; Altmann, T; Brunel, D; Revilla, P; Rodríguez, V M; Moreno-Gonzalez, J; Melchinger, A; Bauer, E; Schoen, C-C; Meyer, N; Giauffret, C; Bauland, C; Jamin, P; Laborde, J; Monod, H; Flament, P; Charcosset, A; Moreau, L

2012-10-01

Genomic selection refers to the use of genotypic information for predicting breeding values of selection candidates. A prediction formula is calibrated with the genotypes and phenotypes of reference individuals constituting the calibration set. The size and the composition of this set are essential parameters affecting the prediction reliabilities. The objective of this study was to maximize reliabilities by optimizing the calibration set. Different criteria based on the diversity or on the prediction error variance (PEV) derived from the realized additive relationship matrix-best linear unbiased predictions model (RA-BLUP) were used to select the reference individuals. For the latter, we considered the mean of the PEV of the contrasts between each selection candidate and the mean of the population (PEVmean) and the mean of the expected reliabilities of the same contrasts (CDmean). These criteria were tested with phenotypic data collected on two diversity panels of maize (Zea mays L.) genotyped with a 50k SNPs array. In the two panels, samples chosen based on CDmean gave higher reliabilities than random samples for various calibration set sizes. CDmean also appeared superior to PEVmean, which can be explained by the fact that it takes into account the reduction of variance due to the relatedness between individuals. Selected samples were close to optimality for a wide range of trait heritabilities, which suggests that the strategy presented here can efficiently sample subsets in panels of inbred lines. A script to optimize reference samples based on CDmean is available on request.

Gene selection with multiple ordering criteria.

PubMed

Chen, James J; Tsai, Chen-An; Tzeng, Shengli; Chen, Chun-Houh

2007-03-05

A microarray study may select different differentially expressed gene sets because of different selection criteria. For example, the fold-change and p-value are two commonly known criteria to select differentially expressed genes under two experimental conditions. These two selection criteria often result in incompatible selected gene sets. Also, in a two-factor, say, treatment by time experiment, the investigator may be interested in one gene list that responds to both treatment and time effects. We propose three layer ranking algorithms, point-admissible, line-admissible (convex), and Pareto, to provide a preference gene list from multiple gene lists generated by different ranking criteria. Using the public colon data as an example, the layer ranking algorithms are applied to the three univariate ranking criteria, fold-change, p-value, and frequency of selections by the SVM-RFE classifier. A simulation experiment shows that for experiments with small or moderate sample sizes (less than 20 per group) and detecting a 4-fold change or less, the two-dimensional (p-value and fold-change) convex layer ranking selects differentially expressed genes with generally lower FDR and higher power than the standard p-value ranking. Three applications are presented. The first application illustrates a use of the layer rankings to potentially improve predictive accuracy. The second application illustrates an application to a two-factor experiment involving two dose levels and two time points. The layer rankings are applied to selecting differentially expressed genes relating to the dose and time effects. In the third application, the layer rankings are applied to a benchmark data set consisting of three dilution concentrations to provide a ranking system from a long list of differentially expressed genes generated from the three dilution concentrations. The layer ranking algorithms are useful to help investigators in selecting the most promising genes from multiple gene lists generated by different filter, normalization, or analysis methods for various objectives.

Trace elements and organic compounds in bed sediment from selected streams in southern Louisiana, 1998

USGS Publications Warehouse

Skrobialowski, Stanley C.

2002-01-01

Bed-sediment samples from 21 selected streams in southern Louisiana were collected and analyzed for the presence of trace elements and organic compounds during 1998 as part of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment Program. Concentrations of selected trace elements and organic compounds were compared on the basis of sediment-quality criteria, land use, and grain size; concentrations of selected trace elements also were compared with concentrations from previous studies. Concentrations of seven selected trace elements and 21 organic compounds were evaluated with sediment-quality criteria established by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment. Concentrations of selected trace elements and organic compounds were highest at sites draining urban and agricultural areas and may result from cumulative effects of relatively high percentages of fine-grained material, iron, and organic material. Concentrations exceeding sediment-quality criteria for the protection of aquatic life occurred most frequently at Bayou Grosse Tete at Rosedale and Bayou Lafourche below weir at Thibodaux. Exceedance of Interim Sediment Quality Guidelines occurred most frequently for arsenic and chromium. Trace-element concentrations in fine-grained samples were compared with concentrations in bulk samples and were determined to be significantly different, and concentrations were generally higher in finegrained sediment. Shapiro-Wilk, paired t-test, and Wilcoxon rank sum statistical procedures, with an alpha of 0.05, were used to compare concentrations of 21 trace elements, total organic carbon, and total carbon in finegrained and bulk sediment samples for 19 sites. Significant differences were determined between fine-grained and bulk sediment samples for aluminum, barium, beryllium, chromium, copper, iron, lithium, nickel, phosphorus, selenium, titanium, and zinc concentrations. Of 133 paired concentrations, 69 percent were greater in fine-grained samples, and 23 percent were greater in bulk samples. Comparisons with data from previous studies indicate increases by more than 20 percent in concentrations of antimony at Bayou Lafourche below weir at Thibodaux, arsenic and chromium at Tickfaw River at Liverpool, lead at Bayou Lafourche below weir at Thibodaux, and zinc at Bayou Lafourche below weir at Thibodaux and Vermilion River at Perry. Historic comparisons also indicate decreases by more than 20 percent in concentrations of chromium at Bayou des Cannes near Eunice and mercury at Mermentau River at Mermentau.

Estimating Sampling Selection Bias in Human Genetics: A Phenomenological Approach

PubMed Central

Risso, Davide; Taglioli, Luca; De Iasio, Sergio; Gueresi, Paola; Alfani, Guido; Nelli, Sergio; Rossi, Paolo; Paoli, Giorgio; Tofanelli, Sergio

2015-01-01

This research is the first empirical attempt to calculate the various components of the hidden bias associated with the sampling strategies routinely-used in human genetics, with special reference to surname-based strategies. We reconstructed surname distributions of 26 Italian communities with different demographic features across the last six centuries (years 1447–2001). The degree of overlapping between "reference founding core" distributions and the distributions obtained from sampling the present day communities by probabilistic and selective methods was quantified under different conditions and models. When taking into account only one individual per surname (low kinship model), the average discrepancy was 59.5%, with a peak of 84% by random sampling. When multiple individuals per surname were considered (high kinship model), the discrepancy decreased by 8–30% at the cost of a larger variance. Criteria aimed at maximizing locally-spread patrilineages and long-term residency appeared to be affected by recent gene flows much more than expected. Selection of the more frequent family names following low kinship criteria proved to be a suitable approach only for historically stable communities. In any other case true random sampling, despite its high variance, did not return more biased estimates than other selective methods. Our results indicate that the sampling of individuals bearing historically documented surnames (founders' method) should be applied, especially when studying the male-specific genome, to prevent an over-stratification of ancient and recent genetic components that heavily biases inferences and statistics. PMID:26452043

Estimating Sampling Selection Bias in Human Genetics: A Phenomenological Approach.

PubMed

Risso, Davide; Taglioli, Luca; De Iasio, Sergio; Gueresi, Paola; Alfani, Guido; Nelli, Sergio; Rossi, Paolo; Paoli, Giorgio; Tofanelli, Sergio

2015-01-01

This research is the first empirical attempt to calculate the various components of the hidden bias associated with the sampling strategies routinely-used in human genetics, with special reference to surname-based strategies. We reconstructed surname distributions of 26 Italian communities with different demographic features across the last six centuries (years 1447-2001). The degree of overlapping between "reference founding core" distributions and the distributions obtained from sampling the present day communities by probabilistic and selective methods was quantified under different conditions and models. When taking into account only one individual per surname (low kinship model), the average discrepancy was 59.5%, with a peak of 84% by random sampling. When multiple individuals per surname were considered (high kinship model), the discrepancy decreased by 8-30% at the cost of a larger variance. Criteria aimed at maximizing locally-spread patrilineages and long-term residency appeared to be affected by recent gene flows much more than expected. Selection of the more frequent family names following low kinship criteria proved to be a suitable approach only for historically stable communities. In any other case true random sampling, despite its high variance, did not return more biased estimates than other selective methods. Our results indicate that the sampling of individuals bearing historically documented surnames (founders' method) should be applied, especially when studying the male-specific genome, to prevent an over-stratification of ancient and recent genetic components that heavily biases inferences and statistics.

Assessing electronic health record phenotypes against gold-standard diagnostic criteria for diabetes mellitus.

PubMed

Spratt, Susan E; Pereira, Katherine; Granger, Bradi B; Batch, Bryan C; Phelan, Matthew; Pencina, Michael; Miranda, Marie Lynn; Boulware, Ebony; Lucas, Joseph E; Nelson, Charlotte L; Neely, Benjamin; Goldstein, Benjamin A; Barth, Pamela; Richesson, Rachel L; Riley, Isaretta L; Corsino, Leonor; McPeek Hinz, Eugenia R; Rusincovitch, Shelley; Green, Jennifer; Barton, Anna Beth; Kelley, Carly; Hyland, Kristen; Tang, Monica; Elliott, Amanda; Ruel, Ewa; Clark, Alexander; Mabrey, Melanie; Morrissey, Kay Lyn; Rao, Jyothi; Hong, Beatrice; Pierre-Louis, Marjorie; Kelly, Katherine; Jelesoff, Nicole

2017-04-01

We assessed the sensitivity and specificity of 8 electronic health record (EHR)-based phenotypes for diabetes mellitus against gold-standard American Diabetes Association (ADA) diagnostic criteria via chart review by clinical experts. We identified EHR-based diabetes phenotype definitions that were developed for various purposes by a variety of users, including academic medical centers, Medicare, the New York City Health Department, and pharmacy benefit managers. We applied these definitions to a sample of 173 503 patients with records in the Duke Health System Enterprise Data Warehouse and at least 1 visit over a 5-year period (2007-2011). Of these patients, 22 679 (13%) met the criteria of 1 or more of the selected diabetes phenotype definitions. A statistically balanced sample of these patients was selected for chart review by clinical experts to determine the presence or absence of type 2 diabetes in the sample. The sensitivity (62-94%) and specificity (95-99%) of EHR-based type 2 diabetes phenotypes (compared with the gold standard ADA criteria via chart review) varied depending on the component criteria and timing of observations and measurements. Researchers using EHR-based phenotype definitions should clearly specify the characteristics that comprise the definition, variations of ADA criteria, and how different phenotype definitions and components impact the patient populations retrieved and the intended application. Careful attention to phenotype definitions is critical if the promise of leveraging EHR data to improve individual and population health is to be fulfilled. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

In Search of a Dipole Field during the Plio-Pleistocene

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Asefaw, H. F.; Tauxe, L.; Staudigel, H.; Shaar, R.; Cai, S.; Cromwell, G.; Behar, N.; Koppers, A. A. P.

2017-12-01

A geocentric axial dipole (GAD) field accounts for the majority of the modern field and is assumed to be a good first order approximation for the time averaged ancient field. A GAD field predicts a latitudinal dependence of intensity. Given this relationship, the intensity of the field measured at the North and South poles should be twice as strong as the intensity recorded at the equator. The current paleointensity database- archived at both http://earth.liv.ac.uk/pint/ and http://earthref.org/MagIC - shows no such dependency over the last 5 Myr (e.g. Lawrence et al., 2009, doi: 10.1029/2008GC002072; Cromwell et al., 2015; doi: 10.1002/2014JB011828). In order to investigate whether better experimental protocol or data selection approaches could resolve the problem, we: 1) applied a new data selection protocol (CCRIT) which has recovered historical field values with high precision and accuracy (Cromwell et al., 2015), 2) re-sampled the fine grained tops of lava flows in Antarctica (77.9° S) that were previously studied for paleodirections but failed to meet our strict selection criteria, 3) sampled cinder cones in the Golan Heights (33.08° N), and 4) acquired data from lava flows from the HSDP2 drill core in Hawaii (19.71° N ). New and published Ar-Ar dates demonstrate that all the samples formed in the last 5 Myr. We conducted IZZI modified Thellier-Thellier experiments and then calculated paleointensities from the samples that passed a set of strict selection criteria. After applying the CCRIT criteria to our data, we find a time averaged paleointensity of 35.7 ±6.86 μT in the Golan Heights, 34.5 μT in Hawaii, and 34.22 ±3.4 μT in Antarctica. New results from Iceland (64° N), published by Cromwell et al. (2015, doi: 10.1002/2014JB011828), also pass the CCRIT criteria and record an average intensity of 33.1 ± 8.3 μT. The average paleointensities from the Golan Heights, Antarctica, Iceland and Hawaii, that span the last 5 Myr and pass the CCRIT criteria, fail to show the variation of intensity with latitude that is expected of an ideal GAD field. The question remains as to why.

The Multiwavelength Survey by Yale-Chile (MUSYC): Deep Near-Infrared Imaging and the Selection of Distant Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Quadri, Ryan; Marchesini, Danilo; van Dokkum, Pieter; Gawiser, Eric; Franx, Marijn; Lira, Paulina; Rudnick, Gregory; Urry, C. Megan; Maza, José; Kriek, Mariska; Barrientos, L. Felipe; Blanc, Guillermo A.; Castander, Francisco J.; Christlein, Daniel; Coppi, Paolo S.; Hall, Patrick B.; Herrera, David; Infante, Leopoldo; Taylor, Edward N.; Treister, Ezequiel; Willis, Jon P.

2007-09-01

We present deep near-infrared JHK imaging of four 10' × 10' fields. The observations were carried out as part of the Multiwavelength Survey by Yale-Chile (MUSYC) with ISPI on the CTIO 4 m telescope. The typical point-source limiting depths are J ~ 22.5, H ~ 21.5, and K ~ 21 (5 σ Vega). The effective seeing in the final images is ~1.0″. We combine these data with MUSYC UBVRIz imaging to create K-selected catalogs that are unique for their uniform size, depth, filter coverage, and image quality. We investigate the rest-frame optical colors and photometric redshifts of galaxies that are selected using common color selection techniques, including distant red galaxies (DRGs), star-forming and passive BzKs, and the rest-frame UV-selected BM, BX, and Lyman break galaxies (LBGs). These techniques are effective at isolating large samples of high-redshift galaxies, but none provide complete or uniform samples across the targeted redshift ranges. The DRG and BM/BX/LBG criteria identify populations of red and blue galaxies, respectively, as they were designed to do. The star-forming BzKs have a very wide redshift distribution, extending down to z ~ 1, a wide range of colors, and may include galaxies with very low specific star formation rates. In comparison, the passive BzKs are fewer in number, have a different distribution of K magnitudes, and have a somewhat different redshift distribution. By combining either the DRG and BM/BX/LBG criteria, or the star-forming and passive BzK criteria, it appears possible to define a reasonably complete sample of galaxies to our flux limit over specific redshift ranges. However, the redshift dependence of both the completeness and sampled range of rest-frame colors poses an ultimate limit to the usefulness of these techniques.

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the mass-metallicity relationship

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foster, C.; Hopkins, A. M.; Gunawardhana, M.; Lara-López, M. A.; Sharp, R. G.; Steele, O.; Taylor, E. N.; Driver, S. P.; Baldry, I. K.; Bamford, S. P.; Liske, J.; Loveday, J.; Norberg, P.; Peacock, J. A.; Alpaslan, M.; Bauer, A. E.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Brough, S.; Cameron, E.; Colless, M.; Conselice, C. J.; Croom, S. M.; Frenk, C. S.; Hill, D. T.; Jones, D. H.; Kelvin, L. S.; Kuijken, K.; Nichol, R. C.; Owers, M. S.; Parkinson, H. R.; Pimbblet, K. A.; Popescu, C. C.; Prescott, M.; Robotham, A. S. G.; Lopez-Sanchez, A. R.; Sutherland, W. J.; Thomas, D.; Tuffs, R. J.; van Kampen, E.; Wijesinghe, D.

2012-11-01

Context. The mass-metallicity relationship (MMR) of star-forming galaxies is well-established, however there is still some disagreement with respect to its exact shape and its possible dependence on other observables. Aims: We measure the MMR in the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. We compare our measured MMR to that measured in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and study the dependence of the MMR on various selection criteria to identify potential causes for disparities seen in the literature. Methods: We use strong emission line ratio diagnostics to derive oxygen abundances. We then apply a range of selection criteria for the minimum signal-to-noise in various emission lines, as well as the apparent and absolute magnitude to study variations in the inferred MMR. Results: The shape and position of the MMR can differ significantly depending on the metallicity calibration and selection used. After selecting a robust metallicity calibration amongst those tested, we find that the mass-metallicity relation for redshifts 0.061 ≲ z ≲ 0.35 in GAMA is in reasonable agreement with that found in the SDSS despite the difference in the luminosity range probed. Conclusions: In view of the significant variations of the MMR brought about by reasonable changes in the sample selection criteria and method, we recommend that care be taken when comparing the MMR from different surveys and studies directly. We also conclude that there could be a modest level of evolution over 0.06 ≤ z ≤ 0.35 within the GAMA sample.

Thoracic and respirable particle definitions for human health risk assessment.

PubMed

Brown, James S; Gordon, Terry; Price, Owen; Asgharian, Bahman

2013-04-10

Particle size-selective sampling refers to the collection of particles of varying sizes that potentially reach and adversely affect specific regions of the respiratory tract. Thoracic and respirable fractions are defined as the fraction of inhaled particles capable of passing beyond the larynx and ciliated airways, respectively, during inhalation. In an attempt to afford greater protection to exposed individuals, current size-selective sampling criteria overestimate the population means of particle penetration into regions of the lower respiratory tract. The purpose of our analyses was to provide estimates of the thoracic and respirable fractions for adults and children during typical activities with both nasal and oral inhalation, that may be used in the design of experimental studies and interpretation of health effects evidence. We estimated the fraction of inhaled particles (0.5-20 μm aerodynamic diameter) penetrating beyond the larynx (based on experimental data) and ciliated airways (based on a mathematical model) for an adult male, adult female, and a 10 yr old child during typical daily activities and breathing patterns. Our estimates show less penetration of coarse particulate matter into the thoracic and gas exchange regions of the respiratory tract than current size-selective criteria. Of the parameters we evaluated, particle penetration into the lower respiratory tract was most dependent on route of breathing. For typical activity levels and breathing habits, we estimated a 50% cut-size for the thoracic fraction at an aerodynamic diameter of around 3 μm in adults and 5 μm in children, whereas current ambient and occupational criteria suggest a 50% cut-size of 10 μm. By design, current size-selective sample criteria overestimate the mass of particles generally expected to penetrate into the lower respiratory tract to provide protection for individuals who may breathe orally. We provide estimates of thoracic and respirable fractions for a variety of breathing habits and activities that may benefit the design of experimental studies and interpretation of particle size-specific health effects.

Thoracic and respirable particle definitions for human health risk assessment

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Particle size-selective sampling refers to the collection of particles of varying sizes that potentially reach and adversely affect specific regions of the respiratory tract. Thoracic and respirable fractions are defined as the fraction of inhaled particles capable of passing beyond the larynx and ciliated airways, respectively, during inhalation. In an attempt to afford greater protection to exposed individuals, current size-selective sampling criteria overestimate the population means of particle penetration into regions of the lower respiratory tract. The purpose of our analyses was to provide estimates of the thoracic and respirable fractions for adults and children during typical activities with both nasal and oral inhalation, that may be used in the design of experimental studies and interpretation of health effects evidence. Methods We estimated the fraction of inhaled particles (0.5-20 μm aerodynamic diameter) penetrating beyond the larynx (based on experimental data) and ciliated airways (based on a mathematical model) for an adult male, adult female, and a 10 yr old child during typical daily activities and breathing patterns. Results Our estimates show less penetration of coarse particulate matter into the thoracic and gas exchange regions of the respiratory tract than current size-selective criteria. Of the parameters we evaluated, particle penetration into the lower respiratory tract was most dependent on route of breathing. For typical activity levels and breathing habits, we estimated a 50% cut-size for the thoracic fraction at an aerodynamic diameter of around 3 μm in adults and 5 μm in children, whereas current ambient and occupational criteria suggest a 50% cut-size of 10 μm. Conclusions By design, current size-selective sample criteria overestimate the mass of particles generally expected to penetrate into the lower respiratory tract to provide protection for individuals who may breathe orally. We provide estimates of thoracic and respirable fractions for a variety of breathing habits and activities that may benefit the design of experimental studies and interpretation of particle size-specific health effects. PMID:23575443

Model For Marketing Strategy Decision Based On Multicriteria Decicion Making: A Case Study In Batik Madura Industry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anna, I. D.; Cahyadi, I.; Yakin, A.

2018-01-01

Selection of marketing strategy is a prominent competitive advantage for small and medium enterprises business development. The selection process is is a multiple criteria decision-making problem, which includes evaluation of various attributes or criteria in a process of strategy formulation. The objective of this paper is to develop a model for the selection of a marketing strategy in Batik Madura industry. The current study proposes an integrated approach based on analytic network process (ANP) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) to determine the best strategy for Batik Madura marketing problems. Based on the results of group decision-making technique, this study selected fourteen criteria, including consistency, cost, trend following, customer loyalty, business volume, uniqueness manpower, customer numbers, promotion, branding, bussiness network, outlet location, credibility and the inovation as Batik Madura marketing strategy evaluation criteria. A survey questionnaire developed from literature review was distributed to a sample frame of Batik Madura SMEs in Pamekasan. In the decision procedure step, expert evaluators were asked to establish the decision matrix by comparing the marketing strategy alternatives under each of the individual criteria. Then, considerations obtained from ANP and TOPSIS methods were applied to build the specific criteria constraints and range of the launch strategy in the model. The model in this study demonstrates that, under current business situation, Straight-focus marketing strategy is the best marketing strategy for Batik Madura SMEs in Pamekasan.

SPECTROSCOPIC CONFIRMATION OF FAINT LYMAN BREAK GALAXIES NEAR REDSHIFT FIVE IN THE HUBBLE ULTRA DEEP FIELD

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

Rhoads, James E.; Malhotra, Sangeeta; Cohen, Seth

We present the faintest spectroscopically confirmed sample of z {approx} 5 Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) to date. The sample is based on slitless grism spectra of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field region from the Grism ACS Program for Extragalactic Science (GRAPES) and Probing Evolution and Reionization Spectroscopically (PEARS) projects, using the G800L grism on the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys. We report here confirmations of 39 galaxies, preselected as candidate LBGs using photometric selection criteria. We compare a 'traditional' V-dropout selection, based on the work of Giavalisco et al., to a more liberal one (with V - imore » > 0.9), and find that the traditional criteria are about 64% complete and 81% reliable. We also study the Ly{alpha} emission properties of our sample. We find that Ly{alpha} emission is detected in {approx}1/4 of the sample, and that the liberal V-dropout color selection includes {approx}55% of previously published line-selected Ly{alpha} sources. Finally, we examine our stacked two-dimensional spectra. We demonstrate that strong, spatially extended ({approx}1'') Ly{alpha} emission is not a generic property of these LBGs, but that a modest extension of the Ly{alpha} photosphere (compared to the starlight) may be present in those galaxies with prominent Ly{alpha} emission.« less

The Processes that Promote Learning in Adult Mentoring and Coaching Dyadic Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marx, Michael J.

2009-01-01

This is a study of 10 adults participating in one-to-one mentoring and/or coaching. Participants were selected for interviewing through a purposive sampling process from leading international mentoring and coaching organizations. Selection criteria included (a) being an adult, (b) participating in a dyadic learning, and (c) regarding that…

Stormwater-runoff data, Madison, Wisconsin, 1993-94

USGS Publications Warehouse

Waschbusch, R.J.

1996-01-01

As required by Section 402(P) of the Water Quality Control Act of 1987, stormwater-runoff samples collected during storms that met three criteria (rainfall depths 50 to 150 percent of average depth range, rainfall durations 50 to 150 percent of average duration, and antecedent dry-weather period of at least 72 hours) were analyzed for semivolatile organic chemicals, total metals, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, inorganic constituents, bacteria, oil and grease, pH, and water temperature. Two of the seven sites also had samples analyzed for volatile organic chemicals. In addition to the required sampling, additional runoff samples that did not necessarily meet the three rainfall criteria, were analyzed for total metals and inorganic constituents. Storm loads of selected constituents were computed.

Does the choice of nucleotide substitution models matter topologically?

PubMed

Hoff, Michael; Orf, Stefan; Riehm, Benedikt; Darriba, Diego; Stamatakis, Alexandros

2016-03-24

In the context of a master level programming practical at the computer science department of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, we developed and make available an open-source code for testing all 203 possible nucleotide substitution models in the Maximum Likelihood (ML) setting under the common Akaike, corrected Akaike, and Bayesian information criteria. We address the question if model selection matters topologically, that is, if conducting ML inferences under the optimal, instead of a standard General Time Reversible model, yields different tree topologies. We also assess, to which degree models selected and trees inferred under the three standard criteria (AIC, AICc, BIC) differ. Finally, we assess if the definition of the sample size (#sites versus #sites × #taxa) yields different models and, as a consequence, different tree topologies. We find that, all three factors (by order of impact: nucleotide model selection, information criterion used, sample size definition) can yield topologically substantially different final tree topologies (topological difference exceeding 10 %) for approximately 5 % of the tree inferences conducted on the 39 empirical datasets used in our study. We find that, using the best-fit nucleotide substitution model may change the final ML tree topology compared to an inference under a default GTR model. The effect is less pronounced when comparing distinct information criteria. Nonetheless, in some cases we did obtain substantial topological differences.

How to select a continuous emission monitoring system

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

Radigan, M.J.

1994-02-01

Selecting a continuous emission monitoring system (CEMS) involves more than picking an analyzer. Successful CEMS interface sampling and data-management systems to produce accurate, reliable reports required by regulatory agencies. Following objective guidelines removes some of the misery from CEMS shopping. However, prospective CEMS buyers should do their homework and develop well-thought-out, detailed specification for the processes' sampling criteria. Fine tuning the analyzer/data management system can eliminate maintenance costs and keep the facility operating within its permit restrictions.

Examination of participant flow in the CONSORT diagram can improve the understanding of the generalizability of study results.

PubMed

Andrade, Chittaranjan

2015-11-01

A fundamental principle in research is that the findings of a study can only be generalized to the population from which the sample of the study was drawn. What this population was can be discerned from an examination of the study selection criteria. Additional insights can sometimes be gleaned from the study flowchart or CONSORT diagram, which may show sample attenuation between subject screening and final recruitment. Such sample attenuation, if present, implies further limitation to the generalizability of the study outcomes. Two large, 2-year, randomized controlled maintenance therapy trials are described to illustrate sample attenuation that limits study generalizability, one in the context of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy versus antidepressant drugs for recurrent major depressive disorder and the other in the context of quetiapine versus placebo for bipolar disorder. Readers therefore need to examine both study selection criteria and the CONSORT diagram in order to better understand the extent to which study results apply to the patients whom they see. © Copyright 2015 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc.

Application and testing of a procedure to evaluate transferability of habitat suitability criteria

USGS Publications Warehouse

Thomas, Jeff A.; Bovee, Ken D.

1993-01-01

A procedure designed to test the transferability of habitat suitability criteria was evaluated in the Cache la Poudre River, Colorado. Habitat suitability criteria were developed for active adult and juvenile rainbow trout in the South Platte River, Colorado. These criteria were tested by comparing microhabitat use predicted from the criteria with observed microhabitat use by adult rainbow trout in the Cache la Poudre River. A one-sided X2 test, using counts of occupied and unoccupied cells in each suitability classification, was used to test for non-random selection for optimum habitat use over usable habitat and for suitable over unsuitable habitat. Criteria for adult rainbow trout were judged to be transferable to the Cache la Poudre River, but juvenile criteria (applied to adults) were not transferable. Random subsampling of occupied and unoccupied cells was conducted to determine the effect of sample size on the reliability of the test procedure. The incidence of type I and type II errors increased rapidly as the sample size was reduced below 55 occupied and 200 unoccupied cells. Recommended modifications to the procedure included the adoption of a systematic or randomized sampling design and direct measurement of microhabitat variables. With these modifications, the procedure is economical, simple and reliable. Use of the procedure as a quality assurance device in routine applications of the instream flow incremental methodology was encouraged.

Preliminary Investigation to Determine the Suitable Mixture Composition for Corn Starch Matrix

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huzaimi Zakaria, Nazri; Ngali, Zamani; Zulkefli Selamat, Mohd

2017-01-01

The use of natural fiber as reinforcement in polymeric composites has been seen a dramatically increase over the last decades. The surge in the interest of natural fiber composite or biodegradable composite is mainly due to the attractive cost of production, improved of hardness, better fatigue endurance and good thermal and mechanical resistivity. In this work, corn starch in the form of powder is utilized as the matrix of the composite. However, starch is brittle and has low strength make it inappropriate candidate for matrix binder. The main objective of this study is to modify the mechanical properties of pure corn starch by mixing it with water, glycerol and vinegar. The composition ratio of water is 60~80%, corn starch 10~35%, glycerol is 5~15% and vinegar is 0~5%, ten samples (A-J) have been manufactured and the best mixture composition is selected based on few selection criteria. The selection criteria are visual impaction, hardness and density. From the results, the samples without vinegar are not suitable to be used because of the fungus availability on the surface. Meanwhile the results from the samples with 5 ml vinegar have no fungus on their surface even has been exposed to the ambient air. While the sample C has shown the best sample based on the visual, hardness and density test.

Evaluating and Selecting Online Magazines for Children. ERIC Digest.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lu, Mei-Yu

This Digest provides an overview of children's online magazines, also known as e-zines. It begins with a brief review of factors that contribute to the popularity of these publications, followed by a list of criteria for selecting high-quality online magazines for children. Samples of high-quality children's e-zines are also included in this…

Performance comparison and selection criteria: an assessment for choosing the best flight detector for the SIR-2 NIR-spectrometer on Chandrayaan-1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sitek, P.; Vilenius, E.; Mall, U.

2008-01-01

We describe the performance evaluation of a sample of InGaAs detectors from which the best unit had to be selected for the flight model of the SIR-2 NIR-spectrometer to be flown on the Chandrayaan-1 mission in 2008.

An Hα-selected sample of cataclysmic variables - I. Observations of newly discovered systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pretorius, Magaretha L.; Knigge, Christian

2008-04-01

Strong selection effects are present in observational samples of cataclysmic variables (CVs), complicating comparisons to theoretical predictions. The selection criteria used to define most CV samples discriminate heavily against the discovery of short-period, intrinsically faint systems. The situation can be improved by selecting CVs for the presence of emission lines. For this reason, we have constructed a homogeneous sample of CVs selected on the basis of Hα emission. We present discovery observations of the 14 CVs and two additional CV candidates found in this search. The orbital periods of 11 of the new CVs were measured; all are above 3 h. There are two eclipsing systems in the sample, and one in which we observed a quasi-periodic modulation on a ~1000s time-scale. We also detect the secondary star in the spectrum of one system, and measure its spectral type. Several of the new CVs have the spectroscopic appearance of nova-like variables, and a few display what may be SW Sex star behaviour. In a companion paper, we discuss the implications of this new sample for CV evolution.

Streamflow gains and losses and selected water-quality observations in five subreaches of the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo del Norte from near Presidio to Langtry, Texas, Big Bend area, United States and Mexico, 2006

USGS Publications Warehouse

Raines, Timothy H.; Turco, Michael J.; Connor, Patrick J.; Bennett, Jeffery B.

2012-01-01

Few historical streamflow and water-quality data are available to characterize the segment of the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo del Norte (hereinafter Rio Grande) extending from near Presidio to near Langtry, Texas. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the National Park Service and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, collected water-quality and streamflow data from the Rio Grande from near Presidio to near Langtry, Texas, to characterize the streamflow gain and loss and selected constituent concentrations in a 336.3-mile reach of the Rio Grande from near Presidio to near Langtry, Texas. Streamflow was measured at 38 sites and water-quality samples were collected at 20 sites along the Rio Grande in February, March, and June 2006. Streamflow gains and losses over the course of the stream were measured indirectly by computing the differences in measured streamflow between sites along the stream. Water-quality data were collected and analyzed for salinity, dissolved solids, major ions, nutrients, trace elements, and stable isotopes. Selected properties and constituents were compared to available Texas Commission on Environmental Quality general use protection criteria or screening levels. Summary statistics of selected water-quality data were computed for each of the five designated subreaches. Streamflow gain and loss and water-quality constituent concentration were compared for each subreach, rather than the entire segment because of the temporal variation in sample collection caused by controlled releases upstream. Subreach A was determined to be a losing reach, and subreaches B, C, D, and E were determined to be gaining reaches. Compared to concentrations measured in upstream subreaches, downstream subreaches exhibited evidence of dilution of selected constituent concentrations. Subreaches A and B had measured total dissolved solids, chloride, and sulfate exceeding the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality general use protection criteria. Subreaches C, D, and E did not exceed the general use protection criteria for any constituent concentration criteria, but dissolved oxygen concentrations did not meet the general use criteria in these subreaches.

Optimization of left adrenal vein sampling in primary aldosteronism: Coping with asymmetrical cortisol secretion.

PubMed

Kishino, Mitsuhiro; Yoshimoto, Takanobu; Nakadate, Masashi; Katada, Yoshiaki; Kanda, Eiichiro; Nakaminato, Shuichiro; Saida, Yukihisa; Ogawa, Yoshihiro; Tateishi, Ukihide

2017-03-31

We evaluated the influence of catheter sampling position and size on left adrenal venous sampling (AVS) in patients with primary aldosteronism (PA) and analyzed their relationship to cortisol secretion. This retrospective study included 111 patients with a diagnosis of primary aldosteronism who underwent tetracosactide-stimulated AVS. Left AVS was obtained from two catheter positions - the central adrenal vein (CAV) and the common trunk. For common trunk sampling, 5-French catheters were used in 51 patients, and microcatheters were used in 60 patients. Autonomous cortisol secretion was evaluated with a low-dose dexamethasone suppression test in 87 patients. The adrenal/inferior vena cava cortisol concentration ratio [selectivity index (SI)] was significantly lower in samples from the left common trunk than those of the left CAV and right adrenal veins, but this difference was reduced when a microcatheter was used for common trunk sampling. Sample dilution in the common trunk of the left adrenal vein can be decreased by limiting sampling speed with the use of a microcatheter. Meanwhile, there was no significant difference in SI between the left CAV and right adrenal veins. Laterality, determined according to aldosterone/cortisol ratio (A/C ratio) based criteria, showed good reproducibility regardless of sampling position, unlike the absolute aldosterone value based criteria. However, in 11 cases with autonomous cortisol co-secretion, the cortisol hypersecreting side tended to be underestimated when using A/C ratio based criteria. Left CAV sampling enables symmetrical sampling, and may be essential when using absolute aldosterone value based criteria in cases where symmetrical cortisol secretion is uncertain.

Pick and Eat Crop Testing: Dwarf Tomato and Pepper as Candidate Space Crops

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wheeler, R. M.; Massa, G. D.; Stutte, G. W.; Spencer, L. E.; Hummerick, M. E.; Sirmons, T.; Douglas, G. L.

2016-01-01

Dwarf tomato and pepper plants were grown in controlled environment chambers to assess their potential as space crops for supplementing the crew's diet. Six cultivars of each species were compared in initial tests and then down-selected to three cultivars of each. Initial selection criteria included fruit yield, growth height, and nutritional value. Following completion of a second production test with the three best performing cultivars, sample fruits of both tomato and peppers were then assessed for acceptance using tasting panels. Based on the criteria considered in these studies, Red Robin tomato and Pompeii pepper were recommended for consideration for use in space.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF PCDD/F INDICATORS

EPA Science Inventory

Emission samples from a simulated hazardous waste-fired North American Package Boiler (NAPB) and a refuse-derived fuel incineration facility (RDFF) were analyzed separately and combined in order to identify single polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin and polychlorinated dibenzofuran ...

Mobbing Experiences of Instructors: Causes, Results, and Solution Suggestions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Celep, Cevat; Konakli, Tugba

2013-01-01

In this study, it was aimed to investigate possible mobbing problems in universities, their causes and results, and to attract attention to precautions that can be taken. Phenomenology as one of the qualitative research methods was used in the study. Sample group of the study was selected through the criteria sampling method and eight instructors…

Selection of Malaysia School Youth Cadet Corps leader by using analytical hierarchy process: A case study at SMK Ahmad Boestamam

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mohamed, Nurul Huda; Ahmat, Norhayati; Mohamed, Nurul Akmal; Razmi, Syazwani Che; Mohamed, Nurul Farihan

2017-05-01

This research is a case study to identify the best criteria that a person should have as the leader of Malaysia School Youth Cadet Corps (Kadet Remaja Sekolah (KRS)) at SMK Ahmad Boestamam, Sitiawan in order to select the most appropriate person to hold the position. The approach used in this study is Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) which include pairwise comparison to compare the criteria and also the candidates. There are four criteria namely charisma, interpersonal communication, personality and physical. Four candidates (1, 2, 3 and 4) are being considered in this study. Purposive sampling and questionnaires are used as instruments to obtain the data which are then analyzed by using the AHP method. The final output indicates that Candidate 1 has the highest score, followed by Candidate 2, Candidate 4 and Candidate 3. It shows that this method is very helpful in the multi-criteria decision making when there are several options available.

A software tool for pure‑tone audiometry. Classification of audiograms for inclusion of patients in clinical trials. English version.

PubMed

Rahne, T; Buthut, F; Plößl, S; Plontke, S K

2016-03-01

Selecting subjects for clinical trials on hearing loss therapies relies on the patient meeting the audiological inclusion criteria. In studies on the treatment of idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss, the patient's acute audiogram is usually compared with a previous audiogram, the audiogram of the non-affected ear, or a normal audiogram according to an ISO standard. Generally, many more patients are screened than actually fulfill the particular inclusion criteria. The inclusion criteria often require a calculation of pure-tone averages, selection of the most affected frequencies, and calculation of hearing loss differences. A software tool was developed to simplify and accelerate this inclusion procedure for investigators to estimate the possible recruitment rate during the planning phase of a clinical trial and during the actual study. This tool is Microsoft Excel-based and easy to modify to meet the particular inclusion criteria of a specific clinical trial. The tool was retrospectively evaluated on 100 patients with acute hearing loss comparing the times for classifying automatically and manually. The study sample comprised 100 patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss. The age- and sex-related normative audiogram was calculated automatically by the tool and the hearing impairment was graded. The estimated recruitment rate of our sample was quickly calculated. Information about meeting the inclusion criteria was provided instantaneously. A significant reduction of 30 % in the time required for classifying (30 s per patient) was observed.

Infrared properties of serendipitous X-ray quasars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Neugebauer, G.; Soifer, B. T.; Matthews, K.; Margon, B.; Chanan, G. A.

1982-01-01

Near infrared measurements were obtained of 30 quasars originally found serendipitously as X-ray sources in fields of other objects. The observations show that the infrared characteristics of these quasars do not differ significantly from those of quasars selected by other criteria. Because this X-ray selected sample is subject to different selection biases than previous radio and optical surveys, this conclusion is useful in validating previous inferences regarding the infrared colors of 'typical' quasars.

An experimental sample of the field gamma-spectrometer based on solid state Si-photomultiplier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Denisov, Viktor; Korotaev, Valery; Titov, Aleksandr; Blokhina, Anastasia; Kleshchenok, Maksim

2017-05-01

Design of optical-electronic devices and systems involves the selection of such technical patterns that under given initial requirements and conditions are optimal according to certain criteria. The original characteristic of the OES for any purpose, defining its most important feature ability is a threshold detection. Based on this property, will be achieved the required functional quality of the device or system. Therefore, the original criteria and optimization methods have to subordinate to the idea of a better detectability. Generally reduces to the problem of optimal selection of the expected (predetermined) signals in the predetermined observation conditions. Thus the main purpose of optimization of the system when calculating its detectability is the choice of circuits and components that provide the most effective selection of a target.

Diagnostic assignment of criteria: clinicians and DSM-IV.

PubMed

Linde, J A; Clark, L A

1998-01-01

The study examined clinician matching of diagnostic criteria to selected DSM-IV Axis I and II disorders. A national sample of clinical psychologists and psychiatrists assigned symptom criteria, presented in scrambled order by axis, to DSM-IV diagnoses with which they believed the criteria belonged, without using the DSM. On average, clinicians assigned 69% of Axis I criteria and 75% of Axis II criteria to the designated DSM-IV diagnosis. The Axis II data represent increased agreement over the 66% found for DSM-III-R. Reasons for the increase are discussed, focusing on modifications made in DSM-IV and increased familiarity with personality disorders. The significantly higher rate of agreement for Axis II over Axis I contrasts with typical reliability data which suggests that Axis I disorders are better defined. Specific points of disagreement between clinician criteria assignments and the DSM-IV are discussed.

Which Diagnostic Criteria are Most Useful in Discriminating Between Social Gamblers and Individuals with Gambling Problems? An Examination of DSM-IV and DSM-5 Criteria.

PubMed

Temcheff, Caroline E; Paskus, Thomas S; Potenza, Marc N; Derevensky, Jeffrey L

2016-09-01

The current study sought to identify which diagnostic criteria for gambling disorder have the greatest ability to differentiate between social and problem gamblers. This study was conducted on a sample of male and female college student athletes across the U.S. (n = 8674). Classification and regression tree analysis represents an appropriate technique when addressing the question of an item's diagnostic value, as it sequentially selects variables to isolate sets of observations with similar outcomes. The current results suggest that the item related to preoccupation ("Have there been periods in the past year where you spent a lot of time thinking about gambling?") was the DSM-5 item best able to differentiate between male and female social and problem gamblers in this sample. When considering only the nine criteria retained in the DSM-5, three criteria were identified as key for distinguishing between social and disordered gamblers among men, and one criterion was identified for distinguishing between groups of women. In addition, these results do not support the notion that the illegal acts criterion has a particularly low base rate and found that it can be an important indicator of disordered gambling in a college-aged sample.

Designing Intervention Studies: Selected Populations, Range Restrictions, and Statistical Power

PubMed Central

Miciak, Jeremy; Taylor, W. Pat; Stuebing, Karla K.; Fletcher, Jack M.; Vaughn, Sharon

2016-01-01

An appropriate estimate of statistical power is critical for the design of intervention studies. Although the inclusion of a pretest covariate in the test of the primary outcome can increase statistical power, samples selected on the basis of pretest performance may demonstrate range restriction on the selection measure and other correlated measures. This can result in attenuated pretest-posttest correlations, reducing the variance explained by the pretest covariate. We investigated the implications of two potential range restriction scenarios: direct truncation on a selection measure and indirect range restriction on correlated measures. Empirical and simulated data indicated direct range restriction on the pretest covariate greatly reduced statistical power and necessitated sample size increases of 82%–155% (dependent on selection criteria) to achieve equivalent statistical power to parameters with unrestricted samples. However, measures demonstrating indirect range restriction required much smaller sample size increases (32%–71%) under equivalent scenarios. Additional analyses manipulated the correlations between measures and pretest-posttest correlations to guide planning experiments. Results highlight the need to differentiate between selection measures and potential covariates and to investigate range restriction as a factor impacting statistical power. PMID:28479943

Designing Intervention Studies: Selected Populations, Range Restrictions, and Statistical Power.

PubMed

Miciak, Jeremy; Taylor, W Pat; Stuebing, Karla K; Fletcher, Jack M; Vaughn, Sharon

2016-01-01

An appropriate estimate of statistical power is critical for the design of intervention studies. Although the inclusion of a pretest covariate in the test of the primary outcome can increase statistical power, samples selected on the basis of pretest performance may demonstrate range restriction on the selection measure and other correlated measures. This can result in attenuated pretest-posttest correlations, reducing the variance explained by the pretest covariate. We investigated the implications of two potential range restriction scenarios: direct truncation on a selection measure and indirect range restriction on correlated measures. Empirical and simulated data indicated direct range restriction on the pretest covariate greatly reduced statistical power and necessitated sample size increases of 82%-155% (dependent on selection criteria) to achieve equivalent statistical power to parameters with unrestricted samples. However, measures demonstrating indirect range restriction required much smaller sample size increases (32%-71%) under equivalent scenarios. Additional analyses manipulated the correlations between measures and pretest-posttest correlations to guide planning experiments. Results highlight the need to differentiate between selection measures and potential covariates and to investigate range restriction as a factor impacting statistical power.

A spectroscopic survey of WISE-selected obscured quasars with the southern african large telescope

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

Hainline, Kevin N.; Hickox, Ryan C.; Carroll, Christopher M.

2014-11-10

We present the results of an optical spectroscopic survey of a sample of 40 candidate obscured quasars identified on the basis of their mid-infrared emission detected by the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). Optical spectra for this survey were obtained using the Robert Stobie Spectrograph on the Southern African Large Telescope. Our sample was selected with WISE colors characteristic of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), as well as red optical to mid-IR colors indicating that the optical/UV AGN continuum is obscured by dust. We obtain secure redshifts for the majority of the objects that comprise our sample (35/40), and find thatmore » sources that are bright in the WISE W4 (22 μm) band are typically at moderate redshift ((z) = 0.35) while sources fainter in W4 are at higher redshifts ((z) = 0.73). The majority of the sources have narrow emission lines with optical colors and emission line ratios of our WISE-selected sources that are consistent with the locus of AGN on the rest-frame g – z color versus [Ne III] λ3869/[O II] λλ3726+3729 line ratio diagnostic diagram. We also use empirical AGN and galaxy templates to model the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for the objects in our sample, and find that while there is significant variation in the observed SEDs for these objects, the majority require a strong AGN component. Finally, we use the results from our analysis of the optical spectra and the SEDs to compare our selection criteria to alternate criteria presented in the literature. These results verify the efficacy of selecting luminous obscured AGNs based on their WISE colors.« less

The MMPI-2 Restructured Form Personality Psychopathology Five Scales: bridging DSM-5 Section 2 personality disorders and DSM-5 Section 3 personality trait dimensions.

PubMed

Finn, Jacob A; Arbisi, Paul A; Erbes, Christopher R; Polusny, Melissa A; Thuras, Paul

2014-01-01

This study examined in a college sample and a sample of non-treatment-seeking, trauma-exposed veterans the association between the MMPI-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY-5) Scales and DSM-5 Section 2 personality disorder (PD) criteria, the same system used in DSM-IV-TR, and the proposed broad personality trait dimensions contained in Section 3 of DSM-5. DSM-5 Section 2 PD symptoms were assessed using the SCID-II-PQ, and applying a replicated rational selection procedure to the SCID-II-PQ item pool, proxies for the DSM-5 Section 3 dimensions and select facets were constructed. The MMPI-2-RF PSY-5 scales demonstrated appropriate convergent and discriminant associations with both Section 2 PDs and Section 3 dimensions in both samples. These findings suggest the MMPI-2-RF PSY-5 scales can serve both conceptually and practically as a bridge between the DSM-5 Section 2 PD criteria and the DSM-5 Section 3 personality features.

A Proactive Approach to Building Security.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winters, Sharon

1994-01-01

Describes building security procedures developed at the Hampton Public Library (Virginia) to deal with problem patrons. Highlights include need for the library monitor program; staffing patterns; monitor selection criteria; training procedures; library behavior guidelines; library policy statements; theft detection systems; and sample job…

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Search for extraterrestrial intelligence (Isaacson+, 2017)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Isaacson, H.; Siemion, A. P. V.; Marcy, G. W.; Lebofsky, M.; Price, D. C.; MacMahon, D.; Croft, S.; Deboer, D.; Hickish, J.; Werthimer, D.; Sheikh, S.; Hellbourg, G.; Enriquez, J. E.

2017-08-01

The stellar sample is defined by two selection criteria. The first is a volume-limited sample of stars within 5pc of the Sun. The second is a spectral class complete sample consisting of stars across the main sequence and some giant branch stars, all within 50pc. We combined the two sub-samples (5pc and 5-50pc) to produce the final set of 1709 target stars that are listed in Table 1. (1 data file).

The prevalence of metabolic syndrome according to various definitions and hypertriglyceridemic-waist in malaysian adults.

PubMed

Zainuddin, Laila Ruwaida Mohd; Isa, Nurfirdaus; Muda, Wan Manan Wan; Mohamed, Hamid Jan

2011-10-01

Metabolic syndrome can be diagnosed according to several different criteria such as the latest International Diabetes Federation (IDF), National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Program III (NCEP ATPIII), and World Health Organization (WHO). The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and the concordance between the above mentioned definition, and hypertriglyceridemic-waist criteria. This cross sectional study was done in Bachok, Malaysia and involved 298 respondents aged between 18 to 70 years. Multistage random sampling method was used to identify study locations while convenient random sampling method was applied to select individuals. Hypertriglyceridemic waist was defined from an internationally acceptable cut-off criterion. Kappa statistic (κ test) was used to determine the concordance between various definitions and hypertriglyceridemic-waist. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome based on different definitions was 32.2% (IDF), 28.5% (NCEP ATP III) and 12.4% (modified WHO). The prevalence of hypertriglyceridemic-waist was 19.7% and based on the IDF criteria a total of 97.5% participants with hypertriglyceridemic-waist had metabolic syndrome. The IDF criteria showed the highest concordance with NCEP ATPIII criteria (κ = 0.63), followed by hypertriglyceridemic-waist criteria (κ = 0.62) and WHO criteria (κ = 0.26). The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was highest using the IDF criteria compared to NCEP ATPIII, modified WHO and hypertriglyceridemic-waist. There was a good concordance of IDF criteria with NCEP ATP III and hypertriglyceridemic-waist criteria.

Variable criteria sequential stopping rule: Validity and power with repeated measures ANOVA, multiple correlation, MANOVA and relation to Chi-square distribution.

PubMed

Fitts, Douglas A

2017-09-21

The variable criteria sequential stopping rule (vcSSR) is an efficient way to add sample size to planned ANOVA tests while holding the observed rate of Type I errors, α o , constant. The only difference from regular null hypothesis testing is that criteria for stopping the experiment are obtained from a table based on the desired power, rate of Type I errors, and beginning sample size. The vcSSR was developed using between-subjects ANOVAs, but it should work with p values from any type of F test. In the present study, the α o remained constant at the nominal level when using the previously published table of criteria with repeated measures designs with various numbers of treatments per subject, Type I error rates, values of ρ, and four different sample size models. New power curves allow researchers to select the optimal sample size model for a repeated measures experiment. The criteria held α o constant either when used with a multiple correlation that varied the sample size model and the number of predictor variables, or when used with MANOVA with multiple groups and two levels of a within-subject variable at various levels of ρ. Although not recommended for use with χ 2 tests such as the Friedman rank ANOVA test, the vcSSR produces predictable results based on the relation between F and χ 2 . Together, the data confirm the view that the vcSSR can be used to control Type I errors during sequential sampling with any t- or F-statistic rather than being restricted to certain ANOVA designs.

Guidelines and standard procedures for studies of ground-water quality; selection and installation of wells, and supporting documentation

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lapham, W.W.; Wilde, F.D.; Koterba, M.T.

1997-01-01

This is the first of a two-part report to document guidelines and standard procedures of the U.S. Geological Survey for the acquisition of data in ground-water-quality studies. This report provides guidelines and procedures for the selection and installation of wells for water-quality studies/*, and the required or recommended supporting documentation of these activities. Topics include (1) documentation needed for well files, field folders, and electronic files; (2) criteria and information needed for the selection of water-supply and observation wells, including site inventory and data collection during field reconnaissance; and (3) criteria and preparation for installation of monitoring wells, including the effects of equipment and materials on the chemistry of ground-water samples, a summary of drilling and coring methods, and information concerning well completion, development, and disposition.

Metabolomic differences in early and late lactation first-parity gilts

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Investigating the metabolome provides the evaluation of all cellular processes occuring while accounting for environmental influence and may provide additional information for selection criteria to fully evolve. Blood samples and body condition measurements were acquired from 68, first-parity gilts ...

[Quality of the structured abstracts presented at a congress].

PubMed

dos Santos, Edilson F; Pereira, Maurício G

2007-01-01

To assess and compare quality of abstracts presented at a medical congress (XIV Congresso da Sociedade Brasileira de Infectologia, November, 2005). The hypothesis is that material of better quality is chosen for oral presentation. All the 63 abstracts selected for oral presentation were compared with a random sample (n=63) of the 664 abstracts registered as poster presentations. Quality was measured by a structured questionnaire comprised of 33 criteria, distributed in eight categories: purpose, research design, setting, subjects, intervention, measurement, results and conclusions. The questionnaire was applied by one of the authors who were not blind to the objective of the study. The final score could range from 0 (bad) to 1 (excellent). Abstracts quality was considered moderately good. The overall mean quality scores were 0.60 and 0.62 respectively, for poster and oral presentation (p = 0.086). The criteria rated poorly were: subjects, variable measurements, location and conclusion. The tested hypothesis of better quality in abstracts selected for oral presentation has not been confirmed. It is recommended that organizers of the congresses the use of objective quality criteria to select the form of presentation while improving on quality.

49 CFR 80.15 - Selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 49 Transportation 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Selection criteria. 80.15 Section 80.15... § 80.15 Selection criteria. (a) The Secretary shall assign weights as indicated to the following eight selection criteria in evaluating and selecting among eligible projects to receive credit assistance: (1) The...

Nonclinical dose formulation analysis method validation and sample analysis.

PubMed

Whitmire, Monica Lee; Bryan, Peter; Henry, Teresa R; Holbrook, John; Lehmann, Paul; Mollitor, Thomas; Ohorodnik, Susan; Reed, David; Wietgrefe, Holly D

2010-12-01

Nonclinical dose formulation analysis methods are used to confirm test article concentration and homogeneity in formulations and determine formulation stability in support of regulated nonclinical studies. There is currently no regulatory guidance for nonclinical dose formulation analysis method validation or sample analysis. Regulatory guidance for the validation of analytical procedures has been developed for drug product/formulation testing; however, verification of the formulation concentrations falls under the framework of GLP regulations (not GMP). The only current related regulatory guidance is the bioanalytical guidance for method validation. The fundamental parameters for bioanalysis and formulation analysis validations that overlap include: recovery, accuracy, precision, specificity, selectivity, carryover, sensitivity, and stability. Divergence in bioanalytical and drug product validations typically center around the acceptance criteria used. As the dose formulation samples are not true "unknowns", the concept of quality control samples that cover the entire range of the standard curve serving as the indication for the confidence in the data generated from the "unknown" study samples may not always be necessary. Also, the standard bioanalytical acceptance criteria may not be directly applicable, especially when the determined concentration does not match the target concentration. This paper attempts to reconcile the different practices being performed in the community and to provide recommendations of best practices and proposed acceptance criteria for nonclinical dose formulation method validation and sample analysis.

Determination of Dornic Acidity as a Method to Select Donor Milk in a Milk Bank

PubMed Central

Garcia-Lara, Nadia Raquel; Escuder-Vieco, Diana; Chaves-Sánchez, Fernando; De la Cruz-Bertolo, Javier; Pallas-Alonso, Carmen Rosa

2013-01-01

Abstract Background Dornic acidity may be an indirect measurement of milk's bacteria content and its quality. There are no uniform criteria among different human milk banks on milk acceptance criteria. The main aim of this study is to report the correlation between Dornic acidity and bacterial growth in donor milk in order to validate the Dornic acidity value as an adequate method to select milk prior to its pasteurization. Materials and Methods From 105 pools, 4-mL samples of human milk were collected. Dornic acidity measurement and culture in blood and McConkey's agar cultures were performed. Based on Dornic acidity degrees, we classified milk into three quality categories: top quality (acidity <4°D), intermediate (acidity between 4°D and 7°D), and milk unsuitable to be consumed (acidity ≥8°D). Spearman's correlation coefficient was used to perform statistical analysis. Results Seventy percent of the samples had Dornic acidity under 4°D, and 88% had a value under 8°D. A weak positive correlation was observed between the bacterial growth in milk and Dornic acidity. The overall discrimination performance of Dornic acidity was higher for predicting growth of Gram-negative organisms. In milk with Dornic acidity of ≥4°D, such a measurement has a sensitivity of 100% for detecting all the samples with bacterial growth with Gram-negative bacteria of over 105 colony-forming units/mL. Conclusions The correlation between Dornic acidity and bacterial growth in donor milk is weak but positive. The measurement of Dornic acidity could be considered as a simple and economical method to select milk to pasteurize in a human milk bank based in quality and safety criteria. PMID:23373435

Determination of Dornic acidity as a method to select donor milk in a milk bank.

PubMed

Vázquez-Román, Sara; Garcia-Lara, Nadia Raquel; Escuder-Vieco, Diana; Chaves-Sánchez, Fernando; De la Cruz-Bertolo, Javier; Pallas-Alonso, Carmen Rosa

2013-02-01

Dornic acidity may be an indirect measurement of milk's bacteria content and its quality. There are no uniform criteria among different human milk banks on milk acceptance criteria. The main aim of this study is to report the correlation between Dornic acidity and bacterial growth in donor milk in order to validate the Dornic acidity value as an adequate method to select milk prior to its pasteurization. From 105 pools, 4-mL samples of human milk were collected. Dornic acidity measurement and culture in blood and McConkey's agar cultures were performed. Based on Dornic acidity degrees, we classified milk into three quality categories: top quality (acidity <4°D), intermediate (acidity between 4°D and 7°D), and milk unsuitable to be consumed (acidity ≥ 8°D). Spearman's correlation coefficient was used to perform statistical analysis. Seventy percent of the samples had Dornic acidity under 4°D, and 88% had a value under 8°D. A weak positive correlation was observed between the bacterial growth in milk and Dornic acidity. The overall discrimination performance of Dornic acidity was higher for predicting growth of Gram-negative organisms. In milk with Dornic acidity of ≥ 4°D, such a measurement has a sensitivity of 100% for detecting all the samples with bacterial growth with Gram-negative bacteria of over 10(5) colony-forming units/mL. The correlation between Dornic acidity and bacterial growth in donor milk is weak but positive. The measurement of Dornic acidity could be considered as a simple and economical method to select milk to pasteurize in a human milk bank based in quality and safety criteria.

A comparison of selected public health criteria in milk from milk-shops and from a national distributor.

PubMed

O'Ferrall-Berndt, M More

2003-06-01

Selected public health criteria of pasteurised milk available to the consumer from milk-shops in a pre-defined area of Pretoria compared with a national distributor's milk was evaluated. Of the 135 milk samples purchased from milk-shops, 87% were not fit for human consumption on the basis of the minimum standards prescribed in the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act, 1972 (Act 54 of1972). The national distributor's milk (n = 79) did not contain any pathogens, toxins nor inhibitory substances and passed all the criteria laid down in the Act. Even though milk-shop milk was sold as having been pasteurised, 38.5% of samples were alkaline phosphatase positive, indicating probable inadequate pasteurisation. Milk-shop milk quality varied between milk-shops and between sampling days and differed significantly (P < 0.05) from the national distributor's milk. Total aerobic plate and coliform counts were generally high for all milk-shop milk samples. Somatic cell counts of milk-shop milk differed significantly (P < 0.05) from the national distributor's milk. Escherichia coli was detected in 1 ml of 17% of milk-shop milk, 95% of which originated from milk which was alkaline phosphatase positive. Salmonella spp. could not be detected in 1 ml in any of the E. coli-positive milk tested. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from 40% of milk-shop milk samples, and S. aureus enterotoxins from 7.8% of 51 cultures. Inhibitory substances were detected in 54.1% of milk-shop milk. The presence of inhibitory substances and the isolation of E. coli and S. aureus (some of which were able to produce enterotoxins) indicated potentially unsafe milk and poses a serious public health risk to consumers.

Criteria for Choosing the Best Neural Network: Part 1

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-07-24

Touretzky, pp. 177-185. San Mateo: Morgan Kaufmann. Harp, S.A., Samad , T., and Guha, A . (1990). Designing application-specific neural networks using genetic...determining a parsimonious neural network for use in prediction/generalization based on a given fixed learning sample. Both the classification and...statistical settings, algorithms for selecting the number of hidden layer nodes in a three layer, feedforward neural network are presented. The selection

Are We Under-Estimating the Association between Autism Symptoms?: The Importance of Considering Simultaneous Selection When Using Samples of Individuals Who Meet Diagnostic Criteria for an Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murray, Aja Louise; McKenzie, Karen; Kuenssberg, Renate; O'Donnell, Michael

2014-01-01

The magnitude of symptom inter-correlations in diagnosed individuals has contributed to the evidence that autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a fractionable disorder. Such correlations may substantially under-estimate the population correlations among symptoms due to simultaneous selection on the areas of deficit required for diagnosis. Using…

Multi-Criteria Decision Making For Determining A Simple Model of Supplier Selection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harwati

2017-06-01

Supplier selection is a decision with many criteria. Supplier selection model usually involves more than five main criteria and more than 10 sub-criteria. In fact many model includes more than 20 criteria. Too many criteria involved in supplier selection models sometimes make it difficult to apply in many companies. This research focuses on designing supplier selection that easy and simple to be applied in the company. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used to weighting criteria. The analysis results there are four criteria that are easy and simple can be used to select suppliers: Price (weight 0.4) shipment (weight 0.3), quality (weight 0.2) and services (weight 0.1). A real case simulation shows that simple model provides the same decision with a more complex model.

Eliciting societal preferences of reimbursement decision criteria for anti cancer drugs in South Korea.

PubMed

Kwon, Sun-Hong; Park, Sun-Kyeong; Byun, Ji-Hye; Lee, Eui-Kyung

2017-08-01

In order to look beyond the cost-effectiveness analysis, this study used a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), which reflects societal values with regard to reimbursement decisions. This study aims to elicit societal preferences of the reimbursement decision criteria for anti cancer drugs from public and healthcare professionals. Eight criteria were defined based on a literature review and focus group sessions: disease severity, disease population size, pediatrics targets, unmet needs, innovation, clinical benefits, cost-effectiveness, and budget impacts. Using quota sampling and purposive sampling, 300 participants from the Korean public and 30 healthcare professionals were selected for the survey. Preferences were elicited using an analytic hierarchy process. Both groups rated clinical benefits the highest, followed by cost-effectiveness and disease severity, but differed with regard to disease population size and unmet needs. Innovation was the least preferred criteria. Clinical benefits and other social values should be reflected appropriately with cost-effectiveness in healthcare coverage. MCDA can be used to assess decision priorities for complicated health policy decisions, including reimbursement decisions. It is a promising method for making logical and transparent drug reimbursement decisions that consider a broad range of factors, which are perceived as important by relevant stakeholders.

Resin selection criteria for tough composite structures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chamis, C. C.; Smith, G. T.

1983-01-01

Resin selection criteria are derived using a structured methodology consisting of an upward integrated mechanistic theory and its inverse (top-down structured theory). These criteria are expressed in a "criteria selection space" which are used to identify resin bulk properties for improved composite "toughness". The resin selection criteria correlate with a variety of experimental data including laminate strength, elevated temperature effects and impact resistance.

Sensitivity and Specificity of Polysomnographic Criteria for Defining Insomnia

PubMed Central

Edinger, Jack D.; Ulmer, Christi S.; Means, Melanie K.

2013-01-01

Study Objectives: In recent years, polysomnography-based eligibility criteria have been increasingly used to identify candidates for insomnia research, and this has been particularly true of studies evaluating pharmacologic therapy for primary insomnia. However, the sensitivity and specificity of PSG for identifying individuals with insomnia is unknown, and there is no consensus on the criteria sets which should be used for participant selection. In the current study, an archival data set was used to test the sensitivity and specificity of PSG measures for identifying individuals with primary insomnia in both home and lab settings. We then evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of the eligibility criteria employed in a number of recent insomnia trials for identifying primary insomnia sufferers in our sample. Design: Archival data analysis. Settings: Study participants' homes and a clinical sleep laboratory. Participants: Adults: 76 with primary insomnia and 78 non-complaining normal sleepers. Measurements and Results: ROC and cross-tabs analyses were used to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of PSG-derived total sleep time, latency to persistent sleep, wake after sleep onset, and sleep efficiency for discriminating adults with primary insomnia from normal sleepers. None of the individual criteria accurately discriminated PI from normal sleepers, and none of the criteria sets used in recent trials demonstrated acceptable sensitivity and specificity for identifying primary insomnia. Conclusions: The use of quantitative PSG-based selection criteria in insomnia research may exclude many who meet current diagnostic criteria for an insomnia disorder. Citation: Edinger JD; Ulmer CS; Means MK. Sensitivity and specificity of polysomnographic criteria for defining insomnia. J Clin Sleep Med 2013;9(5):481-491. PMID:23674940

THE MULTI-WAVELENGTH EXTREME STARBURST SAMPLE OF LUMINOUS GALAXIES. I. SAMPLE CHARACTERISTICS

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

Laag, Edward; Croft, Steve; Canalizo, Gabriela

2010-12-15

This paper introduces the Multi-wavelength Extreme Starburst Sample (MESS), a new catalog of 138 star-forming galaxies (0.1 < z < 0.3) optically selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey using emission line strength diagnostics to have a high absolute star formation rate (SFR; minimum 11 M{sub sun} yr{sup -1} with median SFR {approx} 61 M{sub sun} yr{sup -1} based on a Kroupa initial mass function). The MESS was designed to complement samples of nearby star-forming galaxies such as the luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) and ultraviolet luminous galaxies (UVLGs). Observations using the Multi-band Imaging Photometer (24, 70, and 160 {mu}m channels)more » on the Spitzer Space Telescope indicate that the MESS galaxies have IR luminosities similar to those of LIRGs, with an estimated median L{sub TIR} {approx} 3 x 10{sup 11} L{sub sun}. The selection criteria for the MESS objects suggest they may be less obscured than typical far-IR-selected galaxies with similar estimated SFRs. Twenty out of 70 of the MESS objects detected in the Galaxy Evolution Explorer FUV band also appear to be UVLGs. We estimate the SFRs based directly on luminosities to determine the agreement for these methods in the MESS. We compare these estimates to the emission line strength technique, since the effective measurement of dust attenuation plays a central role in these methods. We apply an image stacking technique to the Very Large Array FIRST survey radio data to retrieve 1.4 GHz luminosity information for 3/4 of the sample covered by FIRST including sources too faint, and at too high a redshift, to be detected in FIRST. We also discuss the relationship between the MESS objects and samples selected through alternative criteria. Morphologies will be the subject of a forthcoming paper.« less

45 CFR 1634.9 - Selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 45 Public Welfare 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Selection criteria. 1634.9 Section 1634.9 Public Welfare Regulations Relating to Public Welfare (Continued) LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION COMPETITIVE BIDDING FOR GRANTS AND CONTRACTS § 1634.9 Selection criteria. (a) The criteria to be used to select among...

Distribution of terrestrial age and petrologic type of meteorites from western Libya

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

Jull, A.J.T.; Donahue, D.J.; Wlotzka, F.

1990-10-01

A group of 54 meteorites have been recovered from Daraj, Western Libya. After assessment of pairing of samples, using petrologic criteria, {sup 14}C terrestrial ages were obtained on 13 samples selected from 9 different fall events. Eleven of the ages range from 3,500 to 7,600 years, with only two samples having ages in excess of 10,000 years. The cut-off in ages may be related to the timing of climatic changes in the Hammadah al Hamra.

Comparison of various primer sets for detection of Toxoplasma gondii by polymerase chain reaction in fetal tissues from naturally aborted foxes.

PubMed

Smielewska-Loś, E

2003-01-01

Tissues from 4 aborted polar foxes (3 samples of brain and 4 samples of liver) were selected for Toxoplasma gondii PCR assay. Positive results of serological tests of mothers and immunofluorescence test (IFT) of fetal organ smears were the criteria of sample selection. Five sets of primers designed from B1 gene and ITS1 sequences of T. gondii were used for detection of the parasite in fetal fox tissues. All used primer sets successfully amplified T. gondii DNA in PCR from organs which were positive by IFT. Single tube nested PCR also showed positive result from a sample negative by IFT, but this product was not confirmed. The studies showed usefullness of PCR for routine diagnosis of toxoplasmosis in carnivores.

Impact of Dermoscopy and Reflectance Confocal Microscopy on the Histopathologic Diagnosis of Lentigo Maligna/Lentigo Maligna Melanoma.

PubMed

Mataca, Ema; Migaldi, Mario; Cesinaro, Anna M

2018-06-15

Equivocal pigmented lesions of the head are usually biopsied to avoid inappropriate treatment. Clinical approach has evolved from simple visual examination to sophisticated techniques for selecting the biopsy sites. This study aimed to retrospectively evaluate the efficiency of dermoscopy (DE) and reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) in sampling a histopathologically representative focus of lentigo maligna/lentigo maligna melanoma. Punch biopsies and surgical excisions of 72 patients, 37 men and 35 women (median age 70.6 years, range 39-90 years), affected by lentigo maligna/lentigo maligna melanoma of the head, sent from a single dermatology clinic, were reviewed for the presence of 5 histopathologic criteria: atypical junctional melanocytes, increased junctional melanocytes, follicular colonization, pagetoid spread and melanocytic junctional nests, plus other minor features. Forty-two patients were biopsied under DE and 30 under RCM guidance. Accuracy of the 2 techniques in sampling a representative tissue overlapped in most cases, although RCM selected sites to biopsy with more histopathologic criteria, in particular pagetoid spread and melanocytic nests. Interestingly, with RCM, inflammation and melanophages were observed more in biopsy than in excision. False positive cases were not registered. Compared with the sampling at naked eye, our results show that DE and RCM help selecting the most appropriate areas for biopsies, thus allowing not only more robust histopathologic diagnoses, but also a more accurate microstaging of tumor.

The ATLAS3D project - I. A volume-limited sample of 260 nearby early-type galaxies: science goals and selection criteria

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cappellari, Michele; Emsellem, Eric; Krajnović, Davor; McDermid, Richard M.; Scott, Nicholas; Verdoes Kleijn, G. A.; Young, Lisa M.; Alatalo, Katherine; Bacon, R.; Blitz, Leo; Bois, Maxime; Bournaud, Frédéric; Bureau, M.; Davies, Roger L.; Davis, Timothy A.; de Zeeuw, P. T.; Duc, Pierre-Alain; Khochfar, Sadegh; Kuntschner, Harald; Lablanche, Pierre-Yves; Morganti, Raffaella; Naab, Thorsten; Oosterloo, Tom; Sarzi, Marc; Serra, Paolo; Weijmans, Anne-Marie

2011-05-01

The ATLAS3D project is a multiwavelength survey combined with a theoretical modelling effort. The observations span from the radio to the millimetre and optical, and provide multicolour imaging, two-dimensional kinematics of the atomic (H I), molecular (CO) and ionized gas (Hβ, [O III] and [N I]), together with the kinematics and population of the stars (Hβ, Fe5015 and Mg b), for a carefully selected, volume-limited (1.16 × 105 Mpc3) sample of 260 early-type (elliptical E and lenticular S0) galaxies (ETGs). The models include semi-analytic, N-body binary mergers and cosmological simulations of galaxy formation. Here we present the science goals for the project and introduce the galaxy sample and the selection criteria. The sample consists of nearby (D < 42 Mpc, |δ- 29°| < 35°, |b| > 15°) morphologically selected ETGs extracted from a parent sample of 871 galaxies (8 per cent E, 22 per cent S0 and 70 per cent spirals) brighter than MK < -21.5 mag (stellar mass M★≳ 6 ×109 M⊙). We analyse possible selection biases and we conclude that the parent sample is essentially complete and statistically representative of the nearby galaxy population. We present the size-luminosity relation for the spirals and ETGs and show that the ETGs in the ATLAS3D sample define a tight red sequence in a colour-magnitude diagram, with few objects in the transition from the blue cloud. We describe the strategy of the SAURON integral field observations and the extraction of the stellar kinematics with the pPXF method. We find typical 1σ errors of ΔV≈ 6 km s-1, Δσ≈ 7 km s-1, Δh3≈Δh4≈ 0.03 in the mean velocity, the velocity dispersion and Gauss-Hermite (GH) moments for galaxies with effective dispersion σe≳ 120 km s-1. For galaxies with lower σe (≈40 per cent of the sample) the GH moments are gradually penalized by pPXF towards zero to suppress the noise produced by the spectral undersampling and only V and σ can be measured. We give an overview of the characteristics of the other main data sets already available for our sample and of the ongoing modelling projects.

The performance of a sampled data delay lock loop implemented with a Kalman loop filter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eilts, H. S.

1980-01-01

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the steady-state and transient (lock-up) performance of a tracking loop implemented with a Kalman filter. Steady-state performance criteria are errors due to measurement noise (jitter) and Doppler errors due to motion of the tracking loop. Trade-offs exist between the two criteria such that increasing performance with respect to either one will cause performance decrease with respect to the other. It is shown that by carefully selecting filter parameters reasonable performance can be obtained for both criteria simultaneously. It is also shown that lock-up performance for the loop is acceptable when these parameters are used.

Histopathologic and molecular evaluation of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network selection criteria for intestinal graft donation.

PubMed

Roskott, Anne Margot C; van Haaften, Wouter T; Leuvenink, Henri G D; Ploeg, Rutger J; van Goor, Harry; Blokzijl, Tjasso; Ottens, Petra J; Dijkstra, Gerard; Nieuwenhuijs, Vincent B

2014-06-01

The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) has formulated criteria for the selection of donors for intestinal transplantation. To date, however, no study has correlated histologic findings of intestinal injury with the OPTN criteria. We aimed to describe histopathologic and molecular features of allograft injury in relation to donor conditions defined by the OPTN criteria. Graft histology (Park Score), Claudin-3 staining, systemic inflammatory markers (C-reactive protein/lipopolysaccharide-binding protein) and expression of heat shock protein 70, heme oxygenase 1, and interleukin 6 were evaluated in multiorgan deceased donors (donation after brain death [DBD] and donation after cardiac death [DCD]). Ninety-seven samples (52 jejunum/45 ileum) were recovered from 59 donors (46 DBD/13 DCD). The OPTN criterion cold ischemia time correlated with histologic injury (Park score) to which the jejunum appeared more susceptible than the ileum. Claudin-3 staining was higher, and heat shock protein 70 expression lower in donors meeting the OPTN criteria compared with donors not meeting the criteria and in DBD versus DCD. In DBD donors, interleukin 6 expression was higher compared with DCD donors and inversely related to C-reactive protein. Our multiparameter analysis suggests that the OPTN criteria can be discriminative concerning intestinal graft quality. Our data suggest that DCD intestinal allografts are qualitatively inferior and that the jejunum is more sensitive to ischemia than the ileum. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Deep CFHT Y-band Imaging of VVDS-F22 Field. II. Quasar Selection and Quasar Luminosity Function

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Jinyi; Wu, Xue-Bing; Liu, Dezi; Fan, Xiaohui; Yang, Qian; Wang, Feige; McGreer, Ian D.; Fan, Zuhui; Yuan, Shuo; Shan, Huanyuan

2018-03-01

We report the results of a faint quasar survey in a one-square-degree field. The aim is to test the Y-K/g-z and J-K/i-Y color selection criteria for quasars at faint magnitudes to obtain a complete sample of quasars based on deep optical and near-infrared color–color selection and to measure the faint end of the quasar luminosity function (QLF) over a wide redshift range. We carried out a quasar survey based on the Y-K/g-z and J-K/i-Y quasar selection criteria, using the deep Y-band data obtained from our CFHT/WIRCam Y-band images in a two-degree field within the F22 field of the VIMOS VLT deep survey, optical co-added data from Sloan Digital Sky Survey Stripe 82 and deep near-infrared data from the UKIDSS Deep Extragalactic Survey in the same field. We discovered 25 new quasars at 0.5< z< 4.5 and i< 22.5 mag within one-square-degree field. The survey significantly increases the number of faint quasars in this field, especially at z∼ 2{--}3. It confirms that our color selections are highly complete in a wide redshift range (z< 4.5), especially over the quasar number density peak at z∼ 2{--}3, even for faint quasars. Combining all previous known quasars and new discoveries, we construct a sample with 109 quasars and measure the binned QLF and parametric QLF. Although the sample is small, our results agree with a pure luminosity evolution at lower redshift and luminosity evolution and density evolution model at redshift z> 2.5.

Identification of multi-criteria for supplier selection in IT project outsourcing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fusiripong, Prashaya; Baharom, Fauziah; Yusof, Yuhanis

2017-10-01

In the increasing global business competitiveness, most organizations have attempted to determine the suitable external parties to support their core and non-core competency, particularly, in IT project outsourcing. The IT supplier selection is required to apply multi-criteria which comprised tangible criteria and intangible criteria in consider optimal IT supplier. Most researches attempted to identify optimal criteria for selecting IT supplier, however, the criteria cannot be the considered common criteria support the variety of IT outsourcing. Therefore, the study aimed to identify a common set of criteria being used in the various types of IT outsourcing. The common criteria are constructed by multi-criteria and success criteria, which were collected by literature review with comprehensive and comparative approach. Consequently, the researchers are able to identify a common set of criteria adopted in the variety of selection problem IT outsourcing supplier.

Sources and preparation of data for assessing trends in concentrations of pesticides in streams of the United States, 1992-2006

USGS Publications Warehouse

Martin, Jeffrey D.

2009-01-01

This report provides a water-quality data set of 44 commonly used pesticides and 8 pesticide degradates suitable for a national assessment of trends in pesticide concentrations in streams of the United States. Water-quality samples collected from January 1992 through August 2006 at stream-water sites of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment Program and the National Stream Quality Accounting Network Program were compiled, reviewed, selected, and prepared for trend analysis as described in this report. Samples analyzed at the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Laboratory by a gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analytical method were the most extensive in time and space and were selected for national trend analysis. The selection criteria described in the report produced a trend data set of 16,869 pesticide samples at 201 stream and river sites.

IDENTIFICATION OF 1.4 MILLION ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI IN THE MID-INFRARED USING WISE DATA

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

Secrest, N. J.; Dudik, R. P.; Dorland, B. N.

2015-11-15

We present an all-sky sample of ≈1.4 million active galactic nuclei (AGNs) meeting a two-color infrared photometric selection criteria for AGNs as applied to sources from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer final catalog release (AllWISE). We assess the spatial distribution and optical properties of our sample and find that the results are consistent with expectations for AGNs. These sources have a mean density of ≈38 AGNs per square degree on the sky, and their apparent magnitude distribution peaks at g ≈ 20, extending to objects as faint as g ≈ 26. We test the AGN selection criteria against a largemore » sample of optically identified stars and determine the “leakage” (that is, the probability that a star detected in an optical survey will be misidentified as a quasi-stellar object (QSO) in our sample) rate to be ≤4.0 × 10{sup −5}. We conclude that our sample contains almost no optically identified stars (≤0.041%), making this sample highly promising for future celestial reference frame work as it significantly increases the number of all-sky, compact extragalactic objects. We further compare our sample to catalogs of known AGNs/QSOs and find a completeness value of ≳84% (that is, the probability of correctly identifying a known AGN/QSO is at least 84%) for AGNs brighter than a limiting magnitude of R ≲ 19. Our sample includes approximately 1.1 million previously uncataloged AGNs.« less

Selecting wool-type fabrics for sensorial comfort in women office clothing for the cold season, using the multi-criteria decision analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harpa, Rodica

2017-10-01

This article presents the strategy and the procedure used to achieve the declared goal: fabrics selection, pursuing sensorial comfort of a specific women-clothing item, by using the multi-criteria decision analysis. First, the objective evaluation of seven wool-type woven fabrics, suitable to the quality profile expected for the defined destination, was accomplished. Then, a survey was conducted on a sample of 187 consumers, women aged between 18 to 60 years old, with a background in the textile field, regarding both the preferences manifested in purchasing products, and the importance of various sensory perceptions through handling materials used in clothing products. Finally, the MCDM applied through the implementation of previous accomplished software STAT-ADM, allowed choosing the preferred wool-type fabric in order to get the expected sensorial comfort of women office trousers for the cold season, according to the previously established criteria. This overall approach showed good results in fabrics selection for assuring the sensorial comfort in women’s clothing, by using the multicriteria decision analysis based on a rating scale delivered by customers with knowledge in the textile field, but non-experts in the fabrics hand evaluation topic.

A comparison of LBGs, DRGs, and BzK galaxies: their contribution to the stellar mass density in the GOODS-MUSIC sample

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grazian, A.; Salimbeni, S.; Pentericci, L.; Fontana, A.; Nonino, M.; Vanzella, E.; Cristiani, S.; de Santis, C.; Gallozzi, S.; Giallongo, E.; Santini, P.

2007-04-01

Context: The classification scheme for high redshift galaxies is complex at the present time, with simple colour-selection criteria (i.e. EROs, IEROs, LBGs, DRGs, BzKs), resulting in ill-defined properties for the stellar mass and star formation rate of these distant galaxies. Aims: The goal of this work is to investigate the properties of different classes of high-z galaxies, focusing in particular on the stellar masses of LBGs, DRGs, and BzKs, in order to derive their contribution to the total mass budget of the distant Universe. Methods: We used the GOODS-MUSIC catalog, containing ~3000 Ks-selected (~10 000 z-selected) galaxies with multi-wavelength coverage extending from the U band to the Spitzer 8~μm band, with spectroscopic or accurate photometric redshifts. We selected samples of BM/BX/LBGs, DRGs, and BzK galaxies to discuss the overlap and the limitations of these criteria, which can be overridden by a selection criterion based on physical parameters. We then measured the stellar masses of these galaxies and computed the stellar mass density (SMD) for the different samples up to redshift ≃4. Results: We show that the BzK-PE criterion is not optimal for selecting early type galaxies at the faint end. On the other hand, BzK-SF is highly contaminated by passively evolving galaxies at red z-Ks colours. We find that LBGs and DRGs contribute almost equally to the global SMD at z≥ 2 and, in general, that star-forming galaxies form a substantial fraction of the universal SMD. Passively evolving galaxies show a strong negative density evolution from redshift 2 to 3, indicating that we are witnessing the epoch of mass assembly of such objects. Finally we have indications that by pushing the selection to deeper magnitudes, the contribution of less massive DRGs could overtake that of LBGs. Deeper surveys, like the HUDF, are required to confirm this suggestion.

[A version of DSM-IV criteria adapted for adolescents and applied to young smokers].

PubMed

Clemente Jiménez, M L; Pérez Trullén, A; Rubio Aranda, E; Marrón Tundidor, R; Rodríguez Ibáñez, M L; Herrero Labarga, I

2003-07-01

To evaluate nicotine dependence in adolescent smokers using a version of DSM-IV criteria for nicotine dependence adapted for adolescents (DSM-IVa). To establish its usefulness and the most relevant items for diagnosing adolescent smokers. Two thousand six hundred forty-seven schoolchildren between 10 and 17 years old were surveyed. A sample size was calculated for each year of age, using the finite population equation with the addition of 10% so that the absolute error would not increase at the end of the study if questionnaires were withdrawn. The sample was stratified by sex and type of school for each age group, with allocation to each stratum proportional to the number of individuals. Schools and students were selected using random number tables. The questionnaire collected the most significant personal data and information related to DSM-IVa criteria. Smokers made up 23.1% of the sample, and 63.5% of them smoked daily. According to the DSM-IVa criteria, 70.7% of the smokers were nicotine dependent. The DSM-IVa had a kappa value of 1 and internal consistency was good (Cronbach's alpha: 0.5598). The DSM-IVa is useful in the studied population, although not perfect. According to the criteria, 70.7% of those interviewed were already nicotine dependent. The key questions were those that referred to the presence of nicotine withdrawal syndrome symptoms and the need to spend a large amount of free time obtaining or smoking cigarettes.

48 CFR 236.602-1 - Selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Selection criteria. 236.602-1 Section 236.602-1 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEFENSE ACQUISITION REGULATIONS SYSTEM... Architect-Engineer Services 236.602-1 Selection criteria. (a) Establish the evaluation criteria before...

Novel Transition Metal Compounds with Promising Thermoelectric Properties

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Caillat, T.; Borshchevsky, A.; Fleurial, J. -P.

1993-01-01

Progress in the search for new high temperature thermoelectric materials at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is reviewed. Novel transition metal compounds were selected as potential new high performance thermoelectric materials and criteria of selection are presented and discussed. Samples of these new compounds were prepared at JPL by a variety of techniques. Encouraging experimental results obtained on several of these compounds are reported and show that they have the potential to be the next generation of thermoelectric materials.

Do We Really Know the Prevalence of MIH?

PubMed

Hernandez, M; Boj, J R; Espasa, E

2016-01-01

To analyze the existing variability on molar incisor hypomineralization prevalence in the literature; to distinguish the various molar incisor hypomineralization prevalence rates in different countries, areas, and regions of the world; and to know the valid diagnostic criteria used for the correct identification of molar incisor hypomineralization prevalence. A literature review from Medline and Cochrane Library online databases was performed using five terms individually or in combination. Articles not reporting diagnostic criteria employed and articles not written English were excluded. The results were analyzed by country, region, year of study, sample size, range of age, and prevalence rate. A total of 37 articles in English were selected from 1987 to 2014 and from those only 14 employed the EAPD's 2003 diagnostic criteria. The reported age range varied from 5.5 to 17 years; the most frequently range used was 7 to 9 years. A wide prevalence range from 2.8% to 44% was found and 82.61% of the articles reported calibrated examiners. Comparison among the results of the studies is difficult due to the use of different indexes and diagnostic criteria, the analysis variability, selection methods, and different age groups. In reality, we are probably far from knowing the real MIH prevalence.

Rainfall, streamflow, and water-quality data for five small watersheds, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990-92

USGS Publications Warehouse

Outlaw, George S.; Hoos, Anne B.; Pankey, John T.

1994-01-01

Rainfall, streamflow, and water-quality data were collected furing storm conditions at five urban watersheds in Nashville, Tennessee. These data can be used to build a database for developing predictive models of the relations between storm- water quality and land use, storm characteristics, and seasonal variations. The primary land and mix of land uses was different for each watershed. Stormwater samples were collected during three storms at each watershed and analyzed for selected volatile, acidic and base/neutral organic compounds; organic pesticides; trace metals; conventional pollutants; and several physical properties. Storm loads were computed for all constituents and properties with event mean concentration above the minimum reporting level. None of the samples con- tained acidic organic compounds at concentrations above the minimum reporting levels. Several constituents in each of the other categories, however, were present at concentrations above the minimum reporting level. For 21 of these constituents, water-quality criteria have been pro- mulgated by the State of Tennessee. For only 8 of the 21 did the value exceed the most restrictive of the criteria: pyrene, dieldrin, and mercury concen- trations and counts of fecal coliform exceeded the criteria for recreational use, copper and zinc concentrations and pH value exceeded the criteria for fish and aquatic life, and lead concentrations exceeded the criteria for domestic supply.

48 CFR 1436.602-1 - Selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Selection criteria. 1436.602-1 Section 1436.602-1 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR SPECIAL...-1 Selection criteria. (a) The CO may include specific evaluation criteria to be used in the...

7 CFR 1948.80 - Planning grant selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... financial resources available for such planning; (d) The planning priorities and recommended funding level... 7 Agriculture 13 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Planning grant selection criteria. 1948.80 Section... Development Assistance Program § 1948.80 Planning grant selection criteria. The following criteria will be...

Improving EFL Learners' Pronunciation of English through Quiz-Demonstration-Practice-Revision (QDPR)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moedjito

2018-01-01

This study investigates the effectiveness of Quiz-Demonstration-Practice-Revision (QDPR) in improving EFL learners' pronunciation of English. To achieve the goal, the present researcher conducted a one-group pretest-posttest design. The experimental group was selected using a random sampling technique with consideration of the inclusion criteria.…

Attitudes and Actions That Adoptive Parents Perceive as Helpful in the Process of Raising Their Internationally Adopted Adolescent

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuzmina, Marina V.

2017-01-01

This phenomenological dissertation study explored the lived experiences of adoptive parents in the process of raising their internationally adopted adolescents. The researcher interviewed 9 participants. Criteria for selection of the research sample included having personal experience with parenting one or more international adolescents adopted at…

Composite load spectra for select space propulsion structural components

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Newell, James F.; Ho, Hing W.

1991-01-01

This report summarizes the development for: (1) correlation fields; (2) applications to liquid oxygen post; (3) models for pressure fluctuatios and vibration loads fluctuations; (4) additions to expert systems; and (5) scaling criteria. Implementation to computer code is also described. Demonstration sample cases are included with additional applications to engine duct and pipe bend.

The Psychological Well-Being of Early Identified Gifted Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kroesbergen, Evelyn H.; van Hooijdonk, Mare; Van Viersen, Sietske; Middel-Lalleman, Marieke M. N.; Reijnders, Julièt J. W.

2016-01-01

This study examined the psychological well-being of gifted primary school children. From a screening sample of 233 children in Grades 1 and 2 across five schools in the Netherlands, 35 children achieving high scores on two out of three selection criteria (teacher nomination, creativity, and nonverbal reasoning ability) and 34 typically developing…

The Transformative Role of Difference in the Development of Feminist Scholars at UCLA.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Safarik, Lynn

This study of academic feminism uses cultural and critical theory, feminist poststructuralism, and oral history to examine the transformative role of feminist scholarship in higher education. Nine feminist scholars were selected as participants using four sampling criteria: primary discipline (predominatly from the humanities and social sciences);…

75 FR 59726 - Draft Guidance for Industry and Food and Drug Administration Staff; Class II Special Controls...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-09-28

... method comparison section and the sample selection inclusion and exclusion criteria section. The... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Food and Drug Administration [Docket No. FDA-2010-D-0428] Draft Guidance for Industry and Food and Drug Administration Staff; Class II Special Controls Guidance...

Key Performance Indicators of Public Universities Based on Quality Assessment Criteria in Thailand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sukboonyasatit, Kritsana; Thanapaisarn, Chaiwit; Manmar, Lampang

2011-01-01

The research objective was to develop public universities' key performance indicators. Qualitative research and interviews were employed with each public university's senior executive and quality assessors. The sample group was selected by the office of the public sector development commission and Thailand's public universities can be separated…

A Catalog of Broad Absorption Line Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Third Data Release

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trump, Jonathan R.; Hall, Patrick B.; Reichard, Timothy A.; Richards, Gordon T.; Schneider, Donald P.; Vanden Berk, Daniel E.; Knapp, Gillian R.; Anderson, Scott F.; Fan, Xiaohui; Brinkman, J.; Kleinman, S. J.; Nitta, Atsuko

2006-07-01

We present a total of 4784 unique broad absorption line quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Third Data Release. An automated algorithm was used to match a continuum to each quasar and to identify regions of flux at least 10% below the continuum over a velocity range of at least 1000 km s-1 in the C IV and Mg II absorption regions. The model continuum was selected as the best-fit match from a set of template quasar spectra binned in luminosity, emission line width, and redshift, with the power-law spectral index and amount of dust reddening as additional free parameters. We characterize our sample through the traditional ``balnicity'' index and a revised absorption index, as well as through parameters such as the width, outflow velocity, fractional depth, and number of troughs. From a sample of 16,883 quasars at 1.7<=z<=4.38, we identify 4386 (26.0%) quasars with broad C IV absorption, of which 1756 (10.4%) satisfy traditional selection criteria. From a sample of 34,973 quasars at 0.5<=z<=2.15, we identify 457 (1.31%) quasars with broad Mg II absorption, 191 (0.55%) of which satisfy traditional selection criteria. We also provide a supplementary list of 39 visually identified z>4.38 quasars with broad C IV absorption. We find that broad absorption line quasars may have broader emission lines on average than other quasars.

78 FR 54588 - Final Priorities, Requirements, Definitions, and Selection Criteria: Race to the Top-District...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-09-05

..., and the following three paragraphs: These final priorities, requirements, definitions, and selection... Priorities, Requirements, Definitions, and Selection Criteria: Race to the Top--District Program; Correction..., requirements, definitions, and selection criteria; correction. SUMMARY: The Secretary of Education is...

VizieR Online Data Catalog: The CLASS BL Lac sample (Marcha+, 2013)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marcha, M. J. M.; Caccianiga, A.

2014-04-01

This paper presents a new sample of BL Lac objects selected from a deep (30mJy) radio survey of flat spectrum radio sources (the CLASS blazar survey). The sample is one of the largest well-defined samples in the low-power regime with a total of 130 sources of which 55 satisfy the 'classical' optical BL Lac selection criteria, and the rest have indistinguishable radio properties. The primary goal of this study is to establish the radio luminosity function (RLF) on firm statistical ground at low radio luminosities where previous samples have not been able to investigate. The gain of taking a peek at lower powers is the possibility to search for the flattening of the luminosity function which is a feature predicted by the beaming model but which has remained elusive to observational confirmation. In this study, we extend for the first time the BL Lac RLF down to very low radio powers ~1022W/Hz, i.e. two orders of magnitude below the RLF currently available in the literature. In the process, we confirm the importance of adopting a broader, and more physically meaningful set of classification criteria to avoid the systematic missing of low-luminosity BL Lacs. Thanks to the good statistics we confirm the existence of weak but significant positive cosmological evolution for the BL Lac population, and we detect, for the first time the flattening of the RLF at L~1025W/Hz in agreement with the predictions of the beaming model. (1 data file).

Nondestructive equipment study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1985-01-01

Identification of existing nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) methods that could be used in a low Earth orbit environment; evaluation of each method with respect to the set of criteria called out in the statement of work; selection of the most promising NDE methods for further evaluation; use of selected NDE methods to test samples of pressure vessel materials in a vacuum; pressure testing of a complex monolythic pressure vessel with known flaws using acoustic emissions in a vacuum; and recommendations for further studies based on analysis and testing are covered.

Application of the criteria for classification of existing chemicals as dangerous for the environment.

PubMed

Knacker, T; Schallnaß, H J; Klaschka, U; Ahlers, J

1995-11-01

The criteria for classification and labelling of substances as "dangerous for the environment" agreed upon within the European Union (EU) were applied to two sets of existing chemicals. One set (sample A) consisted of 41 randomly selected compounds listed in the European Inventory of Existing Chemical Substances (EINECS). The other set (sample B) comprised 115 substances listed in Annex I of Directive 67/548/EEC which were classified by the EU Working Group on Classification and Labelling of Existing Chemicals. The aquatic toxicity (fish mortality,Daphnia immobilisation, algal growth inhibition), ready biodegradability and n-octanol/water partition coefficient were measured for sample A by one and the same laboratory. For sample B, the available ecotoxicological data originated from many different sources and therefore was rather heterogeneous. In both samples, algal toxicity was the most sensitive effect parameter for most substances. Furthermore, it was found that, classification based on a single aquatic test result differs in many cases from classification based on a complete data set, although a correlation exists between the biological end-points of the aquatic toxicity test systems.

Development and validation of sustainability criteria of administrative green schools in Iran.

PubMed

Meiboudi, Hossein; Lahijanian, Akramolmolok; Shobeiri, Seyed Mohammad; Jozi, Seyed Ali; Azizinezhad, Reza

2017-07-15

Environmental responsibility in school has led to the emergence of a variety of criteria to administer green schools' contributions to sustainability. Sustainability criteria of administrative green schools need validity, reliability and norms. The aim of the current study was to develop and validate assessment criteria for green schools in Iran based on the role of academia. A national survey was conducted to obtain data on sustainability criteria initiatives for green schools and the Iranian profile was defined. An initial pool of 71 items was generated and after its first edition, 63 items were selected to comprise the sustainability criteria. Engineering-architectural and behavioral aspects of this sustainability criteria were evaluated through a sample of 1218 graduate students with environmental degrees from Iran's universities. Exploratory factor analysis using principal components and promax rotation method showed that these 9 criteria have simple structures and are consistent with the theoretical framework. The reliability coefficients of subscales ranged between 0.62 (participation) and 0.84 (building location and position). The study's survey of correlation coefficients between items and subscales illustrated that those coefficients varied between 0.24 and 0.68. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Correlation of the ionisation response at selected points of IC sensitive regions with SEE sensitivity parameters under pulsed laser irradiation

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

Gordienko, A V; Mavritskii, O B; Egorov, A N

2014-12-31

The statistics of the ionisation response amplitude measured at selected points and their surroundings within sensitive regions of integrated circuits (ICs) under focused femtosecond laser irradiation is obtained for samples chosen from large batches of two types of ICs. A correlation between these data and the results of full-chip scanning is found for each type. The criteria for express validation of IC single-event effect (SEE) hardness based on ionisation response measurements at selected points are discussed. (laser applications and other topics in quantum electronics)

New Insights on the White Dwarf Luminosity and Mass Functions from the LSS-GAC Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rebassa-Mansergas, Alberto; Liu, Xiaowei; Cojocaru, Ruxandra; Torres, Santiago; García–Berro, Enrique; Yuan, Haibo; Huang, Yang; Xiang, Maosheng

2015-06-01

The white dwarf (WD) population observed in magnitude-limited surveys can be used to derive the luminosity function (LF) and mass function (MF), once the corresponding volume corrections are employed. However, the WD samples from which the observational LFs and MFs are built are the result of complicated target selection algorithms. Thus, it is difficult to quantify the effects of the observational biases on the observed functions. The LAMOST (Large sky Area Multi-Object fiber Spectroscopic Telescope) spectroscopic survey of the Galactic anti-center (LSS-GAC) has well-defined selection criteria. This is a noticeable advantage over previous surveys. Here we derive the WD LF and MF of the LSS-GAC, and use a Monte Carlo code to simulate the WD population in the Galactic anti-center. We apply the well-defined LSS-GAC selection criteria to the simulated populations, taking into account all observational biases, and perform the first meaningful comparison between the simulated WD LFs and MFs and the observed ones.

Potential impacts of leakage from deep CO2 geosequestration on overlying freshwater aquifers.

PubMed

Little, Mark G; Jackson, Robert B

2010-12-01

Carbon Capture and Storage may use deep saline aquifers for CO(2) sequestration, but small CO(2) leakage could pose a risk to overlying fresh groundwater. We performed laboratory incubations of CO(2) infiltration under oxidizing conditions for >300 days on samples from four freshwater aquifers to 1) understand how CO(2) leakage affects freshwater quality; 2) develop selection criteria for deep sequestration sites based on inorganic metal contamination caused by CO(2) leaks to shallow aquifers; and 3) identify geochemical signatures for early detection criteria. After exposure to CO(2), water pH declines of 1-2 units were apparent in all aquifer samples. CO(2) caused concentrations of the alkali and alkaline earths and manganese, cobalt, nickel, and iron to increase by more than 2 orders of magnitude. Potentially dangerous uranium and barium increased throughout the entire experiment in some samples. Solid-phase metal mobility, carbonate buffering capacity, and redox state in the shallow overlying aquifers influence the impact of CO(2) leakage and should be considered when selecting deep geosequestration sites. Manganese, iron, calcium, and pH could be used as geochemical markers of a CO(2) leak, as their concentrations increase within 2 weeks of exposure to CO(2).

Detection methods and performance criteria for genetically modified organisms.

PubMed

Bertheau, Yves; Diolez, Annick; Kobilinsky, André; Magin, Kimberly

2002-01-01

Detection methods for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are necessary for many applications, from seed purity assessment to compliance of food labeling in several countries. Numerous analytical methods are currently used or under development to support these needs. The currently used methods are bioassays and protein- and DNA-based detection protocols. To avoid discrepancy of results between such largely different methods and, for instance, the potential resulting legal actions, compatibility of the methods is urgently needed. Performance criteria of methods allow evaluation against a common standard. The more-common performance criteria for detection methods are precision, accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity, which together specifically address other terms used to describe the performance of a method, such as applicability, selectivity, calibration, trueness, precision, recovery, operating range, limit of quantitation, limit of detection, and ruggedness. Performance criteria should provide objective tools to accept or reject specific methods, to validate them, to ensure compatibility between validated methods, and be used on a routine basis to reject data outside an acceptable range of variability. When selecting a method of detection, it is also important to consider its applicability, its field of applications, and its limitations, by including factors such as its ability to detect the target analyte in a given matrix, the duration of the analyses, its cost effectiveness, and the necessary sample sizes for testing. Thus, the current GMO detection methods should be evaluated against a common set of performance criteria.

29 CFR 1926.1414 - Wire rope-selection and installation criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 29 Labor 8 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Wire rope-selection and installation criteria. 1926.1414... Derricks in Construction § 1926.1414 Wire rope—selection and installation criteria. (a) Original equipment wire rope and replacement wire rope must be selected and installed in accordance with the requirements...

34 CFR 75.211 - Selection criteria for unsolicited applications.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 34 Education 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Selection criteria for unsolicited applications. 75.211 Section 75.211 Education Office of the Secretary, Department of Education DIRECT GRANT PROGRAMS How Grants Are Made Selection of New Projects § 75.211 Selection criteria for unsolicited applications. (a) If...

The Geochemical Databases GEOROC and GeoReM - What's New?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sarbas, B.; Jochum, K. P.; Nohl, U.; Weis, U.

2017-12-01

The geochemical databases GEOROC (http: georoc.mpch-mainz.gwdg.de) and GeoReM (http: georem.mpch-mainz.gwdg.de) are maintained by the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany. Both online databases became crucial tools for geoscientists from different research areas. They are regularly upgraded by new tools and new data from recent publications obtained from a wide range of international journals. GEOROC is a collection of published analyses of volcanic rocks and mantle xenoliths. Since recently, data for plutonic rocks are added. The analyses include major and trace element concentrations, radiogenic and non-radiogenic isotope ratios as well as analytical ages for whole rocks, glasses, minerals and inclusions. Samples come from eleven geological settings and span the whole geological age scale from Archean to Recent. Metadata include, among others, geographic location, rock class and rock type, geological age, degree of alteration, analytical method, laboratory, and reference. The GEOROC web page allows selection of samples by geological setting, geography, chemical criteria, rock or sample name, and bibliographic criteria. In addition, it provides a large number of precompiled files for individual locations, minerals and rock classes. GeoReM is a database collecting information about reference materials of geological and environmental interest, such as rock powders, synthetic and natural glasses as well as mineral, isotopic, biological, river water and seawater reference materials. It contains published data and compilation values (major and trace element concentrations and mass fractions, radiogenic and stable isotope ratios). Metadata comprise, among others, uncertainty, analytical method and laboratory. Reference materials are important for calibration, method validation, quality control and to establish metrological traceability. GeoReM offers six different search strategies: samples or materials (published values), samples (GeoReM preferred values), chemical criteria, chemical criteria based on bibliography, bibliography, as well as methods and institutions.

Resolving Contradictions of Predictive Validity of University Matriculation Examinations in Nigeria: A Meta-Analysis Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Modupe, Ale Veronica; Babafemi, Kolawole Emmanuel

2015-01-01

The study examined the various means of solving contradictions of predictive studies of University Matriculation Examination in Nigeria. The study used a sample size of 35 studies on predictive validity of University Matriculation Examination in Nigeria, which was purposively selected to have met the criteria for meta-analysis. Two null hypotheses…

ACADEMIC ADMINISTRATORS AND UNIVERSITY GOALS--A STUDY IN CONFLICT AND COOPERATION. FINAL REPORT.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

GRAMBSCH, PAUL V.; GROSS, EDWARD

A STUDY OF ADMINISTRATOR AND FACULTY PERCEPTION OF UNIVERSITY GOALS WAS DEVELOPED UTILIZING A QUESTIONNAIRE MAILED TO ALL ADMINISTRATIVE PERSONNEL AND TO A 10 PERCENT SAMPLE OF THE FACULTY MEMBERS OF 68 UNIVERSITIES. THE UNIVERSITIES WERE SELECTED BY CRITERIA WHICH INCLUDED THE GRANTING OF DOCTORAL DEGREES IN AT LEAST THREE OF FOUR FIELDS…

The Impact of Various Class-Distinction Features on Model Selection in the Mixture Rasch Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Choi, In-Hee; Paek, Insu; Cho, Sun-Joo

2017-01-01

The purpose of the current study is to examine the performance of four information criteria (Akaike's information criterion [AIC], corrected AIC [AICC] Bayesian information criterion [BIC], sample-size adjusted BIC [SABIC]) for detecting the correct number of latent classes in the mixture Rasch model through simulations. The simulation study…

Analysis and design of digital output interface devices for gas turbine electronic controls

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Newirth, D. M.; Koenig, E. W.

1976-01-01

A trade study was performed on twenty-one digital output interface schemes for gas turbine electronic controls to select the most promising scheme based on criteria of reliability, performance, cost, and sampling requirements. The most promising scheme, a digital effector with optical feedback of the fuel metering valve position, was designed.

77 FR 71780 - U.S. Trade Mission to Asia in Conjunction With Trade Winds-Asia, The Philippines, Hong Kong...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-12-04

..., environmental technologies and services, financial services, franchising, healthcare & medical, hotel/restaurant... selection criteria as outlined below. A minimum of 65 companies and/or trade associations will be selected.... content. Selection Criteria for Participation Selection will be based on the following criteria...

Prevalence of diabetes, impaired fasting glucose and associated risk factors in a rural area of Baluchistan province according to new ADA criteria.

PubMed

Basit, A; Hydrie, M Z I; Ahmed, K; Hakeem, R

2002-08-01

To assess the prevalence of impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and diabetes in an adult rural population on the basis of fasting blood glucose (FBG) alone using American Diabetic Association (ADA) criteria and to assess the prevalence of and association between selected risk factors such as obesity, family history of diabetes and hypertension. Sixteen randomly selected villages from the Lasbella district of Baluchistan were included in this study. One month before the survey a team visited the areas; all the households located in the selected areas were approached and the family members aged 25 or above, who were available and willing to participate in the study, were recruited. On the day of survey anthroprometric and blood pressure measurements were taken; interviews were conducted to obtain demographic information and health history and fasting blood samples were collected. The blood samples were transported to the laboratory and analysed using "GOD-PAP" Enzymatic Colorimetric test method. A total of 670 males and 1362 females were studied. Prevalence rate of diabetes using the ADA fasting criteria was 6.3% while the prevalence rate in males was 10.1% and in females was 4.3%. The prevalence rate of impaired fasting glucose was 4.2% in males and 2.3% in females. Overall prevalence of obesity between diabetics vs non-diabetics was 22% vs 16%, for hypertension 12.9% vs 6.5% and for positive family history of diabetes 1.6% vs 0.9% was higher among diabetics as compared to non diabetics; the difference of these parameters was statistically significant only among females (P < 0.01). The results of this study suggest the need of continual use of OGTT for screening people at high risk of developing diabetes and perhaps also for diagnosing diabetes.

34 CFR 225.11 - What selection criteria does the Secretary use in evaluating an application for a Credit...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 34 Education 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false What selection criteria does the Secretary use in... Secretary Award a Grant? § 225.11 What selection criteria does the Secretary use in evaluating an... criteria to evaluate an application for a Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities grant: (a...

Selection Criteria, Skill Sets and Competencies: What Is Their Role in the Appointment of Vice-Chancellors in Australian Universities?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Meara, Bernard; Petzall, Stanley

2009-01-01

Purpose: The research presented here attempts to identify and analyse the reported selection criteria used in the appointment of Australian vice-chancellors (VCs) and to contrast this with the selection criteria actually used. Design/methodology/approach: Contemporary research into the nature, role and purpose of section criteria in appointment…

Comparison between splines and fractional polynomials for multivariable model building with continuous covariates: a simulation study with continuous response.

PubMed

Binder, Harald; Sauerbrei, Willi; Royston, Patrick

2013-06-15

In observational studies, many continuous or categorical covariates may be related to an outcome. Various spline-based procedures or the multivariable fractional polynomial (MFP) procedure can be used to identify important variables and functional forms for continuous covariates. This is the main aim of an explanatory model, as opposed to a model only for prediction. The type of analysis often guides the complexity of the final model. Spline-based procedures and MFP have tuning parameters for choosing the required complexity. To compare model selection approaches, we perform a simulation study in the linear regression context based on a data structure intended to reflect realistic biomedical data. We vary the sample size, variance explained and complexity parameters for model selection. We consider 15 variables. A sample size of 200 (1000) and R(2)  = 0.2 (0.8) is the scenario with the smallest (largest) amount of information. For assessing performance, we consider prediction error, correct and incorrect inclusion of covariates, qualitative measures for judging selected functional forms and further novel criteria. From limited information, a suitable explanatory model cannot be obtained. Prediction performance from all types of models is similar. With a medium amount of information, MFP performs better than splines on several criteria. MFP better recovers simpler functions, whereas splines better recover more complex functions. For a large amount of information and no local structure, MFP and the spline procedures often select similar explanatory models. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Prediction of Depression in Cancer Patients With Different Classification Criteria, Linear Discriminant Analysis versus Logistic Regression.

PubMed

Shayan, Zahra; Mohammad Gholi Mezerji, Naser; Shayan, Leila; Naseri, Parisa

2015-11-03

Logistic regression (LR) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) are two popular statistical models for prediction of group membership. Although they are very similar, the LDA makes more assumptions about the data. When categorical and continuous variables used simultaneously, the optimal choice between the two models is questionable. In most studies, classification error (CE) is used to discriminate between subjects in several groups, but this index is not suitable to predict the accuracy of the outcome. The present study compared LR and LDA models using classification indices. This cross-sectional study selected 243 cancer patients. Sample sets of different sizes (n = 50, 100, 150, 200, 220) were randomly selected and the CE, B, and Q classification indices were calculated by the LR and LDA models. CE revealed the a lack of superiority for one model over the other, but the results showed that LR performed better than LDA for the B and Q indices in all situations. No significant effect for sample size on CE was noted for selection of an optimal model. Assessment of the accuracy of prediction of real data indicated that the B and Q indices are appropriate for selection of an optimal model. The results of this study showed that LR performs better in some cases and LDA in others when based on CE. The CE index is not appropriate for classification, although the B and Q indices performed better and offered more efficient criteria for comparison and discrimination between groups.

Construction of nested maximin designs based on successive local enumeration and modified novel global harmony search algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yi, Jin; Li, Xinyu; Xiao, Mi; Xu, Junnan; Zhang, Lin

2017-01-01

Engineering design often involves different types of simulation, which results in expensive computational costs. Variable fidelity approximation-based design optimization approaches can realize effective simulation and efficiency optimization of the design space using approximation models with different levels of fidelity and have been widely used in different fields. As the foundations of variable fidelity approximation models, the selection of sample points of variable-fidelity approximation, called nested designs, is essential. In this article a novel nested maximin Latin hypercube design is constructed based on successive local enumeration and a modified novel global harmony search algorithm. In the proposed nested designs, successive local enumeration is employed to select sample points for a low-fidelity model, whereas the modified novel global harmony search algorithm is employed to select sample points for a high-fidelity model. A comparative study with multiple criteria and an engineering application are employed to verify the efficiency of the proposed nested designs approach.

Deep infrared galaxies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ashby, Matthew; Houck, J. R.; Hacking, Perry B.

1992-01-01

High signal-to-noise ratio optical spectra of 17 infrared-bright emission-line galaxies near the north ecliptic pole are presented. Reddening-corrected line ratios forbidden O III 5007/H-beta, N II 6583/H-alpha, S II (6716 + 6731)/H-alpha, and O I 6300/H-alpha are used to discriminate between candidate energy generation mechanisms in each galaxy. These criteria have frequently been applied to optically selected samples of galaxies in the past, but this is the first time they have been applied to a set of faint flux-limited infrared-selected objects. The analysis indicates the sample contains seven starburst galaxies and three (AGN). However, seven galaxies in the present sample elude the classification scheme based on these line ratios. It is concluded that a two-component (starburst plus AGN) model for energy generation is inadequate for infrared galaxies.

Papillomavirus-associated balanoposthitis.

PubMed Central

Wikström, A; von Krogh, G; Hedblad, M A; Syrjänen, S

1994-01-01

OBJECTIVE--To assess whether there might be an association between genital papillomavirus infection (GPVI) and balanoposthitis. DESIGN--Retrospective HPV DNA examination of biopsy specimens from 23 men suffering from balanoposthitis and exhibiting acetowhite lesions that were penoscopically and histologically concurrent with HPV infection. SETTING--The STD clinics at Karolinska Hospital and South Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. PARTICIPANTS--Randomly selected men attending with long-lasting and/or recurrent penile symptoms and exhibiting a clinical picture of balanoposthitis, who revealed a penoscopical and histopathological picture of epidermal lesions that were concordant with accepted criteria for typical or conspicuous GPVI. Asymptomatic controls were selected retrospectively on the basis of identical penoscopy and histology criteria. RESULTS--A history of previous condylomata was obtained in eight (35%) of 23 men. At penoscopic evaluation tiny condylomatous lesions were observed in five (22%) patients. The in situ hybridisation (ISH) assay using specific probes for the HPV types 6/11, 16/18, 31/33 and 42 was positive in 13/23 (56%) of the patient samples, but in only 26% of the 19 control samples. In patient biopsies the oncogenic HPV types 16/18 and/or 31/33 were found in 7/13 samples, whereas HPV 6/11 and/or 42 were present in another six cases. PCR performed on the ten ISH negative patient biopsies, were negative in all cases. CONCLUSION--Symptoms included redness, itching, burning, tenderness, dyspareunia, fissuring and in two cases penile oedema and inguinal adenopathy. All patients fulfilled penoscopical and histopathological criteria for HPV infection. We demonstrate some tentative evidence that HPV might be associated with long-lasting balanoposthitis, although our data still are circumstantial for a causative association. The results also elucidate the diversity in clinical presentation of GPVI. Images PMID:8039781

Assessment of Water-Quality Conditions in Fivemile Creek in the Vicinity of the Fivemile Creek Greenway, Jefferson County, Alabama, 2003-2005

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gill, Amy C.; Robinson, John A.; Redmond, Jymalyn E.; Bradley, Michael W.

2008-01-01

The watershed of Fivemile Creek (FMC), a tributary to the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River, is located north of Birmingham, Alabama. Areas that have been previously coal-mined border the creek, and portions of the upper watershed have been and are currently (2007) being used for industrial and urban uses. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the City of Tarrant, the Freshwater Land Trust, and the Jefferson County Commission, conducted a water-quality assessment of 12 sites along FMC during 2003?2005. Water samples were analyzed for basic physical and chemical properties and concentrations of major ions, nutrients, fecal indicator bacteria, organic wastewater compounds, pesticides, trace elements, and semivolatile organic compounds. Streambed-sediment samples were analyzed for concentrations of trace elements and semivolatile organic compounds. Benthic invertebrate communities were evaluated for taxonomic composition and relation to water-quality conditions. Nutrient concentrations in the FMC watershed reflect the influences of natural and anthropogenic sources. Concentrations of total nitrogen in all samples and total Kjeldahl nitrogen in at least one sample each collected from FMC at Hewitt Park, FMC below Springdale Road, FMC at Lewisburg, FMC near Republic, FMC at Brookside, and FMC at Linn Crossing exceeded U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) ecoregion nutrient criteria. Total phosphorus concentrations in about 58 percent of all samples were above the ecoregion nutrient criteria. Concentrations of chlorophyll a, an indicator of algal biomass, in the FMC watershed were below the appropriate USEPA ecoregion criteria. Fecal indicator bacteria concentrations occasionally exceeded criteria established by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) and the USEPA to protect human health and aquatic life. Median fecal-coliform concentrations equaled or exceeded USEPA criteria at four of the six sites with multiple samples. Maximum Escherichia coli (E. coli) concentrations usually occurred during high-flow conditions and exceeded the single-sample criterion for infrequently-used whole-body contact (576 colonies per 100 milliliters) at all but one site. Median E. coli concentrations for two of the seven sites with multiple samples exceeded USEPA criteria. Twenty-nine samples were collected from sites along FMC and analyzed by the USGS National Water Quality Laboratory for the presence of 57 organic wastewater compounds. Forty-six of the 57 organic wastewater compounds, representing all 11 general-use categories, were detected in samples from FMC. All detections of organic wastewater compounds were estimated below laboratory reporting limits except for several detections of the herbicide bromacil. Herbicides accounted for approximately 62 percent of the number of pesticide detections in the FMC study area. Two herbicides, atrazine and simazine, were detected most frequently, in 100 percent of the surface-water samples. Fipronil sulfide was the most commonly detected insecticide-derived compound, occurring in 52 percent of the surface-water samples. Concentrations of one insecticide, dieldrin, exceeded the USEPA?s health advisory level for drinking water in one sample at FMC at Hewitt Park and in one sample at FMC below Springdale Road. Concentrations of carbaryl in two samples and malathion in one sample exceeded aquatic-life criteria. Only a few trace element concentrations measured in FMC exceeded established standards or criteria. Some concentrations of aluminum and manganese were above secondary drinking-water standards. One cadmium concentration and three selenium concentrations measured at FMC at Lewisburg exceeded ADEM chronic aquatic-life criteria. Streambed-sediment samples were collected at seven sites along FMC, and analyzed for selected semivolatile organic compounds and trace elements. Forty-nine of 98 semivolatile organic compounds were detected in stre

X-Ray Temperatures, Luminosities, and Masses from XMM-Newton Follow-up of the First Shear-selected Galaxy Cluster Sample

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

Deshpande, Amruta J.; Hughes, John P.; Wittman, David, E-mail: amrejd@physics.rutgers.edu, E-mail: jph@physics.rutgers.edu, E-mail: dwittman@physics.ucdavis.edu

We continue the study of the first sample of shear-selected clusters from the initial 8.6 square degrees of the Deep Lens Survey (DLS); a sample with well-defined selection criteria corresponding to the highest ranked shear peaks in the survey area. We aim to characterize the weak lensing selection by examining the sample’s X-ray properties. There are multiple X-ray clusters associated with nearly all the shear peaks: 14 X-ray clusters corresponding to seven DLS shear peaks. An additional three X-ray clusters cannot be definitively associated with shear peaks, mainly due to large positional offsets between the X-ray centroid and the shearmore » peak. Here we report on the XMM-Newton properties of the 17 X-ray clusters. The X-ray clusters display a wide range of luminosities and temperatures; the L {sub X} − T {sub X} relation we determine for the shear-associated X-ray clusters is consistent with X-ray cluster samples selected without regard to dynamical state, while it is inconsistent with self-similarity. For a subset of the sample, we measure X-ray masses using temperature as a proxy, and compare to weak lensing masses determined by the DLS team. The resulting mass comparison is consistent with equality. The X-ray and weak lensing masses show considerable intrinsic scatter (∼48%), which is consistent with X-ray selected samples when their X-ray and weak lensing masses are independently determined.« less

48 CFR 36.602-1 - Selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Selection criteria. 36.602-1 Section 36.602-1 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION SPECIAL... Selection criteria. (a) Agencies shall evaluate each potential contractor in terms of its— (1) Professional...

The problem of obesity among adolescents in Hong Kong: a comparison using various diagnostic criteria

PubMed Central

Ko, Gary TC; Ozaki, Risa; Wong, Gary WK; Kong, Alice PS; So, Wing-Yee; Tong, Peter CY; Chan, Michael HM; Ho, Chung-Shun; Lam, Christopher WK; Chan, Juliana CN

2008-01-01

Background Obesity is now a global epidemic. In this study, we aimed to assess the rates of obesity using several major diagnostic criteria in Chinese school adolescents in Hong Kong. Methods This is a cross-sectional study. Using a computer-generated coding system, we randomly selected schools from different geographical regions in Hong Kong to obtain a representative sample. Subjects aged 11–18 years of age were randomly selected from different class of the schools. Their rates of obesity according to four different international and local criteria were compared [International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) 2000 criterion; the Group of China Obesity Task Force (COTF) 2004 criterion; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 2000 Growth Charts and the Hong Kong Growth Survey (HKGS) charts in 1993]. Results Of the 2098 adolescents [982 (46.8%) boys and 1116 (53.2%) girls], the mean age (± SD) was 15.1 ± 1.8 years (range: 11–18 years; median: 15.0 years). The crude rates of obesity were similar based on IOTF, COTF or CDC criteria (boys: 3.9–6.0%, girls: 1.8–3.7%), however, the rate increased to 11–27% if the HKGS charts were used. Obesity rate varied markedly according to age. It decreased from 8–10% among those aged 12–13 years to 2–4% among those aged 17–18 years. Conclusion The prevalence of obesity in Hong Kong adolescents using various diagnostic criteria were similar except for the 1993 HKGS criteria, which gave an exceeding high figure. Using the IOTF, COTF or CDC criteria, the adolescent obesity in Hong Kong varied from 1.8% to 6.0%. PMID:18315886

An integrated multi criteria approach for landfill siting in a conflicting environmental, economical and socio-cultural area.

PubMed

Eskandari, Mahnaz; Homaee, Mehdi; Mahmodi, Shahla

2012-08-01

Landfill site selection is a complicated multi criteria land use planning that should convince all related stakeholders with different insights. This paper addresses an integrating approach for landfill siting based on conflicting opinions among environmental, economical and socio-cultural expertise. In order to gain optimized siting decision, the issue was investigated in different viewpoints. At first step based on opinion sampling and questionnaire results of 35 experts familiar with local situations, the national environmental legislations and international practices, 13 constraints and 15 factors were built in hierarchical structure. Factors divided into three environmental, economical and socio-cultural groups. In the next step, the GIS-database was developed based on the designated criteria. In the third stage, the criteria standardization and criteria weighting were accomplished. The relative importance weights of criteria and subcriteria were estimated, respectively, using analytical hierarchy process and rank ordering methods based on different experts opinions. Thereafter, by using simple additive weighting method, the suitability maps for landfill siting in Marvdasht, Iran, was evaluated in environmental, economical and socio-cultural visions. The importance of each group of criteria in its own vision was assigned to be higher than two other groups. In the fourth stage, the final suitability map was obtained after crossing three resulted maps in different visions and reported in five suitability classes for landfill construction. This map indicated that almost 1224 ha of the study area can be considered as best suitable class for landfill siting considering all visions. In the last stage, a comprehensive field visit was performed to verify the selected site obtained from the proposed model. This field inspection has confirmed the proposed integrating approach for the landfill siting. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selecting public relations personnel of hospitals by analytic network process.

PubMed

Liao, Sen-Kuei; Chang, Kuei-Lun

2009-01-01

This study describes the use of analytic network process (ANP) in the Taiwanese hospital public relations personnel selection process. Starting with interviewing 48 practitioners and executives in north Taiwan, we collected selection criteria. Then, we retained the 12 critical criteria that were mentioned above 40 times by theses respondents, including: interpersonal skill, experience, negotiation, language, ability to follow orders, cognitive ability, adaptation to environment, adaptation to company, emotion, loyalty, attitude, and Response. Finally, we discussed with the 20 executives to take these important criteria into three perspectives to structure the hierarchy for hospital public relations personnel selection. After discussing with practitioners and executives, we find that selecting criteria are interrelated. The ANP, which incorporates interdependence relationships, is a new approach for multi-criteria decision-making. Thus, we apply ANP to select the most optimal public relations personnel of hospitals. An empirical study of public relations personnel selection problems in Taiwan hospitals is conducted to illustrate how the selection procedure works.

Fuzzy Logic Approaches to Multi-Objective Decision-Making in Aerospace Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hardy, Terry L.

1994-01-01

Fuzzy logic allows for the quantitative representation of multi-objective decision-making problems which have vague or fuzzy objectives and parameters. As such, fuzzy logic approaches are well-suited to situations where alternatives must be assessed by using criteria that are subjective and of unequal importance. This paper presents an overview of fuzzy logic and provides sample applications from the aerospace industry. Applications include an evaluation of vendor proposals, an analysis of future space vehicle options, and the selection of a future space propulsion system. On the basis of the results provided in this study, fuzzy logic provides a unique perspective on the decision-making process, allowing the evaluator to assess the degree to which each option meets the evaluation criteria. Future decision-making should take full advantage of fuzzy logic methods to complement existing approaches in the selection of alternatives.

77 FR 12234 - Changes in Hydric Soils Database Selection Criteria

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-02-29

... Conservation Service [Docket No. NRCS-2011-0026] Changes in Hydric Soils Database Selection Criteria AGENCY... Changes to the National Soil Information System (NASIS) Database Selection Criteria for Hydric Soils of the United States. SUMMARY: The National Technical Committee for Hydric Soils (NTCHS) has updated the...

48 CFR 2936.602-1 - Selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 7 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Selection criteria. 2936.602-1 Section 2936.602-1 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF LABOR GENERAL... Selection criteria. HCAs are authorized to approve the use of design competition under the conditions in FAR...

48 CFR 436.602-1 - Selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Selection criteria. 436.602-1 Section 436.602-1 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE SPECIAL... Selection criteria. The HCA is authorized to approve the use of design competition under the conditions in...

48 CFR 636.602-1 - Selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Selection criteria. 636.602-1 Section 636.602-1 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF STATE SPECIAL CATEGORIES... Selection criteria. (b) The head of the contracting activity is the agency head's designee for the purpose...

38 CFR 77.5 - Selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... ADAPTIVE SPORTS PROGRAMS FOR DISABLED VETERANS AND DISABLED MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES § 77.5 Selection criteria. (a) VA will review all applications for adaptive sports grants using the following selection criteria: (1) The adaptive sports activities to be provided by the program are clearly stated; (2) The...

The NCAT process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Milburn, George

1992-01-01

The topics are presented in viewgraph form and include the following: National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) history; technologies selection criteria; strategic plan status; implementation framework; forum composition; NCAT role as integrator; government/industry coordination; identification and selection process for demonstrations; criteria for demonstrations; criteria for non-selection; and future actions.

SU-E-T-399: Evaluation of Selection Criteria for Computational Human Phantoms for Use in Out-Of-Field Organ Dosimetry for Radiotherapy Patients

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

Pelletier, C; Jung, J; Lee, C

2015-06-15

Purpose: To quantify the dosimetric uncertainty due to organ position errors when using height and weight as phantom selection criteria in the UF/NCI Hybrid Phantom Library for the purpose of out-of-field organ dose reconstruction. Methods: Four diagnostic patient CT images were used to create 7-field IMRT plans. For each patient, dose to the liver, right lung, and left lung were calculated using the XVMC Monte Carlo code. These doses were taken to be the ground truth. For each patient, the phantom with the most closely matching height and weight was selected from the body size dependent phantom library. The patientmore » plans were then transferred to the computational phantoms and organ doses were recalculated. Each plan was also run on 4 additional phantoms with reference heights and or weights. Maximum and mean doses for the three organs were computed, and the DVHs were extracted and compared. One sample t-tests were performed to compare the accuracy of the height and weight matched phantoms against the additional phantoms in regards to both maximum and mean dose. Results: For one of the patients, the height and weight matched phantom yielded the most accurate results across all three organs for both maximum and mean doses. For two additional patients, the matched phantom yielded the best match for one organ only. In 13 of the 24 cases, the matched phantom yielded better results than the average of the other four phantoms, though the results were only statistically significant at the .05 level for three cases. Conclusion: Using height and weight matched phantoms does yield better results in regards to out-of-field dosimetry than using average phantoms. Height and weight appear to be moderately good selection criteria, though this selection criteria failed to yield any better results for one patient.« less

Criteria for selecting implementation science theories and frameworks: results from an international survey.

PubMed

Birken, Sarah A; Powell, Byron J; Shea, Christopher M; Haines, Emily R; Alexis Kirk, M; Leeman, Jennifer; Rohweder, Catherine; Damschroder, Laura; Presseau, Justin

2017-10-30

Theories provide a synthesizing architecture for implementation science. The underuse, superficial use, and misuse of theories pose a substantial scientific challenge for implementation science and may relate to challenges in selecting from the many theories in the field. Implementation scientists may benefit from guidance for selecting a theory for a specific study or project. Understanding how implementation scientists select theories will help inform efforts to develop such guidance. Our objective was to identify which theories implementation scientists use, how they use theories, and the criteria used to select theories. We identified initial lists of uses and criteria for selecting implementation theories based on seminal articles and an iterative consensus process. We incorporated these lists into a self-administered survey for completion by self-identified implementation scientists. We recruited potential respondents at the 8th Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in Health and via several international email lists. We used frequencies and percentages to report results. Two hundred twenty-three implementation scientists from 12 countries responded to the survey. They reported using more than 100 different theories spanning several disciplines. Respondents reported using theories primarily to identify implementation determinants, inform data collection, enhance conceptual clarity, and guide implementation planning. Of the 19 criteria presented in the survey, the criteria used by the most respondents to select theory included analytic level (58%), logical consistency/plausibility (56%), empirical support (53%), and description of a change process (54%). The criteria used by the fewest respondents included fecundity (10%), uniqueness (12%), and falsifiability (15%). Implementation scientists use a large number of criteria to select theories, but there is little consensus on which are most important. Our results suggest that the selection of implementation theories is often haphazard or driven by convenience or prior exposure. Variation in approaches to selecting theory warn against prescriptive guidance for theory selection. Instead, implementation scientists may benefit from considering the criteria that we propose in this paper and using them to justify their theory selection. Future research should seek to refine the criteria for theory selection to promote more consistent and appropriate use of theory in implementation science.

The SDSS-IV MaNGA Sample: Design, Optimization, and Usage Considerations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wake, David A.; Bundy, Kevin; Diamond-Stanic, Aleksandar M.; Yan, Renbin; Blanton, Michael R.; Bershady, Matthew A.; Sánchez-Gallego, José R.; Drory, Niv; Jones, Amy; Kauffmann, Guinevere; Law, David R.; Li, Cheng; MacDonald, Nicholas; Masters, Karen; Thomas, Daniel; Tinker, Jeremy; Weijmans, Anne-Marie; Brownstein, Joel R.

2017-09-01

We describe the sample design for the SDSS-IV MaNGA survey and present the final properties of the main samples along with important considerations for using these samples for science. Our target selection criteria were developed while simultaneously optimizing the size distribution of the MaNGA integral field units (IFUs), the IFU allocation strategy, and the target density to produce a survey defined in terms of maximizing signal-to-noise ratio, spatial resolution, and sample size. Our selection strategy makes use of redshift limits that only depend on I-band absolute magnitude (M I ), or, for a small subset of our sample, M I and color (NUV - I). Such a strategy ensures that all galaxies span the same range in angular size irrespective of luminosity and are therefore covered evenly by the adopted range of IFU sizes. We define three samples: the Primary and Secondary samples are selected to have a flat number density with respect to M I and are targeted to have spectroscopic coverage to 1.5 and 2.5 effective radii (R e ), respectively. The Color-Enhanced supplement increases the number of galaxies in the low-density regions of color-magnitude space by extending the redshift limits of the Primary sample in the appropriate color bins. The samples cover the stellar mass range 5× {10}8≤slant {M}* ≤slant 3× {10}11 {M}⊙ {h}-2 and are sampled at median physical resolutions of 1.37 and 2.5 kpc for the Primary and Secondary samples, respectively. We provide weights that will statistically correct for our luminosity and color-dependent selection function and IFU allocation strategy, thus correcting the observed sample to a volume-limited sample.

First International Public Health Film Competition 2016-reflections on the development and use of competition judging criteria.

PubMed

Hoang, U; Luna, P; Russell, P; Bergonzi-King, L; Ashton, J; McCarthy, C; Donovan, H; Inman, P; Seminog, O; Botchway, S

2018-03-01

Film competitions can be a helpful method to understand issues of quality in health films. In this paper, we describe the development and use of explicit quality criteria to identify the 'best' films for the first ever international public health film competition. A film selection committee encompassing a range of stakeholders was compiled. The committee drew up 10 explicit quality criteria to judge films drawing upon other film festival's selection criteria. These criteria were then applied to a broad range of health-related films entered into a film competition to select the 'best' film to screen. Eighty-four films from 20 different countries were submitted to the public health film competition. The originality of the subject covered by the film, the public health importance of the issue and story-telling approach in the film were found to be the most discriminatory criteria to select films. Selection of health films for festivals can be undertaken using explicit quality criteria. There are a number of advantages to such an approach; however, explicit selection involves a large commitment of resources from film festival organizers and there is further research required to test the validity of the quality criteria applied to health-related films.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: OGLE-II DIA microlensing events (Wozniak+, 2001)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wozniak, P. R.; Udalski, A.; Szymanski, M.; Kubiak, M.; Pietrzynski, G.; Soszynski, I.; Zebrun, K.

2002-11-01

We present a sample of microlensing events discovered in the Difference Image Analysis (DIA) of the OGLE-II images collected during three observing seasons, 1997-1999. 4424 light curves pass our criteria on the presence of a brightening episode on top of a constant baseline. Among those, 512 candidate microlensing events were selected visually. We designed an automated procedure, which unambiguously selects up to 237 best events. Including eight candidate events recovered by other means, a total of 520 light curves are presented in this work. (4 data files).

A Twin Study of Teacher-Reported Mathematics Performance and Low Performance in 7-Year-Olds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oliver, Bonamy; Harlaar, Nicole; Hayiou Thomas, Marianna E.; Kovas, Yulia; Walker, Sheila O.; Petrill, Stephen A.; Spinath, Frank M.; Dale, Philip S.; Plomin, Robert

2004-01-01

The authors investigated the etiology of low mathematics performance in 7-year-olds in the context of normal variation. The lowest 15% were selected from a representative U.K. sample of 2,178 same-sex twin pairs rated by their teachers according to National Curriculum criteria in 3 domains of mathematics. Model-fitting analyses of mathematics…

Predicting Impact of Childhood Disability on Families: Results from the 1995 National Health Interview Survey Disability Supplement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neely-Barnes, Susan; Marcenko, Maureen

2004-01-01

Predictors of impact on families with a child who has developmental disabilities were examined using results from the 1995 National Health Interview Study Disability Supplement (NHIS-D). From this sample, 505 children who met criteria for a developmental disability were selected. Predictors of impact on these families were investigated across and…

Change of behaviour when selecting food products in a supermarket environment after reminding consumers about weight management.

PubMed

Saarela, Anna-Maria

2014-05-01

The aim was to explore how the behaviour of consumers changed while they selected food in a supermarket environment after they were reminded about weight management. This investigation was carried out from the perspective of selection criteria, reading of package labels, nutritional quality of the products selected and time taken to select a product. The subjects, who were actively watching their weight, participated in two consecutive tasks in a supermarket. They were given a shopping list of eleven food categories and asked to think aloud while selecting from each category a product they usually buy and a product they would use for weight management. The data (n 792 selections) were collected through interviews and a verbal analysis protocol combined with wireless audio-visual observation. Thirty-six consumers were recruited from a sample of 367 supermarket customers. Kuopio, Finland. The subjects' behaviour changed radically after they were reminded about weight management. In the first selection, taste and familiarity were the main food selection criteria while in the latter selection the energy/fat content predominated. Consequently, the nutritional quality of products improved greatly because subjects read package labels twice as much in the latter selection. The time taken to select a product increased significantly, on average, from 23 (sd 10) to 60 (sd 51) s/product (P = 0·000). Only by reminding consumers about weight management was there a significant impact on their food selection behaviour. Marketing communication should be developed which quickly and easily promotes consumers' awareness of healthy food in supermarkets.

Technical Note: Relationships between gamma criteria and action levels: Results of a multicenter audit of gamma agreement index results.

PubMed

Crowe, Scott B; Sutherland, Bess; Wilks, Rachael; Seshadri, Venkatakrishnan; Sylvander, Steven; Trapp, Jamie V; Kairn, Tanya

2016-03-01

The aim of this work was to use a multicenter audit of modulated radiotherapy quality assurance (QA) data to provide a practical examination of gamma evaluation criteria and action level selection. The use of the gamma evaluation method for patient-specific pretreatment QA is widespread, with most commercial solutions implementing the method. Gamma agreement indices were calculated using the criteria 1%/1 mm, 2%/2 mm, 2%/3 mm, 3%/2 mm, 3%/3 mm, and 5%/3 mm for 1265 pretreatment QA measurements, planned at seven treatment centers, using four different treatment planning systems, delivered using three different delivery systems (intensity-modulated radiation therapy, volumetric-modulated arc therapy, and helical tomotherapy) and measured using three different dose measurement systems. The sensitivity of each pair of gamma criteria was evaluated relative to the gamma agreement indices calculated using 3%/3 mm. A linear relationship was observed for 2%/2 mm, 2%/3 mm, and 3%/2 mm. This result implies that most beams failing at 3%/3 mm would also fail for those criteria, if the action level was adjusted appropriately. Some borderline plans might be passed or failed depending on the relative priority (tighter tolerance) used for dose difference or distance to agreement evaluation. Dosimeter resolution and treatment modality were found to have a smaller effect on the results of QA measurements than the number of dimensions (2D or 3D) over which the gamma evaluation was calculated. This work provides a method (and a large sample of results) for calculating equivalent action levels for different gamma evaluation criteria. This work constitutes a valuable guide for clinical decision making and a means to compare published gamma evaluation results from studies using different evaluation criteria. More generally, the data provided by this work support the recommendation that gamma criteria that specifically prioritize the property of greatest clinical importance for each treatment modality of anatomical site should be selected when using gamma evaluations for modulated radiotherapy QA. It is therefore suggested that departments using the gamma evaluation as a QA analysis tool should consider the relative importance of dose difference and distance to agreement, when selecting gamma evaluation criteria.

76 FR 17384 - Applications for New Awards; Carol M. White Physical Education Program

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-03-29

... school food or child nutrition director), grocery stores, supermarkets, restaurants, corner stores... where you, the applicant, address the selection criteria that reviewers use to evaluate your application.... Application Review Information 1. Selection Criteria: The selection criteria for this program are from 34 CFR...

7 CFR 400.303 - Initial selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 6 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Initial selection criteria. 400.303 Section 400.303... Regulations for the 1991 and Succeeding Crop Years § 400.303 Initial selection criteria. (a) Nonstandard... .30 or greater; and (4) Either of the following apply: (i) The natural logarithm of the cumulative...

7 CFR 246.18 - Administrative review of State agency actions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... actions: (A) Denial of authorization based on the application of the vendor selection criteria for minimum...) Denial of authorization based on the vendor selection criteria for business integrity or for a current...)(iii)); (B) Denial of authorization based on the application of the vendor selection criteria for...

QUALITY ASSURANCE PROGRAM FOR WET DEPOSITION SAMPLING AND CHEMICAL ANALYSES FOR THE NATIONAL TRENDS NETWORK.

USGS Publications Warehouse

Schroder, LeRoy J.; Malo, Bernard A.; ,

1985-01-01

The purpose of the National Trends Network is to delineate the major inorganic constituents in the wet deposition in the United States. The approach chosen to monitor the Nation's wet deposition is to install approximately 150 automatic sampling devices with at least one collector in each state. Samples are collected at one week intervals, removed from collectors, and transported to an analytical laboratory for chemical analysis. The quality assurance program has divided wet deposition monitoring into 5 parts: (1) Sampling site selection, (2) sampling device, (3) sample container, (4) sample handling, and (5) laboratory analysis. Each of these five components is being examined using existing designs or new designs. Each existing or proposed sampling site is visited and a criteria audit is performed.

Pesticide data for selected Wyoming streams, 1976-78

USGS Publications Warehouse

Butler, David L.

1987-01-01

In 1976, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Wyoming Department of Agriculture, started a monitoring program to determine pesticide concentrations in Wyoming streams. This program was incorporated into the water-quality data-collection system already in operation. Samples were collected at 20 sites for analysis of various insecticides, herbicides, polychlorinated biphenyls, and polychlorinated napthalenes.\\The results through 1978 revealed small concentrations of pesticides in water and bottom-material samples were DDE (39 percent of the concentrations equal to or greater than the minimum reported concentrations of the analytical methods), DDD (20 percent), dieldrin (21 percent), and polychlorinated biphenyls (29 percent). The herbicides most commonly found in water samples were 2,4-D (29 percent of the concentrations equal to or greater than the minimum reported concentrations of the analytical method) and picloram (23 percent). Most concentrations were significantly less than concentrations thought to be harmful to freshwater aquatic life based on available toxicity data. However for some pesticides, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency water-quality criteria for freshwater aquatic life are based on bioaccumulation factors that result in criteria concentrations less than the minimum reported concentrations of the analytical methods. It is not known if certain pesticides were present at concentrations less than the minimum reported concentrations that exceeded these criteria.

Groundwater quality in West Virginia, 1993-2008

USGS Publications Warehouse

Chambers, Douglas B.; Kozar, Mark D.; White , Jeremy S.; Paybins, Katherine S.

2012-01-01

Approximately 42 percent of all West Virginians rely on groundwater for their domestic water supply. However, prior to 2008, the quality of the West Virginia’s groundwater resource was largely unknown. The need for a statewide assessment of groundwater quality prompted the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP), Division of Water and Waste Management, to develop an ambient groundwater-quality monitoring program. The USGS West Virginia Water Science Center sampled 300 wells, of which 80 percent were public-supply wells, over a 10-year period, 1999–2008. Sites for this statewide ambient groundwater-quality monitoring program were selected to provide wide areal coverage and to represent a variety of environmental settings. The resulting 300 samples were supplemented with data from a related monitoring network of 24 wells and springs. All samples were analyzed for field measurements (water temperature, pH, specific conductance, and dissolved oxygen), major ions, trace elements, nutrients, volatile organic compounds, fecal indicator bacteria, and radon-222. Sub-sets of samples were analyzed for pesticides or semi-volatile organic compounds; site selection was based on local land use. Samples were grouped for comparison by geologic age of the aquifer, Groups included Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Pennsylvanian, Permian, and Quaternary aquifers. A comparison of samples indicated that geologic age of the aquifer was the largest contributor to variability in groundwater quality. This study did not attempt to characterize drinking water provided through public water systems. All samples were of raw, untreated groundwater. Drinking-water criteria apply to water that is served to the public, not to raw water. However, drinking water criteria, including U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) maximum contaminant level (MCL), non-enforceable secondary maximum contaminant level (SMCL), non-enforceable proposed MCL, or non-enforceable advisory health-based screening level (HBSL), were used as benchmarks against which to compare analytical results. Constituent concentrations were less than the MCLs in most samples. However, some samples exceeded non-enforceable SMCLs, proposed MCLs, or advisory HBSLs. Radon-222 concentrations exceeded the proposed MCL of 300 pCi/L in 45 percent of samples, and iron concentrations exceeded the SMCL of 300 µg/L in 57 percent of samples. Manganese concentrations were greater than the SMCL (50 µg/L) in 62 percent of samples and greater than the HBSL (300 µg/L) in 25 percent of the samples. Other sampled constituents, including organic compounds and trace elements, exceeded drinking-water criteria at much lower frequencies. The radon-222 median concentrations in samples from Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Permian, and Quaternary aquifers exceeded the proposed 300 pCi/L MCL. Although median radon concentrations for wells in Devonian, Mississippian, and Pennsylvanian aquifers were less than the proposed MCL, radon concentrations greater than the proposed MCL were measured in samples from aquifers of all geologic ages. The median iron concentrations for samples from Devonian and Pennsylvanian aquifers were greater than the 300 µg/L SMCL. Iron concentrations exceeded the SMCL in aquifers of all geologic ages, except Cambrian. Median concentrations of manganese exceeded the SMCL in samples from Devonian, Pennsylvanian, and Quaternary aquifers. As with iron, manganese concentrations were found to exceed the SMCL in at least one sample from aquifers of all geologic ages, except Cambrian. Pesticides were detected most frequently and in higher concentrations in limestone-dominated areas. Most of West Virginia’s agriculture is concentrated in those areas. This study, the most comprehensive assessment of West Virginia groundwater quality to date, indicates the water quality of West Virginia’s groundwater is generally good; in the majority of cases raw-water samples met primary drinking water-criteria. However, some constituents, notably iron and manganese, exceeded the secondary drinking criteria in more than half the samples.

[Prevalence of overweight and obesity in adolescents from an urban district of Lima, Peru 2012].

PubMed

Lozano-Rojas, Gaudi; Cabello-Morales, Emilio; Hernádez-Diaz, Herminio; Loza-Munarriz, Cesar

2014-01-01

To determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity according to the criteria of the WHO and CDC in adolescents from an urban district of Lima, Peru 2012. This cross-sectional study included 1,743 school children of 12 to 17 years of age selected from ten public and private educational institutions, using a randomized and stratified sample of "conglomerados" (neighborhoods). In the selected schools, weight and height were measured. For the diagnosis of overweight and obesity, criteria from the WHO and CDC were used. For data analysis, descriptive and inferential statistics were performed. According to the WHO criteria, the prevalence of overweight was 33.7% (95% CI 31.5-36.0) and obesity was 14.4% (95% CI 12.8-16.1). According to CDC criteria, the prevalence of overweight was 26.5% (95% CI 24.4-28.6) and obesity was 13.9% (95% CI 12.3-15.6). The prevalence of overweight and obesity was significantly higher in males aged 12 and 13 years old and private educational institutions (p<0.05). We found very good agreement between the WHO and CDC criteria for the diagnosis of overweight and obesity. A high prevalence of overweight and obesity was found, predominantly in male students between 12 and 13 years and private educational institutions. It is necessary to initiate intervention measures that can contribute to the prevention of chronic diseases in adulthood, secondary to obesity in adolescence.

Evaluation and selection of 3PL provider using fuzzy AHP and grey TOPSIS in group decision making

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garside, Annisa Kesy; Saputro, Thomy Eko

2017-11-01

Selection of a 3PL provider is a problem of multi criteria decision making, where the decision maker has to select several 3PL provider alternatives based on several evaluation criteria. A decision maker will have difficulty to express judgments in exact numerical values due to the fact that information is often incomplete and the decision environment is uncertain. This paper presents an integrated fuzzy AHP and Grey TOPSIS for the evaluation and selection of 3PL provider method. Fuzzy AHP is used to determine the importance weight of evaluation criteria. For final selection, grey TOPSIS is used to evaluate the alternatives and obtain the overall performance which is measured as closeness coefficient. This method is applied to solve the selection of 3PL provider at PT. X. Five criterias and twelve sub-criterias were determined and then the best alternative among four 3PL providers was selected by proposed method.

Nuclear-specific AR-V7 Protein Localization is Necessary to Guide Treatment Selection in Metastatic Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer.

PubMed

Scher, Howard I; Graf, Ryon P; Schreiber, Nicole A; McLaughlin, Brigit; Lu, David; Louw, Jessica; Danila, Daniel C; Dugan, Lyndsey; Johnson, Ann; Heller, Glenn; Fleisher, Martin; Dittamore, Ryan

2017-06-01

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) expressing AR-V7 protein localized to the nucleus (nuclear-specific) identify metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients with improved overall survival (OS) on taxane therapy relative to the androgen receptor signaling inhibitors (ARSi) abiraterone acetate, enzalutamide, and apalutamide. To evaluate if expanding the positivity criteria to include both nuclear and cytoplasmic AR-V7 localization ("nuclear-agnostic") identifies more patients who would benefit from a taxane over an ARSi. The study used a cross-sectional cohort. Between December 2012 and March 2015, 193 pretherapy blood samples, 191 of which were evaluable, were collected and processed from 161 unique mCRPC patients before starting a new line of systemic therapy for disease progression at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The association between two AR-V7 scoring criteria, post-therapy prostate-specific antigen (PSA) change (PTPC) and OS following ARSi or taxane treatment, was explored. One criterion required nuclear-specific AR-V7 localization, and the other required an AR-V7 signal but was agnostic to protein localization in CTCs. Correlation of AR-V7 status to PTPC and OS was investigated. Relationships with survival were analyzed using multivariable Cox regression and log-rank analyses. A total of 34 (18%) samples were AR-V7-positive using nuclear-specific criteria, and 56 (29%) were AR-V7-positive using nuclear-agnostic criteria. Following ARSi treatment, none of the 16 nuclear-specific AR-V7-positive samples and six of the 32 (19%) nuclear-agnostic AR-V7-positive samples had ≥50% PTPC at 12 weeks. The strongest baseline factor influencing OS was the interaction between the presence of nuclear-specific AR-V7-positive CTCs and treatment with a taxane (hazard ratio 0.24, 95% confidence interval 0.078-0.79; p=0.019). This interaction was not significant when nuclear-agnostic criteria were used. To reliably inform treatment selection using an AR-V7 protein biomarker in CTCs, nuclear-specific localization is required. We analyzed outcomes for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer on androgen receptor signaling inhibitors and standard chemotherapy. Patients with circulating tumor cells that had AR-V7 protein in the cellular nuclei were very likely to survive longer on taxane-based chemotherapy, and tests unable to distinguish where the protein is located in the cell are not as predictive of benefit. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Urology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Development of a quantitative validation method for forensic investigation of human spermatozoa using a commercial fluorescence staining kit (SPERM HY-LITER™ Express).

PubMed

Takamura, Ayari; Watanabe, Ken; Akutsu, Tomoko

2016-11-01

In investigations of sexual assaults, as well as in identifying a suspect, the detection of human sperm is important. Recently, a kit for fluorescent staining of human spermatozoa, SPERM HY-LITER™, has become available. This kit allows for microscopic observation of the heads of human sperm using an antibody tagged with a fluorescent dye. This kit is specific to human sperm and provides easy detection by luminescence. However, criteria need to be established to objectively evaluate the fluorescent signals and to evaluate the staining efficiency of this kit. These criteria will be indispensable for investigation of forensic samples. In the present study, the SPERM HY-LITER™ Express kit, which is an improved version of SPERM HY-LITER™, was evaluated using an image analysis procedure using Laplacian and Gaussian methods. This method could be used to automatically select important regions of fluorescence produced by sperm. The fluorescence staining performance was evaluated and compared under various experimental conditions, such as for aged traces and in combination with other chemical staining methods. The morphological characteristics of human sperm were incorporated into the criteria for objective identification of sperm, based on quantified features of the fluorescent spots. Using the criteria, non-specific or insignificant fluorescent spots were excluded, and the specificity of the kit for human sperm was confirmed. The image analysis method and criteria established in this study are universal and could be applied under any experimental conditions. These criteria will increase the reliability of operator judgment in the analysis of human sperm samples in forensics.

Gender differences in developmental dyscalculia depend on diagnostic criteria.

PubMed

Devine, Amy; Soltész, Fruzsina; Nobes, Alison; Goswami, Usha; Szűcs, Dénes

2013-10-01

Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a learning difficulty specific to mathematics learning. The prevalence of DD may be equivalent to that of dyslexia, posing an important challenge for effective educational provision. Nevertheless, there is no agreed definition of DD and there are controversies surrounding cutoff decisions, specificity and gender differences. In the current study, 1004 British primary school children completed mathematics and reading assessments. The prevalence of DD and gender ratio were estimated in this sample using different criteria. When using absolute thresholds, the prevalence of DD was the same for both genders regardless of the cutoff criteria applied, however gender differences emerged when using a mathematics-reading discrepancy definition. Correlations between mathematics performance and the control measures selected to identify a specific learning difficulty affect both prevalence estimates and whether a gender difference is in fact identified. Educational implications are discussed.

The APOGEE-2 Survey of the Orion Star-forming Complex. I. Target Selection and Validation with Early Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cottle, J.’Neil; Covey, Kevin R.; Suárez, Genaro; Román-Zúñiga, Carlos; Schlafly, Edward; Downes, Juan Jose; Ybarra, Jason E.; Hernandez, Jesus; Stassun, Keivan; Stringfellow, Guy S.; Getman, Konstantin; Feigelson, Eric; Borissova, Jura; Kim, J. Serena; Roman-Lopes, A.; Da Rio, Nicola; De Lee, Nathan; Frinchaboy, Peter M.; Kounkel, Marina; Majewski, Steven R.; Mennickent, Ronald E.; Nidever, David L.; Nitschelm, Christian; Pan, Kaike; Shetrone, Matthew; Zasowski, Gail; Chambers, Ken; Magnier, Eugene; Valenti, Jeff

2018-06-01

The Orion Star-forming Complex (OSFC) is a central target for the APOGEE-2 Young Cluster Survey. Existing membership catalogs span limited portions of the OSFC, reflecting the difficulty of selecting targets homogeneously across this extended, highly structured region. We have used data from wide-field photometric surveys to produce a less biased parent sample of young stellar objects (YSOs) with infrared (IR) excesses indicative of warm circumstellar material or photometric variability at optical wavelengths across the full 420 square degree extent of the OSFC. When restricted to YSO candidates with H < 12.4, to ensure S/N ∼ 100 for a six-visit source, this uniformly selected sample includes 1307 IR excess sources selected using criteria vetted by Koenig & Liesawitz (2014) and 990 optical variables identified in the Pan-STARRS1 3π survey: 319 sources exhibit both optical variability and evidence of circumstellar disks through IR excess. Objects from this uniformly selected sample received the highest priority for targeting, but required fewer than half of the fibers on each APOGEE-2 plate. We filled the remaining fibers with previously confirmed and new color–magnitude selected candidate OSFC members. Radial velocity measurements from APOGEE-1 and new APOGEE-2 observations taken in the survey’s first year indicate that ∼90% of the uniformly selected targets have radial velocities consistent with Orion membership. The APOGEE-2 Orion survey will include >1100 bona fide YSOs whose uniform selection function will provide a robust sample for comparative analyses of the stellar populations and properties across all sub-regions of Orion.

40 CFR 91.608 - Compliance with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for selective...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... level and passing and failing criteria for selective enforcement audits. 91.608 Section 91.608... with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for selective enforcement audits. (a) The prescribed acceptable quality level is 40 percent. (b) A failed engine is one whose final test...

40 CFR 89.510 - Compliance with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for selective...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... level and passing and failing criteria for selective enforcement audits. 89.510 Section 89.510... Compliance with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for selective enforcement audits. (a) The prescribed acceptable quality level is 40 percent. (b) A failed engine is one whose final...

40 CFR 89.510 - Compliance with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for selective...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... level and passing and failing criteria for selective enforcement audits. 89.510 Section 89.510... Compliance with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for selective enforcement audits. (a) The prescribed acceptable quality level is 40 percent. (b) A failed engine is one whose final...

40 CFR 91.608 - Compliance with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for selective...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... level and passing and failing criteria for selective enforcement audits. 91.608 Section 91.608... with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for selective enforcement audits. (a) The prescribed acceptable quality level is 40 percent. (b) A failed engine is one whose final test...

40 CFR 91.608 - Compliance with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for selective...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... level and passing and failing criteria for selective enforcement audits. 91.608 Section 91.608... with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for selective enforcement audits. (a) The prescribed acceptable quality level is 40 percent. (b) A failed engine is one whose final test...

48 CFR 1836.602-1 - Selection criteria. (NASA supplements paragraph (a))

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Selection criteria. (NASA... CONTRACTS Architect-Engineer Services 1836.602-1 Selection criteria. (NASA supplements paragraph (a)) (a)(2... the volume of work previously awarded to the firm by NASA, with the object of effecting an equitable...

48 CFR 1836.602-1 - Selection criteria. (NASA supplements paragraph (a))

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Selection criteria. (NASA... CONTRACTS Architect-Engineer Services 1836.602-1 Selection criteria. (NASA supplements paragraph (a)) (a)(2... the volume of work previously awarded to the firm by NASA, with the object of effecting an equitable...

48 CFR 1836.602-1 - Selection criteria. (NASA supplements paragraph (a))

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 true Selection criteria. (NASA... CONTRACTS Architect-Engineer Services 1836.602-1 Selection criteria. (NASA supplements paragraph (a)) (a)(2... the volume of work previously awarded to the firm by NASA, with the object of effecting an equitable...

48 CFR 1836.602-1 - Selection criteria. (NASA supplements paragraph (a))

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Selection criteria. (NASA... CONTRACTS Architect-Engineer Services 1836.602-1 Selection criteria. (NASA supplements paragraph (a)) (a)(2... the volume of work previously awarded to the firm by NASA, with the object of effecting an equitable...

48 CFR 1836.602-1 - Selection criteria. (NASA supplements paragraph (a))

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Selection criteria. (NASA... CONTRACTS Architect-Engineer Services 1836.602-1 Selection criteria. (NASA supplements paragraph (a)) (a)(2... the volume of work previously awarded to the firm by NASA, with the object of effecting an equitable...

40 CFR 90.510 - Compliance with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for selective...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 20 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Compliance with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for selective enforcement audits. 90.510 Section 90.510....510 Compliance with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for selective...

Grade and Gender Differences in Adolescents' Friendship Selection Criteria.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zook, Joan M.; Repinski, Daniel J.

Noting that when adolescents select friends, they are creating a relationship context that will be an important source of influence, this study examined the criteria adolescents use when choosing friends. Adolescents in grades 7 and 10 were interviewed about the criteria they used when selecting friends, particularly the importance they placed…

Priority setting for the prevention and control of cardiovascular diseases: multi-criteria decision analysis in four eastern Mediterranean countries.

PubMed

Ghandour, Rula; Shoaibi, Azza; Khatib, Rana; Abu Rmeileh, Niveen; Unal, Belgin; Sözmen, Kaan; Kılıç, Bülent; Fouad, Fouad; Al Ali, Radwan; Ben Romdhane, Habiba; Aissi, Wafa; Ahmad, Balsam; Capewell, Simon; Critchley, Julia; Husseini, Abdullatif

2015-01-01

To explore the feasibility of using a simple multi-criteria decision analysis method with policy makers/key stakeholders to prioritize cardiovascular disease (CVD) policies in four Mediterranean countries: Palestine, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey. A simple multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) method was piloted. A mixed methods study was used to identify a preliminary list of policy options in each country. These policies were rated by different policymakers/stakeholders against pre-identified criteria to generate a priority score for each policy and then rank the policies. Twenty-five different policies were rated in the four countries to create a country-specific list of CVD prevention and control policies. The response rate was 100% in each country. The top policies were mostly population level interventions and health systems' level policies. Successful collaboration between policy makers/stakeholders and researchers was established in this small pilot study. MCDA appeared to be feasible and effective. Future applications should aim to engage a larger, representative sample of policy makers, especially from outside the health sector. Weighting the selected criteria might also be assessed.

75 FR 8854 - Teacher Incentive Fund Program

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-02-26

...The Secretary of Education (Secretary) proposes priorities, requirements, definitions, and selection criteria under the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) program. These proposed priorities, requirements, definitions, and selection criteria are designed to be used in two separate and distinct TIF grant competitions: The Main TIF competition, which will provide TIF funding to eligible entities to support their implementation of performance-based compensation systems (PBCSs) in accordance with the priorities, the Main TIF requirements, the definitions, and the selection criteria proposed in this document, and the TIF Evaluation competition, which will provide, in accordance with the priorities, the Main TIF requirements, the definitions, and the selection criteria as well as the Evaluation requirements proposed in this document, TIF funding to help pay for the costs of implementing these eligible entities' PBCS in exchange for an agreement to participate in the national evaluation. The Secretary may use these proposed TIF priorities, requirements, definitions, and selection criteria in fiscal year (FY) 2010 and subsequent years. We intend the proposed priorities, requirements, definitions, and selection criteria to improve student achievement in high-need schools by creating incentives for effective teachers and principals in these schools.

Exploring the Correlation Between Nontraditional Variables and Student Success: A Longitudinal Study.

PubMed

Strickland, Haley Perkins; Cheshire, Michelle Haney

2017-06-01

The purpose of this project was to determine whether a correlation exists between the traditional admission criteria of grade point averages with the potential admission criteria of emotional intelligence (EI) scores or critical thinking (CT) scores to predict upper division student outcomes. A quantitative, longitudinal design was selected to examine the identified variables to predict undergraduate student success. The recruiting sample included a convenience sample drawn from 112 junior-level undergraduate nursing students beginning their first of a five-semester nursing program. EI and HESI ® CT scores did not significantly correlate with main analysis variables. Although EI and CT scores were not significant in this study, it remains vital to incorporate EI and CT activities throughout the curriculum to develop students' ability to think like a nurse and, therefore, be successful in nursing practice. [J Nurs Educ. 2017;56(6):351-355.]. Copyright 2017, SLACK Incorporated.

Empirical testing of criteria for dissociative schizophrenia.

PubMed

Laferrière-Simard, Marie-Christine; Lecomte, Tania; Ahoundova, Lola

2014-01-01

This study examined the validity of dissociative schizophrenia diagnostic criteria. In the first phase, 50 participants with a psychotic disorder were administered the Dissociative Experiences Scale and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire to identify those with dissociative characteristics. In the second phase, we selected those who had a score of 15 or above on the Dissociative Experiences Scale. Fifteen of these participants were evaluated thoroughly with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I, Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II, and Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders to determine whether they met the criteria for dissociative schizophrenia and to generate a clinical description. Our results indicated that 24% of the individuals we tested met these criteria. We propose making mandatory 1 of the 3 dissociative symptoms of the criteria to eliminate people with only nonspecific symptoms (e.g., extensive comorbidity). According to this modified criterion, 14% of our sample would receive a diagnosis of dissociative schizophrenia. However, a more comprehensive look at the clinical picture begs the question of whether dissociative schizophrenia is truly present in every person meeting the criteria. We discuss the relevance of creating a new schizophrenia subtype and offer recommendations for clinicians.

Data Validation Package December 2015 Groundwater Sampling at the Ambrosia Lake, New Mexico, Disposal Site March 2016

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

Tsosie, Bernadette; Johnson, Dick

The Long-Term Surveillance Plan for the Ambrosia Lake, New Mexico, Disposal Site does not require groundwater monitoring because groundwater in the uppermost aquifer is of limited use, and supplemental standards have been applied to the aquifer. However, at the request of the New Mexico Environment Department, the U.S. Department of Energy conducts annual monitoring at three locations: monitoring wells 0409, 0675, and 0678. Sampling and analyses were conducted as specified in the Sampling and Analysis Plan for US. Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management Sites (LMS/PRO/S04351, continually updated). Monitoring Well 0409 was not sampled during this event because itmore » was dry. Water levels were measured at each sampled well. One duplicate sample was collected from location 0675. Groundwater samples from the two sampled wells were analyzed for the constituents listed in Table 1. Time-concentration graphs for selected analytes are included in this report. At well 0675, the duplicate results for total dissolved solids and for most metals (magnesium, molybdenum, potassium, selenium, sodium, and uranium) were outside acceptance criteria, which may indicate non-homogeneous conditions at this location. November 2014 results for molybdenum and uranium at well 0675 also were outside acceptance criteria. The well condition will be evaluated prior to the next sampling event.« less

Collective feature selection to identify crucial epistatic variants.

PubMed

Verma, Shefali S; Lucas, Anastasia; Zhang, Xinyuan; Veturi, Yogasudha; Dudek, Scott; Li, Binglan; Li, Ruowang; Urbanowicz, Ryan; Moore, Jason H; Kim, Dokyoon; Ritchie, Marylyn D

2018-01-01

Machine learning methods have gained popularity and practicality in identifying linear and non-linear effects of variants associated with complex disease/traits. Detection of epistatic interactions still remains a challenge due to the large number of features and relatively small sample size as input, thus leading to the so-called "short fat data" problem. The efficiency of machine learning methods can be increased by limiting the number of input features. Thus, it is very important to perform variable selection before searching for epistasis. Many methods have been evaluated and proposed to perform feature selection, but no single method works best in all scenarios. We demonstrate this by conducting two separate simulation analyses to evaluate the proposed collective feature selection approach. Through our simulation study we propose a collective feature selection approach to select features that are in the "union" of the best performing methods. We explored various parametric, non-parametric, and data mining approaches to perform feature selection. We choose our top performing methods to select the union of the resulting variables based on a user-defined percentage of variants selected from each method to take to downstream analysis. Our simulation analysis shows that non-parametric data mining approaches, such as MDR, may work best under one simulation criteria for the high effect size (penetrance) datasets, while non-parametric methods designed for feature selection, such as Ranger and Gradient boosting, work best under other simulation criteria. Thus, using a collective approach proves to be more beneficial for selecting variables with epistatic effects also in low effect size datasets and different genetic architectures. Following this, we applied our proposed collective feature selection approach to select the top 1% of variables to identify potential interacting variables associated with Body Mass Index (BMI) in ~ 44,000 samples obtained from Geisinger's MyCode Community Health Initiative (on behalf of DiscovEHR collaboration). In this study, we were able to show that selecting variables using a collective feature selection approach could help in selecting true positive epistatic variables more frequently than applying any single method for feature selection via simulation studies. We were able to demonstrate the effectiveness of collective feature selection along with a comparison of many methods in our simulation analysis. We also applied our method to identify non-linear networks associated with obesity.

An investigation of industrial molding compounds for use in 3D ultrasound, MRI, and CT imaging phantoms.

PubMed

Yunker, Bryan E; Cordes, Dietmar; Scherzinger, Ann L; Dodd, Gerald D; Shandas, Robin; Feng, Yusheng; Hunter, Kendall S

2013-05-01

This study investigated the ultrasound, MRI, and CT imaging characteristics of several industrial casting and molding compounds as a precursor to the future development of durable and anatomically correct flow phantoms. A set of usability and performance criteria was established for a proposed phantom design capable of supporting liquid flow during imaging. A literature search was conducted to identify the materials and methods previously used in phantom fabrication. A database of human tissue and casting material properties was compiled to facilitate the selection of appropriate materials for testing. Several industrial casting materials were selected, procured, and used to fabricate test samples that were imaged with ultrasound, MRI, and CT. Five silicones and one polyurethane were selected for testing. Samples of all materials were successfully fabricated. All imaging modalities were able to discriminate between the materials tested. Ultrasound testing showed that three of the silicones could be imaged to a depth of at least 2.5 cm (1 in.). The RP-6400 polyurethane exhibited excellent contrast and edge detail for MRI phantoms and appears to be an excellent water reference for CT applications. The 10T and 27T silicones appear to be usable water references for MRI imaging. Based on study data and the stated selection criteria, the P-4 silicone provided sufficient material contrast to water and edge detail for use across all imaging modalities with the benefits of availability, low cost, dimensional stability, nontoxic, nonflammable, durable, cleanable, and optical clarity. The physical and imaging differences of the materials documented in this study may be useful for other applications.

Assessment of the reliability of data collected for the Department of Veterans Affairs national surgical quality improvement program.

PubMed

Davis, Chester L; Pierce, John R; Henderson, William; Spencer, C David; Tyler, Christine; Langberg, Robert; Swafford, Jennan; Felan, Gladys S; Kearns, Martha A; Booker, Brigitte

2007-04-01

The Office of the Medical Inspector of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) studied the reliability of data collected by the VA's National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP). The study focused on case selection bias, accuracy of reports on patients who died, and interrater reliability measurements of patient risk variables and outcomes. Surgical data from a sample of 15 VA medical centers were analyzed. For case selection bias, reviewers applied NSQIP criteria to include or exclude 2,460 patients from the database, comparing their results with those of NSQIP staff. For accurate reporting of patients who died, reviewers compared Social Security numbers of 10,444 NSQIP records with those found in the VA Beneficiary Identification and Records Locator Subsystem, VA Patient Treatment Files, and Social Security Administration death files. For measurement of interrater reliability, reviewers reabstracted 59 variables in each of 550 patient medical records that also were recorded in the NSQIP database. On case selection bias, the reviewers agreed with NSQIP decisions on 2,418 (98%) of the 2,460 cases. Computer record matching identified 4 more deaths than the NSQIP total of 198, a difference of about 2%. For 52 of the categorical variables, agreement, uncorrected for chance, was 96%. For 48 of 52 categorical variables, kappas ranged from 0.61 to 1.0 (substantial to almost perfect agreement); none of the variables had kappas of less than 0.20 (slight to poor agreement). This sample of medical centers shows adherence to criteria in selecting cases for the NSQIP database, for reporting deaths, and for collecting patient risk variables.

Genetic improvement in mastitis resistance: comparison of selection criteria from cross-sectional and random regression sire models for somatic cell score.

PubMed

Odegård, J; Klemetsdal, G; Heringstad, B

2005-04-01

Several selection criteria for reducing incidence of mastitis were developed from a random regression sire model for test-day somatic cell score (SCS). For comparison, sire transmitting abilities were also predicted based on a cross-sectional model for lactation mean SCS. Only first-crop daughters were used in genetic evaluation of SCS, and the different selection criteria were compared based on their correlation with incidence of clinical mastitis in second-crop daughters (measured as mean daughter deviations). Selection criteria were predicted based on both complete and reduced first-crop daughter groups (261 or 65 daughters per sire, respectively). For complete daughter groups, predicted transmitting abilities at around 30 d in milk showed the best predictive ability for incidence of clinical mastitis, closely followed by average predicted transmitting abilities over the entire lactation. Both of these criteria were derived from the random regression model. These selection criteria improved accuracy of selection by approximately 2% relative to a cross-sectional model. However, for reduced daughter groups, the cross-sectional model yielded increased predictive ability compared with the selection criteria based on the random regression model. This result may be explained by the cross-sectional model being more robust, i.e., less sensitive to precision of (co)variance components estimates and effects of data structure.

X-Ray Temperatures, Luminosities, and Masses from XMM-Newton Follow-upof the First Shear-selected Galaxy Cluster Sample

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deshpande, Amruta J.; Hughes, John P.; Wittman, David

2017-04-01

We continue the study of the first sample of shear-selected clusters from the initial 8.6 square degrees of the Deep Lens Survey (DLS); a sample with well-defined selection criteria corresponding to the highest ranked shear peaks in the survey area. We aim to characterize the weak lensing selection by examining the sample’s X-ray properties. There are multiple X-ray clusters associated with nearly all the shear peaks: 14 X-ray clusters corresponding to seven DLS shear peaks. An additional three X-ray clusters cannot be definitively associated with shear peaks, mainly due to large positional offsets between the X-ray centroid and the shear peak. Here we report on the XMM-Newton properties of the 17 X-ray clusters. The X-ray clusters display a wide range of luminosities and temperatures; the L X -T X relation we determine for the shear-associated X-ray clusters is consistent with X-ray cluster samples selected without regard to dynamical state, while it is inconsistent with self-similarity. For a subset of the sample, we measure X-ray masses using temperature as a proxy, and compare to weak lensing masses determined by the DLS team. The resulting mass comparison is consistent with equality. The X-ray and weak lensing masses show considerable intrinsic scatter (˜48%), which is consistent with X-ray selected samples when their X-ray and weak lensing masses are independently determined. Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W.M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation.

Association of orthodontic force system and root resorption: A systematic review.

PubMed

Roscoe, Marina G; Meira, Josete B C; Cattaneo, Paolo M

2015-05-01

In this systematic review, we assessed the literature to determine which evidence level supports the association of orthodontic force system and root resorption. PubMed, Cochrane, and Embase databases were searched with no restrictions on year, publication status, or language. Selection criteria included human studies conducted with fixed orthodontic appliances or aligners, with at least 10 patients and the force system well described. A total of 259 articles were retrieved in the initial search. After the review process, 21 full-text articles met the inclusion criteria. Sample sizes ranged from 10 to 73 patients. Most articles were classified as having high evidence levels and low risks of bias. Although a meta-analysis was not performed, from the available literature, it seems that positive correlations exist between increased force levels and increased root resorption, as well as between increased treatment time and increased root resorption. Moreover, a pause in tooth movement seems to be beneficial in reducing root resorption because it allows the resorbed cementum to heal. The absence of a control group, selection criteria of patients, and adequate examinations before and after treatment are the most common methodology flaws. Copyright © 2015 American Association of Orthodontists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sources and preparation of data for assessing trends in concentrations of pesticides in streams of the United States, 1992–2010

USGS Publications Warehouse

Martin, Jeffrey D.; Eberle, Michael; Nakagaki, Naomi

2011-01-01

This report updates a previously published water-quality dataset of 44 commonly used pesticides and 8 pesticide degradates suitable for a national assessment of trends in pesticide concentrations in streams of the United States. Water-quality samples collected from January 1992 through September 2010 at stream-water sites of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program and the National Stream Quality Accounting Network (NASQAN) were compiled, reviewed, selected, and prepared for trend analysis. The principal steps in data review for trend analysis were to (1) identify analytical schedule, (2) verify sample-level coding, (3) exclude inappropriate samples or results, (4) review pesticide detections per sample, (5) review high pesticide concentrations, and (6) review the spatial and temporal extent of NAWQA pesticide data and selection of analytical methods for trend analysis. The principal steps in data preparation for trend analysis were to (1) select stream-water sites for trend analysis, (2) round concentrations to a consistent level of precision for the concentration range, (3) identify routine reporting levels used to report nondetections unaffected by matrix interference, (4) reassign the concentration value for routine nondetections to the maximum value of the long-term method detection level (maxLT-MDL), (5) adjust concentrations to compensate for temporal changes in bias of recovery of the gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GCMS) analytical method, and (6) identify samples considered inappropriate for trend analysis. Samples analyzed at the USGS National Water Quality Laboratory (NWQL) by the GCMS analytical method were the most extensive in time and space and, consequently, were selected for trend analysis. Stream-water sites with 3 or more water years of data with six or more samples per year were selected for pesticide trend analysis. The selection criteria described in the report produced a dataset of 21,988 pesticide samples at 212 stream-water sites. Only 21,144 pesticide samples, however, are considered appropriate for trend analysis.

40 CFR 90.510 - Compliance with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for selective...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... level and passing and failing criteria for selective enforcement audits. 90.510 Section 90.510....510 Compliance with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for selective... failed engine is an engine whose final test results pursuant to § 90.509(b), for one or more of the...

40 CFR 86.610-98 - Compliance with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for Selective...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... level and passing and failing criteria for Selective Enforcement Audits. 86.610-98 Section 86.610-98... quality level and passing and failing criteria for Selective Enforcement Audits. (a) The prescribed acceptable quality level is 40 percent. (b) A failed vehicle is one whose final deteriorated test results...

40 CFR 86.610-98 - Compliance with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for Selective...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... level and passing and failing criteria for Selective Enforcement Audits. 86.610-98 Section 86.610-98... quality level and passing and failing criteria for Selective Enforcement Audits. (a) The prescribed acceptable quality level is 40 percent. (b) A failed vehicle is one whose final deteriorated test results...

40 CFR 86.610-98 - Compliance with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for Selective...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... level and passing and failing criteria for Selective Enforcement Audits. 86.610-98 Section 86.610-98... quality level and passing and failing criteria for Selective Enforcement Audits. (a) The prescribed acceptable quality level is 40 percent. (b) A failed vehicle is one whose final deteriorated test results...

40 CFR 86.610-98 - Compliance with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for Selective...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... level and passing and failing criteria for Selective Enforcement Audits. 86.610-98 Section 86.610-98... and passing and failing criteria for Selective Enforcement Audits. (a) The prescribed acceptable quality level is 40 percent. (b) A failed vehicle is one whose final deteriorated test results pursuant to...

40 CFR 86.610-98 - Compliance with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for Selective...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... level and passing and failing criteria for Selective Enforcement Audits. 86.610-98 Section 86.610-98... quality level and passing and failing criteria for Selective Enforcement Audits. (a) The prescribed acceptable quality level is 40 percent. (b) A failed vehicle is one whose final deteriorated test results...

40 CFR 90.510 - Compliance with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for selective...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... level and passing and failing criteria for selective enforcement audits. 90.510 Section 90.510....510 Compliance with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for selective... failed engine is an engine whose final test results pursuant to § 90.509(b), for one or more of the...

25 CFR 1001.9 - Selection criteria for tribes/consortia seeking advance planning grant funding.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 25 Indians 2 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Selection criteria for tribes/consortia seeking advance..., DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR SELF-GOVERNANCE PROGRAM § 1001.9 Selection criteria for tribes/consortia seeking... before a tribe/consortium is admitted into the applicant pool? Any tribe/consortium that is not a self...

7 CFR Exhibit D to Subpart N of... - Project Selection Criteria-Outline Rating Form

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 13 2011-01-01 2009-01-01 true Project Selection Criteria-Outline Rating Form D Exhibit D to Subpart N of Part 1944 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued... Preservation Grants Pt. 1944, Subpt. N, Exh. D Exhibit D to Subpart N of Part 1944—Project Selection Criteria...

75 FR 34094 - Re-Opening of Solicitation Period for the Opportunity To Serve on the Board of Directors of the...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-16

... opportunity to express interest and submit information. The selection criteria contained in the April 19, 2010... consider this opportunity. The selection criteria contained in the April 19, 2010 notice continue to apply... United States. Selection Criteria The TPA directs the Secretary of Commerce (after consultation with the...

7 CFR Exhibit D to Subpart N of... - Project Selection Criteria-Outline Rating Form

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 13 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Project Selection Criteria-Outline Rating Form D Exhibit D to Subpart N of Part 1944 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued... Preservation Grants Pt. 1944, Subpt. N, Exh. D Exhibit D to Subpart N of Part 1944—Project Selection Criteria...

Selection for Surgical Training: An Evidence-Based Review.

PubMed

Schaverien, Mark V

2016-01-01

The predictive relationship between candidate selection criteria for surgical training programs and future performance during and at the completion of training has been investigated for several surgical specialties, however there is no interspecialty agreement regarding which selection criteria should be used. Better understanding the predictive reliability between factors at selection and future performance may help to optimize the process and lead to greater standardization of the surgical selection process. PubMed and Ovid MEDLINE databases were searched. Over 560 potentially relevant publications were identified using the search strategy and screened using the Cochrane Collaboration Data Extraction and Assessment Template. 57 studies met the inclusion criteria. Several selection criteria used in the traditional selection demonstrated inconsistent correlation with subsequent performance during and at the end of surgical training. The following selection criteria, however, demonstrated good predictive relationships with subsequent resident performance: USMLE examination scores, Letters of Recommendation (LOR) including the Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE), academic performance during clinical clerkships, the interview process, displaying excellence in extracurricular activities, and the use of unadjusted rank lists. This systematic review supports that the current selection process needs to be further evaluated and improved. Multicenter studies using standardized outcome measures of success are now required to improve the reliability of the selection process to select the best trainees. Published by Elsevier Inc.

The Influence of Socratic Questioning in Online Discussions on the Critical Thinking Skills of Undergraduate Students: An Exploratory Study Based on a Business Course at a Proprietary University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boulter, Marla Lynn

2010-01-01

This study examined the influence of instructor-facilitated Socratic questioning in online discussions on the critical thinking skills of undergraduate students enrolled in a proprietary institution with nonselective admissions criteria. A sample of students was purposively selected from two sections of an online introductory business course, with…

CFD Code Survey for Thrust Chamber Application

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gross, Klaus W.

1990-01-01

In the quest fo find analytical reference codes, responses from a questionnaire are presented which portray the current computational fluid dynamics (CFD) program status and capability at various organizations, characterizing liquid rocket thrust chamber flow fields. Sample cases are identified to examine the ability, operational condition, and accuracy of the codes. To select the best suited programs for accelerated improvements, evaluation criteria are being proposed.

A Study on Young Turkish Students' Living Thing Conception

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Özgur, Sami

2018-01-01

The aim of this study is to find out young Turkish students' opinions about living thing concept in detail and to investigate the criteria used by the students to define this concept. The study sample consisted of randomly selected 140 students studying at the 3rd, 4th and 5th grades in four different primary and middle schools located in the…

7 CFR 1465.20 - Applications for participation and selecting applications for contracting.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... Conservationist will develop ranking criteria and a ranking process to select applications, taking into account... State-developed ranking criteria and ranking process. (e) The State Conservationist, or designated... using the ranking criteria. ...

An international delphi survey for the definition of the variables for the development of new classification criteria for periodic fever aphtous stomatitis pharingitis cervical adenitis (PFAPA).

PubMed

Vanoni, Federica; Federici, Silvia; Antón, Jordi; Barron, Karyl S; Brogan, Paul; De Benedetti, Fabrizio; Dedeoglu, Fatma; Demirkaya, Erkan; Hentgen, Veronique; Kallinich, Tilmann; Laxer, Ronald; Russo, Ricardo; Toplak, Natasa; Uziel, Yosef; Martini, Alberto; Ruperto, Nicolino; Gattorno, Marco; Hofer, Michael

2018-04-18

Diagnosis of Periodic fever, aphthous stomatitis, pharyngitis and cervical adenitis (PFAPA) is currently based on a set of criteria proposed in 1999 modified from Marshall's criteria. Nevertheless no validated evidence based set of classification criteria for PFAPA has been established so far. The aim of this study was to identify candidate classification criteria PFAPA syndrome using international consensus formation through a Delphi questionnaire survey. A first open-ended questionnaire was sent to adult and pediatric clinicians/researchers, asking to identify the variables thought most likely to be helpful and relevant for the diagnosis of PFAPA. In a second survey, respondents were asked to select, from the list of variables coming from the first survey, the 10 features that they felt were most important, and to rank them in descending order from most important to least important. The response rate to the first and second Delphi was respectively 109/124 (88%) and 141/162 (87%). The number of participants that completed the first and second Delphi was 69/124 (56%) and 110/162 (68%). From the first Delphi we obtained a list of 92 variables, of which 62 were selected in the second Delphi. Variables reaching the top five position of the rank were regular periodicity, aphthous stomatitis, response to corticosteroids, cervical adenitis, and well-being between flares. Our process led to identification of features that were felt to be the most important as candidate classification criteria for PFAPA by a large sample of international rheumatologists. The performance of these items will be tested further in the next phase of the study, through analysis of real patient data.

Forage selection by Royle's pika (Ochotona roylei) in the western Himalaya, India.

PubMed

Bhattacharyya, Sabuj; Adhikari, Bhupendra S; Rawat, Gopal S

2013-10-01

Forage selection decisions of herbivores are often complex and dynamic; they are modulated by multiple cues, such as quality, accessibility and abundance of forage plants. To advance the understanding of plant-herbivore interactions, we explored foraging behavior of the alpine lagomorph Royle's pika (Ochotona roylei) in Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary, India. Pika bite counts on food plants were recorded through focal sampling in three permanently marked plots. Food plant abundance was recorded by traditional quadrat procedures; forage selection was estimated with Jacob's selection index. Multiple food-choice experiments were conducted to determine whether forage selection criteria would change with variation in food plant composition. We also analyzed leaf morphology and nutrient content in both major food plants and abundantly available non-food plants. Linear regression models were used to test competing hypotheses in order to identify factors governing forage selection. Royle's pika fed primarily on 17 plant species and each forage selection decision was positively modulated by leaf area and negatively modulated by contents of avoided substances (neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, acid detergent lignin and tannin) in food plants. Furthermore, significance of the interaction term "leaf size × avoided substance" indicates that plants with large leaves were selected only when they had low avoided substance content. The forage selection criteria did not differ between field and laboratory experiments. The parameter estimates of best fit models indicate that the influence of leaf size or amount of avoided substance on pika forage selection was modulated by the magnitude of predation risk. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

The lack of selection bias in a snowball sampled case-control study on drug abuse.

PubMed

Lopes, C S; Rodrigues, L C; Sichieri, R

1996-12-01

Friend controls in matched case-control studies can be a potential source of bias based on the assumption that friends are more likely to share exposure factors. This study evaluates the role of selection bias in a case-control study that used the snowball sampling method based on friendship for the selection of cases and controls. The cases selected fro the study were drug abusers located in the community. Exposure was defined by the presence of at least one psychiatric diagnosis. Psychiatric and drug abuse/dependence diagnoses were made according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R) criteria. Cases and controls were matched on sex, age and friendship. The measurement of selection bias was made through the comparison of the proportion of exposed controls selected by exposed cases (p1) with the proportion of exposed controls selected by unexposed cases (p2). If p1 = p2 then, selection bias should not occur. The observed distribution of the 185 matched pairs having at least one psychiatric disorder showed a p1 value of 0.52 and a p2 value of 0.51, indicating no selection bias in this study. Our findings support the idea that the use of friend controls can produce a valid basis for a case-control study.

40 CFR 86.098-30 - Certification.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

..., and for 1985 and Later Model Year New Gasoline Fueled, Natural Gas-Fueled, Liquefied Petroleum Gas... with the selection criteria employed in selecting the failed vehicle, a new emission data vehicle which... selected in accordance with the selection criteria employed in selecting the failed vehicle, then two or...

40 CFR 86.098-30 - Certification.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

..., and for 1985 and Later Model Year New Gasoline Fueled, Natural Gas-Fueled, Liquefied Petroleum Gas... with the selection criteria employed in selecting the failed vehicle, a new emission data vehicle which... selected in accordance with the selection criteria employed in selecting the failed vehicle, then two or...

Selecting Anatomy and Physiology Textbooks for Nursing Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harder, Annie K.; Carline, Jan D.

1988-01-01

Describes the criteria used for textbook selection or rejection, how the criteria differ depending on the level of students, and how the criteria differ according to the instructor's training. Discusses results and implications for students, instructors, and publishers. (CW)

30 CFR 260.130 - What criteria does MMS use for selecting bidding systems and bidding system components?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What criteria does MMS use for selecting bidding systems and bidding system components? 260.130 Section 260.130 Mineral Resources MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR OFFSHORE OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF OIL AND GAS LEASING Bidding Systems Bidding System Selection Criteria §...

The Effect of Hidden Curriculum on the Criteria Parents Use to Select Schools and Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sahan, Hasan Hüseyin

2014-01-01

A framework of school and teacher qualities has been established by research. The need to identify families' school and teacher selection criteria, in particular, is the main motive behind the present study. It mainly aims to identify the criteria parents use when selecting schools and teachers, or the influence of hidden curriculum on school and…

Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Brief Adolescent Gambling Screen (BAGS)

PubMed Central

Stinchfield, Randy; Wynne, Harold; Wiebe, Jamie; Tremblay, Joel

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate the initial reliability, validity and classification accuracy of a new brief screen for adolescent problem gambling. The three-item Brief Adolescent Gambling Screen (BAGS) was derived from the nine-item Gambling Problem Severity Subscale (GPSS) of the Canadian Adolescent Gambling Inventory (CAGI) using a secondary analysis of existing CAGI data. The sample of 105 adolescents included 49 females and 56 males from Canada who completed the CAGI, a self-administered measure of DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for Pathological Gambling, and a clinician-administered diagnostic interview including the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for Pathological Gambling (both of which were adapted to yield DSM-5 Gambling Disorder diagnosis). A stepwise multivariate discriminant function analysis selected three GPSS items as the best predictors of a diagnosis of Gambling Disorder. The BAGS demonstrated satisfactory estimates of reliability, validity and classification accuracy and was equivalent to the nine-item GPSS of the CAGI and the BAGS was more accurate than the SOGS-RA. The BAGS estimates of classification accuracy include hit rate = 0.95, sensitivity = 0.88, specificity = 0.98, false positive rate = 0.02, and false negative rate = 0.12. Since these classification estimates are preliminary, derived from a relatively small sample size, and based upon the same sample from which the items were selected, it will be important to cross-validate the BAGS with larger and more diverse samples. The BAGS should be evaluated for use as a screening tool in both clinical and school settings as well as epidemiological surveys. PMID:29312064

Accurate paleointensities - the multi-method approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Groot, Lennart

2016-04-01

The accuracy of models describing rapid changes in the geomagnetic field over the past millennia critically depends on the availability of reliable paleointensity estimates. Over the past decade methods to derive paleointensities from lavas (the only recorder of the geomagnetic field that is available all over the globe and through geologic times) have seen significant improvements and various alternative techniques were proposed. The 'classical' Thellier-style approach was optimized and selection criteria were defined in the 'Standard Paleointensity Definitions' (Paterson et al, 2014). The Multispecimen approach was validated and the importance of additional tests and criteria to assess Multispecimen results must be emphasized. Recently, a non-heating, relative paleointensity technique was proposed -the pseudo-Thellier protocol- which shows great potential in both accuracy and efficiency, but currently lacks a solid theoretical underpinning. Here I present work using all three of the aforementioned paleointensity methods on suites of young lavas taken from the volcanic islands of Hawaii, La Palma, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, and Terceira. Many of the sampled cooling units are <100 years old, the actual field strength at the time of cooling is therefore reasonably well known. Rather intuitively, flows that produce coherent results from two or more different paleointensity methods yield the most accurate estimates of the paleofield. Furthermore, the results for some flows pass the selection criteria for one method, but fail in other techniques. Scrutinizing and combing all acceptable results yielded reliable paleointensity estimates for 60-70% of all sampled cooling units - an exceptionally high success rate. This 'multi-method paleointensity approach' therefore has high potential to provide the much-needed paleointensities to improve geomagnetic field models for the Holocene.

Discrimination of ginseng cultivation regions using light stable isotope analysis.

PubMed

Kim, Kiwook; Song, Joo-Hyun; Heo, Sang-Cheol; Lee, Jin-Hee; Jung, In-Woo; Min, Ji-Sook

2015-10-01

Korean ginseng is considered to be a precious health food in Asia. Today, thieves frequently compromise ginseng farms by pervasive theft. Thus, studies regarding the characteristics of ginseng according to growth region are required in order to deter ginseng thieves and prevent theft. In this study, 6 regions were selected on the basis of Korea regional criteria (si, gun, gu), and two ginseng-farms were randomly selected from each of the 6 regions. Then 4-6 samples of ginseng were acquired from each ginseng farm. The stable isotopic compositions of H, O, C, and N of the collected ginseng samples were analyzed. As a result, differences in the hydrogen isotope ratios could be used to distinguish regional differences, and differences in the nitrogen isotope ratios yielded characteristic information regarding the farms from which the samples were obtained. Thus, stable isotope values could be used to differentiate samples according to regional differences. Therefore, stable isotope analysis serves as a powerful tool to discriminate the regional origin of Korean ginseng samples from across Korea. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Gender differences in developmental dyscalculia depend on diagnostic criteria

PubMed Central

Devine, Amy; Soltész, Fruzsina; Nobes, Alison; Goswami, Usha; Szűcs, Dénes

2013-01-01

Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a learning difficulty specific to mathematics learning. The prevalence of DD may be equivalent to that of dyslexia, posing an important challenge for effective educational provision. Nevertheless, there is no agreed definition of DD and there are controversies surrounding cutoff decisions, specificity and gender differences. In the current study, 1004 British primary school children completed mathematics and reading assessments. The prevalence of DD and gender ratio were estimated in this sample using different criteria. When using absolute thresholds, the prevalence of DD was the same for both genders regardless of the cutoff criteria applied, however gender differences emerged when using a mathematics-reading discrepancy definition. Correlations between mathematics performance and the control measures selected to identify a specific learning difficulty affect both prevalence estimates and whether a gender difference is in fact identified. Educational implications are discussed. PMID:27667904

An improved hybrid multi-criteria/multidimensional model for strategic industrial location selection: Casablanca industrial zones as a case study.

PubMed

Boutkhoum, Omar; Hanine, Mohamed; Agouti, Tarik; Tikniouine, Abdessadek

2015-01-01

In this paper, we examine the issue of strategic industrial location selection in uncertain decision making environments for implanting new industrial corporation. In fact, the industrial location issue is typically considered as a crucial factor in business research field which is related to many calculations about natural resources, distributors, suppliers, customers, and most other things. Based on the integration of environmental, economic and social decisive elements of sustainable development, this paper presents a hybrid decision making model combining fuzzy multi-criteria analysis with analytical capabilities that OLAP systems can provide for successful and optimal industrial location selection. The proposed model mainly consists in three stages. In the first stage, a decision-making committee has been established to identify the evaluation criteria impacting the location selection process. In the second stage, we develop fuzzy AHP software based on the extent analysis method to assign the importance weights to the selected criteria, which allows us to model the linguistic vagueness, ambiguity, and incomplete knowledge. In the last stage, OLAP analysis integrated with multi-criteria analysis employs these weighted criteria as inputs to evaluate, rank and select the strategic industrial location for implanting new business corporation in the region of Casablanca, Morocco. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is performed to evaluate the impact of criteria weights and the preferences given by decision makers on the final rankings of strategic industrial locations.

Modified scoring criteria for the RBANS figures.

PubMed

Duff, Kevin; Leber, W R; Patton, Doyle E; Schoenberg, Mike R; Mold, James W; Scott, James G; Adams, Russell L

2007-01-01

Visual construction and memory tasks are routinely used in neuropsychological assessment, but their subjective scoring criteria can negatively affect the reliability of these instruments. The current study examined the standard scoring criteria for the Figure Copy and Recall subtests of the RBANS and compared them to a modified set of scoring criteria in two samples. In both a large community dwelling sample of older adults and in a mixed clinical sample, the original scoring criteria consistently led to lower scores than the modified criteria. Inter-rater reliability was high for the modified scoring criteria, and no age effects were found with the modified scoring criteria. In both samples, the modified scoring criteria led to Figure Copy scores that more closely approximated other performances on the RBANS compared to the standard criteria, whereas both scoring systems led to plausible Figure Recall scores. Despite these results, the present study cannot identify one scoring criterion as the "better," but only points out the significant differences between them. Such differences can have important clinical implications, and practitioners and researchers who utilize the RBANS with patient samples should be cautious when interpreting low scores on Figure Copy and Recall if the standard criteria are used.

49 CFR Appendix C to Part 541 - Criteria for Selecting Light Duty Truck Lines Likely To Have High Theft Rates

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 49 Transportation 6 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Criteria for Selecting Light Duty Truck Lines Likely To Have High Theft Rates C Appendix C to Part 541 Transportation Other Regulations Relating to... MOTOR VEHICLE THEFT PREVENTION STANDARD Pt. 541, App. C Appendix C to Part 541—Criteria for Selecting...

49 CFR Appendix C to Part 541 - Criteria for Selecting Light Duty Truck Lines Likely To Have High Theft Rates

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 49 Transportation 6 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Criteria for Selecting Light Duty Truck Lines Likely To Have High Theft Rates C Appendix C to Part 541 Transportation Other Regulations Relating to... MOTOR VEHICLE THEFT PREVENTION STANDARD Pt. 541, App. C Appendix C to Part 541—Criteria for Selecting...

49 CFR Appendix C to Part 541 - Criteria for Selecting Light Duty Truck Lines Likely To Have High Theft Rates

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 49 Transportation 6 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Criteria for Selecting Light Duty Truck Lines Likely To Have High Theft Rates C Appendix C to Part 541 Transportation Other Regulations Relating to... MOTOR VEHICLE THEFT PREVENTION STANDARD Pt. 541, App. C Appendix C to Part 541—Criteria for Selecting...

Application of strict criteria in adrenal venous sampling increases the proportion of missed patients with unilateral disease who benefit from surgery for primary aldosteronism.

PubMed

Kline, Gregory; Leung, Alexander; So, Benny; Chin, Alex; Harvey, Adrian; Pasieka, Janice L

2018-06-01

Adrenal vein sampling (AVS) is intended to confirm unilateral forms of primary aldosteronism, which are amenable to surgical cure. Excessively strict AVS criteria to define lateralization may result in many patients incorrectly categorized as bilateral primary aldosteronism and opportunity for surgical cure missed. Retrospective review of an AVS-primary aldosteronism database in which surgical cases are verified by standardized outcomes. Having used 'less strict' AVS criteria for lateralization, we examined the distribution of AVS lateralization indices in our confirmed unilateral primary aldosteronism cases both with and without cosyntropin stimulation. The proportion of proven unilateral cases that would have been missed with stricter AVS interpretation criteria was calculated. Particular focus was given to the proportion of missed cases according to use of international guidelines. False-positive lateralization with 'less strict' interpretation was also calculated. Of 80 surgical primary aldosteronism cases, 10-23% would have been missed with AVS lateralization indices of 3 : 1 to 5 : 1, with or without cosyntropin. If strict selectivity indices (for confirmation of catheterization) were combined with strict lateralization indices, up to 70% of unilateral primary aldosteronism cases could have been missed. Use of Endocrine Society AVS guidelines would have missed 21-43% of proven unilateral cases. 'Less strict' AVS interpretation yielded one case (1.2%) of false lateralization. Excessively strict AVS interpretation criteria will result in a high rate of missed unilateral primary aldosteronism with subsequent loss of opportunity for intervention. Use of more lenient lateralization criteria will improve the detection rate of unilateral primary aldosteronism with very low false-positive rate.

Decision-making patterns for dietary supplement purchases among women aged 25 to 45 years.

PubMed

Miller, Carla K; Russell, Teri; Kissling, Grace

2003-11-01

Women frequently consume dietary supplements but the criteria used to select supplements have received little investigation. This research identified the decision-making criteria used for dietary supplements among women aged 25 to 45 years who consumed a supplement at least four times per week. Participants (N=51) completed an in-store shopping interview that was audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed qualitatively for the criteria used to make supplement selections. Qualitative analysis revealed 10 key criteria and the number of times each person used each criterion was quantified. Cluster analysis identified five homogeneous subgroups of participants based on the criteria used. These included brand shopper, bargain shopper, quality shopper, convenience shopper, and information gatherer. Supplement users vary in the criteria used to make point-of-purchase supplement selections. Dietetics professionals can classify supplement users according to the criteria used to tailor their nutrition counseling and better meet the educational needs of consumers.

A "shotgun" method for tracing the birth locations of sheep from flock tags, applied to scrapie surveillance in Great Britain.

PubMed

Birch, Colin P D; Del Rio Vilas, Victor J; Chikukwa, Ambrose C

2010-09-01

Movement records are often used to identify animal sample provenance by retracing the movements of individuals. Here we present an alternative method, which uses the same identity tags and movement records as are used to retrace movements, but ignores individual movement paths. The first step uses a simple query to identify the most likely birth holding for every identity tag included in a database recording departures from agricultural holdings. The second step rejects a proportion of the birth holding locations to leave a list of birth holding locations that are relatively reliable. The method was used to trace the birth locations of sheep sampled for scrapie in abattoirs, or on farm as fallen stock. Over 82% of the sheep sampled in the fallen stock survey died at the holding of birth. This lack of movement may be an important constraint on scrapie transmission. These static sheep provided relatively reliable birth locations, which were used to define criteria for selecting reliable traces. The criteria rejected 16.8% of fallen stock traces and 11.9% of abattoir survey traces. Two tests provided estimates that selection reduced error in fallen stock traces from 11.3% to 3.2%, and in abattoir survey traces from 8.1% to 1.8%. This method generated 14,591 accepted traces of fallen stock from samples taken during 2002-2005 and 83,136 accepted traces from abattoir samples. The absence or ambiguity of flock tag records at the time of slaughter prevented the tracing of 16-24% of abattoir samples during 2002-2004, although flock tag records improved in 2005. The use of internal scoring to generate and evaluate results from the database query, and the confirmation of results by comparison with other database fields, are analogous to methods used in web search engines. Such methods may have wide application in tracing samples and in adding value to biological datasets. Crown Copyright 2010. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Selection of remedial alternatives for mine sites: a multicriteria decision analysis approach.

PubMed

Betrie, Getnet D; Sadiq, Rehan; Morin, Kevin A; Tesfamariam, Solomon

2013-04-15

The selection of remedial alternatives for mine sites is a complex task because it involves multiple criteria and often with conflicting objectives. However, an existing framework used to select remedial alternatives lacks multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) aids and does not consider uncertainty in the selection of alternatives. The objective of this paper is to improve the existing framework by introducing deterministic and probabilistic MCDA methods. The Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) methods have been implemented in this study. The MCDA analysis involves processing inputs to the PROMETHEE methods that are identifying the alternatives, defining the criteria, defining the criteria weights using analytical hierarchical process (AHP), defining the probability distribution of criteria weights, and conducting Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS); running the PROMETHEE methods using these inputs; and conducting a sensitivity analysis. A case study was presented to demonstrate the improved framework at a mine site. The results showed that the improved framework provides a reliable way of selecting remedial alternatives as well as quantifying the impact of different criteria on selecting alternatives. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Safety approach to the selection of design criteria for the CRBRP reactor refueling system

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

Meisl, C J; Berg, G E; Sharkey, N F

1979-01-01

The selection of safety design criteria for Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor (LMFBR) refueling systems required the extrapolation of regulations and guidelines intended for Light Water Reactor refueling systems and was encumbered by the lack of benefit from a commercially licensed predecessor other than Fermi. The overall approach and underlying logic are described for developing safety design criteria for the reactor refueling system (RRS) of the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Plant (CRBRP). The complete selection process used to establish the criteria is presented, from the definition of safety functions to the finalization of safety design criteria in the appropriate documents.more » The process steps are illustrated by examples.« less

Evaluation of alternative model selection criteria in the analysis of unimodal response curves using CART

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ribic, C.A.; Miller, T.W.

1998-01-01

We investigated CART performance with a unimodal response curve for one continuous response and four continuous explanatory variables, where two variables were important (ie directly related to the response) and the other two were not. We explored performance under three relationship strengths and two explanatory variable conditions: equal importance and one variable four times as important as the other. We compared CART variable selection performance using three tree-selection rules ('minimum risk', 'minimum risk complexity', 'one standard error') to stepwise polynomial ordinary least squares (OLS) under four sample size conditions. The one-standard-error and minimum-risk-complexity methods performed about as well as stepwise OLS with large sample sizes when the relationship was strong. With weaker relationships, equally important explanatory variables and larger sample sizes, the one-standard-error and minimum-risk-complexity rules performed better than stepwise OLS. With weaker relationships and explanatory variables of unequal importance, tree-structured methods did not perform as well as stepwise OLS. Comparing performance within tree-structured methods, with a strong relationship and equally important explanatory variables, the one-standard-error-rule was more likely to choose the correct model than were the other tree-selection rules 1) with weaker relationships and equally important explanatory variables; and 2) under all relationship strengths when explanatory variables were of unequal importance and sample sizes were lower.

Disappointing performance of literature-derived selective screening criteria for asymptomatic Chlamydia trachomatis infection in an inner-city population.

PubMed

van Valkengoed, I G; Boeke, A J; Morré, S A; van den Brule, A J; Meijer, C J; Devillé, W; Bouter, L M

2000-10-01

In an inner-city population with a low prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection, selective screening may be indicated to increase the efficiency of screening. To evaluate the performance of sets of selective screening criteria for asymptomatic Chlamydia trachomatis infection in an inner-city population. The criteria were derived from reports of studies carried out in various settings. A total of 5714 women age 15 to 40 years living in Amsterdam were invited for a screening based on home-obtained urine specimens. Criteria identified from the literature were applied to the screening population. A calculated area under the receiver-operator characteristic curve (AUC) of greater than 0.75 was considered a good measure of diagnostic accuracy. Of the four sets of criteria, selection based on the following determinants showed the highest diagnostic accuracy: younger than 25 years, being unmarried, number of partners during the previous 6 months, Surinam or Antillean origin (black), and vaginal douching (AUC, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.65-0.69). Selection based on age alone showed an AUC of 0.57 (95% CI, 0.55-0.69). The performance of selective screening criteria for asymptomatic C trachomatis infection in an inner-city population in Amsterdam was insufficient to recommend its implementation in practice.

A multi-criteria decision-making approach to rank supplier selection criteria for hospital waste management: A case from Pakistan.

PubMed

Ishtiaq, Palvisha; Khan, Sharfuddin Ahmed; Haq, Moiz-Ul

2018-04-01

To address environmental issues and cost effectiveness, waste management is necessary for healthcare facilities. Most importantly, segregation of hazardous and non-hazardous waste must be done as in many developing countries; disposal of both types of healthcare waste is done together, which is an unsafe practice. Waste generated in hospitals needs proper management to minimise hazards for patient and healthcare workers. At the same time, it is quite difficult for hospitals to find a systematic way to select appropriate suppliers for hospital waste management. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to identify, validate, and rank criteria that are essential for hospital waste management suppliers' selection. The analytical hierarchal process approach has been used and a survey from Pakistan's largest city (Karachi) has been considered to rank the most appropriate criteria that is necessary to select the supplier, especially in a developing country like Pakistan. Results show that waste management cost (45.5%) and suppliers' details (31.5%) are the top two main criteria for supplier selection; and storage cost (15.7%), waste handling cost (14.7%), and qualification of the suppliers (10.9%) are the top three most important overall sub-criteria for supplier selection for hospital waste management.

An overview of international issues in astronaut psychological selection.

PubMed

Santy, P A; Jones, D R

1994-10-01

The NASA Johnson Space Center Medical Sciences Division convened an In-House Working Group on Psychiatric and Psychological Selection of Astronauts in 1988. Working with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Space Development Agency (NASDA) of Japan, psychiatrists and psychologists experienced in selecting individuals for training as astronauts or analogous duties studied the development of appropriate criteria. Psychiatric criteria generally concern the detection of pathological conditions, and thus "select-out" applicants by disqualification. Psychological criteria may be used to identify specific affirmative criteria that make an individual particularly well-qualified for such duties, and thus concern "select-in" processes for operational crews. As space missions grow longer, and as crews become larger and more demographically diversified, the long-ignored questions, "What sort of healthy individuals should be selected for such missions," and "How do we know this?" will become more critical to the success of space exploration. The papers included in this Panel concern the results of these investigations, and represent long-needed quantification of these two selection processes, select-out and select-in, in several cultures.

An investigation of industrial molding compounds for use in 3D ultrasound, MRI, and CT imaging phantoms

PubMed Central

Yunker, Bryan E.; Cordes, Dietmar; Scherzinger, Ann L.; Dodd, Gerald D.; Shandas, Robin; Feng, Yusheng; Hunter, Kendall S.

2013-01-01

Purpose: This study investigated the ultrasound, MRI, and CT imaging characteristics of several industrial casting and molding compounds as a precursor to the future development of durable and anatomically correct flow phantoms. Methods: A set of usability and performance criteria was established for a proposed phantom design capable of supporting liquid flow during imaging. A literature search was conducted to identify the materials and methods previously used in phantom fabrication. A database of human tissue and casting material properties was compiled to facilitate the selection of appropriate materials for testing. Several industrial casting materials were selected, procured, and used to fabricate test samples that were imaged with ultrasound, MRI, and CT. Results: Five silicones and one polyurethane were selected for testing. Samples of all materials were successfully fabricated. All imaging modalities were able to discriminate between the materials tested. Ultrasound testing showed that three of the silicones could be imaged to a depth of at least 2.5 cm (1 in.). The RP-6400 polyurethane exhibited excellent contrast and edge detail for MRI phantoms and appears to be an excellent water reference for CT applications. The 10T and 27T silicones appear to be usable water references for MRI imaging. Conclusions: Based on study data and the stated selection criteria, the P-4 silicone provided sufficient material contrast to water and edge detail for use across all imaging modalities with the benefits of availability, low cost, dimensional stability, nontoxic, nonflammable, durable, cleanable, and optical clarity. The physical and imaging differences of the materials documented in this study may be useful for other applications. PMID:23635298

7 CFR 1944.529 - Project selection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 13 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Project selection. 1944.529 Section 1944.529... selection. (a) Projects must meet the following criteria: (1) Provide a program of supervisory assistance as... section, the following criteria will be considered in the selection of grant recipients: (1) The extent to...

Identification of 11-Nor-delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid in urine by ion trap GC-MS-MS in the context of doping analysis.

PubMed

Caballero, Gerardo M; D'Angelo, Carlos; Fraguío, Mariá Sol; Centurión, Osvaldo Teme

2004-01-01

The purpose of this study is to develop a sensitive and specific alternative to current gas chromatography (GC)-mass spectrometry (MS) selected ion monitoring confirmation methods of 11-nor-delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid (cTHC) in human urine samples, in the context of doping analysis. An identification procedure based on the comparison, among suspicious and control samples, of the relative abundances of cTHC selected product ions obtained by GC-tandem MS in an ion trap is presented. The method complies with the identification criteria for qualitative assays established by sports authorities; the comparison procedure is precise, reproducible, specific, and sensitive, thus indicating that it is fit for the purpose of identification accordingly to World Antidoping Agency requirements.

Reconnaissance investigation of water quality, bottom sediment, and biota associated with irrigation drainage in the American Falls Reservoir area, Idaho, 1988-89. Water Resources Investigation

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

Low, W.H.; Mullins, W.H.

1990-01-01

The report presents results of a reconnaissance investigation to determine whether potentially toxic concentrations of selected trace elements or organochlorine compounds associated with irrigation drainage exist in surface and ground water, bottom sediment, aquatic plants, benthic invertebrates, fish, and waterbirds in the American Falls Reservoir area. American Falls Reservoir was selected for investigation in part because several previous investigations of fish in the reservoir indicated that mercury and cadmium concentrations exceeded human health standards and periodic botulism-related die-offs of waterbirds have been known to occur. Also, rocks south and southeast of the reservoir contain naturally occurring selenium concentrations many timesmore » greater than those in the continental crust. Samples of water, bottom sediment, aquatic plants, benthic invertebrates, fish, and waterbirds were collected from nine sites in the American Falls Reservoir area. The samples were analyzed for selected inorganic and organic constituents to determine whether concentrations exceeded known standards or criteria.« less

Profile local linear estimation of generalized semiparametric regression model for longitudinal data.

PubMed

Sun, Yanqing; Sun, Liuquan; Zhou, Jie

2013-07-01

This paper studies the generalized semiparametric regression model for longitudinal data where the covariate effects are constant for some and time-varying for others. Different link functions can be used to allow more flexible modelling of longitudinal data. The nonparametric components of the model are estimated using a local linear estimating equation and the parametric components are estimated through a profile estimating function. The method automatically adjusts for heterogeneity of sampling times, allowing the sampling strategy to depend on the past sampling history as well as possibly time-dependent covariates without specifically model such dependence. A [Formula: see text]-fold cross-validation bandwidth selection is proposed as a working tool for locating an appropriate bandwidth. A criteria for selecting the link function is proposed to provide better fit of the data. Large sample properties of the proposed estimators are investigated. Large sample pointwise and simultaneous confidence intervals for the regression coefficients are constructed. Formal hypothesis testing procedures are proposed to check for the covariate effects and whether the effects are time-varying. A simulation study is conducted to examine the finite sample performances of the proposed estimation and hypothesis testing procedures. The methods are illustrated with a data example.

Green supply chain management strategy selection using analytic network process: case study at PT XYZ

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adelina, W.; Kusumastuti, R. D.

2017-01-01

This study is about business strategy selection for green supply chain management (GSCM) for PT XYZ by using Analytic Network Process (ANP). GSCM is initiated as a response to reduce environmental impacts from industrial activities. The purposes of this study are identifying criteria and sub criteria in selecting GSCM Strategy, and analysing a suitable GSCM strategy for PT XYZ. This study proposes ANP network with 6 criteria and 29 sub criteria, which are obtained from the literature and experts’ judgements. One of the six criteria contains GSCM strategy options, namely risk-based strategy, efficiency-based strategy, innovation-based strategy, and closed loop strategy. ANP solves complex GSCM strategy-selection by using a more structured process and considering green perspectives from experts. The result indicates that innovation-based strategy is the most suitable green supply chain management strategy for PT XYZ.

Comparison of fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TODIM methods for landfill location selection.

PubMed

Hanine, Mohamed; Boutkhoum, Omar; Tikniouine, Abdessadek; Agouti, Tarik

2016-01-01

Landfill location selection is a multi-criteria decision problem and has a strategic importance for many regions. The conventional methods for landfill location selection are insufficient in dealing with the vague or imprecise nature of linguistic assessment. To resolve this problem, fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making methods are proposed. The aim of this paper is to use fuzzy TODIM (the acronym for Interactive and Multi-criteria Decision Making in Portuguese) and the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methods for the selection of landfill location. The proposed methods have been applied to a landfill location selection problem in the region of Casablanca, Morocco. After determining the criteria affecting the landfill location decisions, fuzzy TODIM and fuzzy AHP methods are applied to the problem and results are presented. The comparisons of these two methods are also discussed.

34 CFR 366.15 - What selection criteria does the Secretary use?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... Training and Technical Assistance § 366.15 What selection criteria does the Secretary use? The Secretary uses the following criteria to evaluate applications for new awards for training and technical... project; and (2) How the objectives further training and technical assistance with respect to planning...

Monitoring pesticides in wildlife

USGS Publications Warehouse

Dustman, E.H.; Martin, W.E.; Heath, R.G.; Reichel, W.L.

1971-01-01

Early in the development of the wildlife monitoring program, certain criteria were recognized as being important in the selection of species of wild animals suitable for pesticide monitoring purposes. Ideally, the forms selected should be geographically well distributed, and they should be reasonably abundant and readily available for sampling. In addition, animals occurring near the top of food chains have the capacity to reflect residues in organisms occurring at lower levels in the same food chains. Based on these criteria, species chosen for monitoring include the starling (Sturnus vulgaris), mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and black ducks (Anas rubripes), and the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). The black duck is substituted for the mallard in States where suitable numbers of mallards cannot be obtained. The Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife is held responsible for the execution of the wildlife portion of the National Pesticide Monitoring Program. The primary objective is to ascertain on a nationwide basis and independent of specific treatments the levels and trends of certain pesticidal chemicals and other pollutants in the bodies of selected forms of wildlife. The program was first described by Johnson et al. (4) in 1967. The purpose of this report is to update and redescribe the wildlife monitoring program and briefly review accomplishments.

Sampling in Developmental Science: Situations, Shortcomings, Solutions, and Standards.

PubMed

Bornstein, Marc H; Jager, Justin; Putnick, Diane L

2013-12-01

Sampling is a key feature of every study in developmental science. Although sampling has far-reaching implications, too little attention is paid to sampling. Here, we describe, discuss, and evaluate four prominent sampling strategies in developmental science: population-based probability sampling, convenience sampling, quota sampling, and homogeneous sampling. We then judge these sampling strategies by five criteria: whether they yield representative and generalizable estimates of a study's target population, whether they yield representative and generalizable estimates of subsamples within a study's target population, the recruitment efforts and costs they entail, whether they yield sufficient power to detect subsample differences, and whether they introduce "noise" related to variation in subsamples and whether that "noise" can be accounted for statistically. We use sample composition of gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status to illustrate and assess the four sampling strategies. Finally, we tally the use of the four sampling strategies in five prominent developmental science journals and make recommendations about best practices for sample selection and reporting.

Sampling in Developmental Science: Situations, Shortcomings, Solutions, and Standards

PubMed Central

Bornstein, Marc H.; Jager, Justin; Putnick, Diane L.

2014-01-01

Sampling is a key feature of every study in developmental science. Although sampling has far-reaching implications, too little attention is paid to sampling. Here, we describe, discuss, and evaluate four prominent sampling strategies in developmental science: population-based probability sampling, convenience sampling, quota sampling, and homogeneous sampling. We then judge these sampling strategies by five criteria: whether they yield representative and generalizable estimates of a study’s target population, whether they yield representative and generalizable estimates of subsamples within a study’s target population, the recruitment efforts and costs they entail, whether they yield sufficient power to detect subsample differences, and whether they introduce “noise” related to variation in subsamples and whether that “noise” can be accounted for statistically. We use sample composition of gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status to illustrate and assess the four sampling strategies. Finally, we tally the use of the four sampling strategies in five prominent developmental science journals and make recommendations about best practices for sample selection and reporting. PMID:25580049

Limited-sampling strategies for anti-infective agents: systematic review.

PubMed

Sprague, Denise A; Ensom, Mary H H

2009-09-01

Area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) is a pharmacokinetic parameter that represents overall exposure to a drug. For selected anti-infective agents, pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic parameters, such as AUC/MIC (where MIC is the minimal inhibitory concentration), have been correlated with outcome in a few studies. A limited-sampling strategy may be used to estimate pharmacokinetic parameters such as AUC, without the frequent, costly, and inconvenient blood sampling that would be required to directly calculate the AUC. To discuss, by means of a systematic review, the strengths, limitations, and clinical implications of published studies involving a limited-sampling strategy for anti-infective agents and to propose improvements in methodology for future studies. The PubMed and EMBASE databases were searched using the terms "anti-infective agents", "limited sampling", "optimal sampling", "sparse sampling", "AUC monitoring", "abbreviated AUC", "abbreviated sampling", and "Bayesian". The reference lists of retrieved articles were searched manually. Included studies were classified according to modified criteria from the US Preventive Services Task Force. Twenty studies met the inclusion criteria. Six of the studies (involving didanosine, zidovudine, nevirapine, ciprofloxacin, efavirenz, and nelfinavir) were classified as providing level I evidence, 4 studies (involving vancomycin, didanosine, lamivudine, and lopinavir-ritonavir) provided level II-1 evidence, 2 studies (involving saquinavir and ceftazidime) provided level II-2 evidence, and 8 studies (involving ciprofloxacin, nelfinavir, vancomycin, ceftazidime, ganciclovir, pyrazinamide, meropenem, and alpha interferon) provided level III evidence. All of the studies providing level I evidence used prospectively collected data and proper validation procedures with separate, randomly selected index and validation groups. However, most of the included studies did not provide an adequate description of the methods or the characteristics of included patients, which limited their generalizability. Many limited-sampling strategies have been developed for anti-infective agents that do not have a clearly established link between AUC and clinical outcomes in humans. Future studies should first determine if there is an association between AUC monitoring and clinical outcomes. Thereafter, it may be worthwhile to prospectively develop and validate a limited-sampling strategy for the particular anti-infective agent in a similar population.

Properties of DRGs, LBGs, and BzK Galaxies in the GOODS South Field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grazian, A.; Salimbeni, S.; Pentericci, L.; Fontana, A.; Santini, P.; Giallongo, E.; de Santis, C.; Gallozzi, S.; Nonino, M.; Cristiani, S.; Vanzella, E.

2007-12-01

We use the GOODS-MUSIC catalog with multi-wavelength coverage extending from the U band to the Spitzer 8 μm band, and spectroscopic or accurate photometric redshifts to select samples of BM/BX/LBGs, DRGs, and BzK galaxies. We discuss the overlap and the limitations of these selection criteria, which can be overcome with a criterion based on physical parameters (age and star formation timescale). We show that the BzK-PE criterion is not optimal for selecting early type galaxies at the faint end. We also find that LBGs and DRGs contribute almost equally to the global Stellar Mass Density (SMD) at z≥ 2 and in general that star forming galaxies form a substantial fraction of the universal SMD.

Hepatitis C bio-behavioural surveys in people who inject drugs-a systematic review of sensitivity to the theoretical assumptions of respondent driven sampling.

PubMed

Buchanan, Ryan; Khakoo, Salim I; Coad, Jonathan; Grellier, Leonie; Parkes, Julie

2017-07-11

New, more effective and better-tolerated therapies for hepatitis C (HCV) have made the elimination of HCV a feasible objective. However, for this to be achieved, it is necessary to have a detailed understanding of HCV epidemiology in people who inject drugs (PWID). Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) can provide prevalence estimates in hidden populations such as PWID. The aims of this systematic review are to identify published studies that use RDS in PWID to measure the prevalence of HCV, and compare each study against the STROBE-RDS checklist to assess their sensitivity to the theoretical assumptions underlying RDS. Searches were undertaken in accordance with PRISMA systematic review guidelines. Included studies were English language publications in peer-reviewed journals, which reported the use of RDS to recruit PWID to an HCV bio-behavioural survey. Data was extracted under three headings: (1) survey overview, (2) survey outcomes, and (3) reporting against selected STROBE-RDS criteria. Thirty-one studies met the inclusion criteria. They varied in scale (range 1-15 survey sites) and the sample sizes achieved (range 81-1000 per survey site) but were consistent in describing the use of standard RDS methods including: seeds, coupons and recruitment incentives. Twenty-seven studies (87%) either calculated or reported the intention to calculate population prevalence estimates for HCV and two used RDS data to calculate the total population size of PWID. Detailed operational and analytical procedures and reporting against selected criteria from the STROBE-RDS checklist varied between studies. There were widespread indications that sampling did not meet the assumptions underlying RDS, which led to two studies being unable to report an estimated HCV population prevalence in at least one survey location. RDS can be used to estimate a population prevalence of HCV in PWID and estimate the PWID population size. Accordingly, as a single instrument, it is a useful tool for guiding HCV elimination. However, future studies should report the operational conduct of each survey in accordance with the STROBE-RDS checklist to indicate sensitivity to the theoretical assumptions underlying the method. PROSPERO CRD42015019245.

Can living donor liver transplantation offer similar outcomes to deceased donor liver transplantation using expanded selection criteria for hepatocellular carcinoma?

PubMed Central

Chen, Li-Ping; Li, Chuan; Wen, Tian-Fu; Yan, Lu-Nan; Li, Bo; Yang, Jia-Yin

2015-01-01

Objective: To compare the outcomes of living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) versus deceased donor liver transplantation (DDLT) for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in different selection criteria. Methods: Data of patients with HCC who underwent liver transplantation between 2005 and 2013 at our center were reviewed. Clinical data of LDLT recipients and DDLT recipients were compared. The postoperative recurrence-free survival (RFS) rate and overall survival (OS) rate after LDLT versus DDLT were compared in the Milan recipients, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) recipients, the up-to-seven recipients, the Hangzhou recipients and the Chengdu recipients. Results: Data of 255 patients were retrospectively reviewed in this study. Seventeen DDLT recipient and 9 LDLT recipients died during the perioperative period. Among the remaining 229 recipients (NLDLT=66, NDDLT=163), 96 patients met the Milan criteria, 123 recipients met the UCSF criteria, 135 patients met the up-to-seven criteria, 216 patients met the Hangzhou criteria, and 229 recipients met the Chengdu criteria. The overall RFS and OS rates of the Milan recipients, the UCSF recipients, the up-to-seven recipients, the Hangzhou recipients and the Chengdu recipients after LDLT and DDLT were all similar. Conclusion: Using well-studied selection criteria, LDLT offers similar outcomes to DDLT for patient with HCC, even using expanded selection criteria. PMID:26430399

Can living donor liver transplantation offer similar outcomes to deceased donor liver transplantation using expanded selection criteria for hepatocellular carcinoma?

PubMed

Chen, Li-Ping; Li, Chuan; Wen, Tian-Fu; Yan, Lu-Nan; Li, Bo; Yang, Jia-Yin

2015-01-01

To compare the outcomes of living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) versus deceased donor liver transplantation (DDLT) for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in different selection criteria. Data of patients with HCC who underwent liver transplantation between 2005 and 2013 at our center were reviewed. Clinical data of LDLT recipients and DDLT recipients were compared. The postoperative recurrence-free survival (RFS) rate and overall survival (OS) rate after LDLT versus DDLT were compared in the Milan recipients, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) recipients, the up-to-seven recipients, the Hangzhou recipients and the Chengdu recipients. Data of 255 patients were retrospectively reviewed in this study. Seventeen DDLT recipient and 9 LDLT recipients died during the perioperative period. Among the remaining 229 recipients (NLDLT=66, NDDLT=163), 96 patients met the Milan criteria, 123 recipients met the UCSF criteria, 135 patients met the up-to-seven criteria, 216 patients met the Hangzhou criteria, and 229 recipients met the Chengdu criteria. The overall RFS and OS rates of the Milan recipients, the UCSF recipients, the up-to-seven recipients, the Hangzhou recipients and the Chengdu recipients after LDLT and DDLT were all similar. Using well-studied selection criteria, LDLT offers similar outcomes to DDLT for patient with HCC, even using expanded selection criteria.

The SDSS-IV extended baryon oscillation spectroscopic survey: Luminous red galaxy target selection

DOE PAGES

Prakash, Abhishek; Licquia, Timothy C.; Newman, Jeffrey A.; ...

2016-06-08

Here, we describe the algorithm used to select the luminous red galaxy (LRG) sample for the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV) using photometric data from both the SDSS and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. LRG targets are required to meet a set of color selection criteria and have z-band and i-band MODEL magnitudes z < 19.95 and 19.9 < i < 21.8, respectively. Our algorithm selects roughly 50 LRG targets per square degree, the great majority of which lie in the redshift range 0.6 < z < 1.0 (median redshift 0.71).more » We also demonstrate that our methods are highly effective at eliminating stellar contamination and lower-redshift galaxies. We perform a number of tests using spectroscopic data from SDSS-III/BOSS ancillary programs to determine the redshift reliability of our target selection and its ability to meet the science requirements of eBOSS. The SDSS spectra are of high enough signal-to-noise ratio that at least ~89% of the target sample yields secure redshift measurements. Finally, we present tests of the uniformity and homogeneity of the sample, demonstrating that it should be clean enough for studies of the large-scale structure of the universe at higher redshifts than SDSS-III/BOSS LRGs reached.« less

THE SDSS-IV EXTENDED BARYON OSCILLATION SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY: LUMINOUS RED GALAXY TARGET SELECTION

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

Prakash, Abhishek; Licquia, Timothy C.; Newman, Jeffrey A.

2016-06-01

We describe the algorithm used to select the luminous red galaxy (LRG) sample for the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV) using photometric data from both the SDSS and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer . LRG targets are required to meet a set of color selection criteria and have z -band and i -band MODEL magnitudes z < 19.95 and 19.9 < i < 21.8, respectively. Our algorithm selects roughly 50 LRG targets per square degree, the great majority of which lie in the redshift range 0.6 < z < 1.0 (medianmore » redshift 0.71). We demonstrate that our methods are highly effective at eliminating stellar contamination and lower-redshift galaxies. We perform a number of tests using spectroscopic data from SDSS-III/BOSS ancillary programs to determine the redshift reliability of our target selection and its ability to meet the science requirements of eBOSS. The SDSS spectra are of high enough signal-to-noise ratio that at least ∼89% of the target sample yields secure redshift measurements. We also present tests of the uniformity and homogeneity of the sample, demonstrating that it should be clean enough for studies of the large-scale structure of the universe at higher redshifts than SDSS-III/BOSS LRGs reached.« less

Job optimization in ATLAS TAG-based distributed analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mambelli, M.; Cranshaw, J.; Gardner, R.; Maeno, T.; Malon, D.; Novak, M.

2010-04-01

The ATLAS experiment is projected to collect over one billion events/year during the first few years of operation. The efficient selection of events for various physics analyses across all appropriate samples presents a significant technical challenge. ATLAS computing infrastructure leverages the Grid to tackle the analysis across large samples by organizing data into a hierarchical structure and exploiting distributed computing to churn through the computations. This includes events at different stages of processing: RAW, ESD (Event Summary Data), AOD (Analysis Object Data), DPD (Derived Physics Data). Event Level Metadata Tags (TAGs) contain information about each event stored using multiple technologies accessible by POOL and various web services. This allows users to apply selection cuts on quantities of interest across the entire sample to compile a subset of events that are appropriate for their analysis. This paper describes new methods for organizing jobs using the TAGs criteria to analyze ATLAS data. It further compares different access patterns to the event data and explores ways to partition the workload for event selection and analysis. Here analysis is defined as a broader set of event processing tasks including event selection and reduction operations ("skimming", "slimming" and "thinning") as well as DPD making. Specifically it compares analysis with direct access to the events (AOD and ESD data) to access mediated by different TAG-based event selections. We then compare different ways of splitting the processing to maximize performance.

What information is provided in transcripts and Medical Student Performance Records from Canadian Medical Schools? A retrospective cohort study.

PubMed

Robins, Jason A; McInnes, Matthew D F; Esmail, Kaisra

2014-01-01

Resident selection committees must rely on information provided by medical schools in order to evaluate candidates. However, this information varies between institutions, limiting its value in comparing individuals and fairly assessing their quality. This study investigates what is included in candidates' documentation, the heterogeneity therein, as well as its objective data. Samples of recent transcripts and Medical Student Performance Records were anonymised prior to evaluation. Data were then extracted by two independent reviewers blinded to the submitting university, assessing for the presence of pre-selected criteria; disagreement was resolved through consensus. The data were subsequently analysed in multiple subgroups. Inter-rater agreement equalled 92%. Inclusion of important criteria varied by school, ranging from 22.2% inclusion to 70.4%; the mean equalled 47.4%. The frequency of specific criteria was highly variable as well. Only 17.7% of schools provided any basis for comparison of academic performance; the majority detailed only status regarding pass or fail, without any further qualification. Considerable heterogeneity exists in the information provided in official medical school documentation, as well as markedly little objective data. Standardization may be necessary in order to facilitate fair comparison of graduates from different institutions. Implementation of objective data may allow more effective intra- and inter-scholastic comparison.

Evaluation and determination of soil remediation schemes using a modified AHP model and its application in a contaminated coking plant.

PubMed

Li, Xingang; Li, Jia; Sui, Hong; He, Lin; Cao, Xingtao; Li, Yonghong

2018-07-05

Soil remediation has been considered as one of the most difficult pollution treatment tasks due to its high complexity in contaminants, geological conditions, usage, urgency, etc. The diversity in remediation technologies further makes quick selection of suitable remediation schemes much tougher even the site investigation has been done. Herein, a sustainable decision support hierarchical model has been developed to select, evaluate and determine preferred soil remediation schemes comprehensively based on modified analytic hierarchy process (MAHP). This MAHP method combines competence model and the Grubbs criteria with the conventional AHP. It not only considers the competence differences among experts in group decision, but also adjusts the big deviation caused by different experts' preference through sample analysis. This conversion allows the final remediation decision more reasonable. In this model, different evaluation criteria, including economic effect, environmental effect and technological effect, are employed to evaluate the integrated performance of remediation schemes followed by a strict computation using above MAHP. To confirm the feasibility of this developed model, it has been tested by a benzene workshop contaminated site in Beijing coking plant. Beyond soil remediation, this MAHP model would also be applied in other fields referring to multi-criteria group decision making. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Impact of Varied Discrimination Parameters on Mixed-Format Item Response Theory Model Selection

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whittaker, Tiffany A.; Chang, Wanchen; Dodd, Barbara G.

2013-01-01

Whittaker, Chang, and Dodd compared the performance of model selection criteria when selecting among mixed-format IRT models and found that the criteria did not perform adequately when selecting the more parameterized models. It was suggested by M. S. Johnson that the problems when selecting the more parameterized models may be because of the low…

How to measure the internationality of scientific publications.

PubMed

Buela-Casal, Gualberto; Zych, Izabela

2012-01-01

Although the term "internationality" has never been defined by consensus, it is commonly used as a synonym of quality. Even though its meaning has never been established, internationality is frequently used to evaluate scientists, publications, or universities in many different countries. The present investigation is based on the opinion about the meaning of the concept "internationality" of the members of scientific community, represented by a broad sample of 16,056 scientists from 109 countries working in all the fields of knowledge defined by UNESCO. The sample was randomly selected from the Web of Science database from the scientists who have published at least one article in one of the journals indexed by the database. A questionnaire based on eleven criteria was designed for the purpose of the study. As a result, the first measure of internationality has been obtained. The most important criteria of internationality are: the publication language, online access, and international publication standards. There are significant differences among geographic zones and fields of knowledge.

DA white dwarfs from the LSS-GAC survey DR1: the preliminary luminosity and mass functions and formation rate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rebassa-Mansergas, A.; Liu, X.-W.; Cojocaru, R.; Yuan, H.-B.; Torres, S.; García-Berro, E.; Xiang, M.-X.; Huang, Y.; Koester, D.; Hou, Y.; Li, G.; Zhang, Y.

2015-06-01

Modern large-scale surveys have allowed the identification of large numbers of white dwarfs. However, these surveys are subject to complicated target selection algorithms, which make it almost impossible to quantify to what extent the observational biases affect the observed populations. The LAMOST (Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope) Spectroscopic Survey of the Galactic anticentre (LSS-GAC) follows a well-defined set of criteria for selecting targets for observations. This advantage over previous surveys has been fully exploited here to identify a small yet well-characterized magnitude-limited sample of hydrogen-rich (DA) white dwarfs. We derive preliminary LSS-GAC DA white dwarf luminosity and mass functions. The space density and average formation rate of DA white dwarfs we derive are 0.83 ± 0.16 × 10-3 pc-3 and 5.42 ± 0.08 × 10-13 pc-3 yr-1, respectively. Additionally, using an existing Monte Carlo population synthesis code we simulate the population of single DA white dwarfs in the Galactic anticentre, under various assumptions. The synthetic populations are passed through the LSS-GAC selection criteria, taking into account all possible observational biases. This allows us to perform a meaningful comparison of the observed and simulated distributions. We find that the LSS-GAC set of criteria is highly efficient in selecting white dwarfs for spectroscopic observations (80-85 per cent) and that, overall, our simulations reproduce well the observed luminosity function. However, they fail at reproducing an excess of massive white dwarfs present in the observed mass function. A plausible explanation for this is that a sizable fraction of massive white dwarfs in the Galaxy are the product of white dwarf-white dwarf mergers.

40 CFR 228.6 - Specific criteria for site selection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 25 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Specific criteria for site selection... selection. (a) In the selection of disposal sites, in addition to other necessary or appropriate factors...) Existence at or in close proximity to the site of any significant natural or cultural features of historical...

Selecting A Landing Site Of Astrobiological Interest For Mars Landers And Sample Return Missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wills, Danielle; Monaghan, E.; Foing, B.

2008-09-01

The landscape of Mars, despite its apparent hostility to life, is riddled with geological and mineralogical signs of past or present hydrological activity. As such, it is a key target for astrobiological exploration. The aim of this work is to combine data and studies to select top priority landing locations for in-situ landers and sample return missions to Mars. We report in particular on science and technical criteria and our data analysis for sites of astrobiological interest. This includes information from previous missions (such as Mars Express, MGS, Odyssey, MRO and MER rovers) on mineralogical composition, geomorphology, evidence from past water history from imaging and spectroscopic data, and existence of in-situ prior information from landers and rovers (concerning evidence for volatiles, organics and habitability conditions). We discuss key mission objectives, and consider the accessibility of chosen locations. We describe what additional measurements are needed, and outline the technical and scientific operations requirements of in-situ landers and sample return missions to Mars.

Health Status of Individuals With Serious Mental Illness

PubMed Central

Dickerson, Faith B.; Brown, Clayton H.; Daumit, Gail L.; LiJuan, Fang; Goldberg, Richard W.; Wohlheiter, Karen; Dixon, Lisa B.

2006-01-01

We examined indices of the health of persons with serious mental illness. A sample of 100 adults with schizophrenia and 100 with major mood disorder were recruited from randomly selected outpatients who were receiving community-based psychiatric treatment. Participants were surveyed about health indicators using items from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study III and the National Health Interview Survey. Their responses were compared with those of matched samples from the general population surveys. A total of 1% of persons with serious mental illness, compared with 10% from the general population sample, met criteria for all 5 of selected health indicators: nonsmoker, exercise that meets recommended standards, good dentition, absence of obesity, and absence of serious medical co-occurring illness. Within the mentally ill group, educational level, but not a diagnosis of schizophrenia versus mood disorder, was independently associated with a composite measure of health behaviors. We conclude that an examination of multiple health indicators may be used to measure overall health status in persons with serious mental illness. PMID:16469943

Real-time detection method and system for identifying individual aerosol particles

DOEpatents

Gard, Eric E [San Francisco, CA; Coffee, Keith R [Patterson, CA; Frank, Matthias [Oakland, CA; Tobias, Herbert J [Kensington, CA; Fergenson, David P [Alamo, CA; Madden, Norm [Livermore, CA; Riot, Vincent J [Berkeley, CA; Steele, Paul T [Livermore, CA; Woods, Bruce W [Livermore, CA

2007-08-21

An improved method and system of identifying individual aerosol particles in real time. Sample aerosol particles are collimated, tracked, and screened to determine which ones qualify for mass spectrometric analysis based on predetermined qualification or selection criteria. Screening techniques include one or more of determining particle size, shape, symmetry, and fluorescence. Only qualifying particles passing all screening criteria are subject to desorption/ionization and single particle mass spectrometry to produce corresponding test spectra, which is used to determine the identities of each of the qualifying aerosol particles by comparing the test spectra against predetermined spectra for known particle types. In this manner, activation cycling of a particle ablation laser of a single particle mass spectrometer is reduced.

Identifying and prioritizing the preference criteria using analytical hierarchical process for a student-lecturer allocation problem of internship programme

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faudzi, Syakinah; Abdul-Rahman, Syariza; Rahman, Rosshairy Abd; Hew, Jafri Hj. Zulkepli

2016-10-01

This paper discusses on identifying and prioritizing the student's preference criteria towards supervisor using Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) for student-lecturer allocation problem of internship programme. Typically a wide number of students undertake internship every semester and many preferences criteria may involve when assigning students to lecturer for supervision. Thus, identifying and prioritizing the preference criteria of assigning students to lecturer is critically needed especially when involving many preferences. AHP technique is used to prioritize the seven criteria which are capacity, specialization, academic position, availability, professional support, relationship and gender. Student's preference alternative is classified based on lecturer's academic position which are lecturer, senior lecturer, associate professor and professor. Criteria are ranked to find the best preference criteria and alternatives of the supervisor that students prefer to have. This problem is solved using Expert Choice 11 software. A sample of 30 respondents who are from semester 6 and above are randomly selected to participate in the study. By using questionnaire as our medium in collecting the student's data, consistency index is produced to validate the proposed study. Findings and result showed that, the most important preference criteria is professional support. It is followed by specialization, availability, relationship, gender, academic position and capacity. This study found that student would like to have a supportive supervisor because lack of supervision can lead the students to achieve low grade and knowledge from the internship session.

Administrative Process and Criteria Ranking for Drug Entering Health Insurance List in Iran-TOPSIS-Based Consensus Model.

PubMed

Viyanchi, Amir; Rajabzadeh Ghatari, Ali; Rasekh, Hamid Reza; SafiKhani, HamidReza

2016-01-01

The purposes of our study were to identify a drug entry process, collect, and prioritize criteria for selecting drugs for the list of basic health insurance commitments to prepare an "evidence based reimbursement eligibility plan" in Iran. The 128 noticeable criteria were found when studying the health insurance systems of developed countries. Four parts (involving criteria) formed the first questionnaire: evaluation of evidences quality, clinical evaluation, economic evaluation, and managerial appraisal. The 85 experts (purposed sampling) were asked to mark the importance of each criterion from 1 to 100 as 1 representing the least and 100 the most important criterion and 45 out of them replied completely. Then, in the next questionnaire, we evaluated the 48 remainder criteria by the same45 participants under four sub-criteria (Cost calculation simplicity, Interpretability, Precision, and Updating capability of a criterion). After collecting the replies, the remainder criteria were ranked by TOPSIS method. Softwares "SPSS" 17 and Excel 2007 were used. The ranks of the five most important criteria which were found for drug approval based on TOPSIS are as follows: 1-domestic production (0.556), 2-duration of using (0.399), 3-independence of the assessment group (0.363) 4-impact budgeting (0.362) 5-decisions of other countries about the same drug (0.358). The numbers in parenthesis are relative closeness alternatives in relation to the ideal solution. This model gave a scientific model for judging fairly on the acceptance of novelty medicines.

Echantillons du travail ecrit des eleves. Francais 6e annee, teste de rendement, juin 1988 (Sample of the Written Work of Students. 6th Grade French Achievement Test, June 1988).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alberta Dept. of Education, Edmonton. Student Evaluation and Records Branch.

This collection of student essays provides illustrations of the criteria used to grade the composition portion of the sixth-grade achievement test used in Alberta (Canada). An introductory section describes the procedures for selecting the essays used, establishing scoring norms, and scoring the tests, and offers general comments on the writing…

Design and evaluation of a field study on the contamination of selected volatile organic compounds and wastewater-indicator compounds in blanks and groundwater samples

USGS Publications Warehouse

Thiros, Susan A.; Bender, David A.; Mueller, David K.; Rose, Donna L.; Olsen, Lisa D.; Martin, Jeffrey D.; Bernard, Bruce; Zogorski, John S.

2011-01-01

The Field Contamination Study (FCS) was designed to determine the field processes that tend to result in clean field blanks and to identify potential sources of contamination to blanks collected in the field from selected volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and wastewater-indicator compounds (WICs). The VOCs and WICs analyzed in the FCS were detected in blanks collected by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program during 1996–2008 and 2002–08, respectively. To minimize the number of variables, the study required ordering of supplies just before sampling, storage of supplies and equipment in clean areas, and use of adequate amounts of purge-and-trap volatile-grade methanol and volatile pesticide-grade blank water (VPBW) to clean sampling equipment and to collect field blanks.Blanks and groundwater samples were collected during 2008–09 at 16 sites, which were a mix of water-supply and monitoring wells, located in 9 States. Five different sample types were collected for the FCS at each site: (1) a source-solution blank collected at the USGS National Water Quality Laboratory (NWQL) using laboratory-purged VPBW, (2) source-solution blanks collected in the field using laboratory-purged VPBW, (3) source-solution blanks collected in the field using field-purged VPBW, (4) a field blank collected using field-purged VPBW, and (5) a groundwater sample collected from a well. The source-solution blank and field-blank analyses were used to identify, quantify, and document extrinsic contamination and to help determine the sources and causes of data-quality problems that can affect groundwater samples.Concentrations of compounds detected in FCS analyses were quantified and results were stored in the USGS National Water Information System database after meeting rigorous identification and quantification criteria. The study also utilized information provided by laboratory analysts about evidence indicating the presence of selected compounds, using less rigorous identification criteria than is required for reporting data to the National Water Information System database. For the FCS, these data are considered adequate to indicate "evidence of presence," and were used only for diagnostic purposes. Evidence of VOCs and WICs at low concentrations near or less than the long-term method detection level can indicate a contamination problem that could affect future datasets if method detection levels were ever to be lowered.

Effects of herbicide usage on water quality of selected streams in Wyoming

USGS Publications Warehouse

Butler, David L.

1980-01-01

During 1977 and 1978 the Wyoming Department of Agriculture, in conjunction with county weed and pest control districts, conducted a noxious-weed-control program in Wyoming. The herbicides primarily used were picloram, 2,4-D, and dicamba. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Wyoming Department of Agriculture, sampled and analyzed water from selected streams for these herbicides plus silvex; 2,4,5-T; and 2,4-DP.This report contains data for samples collected during 1977 and 1978. The most commonly detected herbicides in water samples were 2,4-D with 41-percent nonzero values and picloram with 34.5-percent nonzero values. Herbicide occurrence in bottom-material samples was uncommon; dicamba was found with 9-percent nonzero values. The maximum herbicide concentration in water was 1.1 micrograms per liter of 2,4-D, and the maximum herbicide concentration in bottom material was 8.0 micrograms per kilogram of 2,4-D. Based on available toxicity data and water-quality criteria, these herbicide concentrations do not constitute dangerous or harmful concentrations to humans or to the environment.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: MSX high-contrast IRDCs with NH3 (Chira+,

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chira, R.-A.; Beuther, H.; Linz, H.; Walmsley, C. M.; Menten, K. M.; Bonfman, L.

2013-02-01

Based on MSX data, a catalogue of more than 10,000 candidate IRDCs was compiled. From this catalogue we selected a complete sample of northern hemisphere high-contrast IRDCs with Galactic longitudes >=19.27° (and nine exceptions with Galactic longitudes <19°). The sample was observed in ammonia (1,1) and (2,2) inversion transitions with the Effelsberg 100-m telescope. NH3 parameters are derived for 109 sample sources. For each source galactic coordinates, brightness temperatures, line width FWHMs and optical depths of (1,1) and (2,2) inversion lines and LSR velocity of (1,1) inversion line are given. Furthermore, we derived the rotation and kinetic temperatures, ammonia column densities, kinematic distances and virial masses using the NH3 data. In addition, notes about whether the sources being associated with Spitzer sources or not are given. Using ATLASGAL data, the 870 micron flux densities gas masses, virial parameters, H2 column densities and NH3 abundances are given. In addition, we listed the sample sources where no ammonia which did not fulfil our selection criteria. (4 data files).

Sustainability assessment of alternative end-uses for disused areas based on multi-criteria decision-making method.

PubMed

De Feo, Giovanni; De Gisi, Sabino; De Vita, Sabato; Notarnicola, Michele

2018-08-01

The main aim of this study was to define and apply a multidisciplinary and multi-criteria approach to sustainability in evaluating alternative end-uses for disused areas. Taking into account the three pillars of sustainability (social, economic and environmental dimension) as well as the need for stakeholders to have new practical instruments, the innovative approach consists of four modules stated (i) sociological, (ii) economic, (iii) environmental and (iv) multi-criteria assessment. By means of a case study on a small Municipality in Southern Italy, three end-uses alternatives, representing three essential services for citizens, were selected: Municipal gym; Market area; Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) separate collection centre. The sociological module was useful to select the most socially sound alternative by means of a consultative referendum, simulated with the use of a structured questionnaire administered to a sample of the population. The economic evaluation was conducted defining the bill of quantities with regarding to six main items (soil handling, landfill disposal tax, public services, structure and services, completion work, equipment and furnishings). The environmental evaluation was performed applying the Delphi method with local technicians who were involved in a qualitative-quantitative evaluation of the three alternatives with regarding to eight possible environmental impacts (landscape impact, soil handling, odour, traffic, noise, atmospheric pollution, wastewater, waste). Finally, the Simple Additive Weighting was used as multi-criteria technique to define alternatives priorities. The obtained results showed how the multi-criteria analysis is a useful decision support tool able to identify transparently and efficiently the most sustainable solutions to a complex social problem. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Eleven-Year Retrospective Report of Super-Selective Venous Sampling for the Evaluation of Recurrent or Persistent Hyperparathyroidism in 32 Patients.

PubMed

Habibollahi, Peiman; Shin, Benjamin; Shamchi, Sara P; Wachtel, Heather; Fraker, Douglas L; Trerotola, Scott O

2018-01-01

Parathyroid venous sampling (PAVS) is usually reserved for patients with persistent or recurrent hyperparathyroidism after parathyroidectomy with inconclusive noninvasive imaging studies. A retrospective study was performed to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of super-selective PAVS (SSVS) in patients needing revision neck surgery with inconclusive imaging. Patients undergoing PAVS between 2005 and 2016 due to persistent or recurrent hyperparathyroidism following surgery were reviewed. PAVS was performed in all patients using super-selective technique. Single-value measurements within central neck veins performed as part of super-selective PAVS were used to simulate selective venous sampling (SVS) and allow for comparison to data, which might be obtained in a non-super-selective approach. 32 patients (mean age 51 ± 15 years; 8 men and 24 women) met inclusion and exclusion criteria. The sensitivity and positive predictive value (PPV) of SSVS for localizing the source of elevated PTH to a limited area in the neck or chest was 96 and 84%, respectively. Simulated SVS, on the other hand, had a sensitivity of 28% and a PPV of 89% based on the predefined gold standard. SSVS had a significantly higher sensitivity compared to simulated SVS (p < 0.001). SSVS is highly effective in localizing the source of hyperparathyroidism in patients undergoing revision surgery for hyperparathyroidism in whom noninvasive imaging studies are inconclusive. SSVS data had also markedly higher sensitivity for localizing disease in these patients compared to simulated SVS.

Zero-G Workstation Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gundersen, R. T.; Bond, R. L.

1976-01-01

Zero-g workstations were designed throughout manned spaceflight, based on different criteria and requirements for different programs. The history of design of these workstations is presented along with a thorough evaluation of selected Skylab workstations (the best zero-g experience available on the subject). The results were applied to on-going and future programs, with special emphasis on the correlation of neutral body posture in zero-g to workstation design. Where selected samples of shuttle orbiter workstations are shown as currently designed and compared to experience gained during prior programs in terms of man machine interface design, the evaluations were done in a generic sense to show the methods of applying evaluative techniques.

Quality of surface-water runoff in selected streams in the San Antonio segment of the Edwards aquifer recharge zone, Bexar County, Texas, 1997-2012

USGS Publications Warehouse

Opsahl, Stephen P.

2012-01-01

During 1997–2012, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the San Antonio Water System, collected and analyzed water-quality constituents in surface-water runoff from five ephemeral stream sites near San Antonio in northern Bexar County, Texas. The data were collected to assess the quality of surface water that recharges the Edwards aquifer. Samples were collected from four stream basins that had small amounts of developed land at the onset of the study but were predicted to undergo substantial development over a period of several decades. Water-quality samples also were collected from a fifth stream basin located on land protected from development to provide reference data by representing undeveloped land cover. Water-quality data included pH, specific conductance, chemical oxygen demand, dissolved solids (filtered residue on evaporation in milligrams per liter, dried at 180 degrees Celsius), suspended solids, major ions, nutrients, trace metals, and pesticides. Trace metal concentration data were compared to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality established surface water quality standards for human health protection (water and fish). Among all constituents in all samples for which criteria were available for comparison, only one sample had one constituent which exceeded the surface water criteria on one occasion. A single lead concentration (2.76 micrograms per liter) measured in a filtered water sample exceeded the surface water criteria of 1.15 micrograms per liter. The average number of pesticide detections per sample in stream basins undergoing development ranged from 1.8 to 6.0. In contrast, the average number of pesticide detections per sample in the reference stream basin was 0.6. Among all constituents examined in this study, pesticides, dissolved orthophosphate phosphorus, and dissolved total phosphorus demonstrated the largest differences between the four stream basins undergoing development and the reference stream basin with undeveloped land cover.

Lean Information Management: Criteria For Selecting Key Performance Indicators At Shop Floor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iuga, Maria Virginia; Kifor, Claudiu Vasile; Rosca, Liviu-Ion

2015-07-01

Most successful organizations worldwide use key performance indicators as an important part of their corporate strategy in order to forecast, measure and plan their businesses. Performance metrics vary in their purpose, definition and content. Therefore, the way organizations select what they think are the optimal indicators for their businesses varies from company to company, sometimes even from department to department. This study aims to answer the question of what is the most suitable way to define and select key performance indicators. More than that, it identifies the right criteria to select key performance indicators at shop floor level. This paper contributes to prior research by analysing and comparing previously researched selection criteria and proposes an original six-criteria-model, which caters towards choosing the most adequate KPIs. Furthermore, the authors take the research a step further by further steps to closed research gaps within this field of study.

Comparison of green sample preparation techniques in the analysis of pyrethrins and pyrethroids in baby food by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Petrarca, Mateus Henrique; Ccanccapa-Cartagena, Alexander; Masiá, Ana; Godoy, Helena Teixeira; Picó, Yolanda

2017-05-12

A new selective and sensitive liquid chromatography triple quadrupole mass spectrometry method was developed for simultaneous analysis of natural pyrethrins and synthetic pyrethroids residues in baby food. In this study, two sample preparation methods based on ultrasound-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (UA-DLLME) and salting-out assisted liquid-liquid extraction (SALLE) were optimized, and then, compared regarding the performance criteria. Appropriate linearity in solvent and matrix-based calibrations, and suitable recoveries (75-120%) and precision (RSD values≤16%) were achieved for selected analytes by any of the sample preparation procedures. Both methods provided the analytical selectivity required for the monitoring of the insecticides in fruit-, cereal- and milk-based baby foods. SALLE, recognized by cost-effectiveness, and simple and fast execution, provided a lower enrichment factor, consequently, higher limits of quantification (LOQs) were obtained. Some of them too high to meet the strict legislation regarding baby food. Nonetheless, the combination of ultrasound and DLLME also resulted in a high sample throughput and environmental-friendly method, whose LOQs were lower than the default maximum residue limit (MRL) of 10μgkg -1 set by European Community for baby foods. In the commercial baby foods analyzed, cyhalothrin and etofenprox were detected in different samples, demonstrating the suitability of proposed method for baby food control. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

eDNAoccupancy: An R package for multi-scale occupancy modeling of environmental DNA data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Dorazio, Robert; Erickson, Richard A.

2017-01-01

In this article we describe eDNAoccupancy, an R package for fitting Bayesian, multi-scale occupancy models. These models are appropriate for occupancy surveys that include three, nested levels of sampling: primary sample units within a study area, secondary sample units collected from each primary unit, and replicates of each secondary sample unit. This design is commonly used in occupancy surveys of environmental DNA (eDNA). eDNAoccupancy allows users to specify and fit multi-scale occupancy models with or without covariates, to estimate posterior summaries of occurrence and detection probabilities, and to compare different models using Bayesian model-selection criteria. We illustrate these features by analyzing two published data sets: eDNA surveys of a fungal pathogen of amphibians and eDNA surveys of an endangered fish species.

Well installation and documentation, and ground-water sampling protocols for the pilot National Water-Quality Assessment Program

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hardy, M.A.; Leahy, P.P.; Alley, W.M.

1989-01-01

Several pilot projects are being conducted as part of the National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program. The purpose of the pilot program is to test and refine concepts for a proposed full-scale program. Three of the pilot projects are specifically designed to assess groundwater. The purpose of this report is to describe the criteria that are being used in the NAWQA pilot projects for selecting and documenting wells, installing new wells, and sampling wells for different water quality constituents. Guidelines are presented for the selection of wells for sampling. Information needed to accurately document each well includes site characteristics related to the location of the well, land use near the well, and important well construction features. These guidelines ensure the consistency of the information collected and will provide comparable data for interpretive purposes. Guidelines for the installation of wells are presented and include procedures that need to be followed for preparations prior to drilling, the selection of the drilling technique and casing type, the grouting procedure, and the well-development technique. A major component of the protocols is related to water quality sampling. Tasks are identified that need to be completed prior to visiting the site for sampling. Guidelines are presented for purging the well prior t sampling, both in terms of the volume of water pumped and the chemical stability of field parameters. Guidelines are presented concerning sampler selection as related to both inorganic and organic constituents. Documentation needed to describe the measurements and observations related to sampling each well and treating and preserving the samples are also presented. Procedures are presented for the storage and shipping of water samples, equipment cleaning, and quality assurance. Quality assurance guidelines include the description of the general distribution of the various quality assurance samples (blanks, spikes, duplicates, and reference samples) that will be used in the pilot program. (Lantz-PTT)

Application of internal quality control to the analysis of quaternary ammonium compounds in surface and groundwater from Andalusia (Spain) by liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Vidal, J L Martínez; Vega, A Belmonte; López, F J Sánchez; Frenich, A Garrido

2004-10-01

A method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of paraquat (PQ), deiquat (DQ), chlormequat (CQ) and mepiquat (MQ) in water samples by liquid chromatography (LC) coupled with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (MS). The LC separations of the target compounds, as well as their MS parameters, were optimized in order to improve selectivity and sensitivity. Separation was carried out in a Xterra C8 column, using as mobile phase methanol-heptafluorobutyric acid (HFBA) in isocratic mode. The molecular ion was selected for the quantitation in selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode. Off-line solid-phase extraction (SPE) was applied with silica cartridges in order to preconcentrate the compounds from waters. Detection limits were in the range 0.02-0.40 microg l(-1). Recovery range varied between 89 and 99.5% with precision values lower than 6%. The method has been applied successfully to the analysis of both surface and groundwater samples from agricultural areas of Andalusia (Spain), using well defined internal quality control (IQC) criteria. The results revealed the presence of deiquat and paraquat in some samples.

A Draft Protocol for Detecting Possible Biohazards in Martian Samples Returned to Earth

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Viso, M.; DeVincenzi, D. L.; Race, M. S.; Schad, P. J.; Stabekis, P. D.; Acevedo, S. E.; Rummel, J. D.

2002-01-01

In preparation for missions to Mars that will involve the return of samples, it is necessary to prepare for the safe receiving, handling, testing, distributing, and archiving of martian materials here on Earth. Previous groups and committees have studied selected aspects of sample return activities, but a specific protocol for handling and testing of returned -=1 samples from Mars remained to be developed. To refine the requirements for Mars sample hazard testing and to develop criteria for the subsequent release of sample materials from precautionary containment, NASA Planetary Protection Officer, working in collaboration with CNES, convened a series of workshops to produce a Protocol by which returned martian sample materials could be assessed for biological hazards and examined for evidence of life (extant or extinct), while safeguarding the samples from possible terrestrial contamination. The Draft Protocol was then reviewed by an Oversight and Review Committee formed specifically for that purpose and composed of senior scientists. In order to preserve the scientific value of returned martian samples under safe conditions, while avoiding false indications of life within the samples, the Sample Receiving Facility (SRF) is required to allow handling and processing of the Mars samples to prevent their terrestrial contamination while maintaining strict biological containment. It is anticipated that samples will be able to be shipped among appropriate containment facilities wherever necessary, under procedures developed in cooperation with international appropriate institutions. The SRF will need to provide different types of laboratory environments for carrying out, beyond sample description and curation, the various aspects of the protocol: Physical/Chemical analysis, Life Detection testing, and Biohazard testing. The main principle of these tests will be described and the criteria for release will be discussed, as well as the requirements for the SRF and its personnel.

Which family physician should I choose? The analytic hierarchy process approach for ranking of criteria in the selection of a family physician.

PubMed

Kuruoglu, Emel; Guldal, Dilek; Mevsim, Vildan; Gunvar, Tolga

2015-08-05

Choosing the most appropriate family physician (FP) for the individual, plays a fundamental role in primary care. The aim of this study is to determine the selection criteria for the patients in choosing their family doctors and priority ranking of these criteria by using the multi-criteria decision-making method of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model. The study was planned and conducted in two phases. In the first phase, factors affecting the patients' decisions were revealed with a qualitative research. In the next phase, the priorities of FP selection criteria were determined by using AHP model. Criteria were compared in pairs. 96 patient were asked to fill the information forms which contains comparison scores in the Family Health Centres. According to the analysis of focus group discussions FP selection criteria were congregated in to five groups: Individual Characteristics, Patient-Doctor relationship, Professional characteristics, the Setting, and Ethical Characteristics. For each of the 96 participants, comparison matrixes were formed based on the scores of their information forms. Of these, models of only 5 (5.2 %) of the participants were consistent, in other words, they have been able to score consistent ranking. The consistency ratios (CR) were found to be smaller than 0.10. Therefore the comparison matrix of this new model, which was formed based on the medians of scores only given by these 5 participants, was consistent (CR = 0.06 < 0.10). According to comparison results; with a 0.467 value-weight, the most important criterion for choosing a family physician is his/her 'Professional characteristics'. Selection criteria for choosing a FP were put in a priority order by using AHP model. These criteria can be used as measures for selecting alternative FPs in further researches.

77 FR 74407 - Proposed Priorities, Requirements, Definitions, and Selection Criteria-Investing in Innovation Fund

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-12-14

...The Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement proposes priorities, requirements, definitions, and selection criteria under the Investing in Innovation Fund (i3). The Assistant Deputy Secretary may use these priorities, requirements, definitions, and selection criteria for competitions in fiscal year (FY) 2013 and later years. The U.S. Department of Education (Department) has conducted three competitions under the i3 program and awarded 92 i3 grants since the program was established under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). These proposed priorities, requirements, definitions, and selection criteria maintain the overall purpose and structure of the i3 program, which is discussed later in this document, and incorporate changes based on specific lessons learned from the first three competitions.

An Examination of Program Selection Criteria for Part-Time MBA Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Colburn, Michael; Fox, Daniel E.; Westerfelt, Debra Kay

2011-01-01

Prospective graduate students select a graduate program as a result of a multifaceted decision-making process. This study examines the selection criteria that part-time MBA students used in selecting a program at a private university. Further, it analyzes the methods by which the students first learned of the MBA program. The authors posed the…

Improved military air traffic controller selection methods as measured by subsequent training performance.

PubMed

Carretta, Thomas R; King, Raymond E

2008-01-01

Over the past decade, the U.S. military has conducted several studies to evaluate determinants of enlisted air traffic controller (ATC) performance. Research has focused on validation of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) and has shown it to be a good predictor of training performance. Despite this, enlisted ATC training and post-training attrition is higher than desirable, prompting interest in alternate selection methods to augment current procedures. The current study examined the utility of the FAA Air Traffic Selection and Training (AT-SAT) battery for incrementing the predictiveness of the ASVAB versus several enlisted ATC training criteria. Subjects were 448 USAF enlisted ATC students who were administered the ASVAB and FAA AT-SAT subtests and subsequently graduated or were eliminated from apprentice-level training. Training criteria were a dichotomous graduation/elimination training score, average ATC fundamentals course score, and FAA certified tower operator test score. Results confirmed the predictive validity of the ASVAB and showed that one of the AT-SAT subtests resembling a low-fidelity ATC work sample significantly improved prediction of training performance beyond the ASVAB alone. Results suggested training attrition could be reduced by raising the current ASVAB minimum qualifying score. However, this approach may make it difficult to identify sufficient numbers of trainees and lead to adverse impact. Although the AT-SAT ATC work sample subtest showed incremental validity to the ASVAB, its length (95 min) may be problematic in operational testing. Recommendations are made for additional studies to address issues affecting operational implementation.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and clinical depression-prevalence in a sleep center.

PubMed

Acker, Jens; Richter, K; Piehl, A; Herold, J; Ficker, J H; Niklewski, G

2017-05-01

This study aimed to determine the prevalence of clinical depression as defined by ICD-10 criteria in all patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) referred to a sleep center. Prospective general and sleep evaluations were conducted in 447 consecutive patients referred to our sleep center during the first quarter of 2008. Inclusion criteria were Apnea Hypopnea Index (AHI) > 9, completion of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) with a score ≥14 and World Health Organization WHO-5 Well-Being Index (WHO-5) ≤ 13. The subsequent psychiatric examination according to ICD-10 criteria was performed by in-house clinical sleep specialists. A total of 447 patients were surveyed, of whom 322 had an AHI > 9. Out of these, 85 met the combined screening criterion BDI II ≥ 14 and WHO-5 ≤ 13. Eighty-one patients underwent a psychiatric examination by psychiatric sleep specialists. In 21.5 % of the sample, clinical depression was diagnosed. Other complaints existed in 12 % (n = 10); 7 % (n = 6) of patients had a different psychiatric diagnosis. The prevalence of clinical depression according to ICD-10 criteria in a selected clinical sample (referred to the sleep center) was 21.5 %. Mood scales tend to overestimate complaints as compared to psychiatric consultation. Interdisciplinary cooperation is recommended for both OSA patients with symptoms of depression and depressed patients with treatment resistance.

Clinical high risk for psychosis in children and adolescents: a systematic review.

PubMed

Tor, Jordina; Dolz, Montserrat; Sintes, Anna; Muñoz, Daniel; Pardo, Marta; de la Serna, Elena; Puig, Olga; Sugranyes, Gisela; Baeza, Inmaculada

2017-09-15

The concept of being at risk for psychosis has been introduced both for adults and children and adolescents, but fewer studies have been conducted in the latter population. The aim of this study is to systematically review the articles associated with clinical description, interventions, outcome and other areas in children and adolescents at risk for psychosis. We searched in MEDLINE/PubMed and PsycINFO databases for articles published up to 30/06/16. Reviewed articles were prospective studies; written in English; original articles with Clinical High Risk (CHR) for psychosis samples; and mean age of samples younger than 18 years. From 103 studies initially selected, 48 met inclusion criteria and were systematically reviewed. Studies show that CHR children and adolescents present several clinical characteristics at baseline, with most attenuated positive-symptom inclusion criteria observed, reporting mostly perceptual abnormalities and suspiciousness, and presenting comorbid conditions such as depressive and anxiety disorders. CHR children and adolescents show lower general intelligence and no structural brain changes compared with controls. Original articles reviewed show rates of conversion to psychosis between 17 and 20% at 1 year follow-up and between 7 and 21% at 2 years. While 36% of patients recovered from their CHR status at 6-year follow-up, 40% still met CHR criteria. Studies in children and adolescents with CHR were conducted with different methodologies, assessments tools and small samples. It is important to conduct studies on psychopharmacological and psychological treatment, as well as replication of the few studies found.

American College of Rheumatology provisional criteria for defining clinical inactive disease in select categories of juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

PubMed

Wallace, Carol A; Giannini, Edward H; Huang, Bin; Itert, Lukasz; Ruperto, Nicolino

2011-07-01

To prospectively validate the preliminary criteria for clinical inactive disease (CID) in patients with select categories of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). We used the process for development of classification and response criteria recommended by the American College of Rheumatology Quality of Care Committee. Patient-visit profiles were extracted from the phase III randomized controlled trial of infliximab in polyarticular-course JIA (i.e., patients considered to resemble those with select categories of JIA) and sent to an international group of expert physician raters. Using the physician ratings as the gold standard, the sensitivity and specificity were calculated using the preliminary criteria. Modifications to the criteria were made, and these were sent to a larger group of pediatric rheumatologists to determine quantitative, face, and content validity. Variables weighted heaviest by physicians when making their judgment were the number of joints with active arthritis, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), physician's global assessment, and duration of morning stiffness. Three modifications were made: the definition of uveitis, the definition of abnormal ESR, and the addition of morning stiffness. These changes did not alter the accuracy of the preliminary set. The modified criteria, termed the "criteria for CID in select categories of JIA," have excellent feasibility and face, content, criterion, and discriminant validity to detect CID in select categories of JIA. The small changes made to the preliminary criteria set did not alter the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (0.954) or accuracy (91%), but have increased face and content validity. Copyright © 2011 by the American College of Rheumatology.

Scene recognition based on integrating active learning with dictionary learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Chengxi; Yin, Xueyan; Yang, Lin; Gong, Chengrong; Zheng, Caixia; Yi, Yugen

2018-04-01

Scene recognition is a significant topic in the field of computer vision. Most of the existing scene recognition models require a large amount of labeled training samples to achieve a good performance. However, labeling image manually is a time consuming task and often unrealistic in practice. In order to gain satisfying recognition results when labeled samples are insufficient, this paper proposed a scene recognition algorithm named Integrating Active Learning and Dictionary Leaning (IALDL). IALDL adopts projective dictionary pair learning (DPL) as classifier and introduces active learning mechanism into DPL for improving its performance. When constructing sampling criterion in active learning, IALDL considers both the uncertainty and representativeness as the sampling criteria to effectively select the useful unlabeled samples from a given sample set for expanding the training dataset. Experiment results on three standard databases demonstrate the feasibility and validity of the proposed IALDL.

78 FR 13041 - Applications for New Awards; Carol M. White Physical Education Program

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-02-26

... child nutrition director), grocery stores, supermarkets, restaurants, corner stores, farmers' markets... this program. Page Limit: The application narrative is where you, the applicant, address the selection.... Application Review Information 1. Selection Criteria: The selection criteria for this program are from 34 CFR...

Optical Spectroscopy of Distant Red Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wuyts, Stijn; van Dokkum, Pieter G.; Franx, Marijn; Förster Schreiber, Natascha M.; Illingworth, Garth D.; Labbé, Ivo; Rudnick, Gregory

2009-11-01

We present optical spectroscopic follow-up of a sample of distant red galaxies (DRGs) with K tot s,Vega < 22.5, selected by (J - K)Vega>2.3, in the Hubble Deep Field South (HDFS), the MS 1054-03 field, and the Chandra Deep Field South (CDFS). Spectroscopic redshifts were obtained for 15 DRGs. Only two out of 15 DRGs are located at z < 2, suggesting a high efficiency to select high-redshift sources. From other spectroscopic surveys in the CDFS targeting intermediate to high-redshift populations selected with different criteria, we find spectroscopic redshifts for a further 30 DRGs. We use the sample of spectroscopically confirmed DRGs to establish the high quality (scatter in Δz/(1 + z) of ~0.05) of their photometric redshifts in the considered deep fields, as derived with EAZY. Combining the spectroscopic and photometric redshifts, we find that 74% of DRGs with K tot s,Vega < 22.5 lie at z>2. The combined spectroscopic and photometric sample is used to analyze the distinct intrinsic and observed properties of DRGs at z < 2 and z>2. In our photometric sample to K tot s,Vega < 22.5, low-redshift DRGs are brighter in Ks than high-redshift DRGs by 0.7 mag, and more extincted by 1.2 mag in AV . Our analysis shows that the DRG criterion selects galaxies with different properties at different redshifts. Such biases can be largely avoided by selecting galaxies based on their rest-frame properties, which requires very good multi-band photometry and high quality photometric redshifts.

Fuzzy approaches to supplier selection problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ozkok, Beyza Ahlatcioglu; Kocken, Hale Gonce

2013-09-01

Supplier selection problem is a multi-criteria decision making problem which includes both qualitative and quantitative factors. In the selection process many criteria may conflict with each other, therefore decision-making process becomes complicated. In this study, we handled the supplier selection problem under uncertainty. In this context; we used minimum criterion, arithmetic mean criterion, regret criterion, optimistic criterion, geometric mean and harmonic mean. The membership functions created with the help of the characteristics of used criteria, and we tried to provide consistent supplier selection decisions by using these memberships for evaluating alternative suppliers. During the analysis, no need to use expert opinion is a strong aspect of the methodology used in the decision-making.

Planning for the Paleomagnetic Investigations of Returned Samples from Mars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weiss, B. P.; Beaty, D. W.; McSween, H. Y., Jr.; Czaja, A. D.; Goreva, Y.; Hausrath, E.; Herd, C. D. K.; Humayun, M.; McCubbin, F. M.; McLennan, S. M.; Pratt, L. M.; Sephton, M. A.; Steele, A.; Hays, L. E.; Meyer, M. A.

2016-12-01

The red planet is a magnetic planet. Mars' iron-rich surface is strongly magnetized, likely dating back to the Noachian period when the surface may have been habitable. Paleomagnetic measurements of returned samples could transform our understanding of the Martian dynamo and its connection to climatic and planetary thermal evolution. Because the original orientations of Martian meteorites are unknown, all Mars paleomagnetic studies to date have only been able to measure the paleointensity of the Martian field. Paleomagnetic studies from returned Martian bedrock samples would provide unprecedented geologic context and the first paleodirectional information on Martian fields. The Mars 2020 rover mission seeks to accomplish the first leg by preparing for the potential return of 31 1 cm-diameter cores of Martian rocks. The Returned Sample Science Board (RSSB) has been tasked to advise the Mars 2020 mission in how to best select and preserve samples optimized for paleomagnetic measurements. A recent community-based study (Weiss et al., 2014) produced a ranked list of key paleomagnetism science objectives, which included: 1) Determine the intensity of the Martian dynamo 2) Characterize the dynamo reversal frequency with magnetostratigraphy 3) Constrain the effects of heating and aqueous alteration on the samples 4) Constrain the history of Martian tectonics Guided by these objectives, the RSSB has proposed four key sample quality criteria to the Mars 2020 mission: (a) no exposure to fields >200 mT, (b) no exposure to temperatures >100 °C, (c) no exposure to pressures >0.1 GPa, and (d) acquisition of samples that are absolutely oriented with respect to bedrock with a half-cone uncertainty of <5°. Our measurements of a Mars 2020 prototype drill have found that criteria (a-c) should be met by the drilling process. Furthermore, the core plate strike and dip will be measured to better than 5° for intact drill cores; we are working with the mission to establish ways to determine the core's angular orientation with respect to rotation around the drill hole axis. The next stage of our work is to establish whether and how these sample criteria would be maintained throughout the potential downstream missions that would return the samples to Earth.

Criteria for Selection and Rejection of Social Relationships among Children in Urban and Rural Kindergartens in Greece

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rekalidou, Galini; Petrogiannis, Konstantinos

2012-01-01

This paper reports on preschool children's social relationships developed in urban and rural kindergarten classes in Greece. We investigated the selection and rejection criteria children use and examined potential criteria differences as a function of a number of socio-demographic variables (children's age group, gender, parental job status,…

METHOD 544. DETERMINATION OF MICROCYSTINS AND ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Method 544 is an accurate and precise analytical method to determine six microcystins (including MC-LR) and nodularin in drinking water using solid phase extraction and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (SPE-LC/MS/MS). The advantage of this SPE-LC/MS/MS is its sensitivity and ability to speciate the microcystins. This method development task establishes sample preservation techniques, sample concentration and analytical procedures, aqueous and extract holding time criteria and quality control procedures. Draft Method 544 undergone a multi-laboratory verification to ensure other laboratories can implement the method and achieve the quality control measures specified in the method. It is anticipated that Method 544 may be used in UCMR 4 to collect nationwide occurrence data for selected microcystins in drinking water. The purpose of this research project is to develop an accurate and precise analytical method to concentrate and determine selected MCs and nodularin in drinking water.

Randomization of grab-sampling strategies for estimating the annual exposure of U miners to Rn daughters.

PubMed

Borak, T B

1986-04-01

Periodic grab sampling in combination with time-of-occupancy surveys has been the accepted procedure for estimating the annual exposure of underground U miners to Rn daughters. Temporal variations in the concentration of potential alpha energy in the mine generate uncertainties in this process. A system to randomize the selection of locations for measurement is described which can reduce uncertainties and eliminate systematic biases in the data. In general, a sample frequency of 50 measurements per year is sufficient to satisfy the criteria that the annual exposure be determined in working level months to within +/- 50% of the true value with a 95% level of confidence. Suggestions for implementing this randomization scheme are presented.

Personality, Cognitive Style, Motivation, and Aptitude Predict Systematic Trends in Analytic Forecasting Behavior.

PubMed

Poore, Joshua C; Forlines, Clifton L; Miller, Sarah M; Regan, John R; Irvine, John M

2014-12-01

The decision sciences are increasingly challenged to advance methods for modeling analysts, accounting for both analytic strengths and weaknesses, to improve inferences taken from increasingly large and complex sources of data. We examine whether psychometric measures-personality, cognitive style, motivated cognition-predict analytic performance and whether psychometric measures are competitive with aptitude measures (i.e., SAT scores) as analyst sample selection criteria. A heterogeneous, national sample of 927 participants completed an extensive battery of psychometric measures and aptitude tests and was asked 129 geopolitical forecasting questions over the course of 1 year. Factor analysis reveals four dimensions among psychometric measures; dimensions characterized by differently motivated "top-down" cognitive styles predicted distinctive patterns in aptitude and forecasting behavior. These dimensions were not better predictors of forecasting accuracy than aptitude measures. However, multiple regression and mediation analysis reveals that these dimensions influenced forecasting accuracy primarily through bias in forecasting confidence. We also found that these facets were competitive with aptitude tests as forecast sampling criteria designed to mitigate biases in forecasting confidence while maximizing accuracy. These findings inform the understanding of individual difference dimensions at the intersection of analytic aptitude and demonstrate that they wield predictive power in applied, analytic domains.

Personality, Cognitive Style, Motivation, and Aptitude Predict Systematic Trends in Analytic Forecasting Behavior

PubMed Central

Forlines, Clifton L.; Miller, Sarah M.; Regan, John R.; Irvine, John M.

2014-01-01

The decision sciences are increasingly challenged to advance methods for modeling analysts, accounting for both analytic strengths and weaknesses, to improve inferences taken from increasingly large and complex sources of data. We examine whether psychometric measures—personality, cognitive style, motivated cognition—predict analytic performance and whether psychometric measures are competitive with aptitude measures (i.e., SAT scores) as analyst sample selection criteria. A heterogeneous, national sample of 927 participants completed an extensive battery of psychometric measures and aptitude tests and was asked 129 geopolitical forecasting questions over the course of 1 year. Factor analysis reveals four dimensions among psychometric measures; dimensions characterized by differently motivated “top-down” cognitive styles predicted distinctive patterns in aptitude and forecasting behavior. These dimensions were not better predictors of forecasting accuracy than aptitude measures. However, multiple regression and mediation analysis reveals that these dimensions influenced forecasting accuracy primarily through bias in forecasting confidence. We also found that these facets were competitive with aptitude tests as forecast sampling criteria designed to mitigate biases in forecasting confidence while maximizing accuracy. These findings inform the understanding of individual difference dimensions at the intersection of analytic aptitude and demonstrate that they wield predictive power in applied, analytic domains. PMID:25983670

A systematic review of the quality of homeopathic clinical trials

PubMed Central

Jonas, Wayne B; Anderson, Rachel L; Crawford, Cindy C; Lyons, John S

2001-01-01

Background While a number of reviews of homeopathic clinical trials have been done, all have used methods dependent on allopathic diagnostic classifications foreign to homeopathic practice. In addition, no review has used established and validated quality criteria allowing direct comparison of the allopathic and homeopathic literature. Methods In a systematic review, we compared the quality of clinical-trial research in homeopathy to a sample of research on conventional therapies using a validated and system-neutral approach. All clinical trials on homeopathic treatments with parallel treatment groups published between 1945–1995 in English were selected. All were evaluated with an established set of 33 validity criteria previously validated on a broad range of health interventions across differing medical systems. Criteria covered statistical conclusion, internal, construct and external validity. Reliability of criteria application is greater than 0.95. Results 59 studies met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 79% were from peer-reviewed journals, 29% used a placebo control, 51% used random assignment, and 86% failed to consider potentially confounding variables. The main validity problems were in measurement where 96% did not report the proportion of subjects screened, and 64% did not report attrition rate. 17% of subjects dropped out in studies where this was reported. There was practically no replication of or overlap in the conditions studied and most studies were relatively small and done at a single-site. Compared to research on conventional therapies the overall quality of studies in homeopathy was worse and only slightly improved in more recent years. Conclusions Clinical homeopathic research is clearly in its infancy with most studies using poor sampling and measurement techniques, few subjects, single sites and no replication. Many of these problems are correctable even within a "holistic" paradigm given sufficient research expertise, support and methods. PMID:11801202

34 CFR 1100.20 - How is a fellow selected?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... LITERACY NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR LITERACY: LITERACY LEADER FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM How Does the Director Award a... literacy field to rank applications according to the selection criteria in § 1100.21, and then provide the... order, recommendations by the board, and any other information relevant to any of the selection criteria...

49 CFR 268.17 - Project selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... criteria will govern FRA's selection of projects to receive funding under the Maglev Deployment Program. (a... are to be expected in the United States. (4) The degree to which the project will augment a Maglev... development status of the Maglev technology selected by the applicant for the project. (c) Benefits for the...

49 CFR 268.17 - Project selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... criteria will govern FRA's selection of projects to receive funding under the Maglev Deployment Program. (a... are to be expected in the United States. (4) The degree to which the project will augment a Maglev... development status of the Maglev technology selected by the applicant for the project. (c) Benefits for the...

34 CFR 1100.20 - How is a fellow selected?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... LITERACY NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR LITERACY: LITERACY LEADER FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM How Does the Director Award a... literacy field to rank applications according to the selection criteria in § 1100.21, and then provide the... order, recommendations by the board, and any other information relevant to any of the selection criteria...

Dynamic Educational e-Content Selection Using Multiple Criteria in Web-Based Personalized Learning Environments.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Manouselis, Nikos; Sampson, Demetrios

This paper focuses on the way a multi-criteria decision making methodology is applied in the case of agent-based selection of offered learning objects. The problem of selection is modeled as a decision making one, with the decision variables being the learner model and the learning objects' educational description. In this way, selection of…

Tomorrow's Teachers--Selecting the Best: An Exploration of the Quality Rationale behind Academic and Experiential Selection Criteria for Initial Teacher Education Programmes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heinz, Manuela

2013-01-01

Using Ireland as an example, this paper explores the rationale behind various selection criteria currently used to select suitable candidates for initial teacher education courses. It investigates and discusses patterns of association between second-level student teachers' background characteristics on entry to their teacher education programme…

Automatic microscopy for mitotic cell location.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Herron, J.; Ranshaw, R.; Castle, J.; Wald, N.

1972-01-01

Advances are reported in the development of an automatic microscope with which to locate hematologic or other cells in mitosis for subsequent chromosome analysis. The system under development is designed to perform the functions of: slide scanning to locate metaphase cells; conversion of images of selected cells into binary form; and on-line computer analysis of the digitized image for significant cytogenetic data. Cell detection criteria are evaluated using a test sample of 100 mitotic cells and 100 artifacts.

Patterns of smoking among adolescents in Malaysia and Thailand: Findings from the International Tobacco Control Southeast Asia Survey

PubMed Central

Hammond, David; Kin, Foong; Prohmmo, Arre; Kungskulniti, Nipapun; Lian, Tan Y.; Sharma, Sharad K.; Sirirassamee, Buppha; Borland, Ron; Fong, Geoffrey T.

2015-01-01

At present, 70% of the world’s 1.1 billion smokers are in developing countries, with over 50% in Asia alone. The current study examined patterns of youth smoking in Thailand and Malaysia. Respondents were 2002 youths between the ages of 13 and 17 from Thailand (n = 1000) and Malaysia (n = 1002). Respondents were selected using a multistage cluster sampling design and surveyed between January 2005 and March 2005. Approximately 3% of youth between the ages of 13 and 17 were current smokers, with an additional 10% to 12% reporting experimental smoking. Males were between 7 and 15 times more likely to report smoking behavior than females. Less than 1% of females respondents in either country met the criteria for current smoking, and less than 5% met the criteria for experimental smoking. In contrast, more than 50% Thai males and approximately one- third of Malaysian males aged 17 met the criteria for either experimental or current smoking. PMID:19124313

Is protective equipment useful in preventing concussion? A systematic review of the literature.

PubMed

Benson, B W; Hamilton, G M; Meeuwisse, W H; McCrory, P; Dvorak, J

2009-05-01

To determine if there is evidence that equipment use reduces sport concussion risk and/or severity. 12 electronic databases were searched using a combination of Medical Subject Headings and text words to identify relevant articles. Specific inclusion and exclusion criteria were used to select studies for review. Data extracted included design, study population, exposure/outcome measures and results. The quality of evidence was assessed based on epidemiologic criteria regarding internal and external validity (ie, strength of design, sample size/power calculation, selection bias, misclassification bias, control of potential confounding and effect modification). In total, 51 studies were selected for review. A comparison between studies was difficult due to the variability in research designs, definition of concussion, mouthguard/helmet/headgear/face shield types, measurements used to assess exposure and outcomes, and variety of sports assessed. The majority of studies were observational, with 23 analytical epidemiologic designs related to the subject area. Selection bias was a concern in the reviewed studies, as was the lack of measurement and control for potentially confounding variables. There is evidence that helmet use reduces head injury risk in skiing, snowboarding and bicycling, but the effect on concussion risk is inconclusive. No strong evidence exists for the use of mouthguards or face shields to reduce concussion risk. Evidence is provided to suggest that full facial protection in ice hockey may reduce concussion severity, as measured by time loss from competition.

The association between head and cervical posture and temporomandibular disorders: a systematic review.

PubMed

Olivo, Susan Armijo; Bravo, Jaime; Magee, David J; Thie, Norman M R; Major, Paul W; Flores-Mir, Carlos

2006-01-01

To carry out a systematic review to assess the evidence concerning the association between head and cervical posture and temporomandibular disorders (TMD). A search of Medline, Pubmed, Embase, Web of Science, Lilacs, and Cochrane Library databases was conducted in all languages with the help of a health sciences librarian. Key words used in the search were posture, head posture, cervical spine or neck, vertebrae, cervical lordosis, craniomandibular disorders or temporomandibular disorders, temporomandibular disorders, and orofacial pain or facial pain. Abstracts which appeared to fulfill the initial selection criteria were selected by consensus. The original articles were retrieved and evaluated to ensure they met the inclusion criteria. A methodological checklist was used to evaluate the quality of the selected articles and their references were hand-searched for possible missing articles. Twelve studies met all inclusion criteria and were analyzed in detail for their methodology and information quality. Nine articles that analyzed the association between head posture and TMD included patients with mixed TMD diagnosis; 1 article differentiated among muscular, articular, and mixed symptomatology; and 3 articles analyzed information from patients with only articular problems. Finally, 2 studies evaluated the association between head posture and TMD in patients with muscular TMD. Several methodological defects were noted in the 12 studies. Since most of the studies included in this systematic review were of poor methodological quality, the findings of the studies should be interpreted with caution. The association between intra-articular and muscular TMD and head and cervical posture is still unclear, and better controlled studies with comprehensive TMD diagnoses, greater sample sizes, and objective posture evaluation are necessary.

Designated Airworthiness Representatives Qualification Criteria, Selection, and Appointment Procedures -- FAA Order 8000.62

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1985-10-01

This order contains qualification criteria and procedures for the selection and appointment of Designated Airworthiness Representatives (DAR's) to perform certain certification functions as representatives of the Administrator.

Get SET: aligning anatomy demonstrator programmes with Surgical Education and Training selection criteria.

PubMed

Rhodes, Danielle; Fogg, Quentin A; Lazarus, Michelle D

2018-05-01

Prevocational doctors aspiring to surgical careers are commonly recruited as anatomy demonstrators for undergraduate and graduate medical programmes. Entry into Surgical Education and Training (SET) is highly competitive and a unique opportunity exists to align anatomy demonstrator programmes with the selection criteria and core competencies of SET programmes. This study used a qualitative approach to (i) determine what criteria applicants for SET are assessed on and (ii) identify criteria that could be aligned with and enhanced by an anatomy demonstrator programme. The selection guidelines of all nine surgical specialties for the 2017 intake of SET trainees were analysed using qualitative content analysis methodology. The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons adopted a holistic approach to trainee selection that assessed both discipline-specific and discipline-independent skills. Qualitative content analysis identified eight categories of key selection criteria: medical expertise, scholarly activity, professional identity, interpersonal skills, integrity, self-management, insight and self-awareness and community involvement. The structured curriculum vitae was heavily weighted towards discipline-specific skills, such as medical expertise and scholarly activity. Insufficient information was available to determine the weighting of selection criteria assessed by the structured referee reports or interviews. Anatomy demonstrator programmes provide prevocational doctors with unique opportunities to develop surgical skills and competencies in a non-clinical setting. Constructively aligned anatomy demonstrator programmes may be particularly beneficial for prevocational doctors seeking to improve their anatomical knowledge, teaching skills or scholarly activity. © 2017 Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

Improving the sensitivity and specificity of a bioanalytical assay for the measurement of certolizumab pegol.

PubMed

Smeraglia, John; Silva, John-Paul; Jones, Kieran

2017-08-01

In order to evaluate placental transfer of certolizumab pegol (CZP), a more sensitive and selective bioanalytical assay was required to accurately measure low CZP concentrations in infant and umbilical cord blood. Results & methodology: A new electrochemiluminescence immunoassay was developed to measure CZP levels in human plasma. Validation experiments demonstrated improved selectivity (no matrix interference observed) and a detection range of 0.032-5.0 μg/ml. Accuracy and precision met acceptance criteria (mean total error ≤20.8%). Dilution linearity and sample stability were acceptable and sufficient to support the method. The electrochemiluminescence immunoassay was validated for measuring low CZP concentrations in human plasma. The method demonstrated a more than tenfold increase in sensitivity compared with previous assays, and improved selectivity for intact CZP.

Building Winning Teams in the 21st Century Operating Environment

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-02-28

react to critical incidents and organizational crisis, (3) deliberate role modeling and coaching, (4) criteria for the allocation of rewards and...status, and (5) operational criteria for recruitment, selection and promotion.39 Leaders use reinforcing mechanisms as secondary means to assist...pay attention to, deliberate role modeling, and most importantly, operational criteria for selection and promotion, the Army will not achieve

Selecting an E-(Text)Book: Evaluation Criteria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marczak, Mariusz

2013-01-01

This paper aims to propose a repository of pre-use evaluation criteria for language teachers who wish to introduce e-books or e-textbooks to their own teaching practices. By selectively using a set of such criteria, they will be able to evaluate to what extent a given e-book/e-textbook lends itself to utilisation within their own teaching context.…

The System of Objectified Judgement Analysis (SOJA). A tool in rational drug selection for formulary inclusion.

PubMed

Janknegt, R; Steenhoek, A

1997-04-01

Rational drug selection for formulary purposes is important. Besides rational selection criteria, other factors play a role in drug decision making, such as emotional, personal financial and even unconscious criteria. It is agreed that these factors should be excluded as much as possible in the decision making process. A model for drug decision making for formulary purposes is described, the System of Objectified Judgement Analysis (SOJA). In the SOJA method, selection criteria for a given group of drugs are prospectively defined and the extent to which each drug fulfils the requirements for each criterion is determined. Each criterion is given a relative weight, i.e. the more important a given selection criterion is considered, the higher the relative weight. Both the relative scores for each drug per selection criterion and the relative weight of each criterion are determined by a panel of experts in this field. The following selection criteria are applied in all SOJA scores: clinical efficacy, incidence and severity of adverse effects, dosage frequency, drug interactions, acquisition cost, documentation, pharmacokinetics and pharmaceutical aspects. Besides these criteria, group specific criteria are also used, such as development of resistance when a SOJA score was made for antimicrobial agents. The relative weight that is assigned to each criterion will always be a subject of discussion. Therefore, interactive software programs for use on a personal computer have been developed, in which the user of the system may enter their own personal relative weight to each selection criterion and make their own personal SOJA score. The main advantage of the SOJA method is that all nonrational selection criteria are excluded and that drug decision making is based solely on rational criteria. The use of the interactive SOJA discs makes the decision process fully transparent as it becomes clear on which criteria and weighting decisions are based. We have seen that the use of this method for drug decision making greatly aids the discussion in the formulary committee, as discussion becomes much more concrete. The SOJA method is time dependent. Documentation on most products is still increasing and the score for this criterion will therefore change continuously. New products are introduced and prices are also subject to change. To overcome the time-dependence of the SOJA method, regular updates of interactive software programs are being made, in which changes in acquisition cost, documentation or a different weighting of criteria are included, as well as newly introduced products. The possibility of changing the official acquisition cost into the actual purchasing costs for the hospital in question provides a tailor-made interactive program.

Does technique matter; a pilot study exploring weighting techniques for a multi-criteria decision support framework.

PubMed

van Til, Janine; Groothuis-Oudshoorn, Catharina; Lieferink, Marijke; Dolan, James; Goetghebeur, Mireille

2014-01-01

There is an increased interest in the use of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to support regulatory and reimbursement decision making. The EVIDEM framework was developed to provide pragmatic multi-criteria decision support in health care, to estimate the value of healthcare interventions, and to aid in priority-setting. The objectives of this study were to test 1) the influence of different weighting techniques on the overall outcome of an MCDA exercise, 2) the discriminative power in weighting different criteria of such techniques, and 3) whether different techniques result in similar weights in weighting the criteria set proposed by the EVIDEM framework. A sample of 60 Dutch and Canadian students participated in the study. Each student used an online survey to provide weights for 14 criteria with two different techniques: a five-point rating scale and one of the following techniques selected randomly: ranking, point allocation, pairwise comparison and best worst scaling. The results of this study indicate that there is no effect of differences in weights on value estimates at the group level. On an individual level, considerable differences in criteria weights and rank order occur as a result of the weight elicitation method used, and the ability of different techniques to discriminate in criteria importance. Of the five techniques tested, the pair-wise comparison of criteria has the highest ability to discriminate in weights when fourteen criteria are compared. When weights are intended to support group decisions, the choice of elicitation technique has negligible impact on criteria weights and the overall value of an innovation. However, when weights are used to support individual decisions, the choice of elicitation technique influences outcome and studies that use dissimilar techniques cannot be easily compared. Weight elicitation through pairwise comparison of criteria is preferred when taking into account its superior ability to discriminate between criteria and respondents' preferences.

A Review on influencing criteria for selecting supplier of information technology services in the hospital

PubMed Central

Ajami, Sima; Rajabzadeh, Ahmad; Ketabi, Saeedeh

2014-01-01

Organizations try to outsource their activities as much as possible in order to prevent the problems and use organizational capabilities in Information Technology (IT) field. The purpose of this paper was first, to express the effective criteria for selecting suppliers of IT services, second, to explain the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing IT in hospitals. This study was narrative review, which search was conducted with the help of libraries, books, conference proceedings, and databases of Science Direct, PubMed, Proquest, Springer, and SID (Scientific Information Database). In our searches, we employed the following keywords and their combinations: Outsourcing, information technology, hospital, decision making, and criteria. The preliminary search resulted in 120 articles, which were published between 2000 and 2013 during July 2013. After a careful analysis of the content of each paper, a total of 46 papers were selected based on their relevancy. The criteria and sub-criteria influencing outsourcing decisions in Iranian hospitals were identified in six major categories including administrative issues, issues related to the service/product, technology factors, environmental factors, risks, and economic factors associated with 15 sub-criteria containing business integration, dependence on suppliers, human resources, focus on core competencies, facilities and physical capital, innovation, quality, speed of service delivery, flexibility, market capabilities, geographical location, security, management control, cost, and financial capability. Identify the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing and effective criteria in IT services supplier selection causes the managers be able to take the most appropriate decision to select supplier of IT services. This is a general review on influencing criteria for electing of supplier of information technology services in hospitals. PMID:25540781

A Review on influencing criteria for selecting supplier of information technology services in the hospital.

PubMed

Ajami, Sima; Rajabzadeh, Ahmad; Ketabi, Saeedeh

2014-01-01

Organizations try to outsource their activities as much as possible in order to prevent the problems and use organizational capabilities in Information Technology (IT) field. The purpose of this paper was first, to express the effective criteria for selecting suppliers of IT services, second, to explain the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing IT in hospitals. This study was narrative review, which search was conducted with the help of libraries, books, conference proceedings, and databases of Science Direct, PubMed, Proquest, Springer, and SID (Scientific Information Database). In our searches, we employed the following keywords and their combinations: Outsourcing, information technology, hospital, decision making, and criteria. The preliminary search resulted in 120 articles, which were published between 2000 and 2013 during July 2013. After a careful analysis of the content of each paper, a total of 46 papers were selected based on their relevancy. The criteria and sub-criteria influencing outsourcing decisions in Iranian hospitals were identified in six major categories including administrative issues, issues related to the service/product, technology factors, environmental factors, risks, and economic factors associated with 15 sub-criteria containing business integration, dependence on suppliers, human resources, focus on core competencies, facilities and physical capital, innovation, quality, speed of service delivery, flexibility, market capabilities, geographical location, security, management control, cost, and financial capability. Identify the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing and effective criteria in IT services supplier selection causes the managers be able to take the most appropriate decision to select supplier of IT services. This is a general review on influencing criteria for electing of supplier of information technology services in hospitals.

Application Of Decision Tree Approach To Student Selection Model- A Case Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harwati; Sudiya, Amby

2016-01-01

The main purpose of the institution is to provide quality education to the students and to improve the quality of managerial decisions. One of the ways to improve the quality of students is to arrange the selection of new students with a more selective. This research takes the case in the selection of new students at Islamic University of Indonesia, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. One of the university's selection is through filtering administrative selection based on the records of prospective students at the high school without paper testing. Currently, that kind of selection does not yet has a standard model and criteria. Selection is only done by comparing candidate application file, so the subjectivity of assessment is very possible to happen because of the lack standard criteria that can differentiate the quality of students from one another. By applying data mining techniques classification, can be built a model selection for new students which includes criteria to certain standards such as the area of origin, the status of the school, the average value and so on. These criteria are determined by using rules that appear based on the classification of the academic achievement (GPA) of the students in previous years who entered the university through the same way. The decision tree method with C4.5 algorithm is used here. The results show that students are given priority for admission is that meet the following criteria: came from the island of Java, public school, majoring in science, an average value above 75, and have at least one achievement during their study in high school.

How Many Samples and How Many Culture Media To Diagnose a Prosthetic Joint Infection: a Clinical and Microbiological Prospective Multicenter Study

PubMed Central

Léger, Julie; Tandé, Didier; Plouzeau, Chloé; Valentin, Anne Sophie; Jolivet-Gougeon, Anne; Lemarié, Carole; Kempf, Marie; Héry-Arnaud, Geneviève; Bret, Laurent; Juvin, Marie Emmanuelle; Giraudeau, Bruno; Burucoa, Christophe

2015-01-01

Although numerous perioperative samples and culture media are required to diagnose prosthetic joint infection (PJI), their exact number and types have not yet been definitely determined with a high level of proof. We conducted a prospective multicenter study to determine the minimal number of samples and culture media required for accurate diagnosis of PJI. Over a 2-year period, consecutive patients with clinical signs suggesting PJI were included, with five perioperative samples per patient. The bacteriological and PJI diagnosis criteria were assessed using a random selection of two, three, or four samples and compared with those obtained using the recommended five samples (references guidelines). The results obtained with two or three culture media were then compared with those obtained with five culture media for both criteria. The times-to-positivity of the different culture media were calculated. PJI was confirmed in 215/264 suspected cases, with a bacteriological criterion in 192 (89%). The PJI was monomicrobial (85%) or polymicrobial (15%). Percentages of agreement of 98.1% and 99.7%, respectively, for the bacteriological criterion and confirmed PJI diagnosis were obtained when four perioperative samples were considered. The highest percentages of agreement were obtained with the association of three culture media, a blood culture bottle, a chocolate agar plate, and Schaedler broth, incubated for 5, 7, and 14 days, respectively. This new procedure leads to significant cost saving. Our prospective multicenter study showed that four samples seeded on three culture media are sufficient for diagnosing PJI. PMID:26637380

How Many Samples and How Many Culture Media To Diagnose a Prosthetic Joint Infection: a Clinical and Microbiological Prospective Multicenter Study.

PubMed

Bémer, Pascale; Léger, Julie; Tandé, Didier; Plouzeau, Chloé; Valentin, Anne Sophie; Jolivet-Gougeon, Anne; Lemarié, Carole; Kempf, Marie; Héry-Arnaud, Geneviève; Bret, Laurent; Juvin, Marie Emmanuelle; Giraudeau, Bruno; Corvec, Stéphane; Burucoa, Christophe

2016-02-01

Although numerous perioperative samples and culture media are required to diagnose prosthetic joint infection (PJI), their exact number and types have not yet been definitely determined with a high level of proof. We conducted a prospective multicenter study to determine the minimal number of samples and culture media required for accurate diagnosis of PJI. Over a 2-year period, consecutive patients with clinical signs suggesting PJI were included, with five perioperative samples per patient. The bacteriological and PJI diagnosis criteria were assessed using a random selection of two, three, or four samples and compared with those obtained using the recommended five samples (references guidelines). The results obtained with two or three culture media were then compared with those obtained with five culture media for both criteria. The times-to-positivity of the different culture media were calculated. PJI was confirmed in 215/264 suspected cases, with a bacteriological criterion in 192 (89%). The PJI was monomicrobial (85%) or polymicrobial (15%). Percentages of agreement of 98.1% and 99.7%, respectively, for the bacteriological criterion and confirmed PJI diagnosis were obtained when four perioperative samples were considered. The highest percentages of agreement were obtained with the association of three culture media, a blood culture bottle, a chocolate agar plate, and Schaedler broth, incubated for 5, 7, and 14 days, respectively. This new procedure leads to significant cost saving. Our prospective multicenter study showed that four samples seeded on three culture media are sufficient for diagnosing PJI. Copyright © 2016, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Multi-criteria decision aid approach for the selection of the best compromise management scheme for ELVs: the case of Cyprus.

PubMed

Mergias, I; Moustakas, K; Papadopoulos, A; Loizidou, M

2007-08-25

Each alternative scheme for treating a vehicle at its end of life has its own consequences from a social, environmental, economic and technical point of view. Furthermore, the criteria used to determine these consequences are often contradictory and not equally important. In the presence of multiple conflicting criteria, an optimal alternative scheme never exists. A multiple-criteria decision aid (MCDA) method to aid the Decision Maker (DM) in selecting the best compromise scheme for the management of End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs) is presented in this paper. The constitution of a set of alternatives schemes, the selection of a list of relevant criteria to evaluate these alternative schemes and the choice of an appropriate management system are also analyzed in this framework. The proposed procedure relies on the PROMETHEE method which belongs to the well-known family of multiple criteria outranking methods. For this purpose, level, linear and Gaussian functions are used as preference functions.

On the predictive information criteria for model determination in seismic hazard analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Varini, Elisa; Rotondi, Renata

2016-04-01

Many statistical tools have been developed for evaluating, understanding, and comparing models, from both frequentist and Bayesian perspectives. In particular, the problem of model selection can be addressed according to whether the primary goal is explanation or, alternatively, prediction. In the former case, the criteria for model selection are defined over the parameter space whose physical interpretation can be difficult; in the latter case, they are defined over the space of the observations, which has a more direct physical meaning. In the frequentist approaches, model selection is generally based on an asymptotic approximation which may be poor for small data sets (e.g. the F-test, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, etc.); moreover, these methods often apply under specific assumptions on models (e.g. models have to be nested in the likelihood ratio test). In the Bayesian context, among the criteria for explanation, the ratio of the observed marginal densities for two competing models, named Bayes Factor (BF), is commonly used for both model choice and model averaging (Kass and Raftery, J. Am. Stat. Ass., 1995). But BF does not apply to improper priors and, even when the prior is proper, it is not robust to the specification of the prior. These limitations can be extended to two famous penalized likelihood methods as the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC), since they are proved to be approximations of -2log BF . In the perspective that a model is as good as its predictions, the predictive information criteria aim at evaluating the predictive accuracy of Bayesian models or, in other words, at estimating expected out-of-sample prediction error using a bias-correction adjustment of within-sample error (Gelman et al., Stat. Comput., 2014). In particular, the Watanabe criterion is fully Bayesian because it averages the predictive distribution over the posterior distribution of parameters rather than conditioning on a point estimate, but it is hardly applicable to data which are not independent given parameters (Watanabe, J. Mach. Learn. Res., 2010). A solution is given by Ando and Tsay criterion where the joint density may be decomposed into the product of the conditional densities (Ando and Tsay, Int. J. Forecast., 2010). The above mentioned criteria are global summary measures of model performance, but more detailed analysis could be required to discover the reasons for poor global performance. In this latter case, a retrospective predictive analysis is performed on each individual observation. In this study we performed the Bayesian analysis of Italian data sets by four versions of a long-term hazard model known as the stress release model (Vere-Jones, J. Physics Earth, 1978; Bebbington and Harte, Geophys. J. Int., 2003; Varini and Rotondi, Environ. Ecol. Stat., 2015). Then we illustrate the results on their performance evaluated by Bayes Factor, predictive information criteria and retrospective predictive analysis.

The use of DRG for identifying clinical trials centers with high recruitment potential: a feasability study.

PubMed

Aegerter, Philippe; Bendersky, Noelle; Tran, Thi-Chien; Ropers, Jacques; Taright, Namik; Chatellier, Gilles

2014-01-01

Recruitment of large samples of patients is crucial for evidence level and efficacy of clinical trials (CT). Clinical Trial Recruitment Support Systems (CTRSS) used to estimate patient recruitment are generally specific to Hospital Information Systems and few were evaluated on a large number of trials. Our aim was to assess, on a large number of CT, the usefulness of commonly available data as Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG) databases in order to estimate potential recruitment. We used the DRG database of a large French multicenter medical institution (1.2 million inpatient stays and 400 new trials each year). Eligibility criteria of protocols were broken down into in atomic entities (diagnosis, procedures, treatments...) then translated into codes and operators recorded in a standardized form. A program parsed the forms and generated requests on the DRG database. A large majority of selection criteria could be coded and final estimations of number of eligible patients were close to observed ones (median difference = 25). Such a system could be part of the feasability evaluation and center selection process before the start of the clinical trial.

Optimal Contractor Selection in Construction Industry: The Fuzzy Way

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krishna Rao, M. V.; Kumar, V. S. S.; Rathish Kumar, P.

2018-02-01

A purely price-based approach to contractor selection has been identified as the root cause for many serious project delivery problems. Therefore, the capability of the contractor to execute the project should be evaluated using a multiple set of selection criteria including reputation, past performance, performance potential, financial soundness and other project specific criteria. An industry-wide questionnaire survey was conducted with the objective of identifying the important criteria for adoption in the selection process. In this work, a fuzzy set based model was developed for contractor prequalification/evaluation, by using effective criteria obtained from the percept of construction professionals, taking subjective judgments of decision makers also into consideration. A case study consisting of four alternatives (contractors in the present case) solicited from a public works department of Pondicherry in India, is used to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The final selection of contractor is made based on the integrated score or Overall Evaluation Score of the decision alternative in prequalification as well as bid evaluation stages.

Landfill site selection using combination of GIS and fuzzy AHP, a case study: Iranshahr, Iran.

PubMed

Torabi-Kaveh, M; Babazadeh, R; Mohammadi, S D; Zaresefat, M

2016-03-09

One of the most important recent challenges in solid waste management throughout the world is site selection of sanitary landfill. Commonly, because of simultaneous effects of social, environmental, and technical parameters on suitability of a landfill site, landfill site selection is a complex process and depends on several criteria and regulations. This study develops a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) process, which combines geographic information system (GIS) analysis with a fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP), to determine suitable sites for landfill construction in Iranshahr County, Iran. The GIS was used to calculate and classify selected criteria and FAHP was used to assess the criteria weights based on their effectiveness on selection of potential landfill sites. Finally, a suitability map was prepared by overlay analyses and suitable areas were identified. Four suitability classes within the study area were separated, including high, medium, low, and very low suitability areas, which represented 18%, 15%, 55%, and 12% of the study area, respectively. © The Author(s) 2016.

Statin Selection in Qatar Based on Multi-indication Pharmacotherapeutic Multi-criteria Scoring Model, and Clinician Preference.

PubMed

Al-Badriyeh, Daoud; Fahey, Michael; Alabbadi, Ibrahim; Al-Khal, Abdullatif; Zaidan, Manal

2015-12-01

Statin selection for the largest hospital formulary in Qatar is not systematic, not comparative, and does not consider the multi-indication nature of statins. There are no reports in the literature of multi-indication-based comparative scoring models of statins or of statin selection criteria weights that are based primarily on local clinicians' preferences and experiences. This study sought to comparatively evaluate statins for first-line therapy in Qatar, and to quantify the economic impact of this. An evidence-based, multi-indication, multi-criteria pharmacotherapeutic model was developed for the scoring of statins from the perspective of the main health care provider in Qatar. The literature and an expert panel informed the selection criteria of statins. Relative weighting of selection criteria was based on the input of the relevant local clinician population. Statins were comparatively scored based on literature evidence, with those exceeding a defined scoring threshold being recommended for use. With 95% CI and 5% margin of error, the scoring model was successfully developed. Selection criteria comprised 28 subcriteria under the following main criteria: clinical efficacy, best publish evidence and experience, adverse effects, drug interaction, dosing time, and fixed dose combination availability. Outcome measures for multiple indications were related to effects on LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglyceride, total cholesterol, and C-reactive protein. Atorvastatin, pravastatin, and rosuvastatin exceeded defined pharmacotherapeutic thresholds. Atorvastatin and pravastatin were recommended as first-line use and rosuvastatin as a nonformulary alternative. It was estimated that this would produce a 17.6% cost savings in statins expenditure. Sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of the evaluation's outcomes against input uncertainties. Incorporating a comparative evaluation of statins in Qatari practices based on a locally developed, transparent, multi-indication, multi-criteria scoring model has the potential to considerably reduce expenditures on statins. Atorvastatin and pravastatin should be the first-line statin therapies in the main Qatari health care provider, with rosuvastatin as an alternative. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier HS Journals, Inc. All rights reserved.

Bayesian Item Selection in Constrained Adaptive Testing Using Shadow Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Veldkamp, Bernard P.

2010-01-01

Application of Bayesian item selection criteria in computerized adaptive testing might result in improvement of bias and MSE of the ability estimates. The question remains how to apply Bayesian item selection criteria in the context of constrained adaptive testing, where large numbers of specifications have to be taken into account in the item…

76 FR 21985 - Notice of Final Priorities, Requirements, Definitions, and Selection Criteria

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-04-19

... only after a research base has been established to support the use of the assessments for such purposes..., research-based assessment practices. Discussion: We agree that the selection criteria should address the... selection criterion, which addresses methods of scoring, to allow for self-scoring of student performance on...

40 CFR 89.510 - Compliance with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for selective...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 20 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Compliance with acceptable quality level and passing and failing criteria for selective enforcement audits. 89.510 Section 89.510... EMISSIONS FROM NEW AND IN-USE NONROAD COMPRESSION-IGNITION ENGINES Selective Enforcement Auditing § 89.510...

34 CFR 611.12 - What additional selection criteria are used for an application proposing teacher recruitment...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... EDUCATION TEACHER QUALITY ENHANCEMENT GRANTS PROGRAM State Grants Program § 611.12 What additional selection... 34 Education 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What additional selection criteria are used for an application proposing teacher recruitment activities? 611.12 Section 611.12 Education Regulations of the...

Least squares polynomial chaos expansion: A review of sampling strategies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hadigol, Mohammad; Doostan, Alireza

2018-04-01

As non-institutive polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) techniques have gained growing popularity among researchers, we here provide a comprehensive review of major sampling strategies for the least squares based PCE. Traditional sampling methods, such as Monte Carlo, Latin hypercube, quasi-Monte Carlo, optimal design of experiments (ODE), Gaussian quadratures, as well as more recent techniques, such as coherence-optimal and randomized quadratures are discussed. We also propose a hybrid sampling method, dubbed alphabetic-coherence-optimal, that employs the so-called alphabetic optimality criteria used in the context of ODE in conjunction with coherence-optimal samples. A comparison between the empirical performance of the selected sampling methods applied to three numerical examples, including high-order PCE's, high-dimensional problems, and low oversampling ratios, is presented to provide a road map for practitioners seeking the most suitable sampling technique for a problem at hand. We observed that the alphabetic-coherence-optimal technique outperforms other sampling methods, specially when high-order ODE are employed and/or the oversampling ratio is low.

Genetic improvement of total milk yield and total lactation persistency of the first three lactations in dairy cattle.

PubMed

Togashi, K; Lin, C Y

2008-07-01

The objective of this study was to compare 6 selection criteria in terms of 3-parity total milk yield and 9 selection criteria in terms of total net merit (H) comprising 3-parity total milk yield and total lactation persistency. The 6 selection criteria compared were as follows: first-parity milk estimated breeding value (EBV; M1), first 2-parity milk EBV (M2), first 3-parity milk EBV (M3), first-parity eigen index (EI(1)), first 2-parity eigen index (EI(2)), and first 3-parity eigen index (EI(3)). The 9 selection criteria compared in terms of H were M1, M2, M3, EI(1), EI(2), EI(3), and first-parity, first 2-parity, and first 3-parity selection indices (I(1), I(2), and I(3), respectively). In terms of total milk yield, selection on M3 or EI(3) achieved the greatest genetic response, whereas selection on EI(1) produced the largest genetic progress per day. In terms of total net merit, selection on I(3) brought the largest response, whereas selection EI(1) yielded the greatest genetic progress per day. A multiple-lactation random regression test-day model simultaneously yields the EBV of the 3 lactations for all animals included in the analysis even though the younger animals do not have the opportunity to complete the first 3 lactations. It is important to use the first 3 lactation EBV for selection decision rather than only the first lactation EBV in spite of the fact that the first-parity selection criteria achieved a faster genetic progress per day than the 3-parity selection criteria. Under a multiple-lactation random regression animal model analysis, the use of the first 3 lactation EBV for selection decision does not prolong the generation interval as compared with the use of only the first lactation EBV. Thus, it is justified to compare genetic response on a lifetime basis rather than on a per-day basis. The results suggest the use of M3 or EI(3) for genetic improvement of total milk yield and the use of I(3) for genetic improvement of total net merit H. Although this study deals with selection for 3-parity milk production, the same principle applies to selection for lifetime milk production.

Using marketing research concepts to investigate specialty selection by medical students.

PubMed

Weissman, Charles; Schroeder, Josh; Elchalal, Uriel; Weiss, Yoram; Tandeter, Howard; Zisk-Rony, Rachel Y

2012-10-01

This study was intended to examine whether a marketing research approach improves understanding of medical specialty selection by medical students. This approach likens students to consumers who are deciding whether or not to purchase a product (specialty). This approach proposes that when consumers' criteria match their perceptions of a product's features, the likelihood that they will purchase it (select the specialty) increases. This study examines whether exploring students' selection criteria and perceptions of various specialties provides additional insights into the selection process. Using a consumer behaviour model as a framework, a questionnaire was designed and administered to Year 6 (final-year) students in 2008 and 2009 to elicit information on their knowledge about and interests in various specialties, the criteria they used in specialty selection, and their perceptions of six specialties. A total of 132 (67%) questionnaires were returned. In many instances, consistency between selection criteria and perceptions of a specialty was accompanied by interest in pursuing the specialty. Exceptions were noted and pointed to areas requiring additional research. For example, although > 70% of female students replied that the affordance of a controllable lifestyle was an important selection criterion, many were interested in obstetrics and gynaecology despite the fact that it was not perceived as providing a controllable lifestyle. Minimal overlap among students reporting interest in primary specialties that possess similar characteristics (e.g. paediatrics and family medicine) demonstrated the need to target marketing (recruitment) efforts for each specialty individually. Using marketing research concepts to examine medical specialty selection may precipitate a conceptual shift among health care leaders which acknowledges that, to attract students, specialties must meet students' selection criteria. Moreover, if consumers (students) deem a product (specialty) unattractive, it may need to be examined further to improve its appeal. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2012.

Selection of reference standard during method development using the analytical hierarchy process.

PubMed

Sun, Wan-yang; Tong, Ling; Li, Dong-xiang; Huang, Jing-yi; Zhou, Shui-ping; Sun, Henry; Bi, Kai-shun

2015-03-25

Reference standard is critical for ensuring reliable and accurate method performance. One important issue is how to select the ideal one from the alternatives. Unlike the optimization of parameters, the criteria of the reference standard are always immeasurable. The aim of this paper is to recommend a quantitative approach for the selection of reference standard during method development based on the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) as a decision-making tool. Six alternative single reference standards were assessed in quantitative analysis of six phenolic acids from Salvia Miltiorrhiza and its preparations by using ultra-performance liquid chromatography. The AHP model simultaneously considered six criteria related to reference standard characteristics and method performance, containing feasibility to obtain, abundance in samples, chemical stability, accuracy, precision and robustness. The priority of each alternative was calculated using standard AHP analysis method. The results showed that protocatechuic aldehyde is the ideal reference standard, and rosmarinic acid is about 79.8% ability as the second choice. The determination results successfully verified the evaluation ability of this model. The AHP allowed us comprehensive considering the benefits and risks of the alternatives. It was an effective and practical tool for optimization of reference standards during method development. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Substance Use Disorders: A Systematic Review of Scientific Literature.

PubMed

Lupi, Matteo; Martinotti, Giovanni; Santacroce, Rita; Cinosi, Eduardo; Carlucci, Maria; Marini, Stefano; Acciavatti, Tiziano; di Giannantonio, Massimo

2017-09-01

New treatment options such as noninvasive brain stimulation have been recently explored in the field of substance use disorders (SUDs), including transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). In light of this, we have performed a review of the scientific literature to assess efficacy and technical and methodological issues resulting from applying tDCS to the field of SUDs. Our analysis highlighted the following selection criteria: clinical studies on tDCS and SUDs (alcohol, caffeine, cannabis, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and nicotine). Study selection, data analysis, and reporting were conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Exclusion criteria were as follows: clinical studies about tDCS among behavioral addiction; review and didactic articles; physiopathological studies; and case reports. Eighteen scientific papers were selected out of 48 articles. Among these, 16 studied the efficacy of tDCS applied to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and 8 suggested the efficacy of tDCS in reducing substance craving. In light of these data, it is premature to conclude that tDCS over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is a very efficient technique in reducing craving. Small sample size, different stimulation protocols, and study duration were the main limitations. However, the efficacy of tDCS in treating SUDs requires further investigation.

Impact of radiotherapy in atypical meningioma recurrence: literature review.

PubMed

Pereira, Benedito Jamilson Araújo; de Almeida, Antônio Nogueira; Paiva, Wellingson Silva; Teixeira, Manoel Jacobsen; Marie, Suely Kazue Nagahashi

2018-03-19

Evaluate whether radiotherapy (RT) after the neurosurgical treatment of atypical meningiomas (AM) has an impact on the reduction rate of recurrence. A Medline search through October 2017 using "atypical meningioma" returned 1277 papers for initial review. Inclusion criteria were as follows. We analyzed the database and included articles in which the anatomic pathological classification of atypical meningiomas was in accordance with WHO 2007 or WHO 2016 criteria, patients > 18 years of age, and there was postoperative external beam radiation to the tumor bed. Exclusion criteria were WHO grade I or III meningioma, patients who underwent whole-brain radiation, RT used as salvage therapy for recurrence, palliative dose of RT (< 45 Gy), recurrent AMs, and multiple AMs. Papers reporting outcomes in which atypical and anaplastic meningiomas were analyzed together were rejected, as were papers with small samples that may compromise evaluation. After filtering our initial selection, only 17 papers were selected. After reviewing the seventeen articles including a total of 1761 patients (972 female and 799 male; 1.21 female/1.0 male), the difference in proportion of tumor recurrence between patients with and without radiotherapy after neurosurgical procedure was 1.0448, 95% CI [0.8318 to 1.3125], p value = 0.7062. On the basis of this review, there is no evidence to suggest that RT decreases the rate of recurrence in patients with atypical meningiomas.

Selecting islands and shoals for conservation based on biological and aesthetic criteria

USGS Publications Warehouse

Knutson, M.G.; Leopold, D.J.; Smardon, R.C.

1993-01-01

Consideration of biological quality has long been an important component of rating areas for conservation. Often these same areas are highly valued by people for aesthetic reasons, creating demands for housing and recreation that may conflict with protection plans for these habitats. Most methods of selecting land for conservation purposes use biological factors alone. For some land areas, analysis of aesthetic qualities is also important in describing the scenic value of undisturbed land. A method for prioritizing small islands and shoals based on both biological and visual quality factors is presented here. The study included 169 undeveloped islands and shoals a??0.8 ha in the Thousand Islands Region of the St. Lawrence River, New York. Criteria such as critical habitat for uncommon plant and animal species were considered together with visual quality and incorporated into a rating system that ranked the islands and shoals according to their priority for conservation management and protection from development. Biological factors were determined based on previous research and a field survey. Visual quality was determined by visual diagnostic criteria developed from public responses to photographs of a sample of islands. Variables such as elevation, soil depth, and type of plant community can be used to classify islands into different categories of visual quality but are unsuccessful in classifying islands into categories of overall biological quality.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Rapidly pulsating sdB stars search with GALEX (Boudreaux+, 2017)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boudreaux, T. M.; Barlow, B. N.; Fleming, S. W.; Soto, A. V.; Million, C.; Reichart, D. E.; Haislip, J. B.; Linder, T. R.; Moore, J. P.

2018-04-01

Here we present a search for short-period hot subdwarf B (sdB) pulsations in the archived GALEX data set using gPhoton (Million+ 2016ApJ...833..292M). An initial sample of 5613 hot subdwarfs (Geier+ 2017, J/A+A/600/A50), which represents a good approximation of all cataloged hot subdwarf stars, was down-selected based on magnitudes, coordinates, and total exposure time available in the gPhoton database, described fully in Section 2. These selection criteria yielded 1881 targets upon which we focused our investigation. Calibrated light curves with time bins of 30s were generated for each target using gPhoton. (4 data files).

VizieR Online Data Catalog: G0-G3 main-sequence stars with V<15 (Lopez-Valdivia+, 2014)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lopez-Valdivia, R.; Bertone, E.; Chavez, M.; Tapia-Schiavon, C.; Hernandez-Aguila, J. B.; Valdes, J. R.; Chavushyan, V.

2015-04-01

We selected in late 2008 a sample of stars from the Set of Identifications, Measurements, and Bibliography for Astronomical Data (SIMBAD) data base using the following criteria: (i) spectral type between G0 and G3; (ii) luminosity class V; (iii) visible magnitude V<15mag; (iv) declination δ>-10°. The selection resulted in about 1200 objects. We report here the results for 233 stars. We carried out the spectroscopic observations at the 2.12-m telescope of the Observatorio Astrofisico Guillermo Haro (Sonora, Mexico) between 2008 and 2013, with a Boller & Chivens spectrograph, equipped with a Versarray 1300x1340 CCD. (3 data files).

B-spline parameterization of the dielectric function and information criteria: the craft of non-overfitting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Likhachev, Dmitriy V.

2017-06-01

Johs and Hale developed the Kramers-Kronig consistent B-spline formulation for the dielectric function modeling in spectroscopic ellipsometry data analysis. In this article we use popular Akaike, corrected Akaike and Bayesian Information Criteria (AIC, AICc and BIC, respectively) to determine an optimal number of knots for B-spline model. These criteria allow finding a compromise between under- and overfitting of experimental data since they penalize for increasing number of knots and select representation which achieves the best fit with minimal number of knots. Proposed approach provides objective and practical guidance, as opposite to empirically driven or "gut feeling" decisions, for selecting the right number of knots for B-spline models in spectroscopic ellipsometry. AIC, AICc and BIC selection criteria work remarkably well as we demonstrated in several real-data applications. This approach formalizes selection of the optimal knot number and may be useful in practical perspective of spectroscopic ellipsometry data analysis.

Fuzzy decision-making framework for treatment selection based on the combined QUALIFLEX-TODIM method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ji, Pu; Zhang, Hong-yu; Wang, Jian-qiang

2017-10-01

Treatment selection is a multi-criteria decision-making problem of significant concern in the medical field. In this study, a fuzzy decision-making framework is established for treatment selection. The framework mitigates information loss by introducing single-valued trapezoidal neutrosophic numbers to denote evaluation information. Treatment selection has multiple criteria that remarkably exceed the alternatives. In consideration of this characteristic, the framework utilises the idea of the qualitative flexible multiple criteria method. Furthermore, it considers the risk-averse behaviour of a decision maker by employing a concordance index based on TODIM (an acronym in Portuguese of interactive and multi-criteria decision-making) method. A sensitivity analysis is performed to illustrate the robustness of the framework. Finally, a comparative analysis is conducted to compare the framework with several extant methods. Results indicate the advantages of the framework and its better performance compared with the extant methods.

A new spatial multi-criteria decision support tool for site selection for implementation of managed aquifer recharge.

PubMed

Rahman, M Azizur; Rusteberg, Bernd; Gogu, R C; Lobo Ferreira, J P; Sauter, Martin

2012-05-30

This study reports the development of a new spatial multi-criteria decision analysis (SMCDA) software tool for selecting suitable sites for Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) systems. The new SMCDA software tool functions based on the combination of existing multi-criteria evaluation methods with modern decision analysis techniques. More specifically, non-compensatory screening, criteria standardization and weighting, and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) have been combined with Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) and Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA). This SMCDA tool may be implemented with a wide range of decision maker's preferences. The tool's user-friendly interface helps guide the decision maker through the sequential steps for site selection, those steps namely being constraint mapping, criteria hierarchy, criteria standardization and weighting, and criteria overlay. The tool offers some predetermined default criteria and standard methods to increase the trade-off between ease-of-use and efficiency. Integrated into ArcGIS, the tool has the advantage of using GIS tools for spatial analysis, and herein data may be processed and displayed. The tool is non-site specific, adaptive, and comprehensive, and may be applied to any type of site-selection problem. For demonstrating the robustness of the new tool, a case study was planned and executed at Algarve Region, Portugal. The efficiency of the SMCDA tool in the decision making process for selecting suitable sites for MAR was also demonstrated. Specific aspects of the tool such as built-in default criteria, explicit decision steps, and flexibility in choosing different options were key features, which benefited the study. The new SMCDA tool can be augmented by groundwater flow and transport modeling so as to achieve a more comprehensive approach to the selection process for the best locations of the MAR infiltration basins, as well as the locations of recovery wells and areas of groundwater protection. The new spatial multicriteria analysis tool has already been implemented within the GIS based Gabardine decision support system as an innovative MAR planning tool. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Baseline survey of sun protection policies and practices in primary school settings in New Zealand.

PubMed

Reeder, A I; Jopson, J A; Gray, A

2009-10-01

The SunSmart Schools Accreditation Programme (SSAP) was launched as a national programme in October 2005 to help reduce the risk of excessive child exposure to ultraviolet radiation. As part of the need for evaluation, this paper reports the findings of a national survey of a randomly selected sample of approximately 12% of New Zealand primary schools prior to the national launch of the SSAP. Principals at 242 schools completed a mail survey (81% response rate) relating to school sun protection policies, practices, curriculum and environment. Survey responses were evaluated according to the 12 criteria of the SSAP, with schools assigned a score from 0 to 12. No school fully met all 12 accreditation criteria, although 2% of schools attained 11 criteria and another 2% attained 10. Nine per cent of schools attained three or fewer criteria. Overall, 7 was the most common score, achieved by 23%. School socio-economic decile rating and roll size were positively associated with higher scores (both P < 0.02). Continued support and resources are needed to encourage schools to address sun protection across the spectrum of curriculum, practices and environment and through commitment to written policy.

Criteria for the evaluation of a cloud-based hospital information system outsourcing provider.

PubMed

Low, Chinyao; Hsueh Chen, Ya

2012-12-01

As cloud computing technology has proliferated rapidly worldwide, there has been a trend toward adopting cloud-based hospital information systems (CHISs). This study examines the critical criteria for selecting the CHISs outsourcing provider. The fuzzy Delphi method (FDM) is used to evaluate the primary indicator collected from 188 useable responses at a working hospital in Taiwan. Moreover, the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) is employed to calculate the weights of these criteria and establish a fuzzy multi-criteria model of CHISs outsourcing provider selection from 42 experts. The results indicate that the five most critical criteria related to CHISs outsourcing provider selection are (1) system function, (2) service quality, (3) integration, (4) professionalism, and (5) economics. This study may contribute to understanding how cloud-based hospital systems can reinforce content design and offer a way to compete in the field by developing more appropriate systems.

A machine learning-based framework to identify type 2 diabetes through electronic health records

PubMed Central

Zheng, Tao; Xie, Wei; Xu, Liling; He, Xiaoying; Zhang, Ya; You, Mingrong; Yang, Gong; Chen, You

2016-01-01

Objective To discover diverse genotype-phenotype associations affiliated with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) via genome-wide association study (GWAS) and phenome-wide association study (PheWAS), more cases (T2DM subjects) and controls (subjects without T2DM) are required to be identified (e.g., via Electronic Health Records (EHR)). However, existing expert based identification algorithms often suffer in a low recall rate and could miss a large number of valuable samples under conservative filtering standards. The goal of this work is to develop a semi-automated framework based on machine learning as a pilot study to liberalize filtering criteria to improve recall rate with a keeping of low false positive rate. Materials and methods We propose a data informed framework for identifying subjects with and without T2DM from EHR via feature engineering and machine learning. We evaluate and contrast the identification performance of widely-used machine learning models within our framework, including k-Nearest-Neighbors, Naïve Bayes, Decision Tree, Random Forest, Support Vector Machine and Logistic Regression. Our framework was conducted on 300 patient samples (161 cases, 60 controls and 79 unconfirmed subjects), randomly selected from 23,281 diabetes related cohort retrieved from a regional distributed EHR repository ranging from 2012 to 2014. Results We apply top-performing machine learning algorithms on the engineered features. We benchmark and contrast the accuracy, precision, AUC, sensitivity and specificity of classification models against the state-of-the-art expert algorithm for identification of T2DM subjects. Our results indicate that the framework achieved high identification performances (∼0.98 in average AUC), which are much higher than the state-of-the-art algorithm (0.71 in AUC). Discussion Expert algorithm-based identification of T2DM subjects from EHR is often hampered by the high missing rates due to their conservative selection criteria. Our framework leverages machine learning and feature engineering to loosen such selection criteria to achieve a high identification rate of cases and controls. Conclusions Our proposed framework demonstrates a more accurate and efficient approach for identifying subjects with and without T2DM from EHR. PMID:27919371

A machine learning-based framework to identify type 2 diabetes through electronic health records.

PubMed

Zheng, Tao; Xie, Wei; Xu, Liling; He, Xiaoying; Zhang, Ya; You, Mingrong; Yang, Gong; Chen, You

2017-01-01

To discover diverse genotype-phenotype associations affiliated with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) via genome-wide association study (GWAS) and phenome-wide association study (PheWAS), more cases (T2DM subjects) and controls (subjects without T2DM) are required to be identified (e.g., via Electronic Health Records (EHR)). However, existing expert based identification algorithms often suffer in a low recall rate and could miss a large number of valuable samples under conservative filtering standards. The goal of this work is to develop a semi-automated framework based on machine learning as a pilot study to liberalize filtering criteria to improve recall rate with a keeping of low false positive rate. We propose a data informed framework for identifying subjects with and without T2DM from EHR via feature engineering and machine learning. We evaluate and contrast the identification performance of widely-used machine learning models within our framework, including k-Nearest-Neighbors, Naïve Bayes, Decision Tree, Random Forest, Support Vector Machine and Logistic Regression. Our framework was conducted on 300 patient samples (161 cases, 60 controls and 79 unconfirmed subjects), randomly selected from 23,281 diabetes related cohort retrieved from a regional distributed EHR repository ranging from 2012 to 2014. We apply top-performing machine learning algorithms on the engineered features. We benchmark and contrast the accuracy, precision, AUC, sensitivity and specificity of classification models against the state-of-the-art expert algorithm for identification of T2DM subjects. Our results indicate that the framework achieved high identification performances (∼0.98 in average AUC), which are much higher than the state-of-the-art algorithm (0.71 in AUC). Expert algorithm-based identification of T2DM subjects from EHR is often hampered by the high missing rates due to their conservative selection criteria. Our framework leverages machine learning and feature engineering to loosen such selection criteria to achieve a high identification rate of cases and controls. Our proposed framework demonstrates a more accurate and efficient approach for identifying subjects with and without T2DM from EHR. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Flight program language requirements. Volume 3: Appendices

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1972-01-01

Government-sponsored study and development efforts were directed toward design and implementation of high level programming languages suitable for future aerospace applications. The study centered around an evaluation of the four most pertinent existing aerospace languages. Evaluation criteria were established, and selected kernels from the current Saturn 5 and Skylab flight programs were used as benchmark problems for sample coding. An independent review of the language specifications incorporated anticipated future programming requirements into the evaluation. A set of language requirements was synthesized from these activities.

A Comparison of Variable Selection Criteria for Multiple Linear Regression: A Second Simulation Study

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-03-01

statistical mathe- matics, began in the late 1800’s when Sir Francis Galton first attempted to use practical mathematical techniques to investigate the...randomly collected (sampled) many pairs of parent/child height mea- surements (data), Galton observed that for a given parent- height average, the...ty only Maximum Adjusted R2 will be discussed. However, Maximum Adjusted R’ and Minimum MSE test exactly the same 2.thing. Adjusted R is related to R

Using multi-criteria risk ranking methodology to select case studies for a generic risk assessment framework for exotic disease incursion and spread through Europe.

PubMed

Horigan, V; De Nardi, M; Simons, R R L; Bertolini, S; Crescio, M I; Estrada-Peña, A; Léger, A; Maurella, C; Ru, G; Schuppers, M; Stärk, K D C; Adkin, A

2018-05-01

We present a novel approach of using the multi-criteria pathogen prioritisation methodology as a basis for selecting the most appropriate case studies for a generic risk assessment framework. The approach uses selective criteria to rank exotic animal health pathogens according to the likelihood of introduction and the impact of an outbreak if it occurred in the European Union (EU). Pathogens were evaluated based on their impact on production at the EU level and international trade. A subsequent analysis included criteria of relevance to quantitative risk assessment case study selection, such as the availability of data for parameterisation, the need for further research and the desire for the case studies to cover different routes of transmission. The framework demonstrated is flexible with the ability to adjust both the criteria and their weightings to the user's requirements. A web based tool has been developed using the RStudio shiny apps software, to facilitate this. Crown Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An Exploratory Analysis for the Selection and Implementation of Advanced Manufacturing Technology by Fuzzy Multi-criteria Decision Making Methods: A Comparative Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nath, Surajit; Sarkar, Bijan

2017-08-01

Advanced Manufacturing Technologies (AMTs) offer opportunities for the manufacturing organizations to excel their competitiveness and in turn their effectiveness in manufacturing. Proper selection and evaluation of AMTs is the most significant task in today's modern world. But this involves a lot of uncertainty and vagueness as it requires many conflicting criteria to deal with. So the task of selection and evaluation of AMTs becomes very tedious for the evaluators as they are not able to provide crisp data for the criteria. Different Fuzzy Multi-criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods help greatly in dealing with this problem. This paper focuses on the application of two very much potential Fuzzy MCDM methods namely COPRAS-G, EVAMIX and a comparative study between them on some rarely mentioned criteria. Each of the two methods is very powerful evaluation tool and has beauty in its own. Although, performance wise these two methods are almost at same level, but, the approach of each one of them are quite unique. This uniqueness is revealed by introducing a numerical example of selection of AMT.

You're Hired! A Study Investigating Selection Practices for High School Teachers and the High School Principals' Role in Decision-Making

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mulieri, Vincent K.

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher selection practices in public high schools on Long Island, New York. More specifically, this study sought to identify criteria used to guide teacher selection, how the criteria are developed and used within the process, and the role of the principal in teacher selection. This research was…

Reliable paleointensity determinations from Late Cretaceous volcanic rocks in Korea with constraint of thermochemical alteration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Wonnyon; Doh, Seong-Jae; Yu, Yongjae

2018-06-01

Paleointensity determinations were carried out from Late Cretaceous (∼77 Ma) volcanic rocks in Korea using a Thellier-type IZZI experimental protocol with systematic partial thermal remanent magnetization (pTRM) checks. Various data selection criteria were used to estimate reliable paleointensities. We set stringent threshold values for each parameter to ensure that there was: (1) a linear relationship between natural remanent magnetization (NRM) lost and TRM gained; (2) negligible thermal alteration of magnetic minerals; and (3) uni-vectorial decay of NRM towards the origin. From the 336 samples, ∼88% were rejected because of an insufficient extrapolated NRM fraction in the best-fit line (fvds < 0.6), highlighting that fvds is the most stringent selection criterion in this study. For the 31 accepted samples, paleointensities range from 6.4 to 30.4 μT. Among the 31 samples, eight samples yielded extremely low paleointensities. Although single-domain (titano)magnetite was identified as the stable paleointensity recorder, oxidation of superparamagnetic fractions upon repeated heating probably caused enhancement of pTRM acquisition and yielded a low paleointensity estimate. Apart from these low paleointensities (n = 8) as screened by a newly proposed data selection criterion of Δk < 0.2, the remaining 23 samples have a mean paleointensity of 23.1 ± 4.8 μT, corresponding to a virtual axial dipole moment (VADM) of 40.8 ± 8.5 ZAm2, which is ∼50% of the present-day VADM.

Bioanalytical high-throughput selected reaction monitoring-LC/MS determination of selected estrogen receptor modulators in human plasma: 2000 samples/day.

PubMed

Zweigenbaum, J; Henion, J

2000-06-01

The high-throughput determination of small molecules in biological matrixes has become an important part of drug discovery. This work shows that increased throughput LC/MS/MS techniques can be used for the analysis of selected estrogen receptor modulators in human plasma where more than 2000 samples may be analyzed in a 24-h period. The compounds used to demonstrate the high-throughput methodology include tamoxifen, raloxifene, 4-hydroxytamoxifen, nafoxidine, and idoxifene. Tamoxifen and raloxifene are used in both breast cancer therapy and osteoporosis and have shown prophylactic potential for the reduction of the risk of breast cancer. The described strategy provides LC/MS/MS separation and quantitation for each of the five test articles in control human plasma. The method includes sample preparation employing liquid-liquid extraction in the 96-well format, an LC separation of the five compounds in less than 30 s, and selected reaction monitoring detection from low nano- to microgram per milliter levels. Precision and accuracy are determined where each 96-well plate is considered a typical "tray" having calibration standards and quality control (QC) samples dispersed through each plate. A concept is introduced where 24 96-well plates analyzed in 1 day is considered a "grand tray", and the method is cross-validated with standards placed only at the beginning of the first plate and the end of the last plate. Using idoxifene-d5 as an internal standard, the results obtained for idoxifene and tamoxifen satisfy current bioanalytical method validation criteria on two separate days where 2112 and 2304 samples were run, respectively. Method validation included 24-h autosampler stability and one freeze-thaw cycle stability for the extracts. Idoxifene showed acceptable results with accuracy ranging from 0.3% for the high quality control (QC) to 15.4% for the low QC and precision of 3.6%-13.9% relative standard deviation. Tamoxifen showed accuracy ranging from 1.6% to 13.8% and precision from 7.8% to 15.2%. The linear dynamic range for these compounds was 3 orders of magnitude. The limit of quantification was 5 and 50 ng/ mL for tamoxifen and idoxifene, respectively. The other compounds in this study in general satisfy the more relaxed bioanalytical acceptance criteria for modern drug discovery. It is suggested that the quantification levels reported in this high-throughput analysis example are adequate for many drug discovery and related early pharmaceutical studies.

Criteria Utilized by College-Educated Women to Select Newspaper Science News.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunwoody, Sharon

In an attempt to identify criteria used by readers to select science news, a homogeneous group of women in the Philadelphia area was asked to indicate which of 48 science-news statements they would be interested in reading in their newspapers. The statements were condensed from stories selected from Philadelphia newspapers over a…

Image Analyzed by Mars Rover for Selection of Target

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-03-23

NASA Opportunity used newly developed and uploaded software called AEGIS, to analyze images to identify features that best matched criteria for selecting an observation target; the criteria in this image -- rocks that are larger and darker than others.

75 FR 9574 - Caribbean Trade Mission

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-03-03

...; Hotel & Restaurant Equipment; Medical Equipment & Supplies; Automotive Parts & Accessories; and... apply to the program, and once accepted (see `Criteria for Participant Selection') will work with the... conditions and best satisfy the selection criteria as outlined below. Target recruitment for the Trade...

Diffusion of Educational Knowledge Through Journals: Gatekeepers' Selection Criteria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Silverman, Robert J.

1978-01-01

Report is made of a survey of 248 editors representing scholarly, professional, association, and research journals in regard to their editorial role, criteria for accepting or rejecting manuscripts, and selection of editorial boards and reviewers. (Author/MJB)

45 CFR 1232.11 - Employment and volunteer selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 45 Public Welfare 4 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Employment and volunteer selection criteria. 1232.11 Section 1232.11 Public Welfare Regulations Relating to Public Welfare (Continued) CORPORATION FOR... that impair sensory, manual, or speaking skills. ...

45 CFR 1232.11 - Employment and volunteer selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 45 Public Welfare 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Employment and volunteer selection criteria. 1232.11 Section 1232.11 Public Welfare Regulations Relating to Public Welfare (Continued) CORPORATION FOR... that impair sensory, manual, or speaking skills. ...

Dermatology Residency Selection Criteria with an Emphasis on Program Characteristics: A National Program Director Survey

PubMed Central

Gorouhi, Farzam; Alikhan, Ali; Rezaei, Arash; Fazel, Nasim

2014-01-01

Background. Dermatology residency programs are relatively diverse in their resident selection process. The authors investigated the importance of 25 dermatology residency selection criteria focusing on differences in program directors' (PDs') perception based on specific program demographics. Methods. This cross-sectional nationwide observational survey utilized a 41-item questionnaire that was developed by literature search, brainstorming sessions, and online expert reviews. The data were analyzed utilizing the reliability test, two-step clustering, and K-means methods as well as other methods. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in PDs' perception regarding the importance of the selection criteria based on program demographics. Results. Ninety-five out of 114 PDs (83.3%) responded to the survey. The top five criteria for dermatology residency selection were interview, letters of recommendation, United States Medical Licensing Examination Step I scores, medical school transcripts, and clinical rotations. The following criteria were preferentially ranked based on different program characteristics: “advanced degrees,” “interest in academics,” “reputation of undergraduate and medical school,” “prior unsuccessful attempts to match,” and “number of publications.” Conclusions. Our survey provides up-to-date factual data on dermatology PDs' perception in this regard. Dermatology residency programs may find the reported data useful in further optimizing their residency selection process. PMID:24772165

Choosing front-of-package food labelling nutritional criteria: how smart were 'Smart Choices'?

PubMed

Roberto, Christina A; Bragg, Marie A; Livingston, Kara A; Harris, Jennifer L; Thompson, Jackie M; Seamans, Marissa J; Brownell, Kelly D

2012-02-01

The 'Smart Choices' programme was an industry-driven, front-of-package (FOP) nutritional labelling system introduced in the USA in August 2009, ostensibly to help consumers select healthier options during food shopping. Its nutritional criteria were developed by members of the food industry in collaboration with nutrition and public health experts and government officials. The aim of the present study was to test the extent to which products labelled as 'Smart Choices' could be classified as healthy choices on the basis of the Nutrient Profile Model (NPM), a non-industry-developed, validated nutritional standard. A total of 100 packaged products that qualified for a 'Smart Choices' designation were sampled from eight food and beverage categories. All products were evaluated using the NPM method. In all, 64 % of the products deemed 'Smart Choices' did not meet the NPM standard for a healthy product. Within each 'Smart Choices' category, 0 % of condiments, 8·70 % of fats and oils, 15·63 % of cereals and 31·58 % of snacks and sweets met NPM thresholds. All sampled soups, beverages, desserts and grains deemed 'Smart Choices' were considered healthy according to the NPM standard. The 'Smart Choices' programme is an example of industries' attempts at self-regulation. More than 60 % of foods that received the 'Smart Choices' label did not meet standard nutritional criteria for a 'healthy' food choice, suggesting that industries' involvement in designing labelling systems should be scrutinized. The NPM system may be a good option as the basis for establishing FOP labelling criteria, although more comparisons with other systems are needed.

Single point aerosol sampling: evaluation of mixing and probe performance in a nuclear stack.

PubMed

Rodgers, J C; Fairchild, C I; Wood, G O; Ortiz, C A; Muyshondt, A; McFarland, A R

1996-01-01

Alternative reference methodologies have been developed for sampling of radionuclides from stacks and ducts, which differ from the methods previously required by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. These alternative reference methodologies have recently been approved by the U.S. EPA for use in lieu of the current standard techniques. The standard EPA methods are prescriptive in selection of sampling locations and in design of sampling probes whereas the alternative reference methodologies are performance driven. Tests were conducted in a stack at Los Alamos National Laboratory to demonstrate the efficacy of some aspects of the alternative reference methodologies. Coefficients of variation of velocity, tracer gas, and aerosol particle profiles were determined at three sampling locations. Results showed that numerical criteria placed upon the coefficients of variation by the alternative reference methodologies were met at sampling stations located 9 and 14 stack diameters from the flow entrance, but not at a location that was 1.5 diameters downstream from the inlet. Experiments were conducted to characterize the transmission of 10 microns aerodynamic diameter liquid aerosol particles through three types of sampling probes. The transmission ratio (ratio of aerosol concentration at the probe exit plane to the concentration in the free stream) was 107% for a 113 L min-1 (4-cfm) anisokinetic shrouded probe, but only 20% for an isokinetic probe that follows the existing EPA standard requirements. A specially designed isokinetic probe showed a transmission ratio of 63%. The shrouded probe performance would conform to the alternative reference methodologies criteria; however, the isokinetic probes would not.

Allele frequency changes due to hitch-hiking in genomic selection programs

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Genomic selection makes it possible to reduce pedigree-based inbreeding over best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) by increasing emphasis on own rather than family information. However, pedigree inbreeding might not accurately reflect loss of genetic variation and the true level of inbreeding due to changes in allele frequencies and hitch-hiking. This study aimed at understanding the impact of using long-term genomic selection on changes in allele frequencies, genetic variation and level of inbreeding. Methods Selection was performed in simulated scenarios with a population of 400 animals for 25 consecutive generations. Six genetic models were considered with different heritabilities and numbers of QTL (quantitative trait loci) affecting the trait. Four selection criteria were used, including selection on own phenotype and on estimated breeding values (EBV) derived using phenotype-BLUP, genomic BLUP and Bayesian Lasso. Changes in allele frequencies at QTL, markers and linked neutral loci were investigated for the different selection criteria and different scenarios, along with the loss of favourable alleles and the rate of inbreeding measured by pedigree and runs of homozygosity. Results For each selection criterion, hitch-hiking in the vicinity of the QTL appeared more extensive when accuracy of selection was higher and the number of QTL was lower. When inbreeding was measured by pedigree information, selection on genomic BLUP EBV resulted in lower levels of inbreeding than selection on phenotype BLUP EBV, but this did not always apply when inbreeding was measured by runs of homozygosity. Compared to genomic BLUP, selection on EBV from Bayesian Lasso led to less genetic drift, reduced loss of favourable alleles and more effectively controlled the rate of both pedigree and genomic inbreeding in all simulated scenarios. In addition, selection on EBV from Bayesian Lasso showed a higher selection differential for mendelian sampling terms than selection on genomic BLUP EBV. Conclusions Neutral variation can be shaped to a great extent by the hitch-hiking effects associated with selection, rather than just by genetic drift. When implementing long-term genomic selection, strategies for genomic control of inbreeding are essential, due to a considerable hitch-hiking effect, regardless of the method that is used for prediction of EBV. PMID:24495634

Water-quality data for selected streams in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain ecoregion, northwestern Mississippi, September – October 2007

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hicks, Matthew B.; Stocks, Shane J.

2010-01-01

From September through October 2007, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, collected and analyzed water-quality samples from streams in the Yazoo River basin within the Mississippi Alluvial Plain ecoregion in northwestern Mississippi. Water-quality samples were collected at 56 sites in the study area and analyzed for various physical and chemical characteristics including, but not limited to, suspended sediment, nutrients, and chlorophyll a. Additionally, water temperature, pH, specific conductance, and dissolved oxygen data were measured at 28 of the sites using multiparameter water-quality meters at 30-minute intervals for a minimum of 48 hours. Data collected for this project will be used in the development of water-quality criteria for nutrients. The nutrient data will enhance existing datasets and support evaluation of cause and effect relations for nutrient criteria development. In addition, these indicators will assist in the development and evaluation of restoration and remediation plans for water bodies not meeting their designated uses, as stated in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Water Act Section 303(d).

A Comparative Study of the Employee Skills/Training Acceptable to Employers Under Varying Degrees of Labor Market Stringencies. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fisher, W. Halder; And Others

The purposes of this stud y were to test the dependability of stated employee selection criteria, to ascertain the degree of congruence between stated and actual selection criteria, and to determine the degree of change in criteria due to "looseness" or "tightness" of the local labor market. Seven test labor market areas representing a variety of…

Lessons learned from 15 years of non-grades-based selection for medical school.

PubMed

Stegers-Jager, Karen M

2018-01-01

Thirty years ago, it was suggested in the Edinburgh Declaration that medical school applicants should be selected not only on academic, but also on non-academic, attributes. The main rationale behind extending medical school selection procedures with the evaluation of (non-academic) personal qualities is that this will lead to the selection of students who will perform better as a doctor than those who are selected on the basis of academic measures only. A second rationale is the expectation that this will lead to a representative health workforce as a result of reduced adverse impact. The aims of this paper are (i) to describe what can be learned about the use of selection criteria other than grades from over 15 years of Dutch experience and (ii) to summarise current knowledge on the issue of adverse impact in relation to non-grades-based selection. A narrative review was undertaken of the (published) evidence that has resulted from non-grades-based school-specific selection procedures in the Netherlands and from recent explorations of the effect of the use of non-grades-based selection criteria on student diversity. The Dutch evidence is grouped into five key themes: the effect of participation in voluntary selection procedures, the assessment of pre-university extracurricular activities, the use of work samples, Dutch experiences with situational judgement tests and the effects of changing circumstances. This is followed by several lessons learned for medical schools that aim to increase their student diversity. Over the last 30 years, important steps towards reliable and valid methods for measuring non-academic abilities have been taken. The current paper describes several lessons that can be learned from the steps taken in the Dutch context. The importance of sharing evidence gathered around the globe and building on this evidence to reach our goal of predicting who will be a good doctor is acknowledged. © 2017 The Authors. Medical Education published by Association for the Study of Medical Education and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Species-specific variation in nesting and postfledging resource selection for two forest breeding migrant songbirds.

PubMed

Jenkins, Julianna M A; Thompson, Frank R; Faaborg, John

2017-01-01

Habitat selection is a fundamental component of community ecology, population ecology, and evolutionary biology and can be especially important to species with complex annual habitat requirements, such as migratory birds. Resource preferences on the breeding grounds may change during the postfledging period for migrant songbirds, however, the degree to which selection changes, timing of change, and whether all or only a few species alter their resource use is unclear. We compared resource selection for nest sites and resource selection by postfledging juvenile ovenbirds (Seiurus aurocapilla) and Acadian flycatchers (Empidonax virescens) followed with radio telemetry in Missouri mature forest fragments from 2012-2015. We used Bayesian discrete choice modeling to evaluate support for local vegetation characteristics on the probability of selection for nest sites and locations utilized by different ages of postfledging juveniles. Patterns of resource selection variation were species-specific. Resource selection models indicated that Acadian flycatcher habitat selection criteria were similar for nesting and dependent postfledging juveniles and selection criteria diverged when juveniles became independent from adults. After independence, flycatcher resource selection was more associated with understory foliage density. Ovenbirds differed in selection criteria between the nesting and postfledging periods. Fledgling ovenbirds selected areas with higher densities of understory structure compared to nest sites, and the effect of foliage density on selection increased as juveniles aged and gained independence. The differences observed between two sympatric forest nesting species, in both the timing and degree of change in resource selection criteria over the course of the breeding season, illustrates the importance of considering species-specific traits and postfledging requirements when developing conservation efforts, especially when foraging guilds or prey bases differ. We recommend that postfledging habitat selection be considered in future conservation efforts dealing with Neotropical migrants and other forest breeding songbirds.

Report of the Paris consensus meeting on expanded criteria donors in liver transplantation.

PubMed

Durand, François; Renz, John F; Alkofer, Barbara; Burra, Patrizia; Clavien, Pierre-Alain; Porte, Robert J; Freeman, Richard B; Belghiti, Jacques

2008-12-01

Because of organ shortage and a constant imbalance between available organs and candidates for liver transplantation, expanded criteria donors are needed. Experience shows that there are wide variations in the definitions, selection criteria, and use of expanded criteria donors according to different geographic areas and different centers. Overall, selection criteria for donors have tended to be relaxed in recent years. Consensus recommendations are needed. This article reports the conclusions of a consensus meeting held in Paris in March 2007 with the contribution of experts from Europe, the United States, and Asia. Definitions of expanded criteria donors with respect to donor variables (including age, liver function tests, steatosis, infections, malignancies, and heart-beating versus non-heart-beating, among others) are proposed. It is emphasized that donor quality represents a continuum of risk rather than "good or bad." A distinction is made between donor factors that generate increased risk of graft failure and factors independent of graft function, such as transmissible infectious disease or donor-derived malignancy, that may preclude a good outcome. Updated data concerning the risks associated with different donor variables in different recipient populations are given. Recommendations on how to safely expand donor selection criteria are proposed.

Clustering and group selection of multiple criteria alternatives with application to space-based networks.

PubMed

Malakooti, Behnam; Yang, Ziyong

2004-02-01

In many real-world problems, the range of consequences of different alternatives are considerably different. In addition, sometimes, selection of a group of alternatives (instead of only one best alternative) is necessary. Traditional decision making approaches treat the set of alternatives with the same method of analysis and selection. In this paper, we propose clustering alternatives into different groups so that different methods of analysis, selection, and implementation for each group can be applied. As an example, consider the selection of a group of functions (or tasks) to be processed by a group of processors. The set of tasks can be grouped according to their similar criteria, and hence, each cluster of tasks to be processed by a processor. The selection of the best alternative for each clustered group can be performed using existing methods; however, the process of selecting groups is different than the process of selecting alternatives within a group. We develop theories and procedures for clustering discrete multiple criteria alternatives. We also demonstrate how the set of alternatives is clustered into mutually exclusive groups based on 1) similar features among alternatives; 2) ideal (or most representative) alternatives given by the decision maker; and 3) other preferential information of the decision maker. The clustering of multiple criteria alternatives also has the following advantages. 1) It decreases the set of alternatives to be considered by the decision maker (for example, different decision makers are assigned to different groups of alternatives). 2) It decreases the number of criteria. 3) It may provide a different approach for analyzing multiple decision makers problems. Each decision maker may cluster alternatives differently, and hence, clustering of alternatives may provide a basis for negotiation. The developed approach is applicable for solving a class of telecommunication networks problems where a set of objects (such as routers, processors, or intelligent autonomous vehicles) are to be clustered into similar groups. Objects are clustered based on several criteria and the decision maker's preferences.

Water vapor diffusion membrane development. [for water recovery purposes onboard manned spacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tan, M. K.

1974-01-01

The phase separator component used as a membrane in the vapor diffusion process (VRD) for the recovery of potable water from urine on manned space missions of extended duration was investigated, with particular emphasis on cation-selective membranes because of their noted mechanical strength, superior resistance to acids, oxidants, and germicides, and their potential resistance to organic foulants. Two of the membranes were tested for 700 hours continuously, and were selected on the basis of criteria deemed important to an effective water reclamation system onboard spacecraft. The samples of urine were successfully processed by removing 93 percent of their water content in 70 hours using the selected membranes. Pretreatment with an acid-oxidant formulation improved product quality. Cation exchange membranes were shown to possess superior mechanical strength and chemical resistance, as compared to cellulosic membranes.

Manufacture and calibration of optical supersmooth roughness artifacts for intercomparisons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ringel, Gabriele A.; Kratz, Frank; Schmitt, Dirk-Roger; Mangelsdorf, Juergen; Creuzet, Francois; Garratt, John D.

1995-09-01

Intercomparison roughness measurements have been carried out on supersmooth artifacts fabricated from BK7, fused silica, and Zerodur. The surface parameters were determined using the optical heterodyne profiler Z5500 (Zygo), a special prototype of the mechanical profiler Nanostep (Rank Taylor Hobson), and an Atomic Force Microscope (Park Scientific Instruments) with an improved acquisition technique. The intercomparison was performed after the range of collected spatial wavelengths for each instrument was adjusted using digital filtering techniques. It is demonstrated for different roughness ranges that the applied superpolishing techniques yield supersmooth artifacts which can be used for more intercomparisons. More than 100 samples were investigated. Criteria were developed to select artifacts from the sample stock.

People with dementia in nursing home research: a methodological review of the definition and identification of the study population.

PubMed

Palm, Rebecca; Jünger, Saskia; Reuther, Sven; Schwab, Christian G G; Dichter, Martin N; Holle, Bernhard; Halek, Margareta

2016-04-05

There are various definitions and diagnostic criteria for dementia, leading to discrepancies in case ascertainment in both clinical practice and research. We reviewed the different definitions, approaches and measurements used to operationalize dementia in health care studies in German nursing homes with the aim of discussing the implications of different approaches. We conducted a systematic search of the MEDLINE and CINAHL databases to identify pre-2016 studies conducted in German nursing homes that focused on residents with dementia or cognitive impairment. In- or exclusion of studies were consented by all authors; data extraction was independently carried out by 2 authors (RP, SJ). The studies' sampling methods were compared with respect to their inclusion criteria, assessment tools and methods used to identify the study population. We summarized case ascertainment methods from 64 studies. Study participants were identified based on a diagnosis that was evaluated during the study, or a recorded medical dementia diagnosis, or a recorded medical diagnosis either with additional cognitive screenings or using screening tests exclusively. The descriptions of the diagnostics that were applied to assess a diagnosis of dementia were not fully transparent in most of the studies with respect to either a clear reference definition of dementia or applied diagnostic criteria. If reported, various neuropsychological tests were used, mostly without a clear rationale for their selection. Pragmatic considerations often determine the sampling strategy; they also may explain the variances we detected in the different studies. Variations in sampling methods impede the comparability of study results. There is a need to consent case ascertainment strategies in dementia studies in health service research in nursing homes. These strategies should consider resource constraints and ethical issues that are related to the vulnerable population of nursing home residents. Additionally, reporting about dementia studies in nursing homes need to be improved. If a diagnosis cannot be evaluated based on either ICD or DSM criteria, the study population may not be reported as having dementia. If a diagnosis is evaluated based on ICD or DSM criteria within the study, there is a need for more transparency of the diagnostic process.

Herd diagnosis of low pathogen diarrhoea in growing pigs - a pilot study.

PubMed

Pedersen, Ken Steen; Johansen, Markku; Angen, Oystein; Jorsal, Sven Erik; Nielsen, Jens Peter; Jensen, Tim K; Guedes, Roberto; Ståhl, Marie; Bækbo, Poul

2014-01-01

The major indication for antibiotic use in Danish pigs is treatment of intestinal diseases post weaning. Clinical decisions on antibiotic batch medication are often based on inspection of diarrhoeic pools on the pen floor. In some of these treated diarrhoea outbreaks, intestinal pathogens can only be demonstrated in a small number of pigs within the treated group (low pathogen diarrhoea). Termination of antibiotic batch medication in herds suffering from such diarrhoea could potentially reduce the consumption of antibiotics in the pig industry. The objective of the present pilot study was to suggest criteria for herd diagnosis of low pathogen diarrhoea in growing pigs. Data previously collected from 20 Danish herds were used to create a case series of clinical diarrhoea outbreaks normally subjected to antibiotic treatment. In the present study, these diarrhoea outbreaks were classified as low pathogen (<15% of the pigs having bacterial intestinal disease) (n =5 outbreaks) or high pathogen (≥15% of the pigs having bacterial intestinal disease) (n =15 outbreaks). Based on the case series, different diagnostic procedures were explored, and criteria for herd diagnosis of low pathogen diarrhoea were suggested. The effect of sampling variation was explored by simulation. The diagnostic procedure with the highest combined herd-level sensitivity and specificity was qPCR testing of a pooled sample containing 20 randomly selected faecal samples. The criteria for a positive test result (high pathogen diarrhoea outbreak) were an average of 1.5 diarrhoeic faecal pools on the floor of each pen in the room under investigation and a pathogenic bacterial load ≥35,000 per gram in the faecal pool tested by qPCR. The bacterial load was the sum of Lawsonia intracellularis, Brachyspira pilosicoli and Escherichia coli F4 and F18 bacteria per gram faeces. The herd-diagnostic performance was (herd-level) diagnostic sensitivity =0.99, diagnostic specificity =0.80, positive predictive value =0.94 and negative predictive value =0.96. The pilot study suggests criteria for herd diagnosis of low pathogen diarrhoea in growing pigs. The suggested criteria should now be evaluated, and the effect of terminating antibiotic batch medication in herds identified as suffering from low pathogen diarrhoea should be explored.

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

Ge Junqiang; Hu Chen; Wang Jianmin

Recently, much attention has been paid to double-peaked narrow emission-line (NEL) galaxies, some of which are suggested to be related to merging galaxies. We make a systematic search to build the largest sample of these sources from Data Release 7 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). With reasonable criteria for fluxes, FWHMs of the emission lines, and separations of the peaks, we select 3030 double-peaked NEL galaxies. In light of the existence of broad Balmer lines and the locations of the two components of double-peaked NELs distinguished by the Kauffmann et al. criteria in the Baldwin-Phillips-Terlevich diagram, we findmore » that there are 81 Type I active galactic nuclei (AGNs), 837 double Type II AGNs (2-Type II), 708 galaxies with double star-forming components (2-SF), 400 with mixed star-forming and Type II AGN components (Type II + SF), and 1004 unknown-type objects. As a by-product, a sample of galaxies (12,582) with asymmetric or top-flat profiles of emission lines is established. After visually inspecting the SDSS images of the two samples, we find 54 galaxies with dual cores. The present samples can be used to study the dynamics of merging galaxies, the triggering mechanism of black hole activity, the hierarchical growth of galaxies, and the dynamics of narrow line regions driven by outflows and a rotating disk.« less

Influence of diagnostic criteria on the interpretation of adrenal vein sampling.

PubMed

Lethielleux, Gaëlle; Amar, Laurence; Raynaud, Alain; Plouin, Pierre-François; Steichen, Olivier

2015-04-01

Guidelines promote the use of adrenal vein sampling (AVS) to document lateralized aldosterone hypersecretion in primary aldosteronism. However, there are large discrepancies between institutions in the criteria used to interpret its results. This study evaluates the consequences of these differences on the classification and management of patients. The results of all 537 AVS procedures performed between January 2001 and July 2010 in our institution were interpreted with 4 diagnostic criteria used in experienced institutions where AVS is performed without cosyntropin (Brisbane, Padua, Paris, and Turin) and with criteria proposed by a recent consensus statement. AVS procedures were classified as unsuccessful, lateralized, or not lateralized according to each set of criteria. Almost 5× more AVS procedures were classified as unsuccessful with the strictest criteria than with the least strict criteria (18% versus 4%, respectively). Similarly, over 2× more AVS procedures were classified as lateralized with the least stringent criteria than with the most stringent criteria (60% versus 26%, respectively). Multiple samples were available from ≥1 side for 155 AVS procedures. These procedures were classified differently by ≥2 right-left sample pairs in 12% to 20% of cases. Thus, different sets of criteria used to interpret AVS in experienced institutions translate into heterogeneous classifications and hence management decisions, for patients with primary aldosteronism. Defining the most appropriate procedures and diagnostic criteria is needed for AVS to achieve optimal performance and fully justify its status as a gold standard. © 2015 American Heart Association, Inc.

Development of size-selective sampling of Bacillus anthracis surrogate spores from simulated building air intake mixtures for analysis via laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy.

PubMed

Gibb-Snyder, Emily; Gullett, Brian; Ryan, Shawn; Oudejans, Lukas; Touati, Abderrahmane

2006-08-01

Size-selective sampling of Bacillus anthracis surrogate spores from realistic, common aerosol mixtures was developed for analysis by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). A two-stage impactor was found to be the preferential sampling technique for LIBS analysis because it was able to concentrate the spores in the mixtures while decreasing the collection of potentially interfering aerosols. Three common spore/aerosol scenarios were evaluated, diesel truck exhaust (to simulate a truck running outside of a building air intake), urban outdoor aerosol (to simulate common building air), and finally a protein aerosol (to simulate either an agent mixture (ricin/anthrax) or a contaminated anthrax sample). Two statistical methods, linear correlation and principal component analysis, were assessed for differentiation of surrogate spore spectra from other common aerosols. Criteria for determining percentages of false positives and false negatives via correlation analysis were evaluated. A single laser shot analysis of approximately 4 percent of the spores in a mixture of 0.75 m(3) urban outdoor air doped with approximately 1.1 x 10(5) spores resulted in a 0.04 proportion of false negatives. For that same sample volume of urban air without spores, the proportion of false positives was 0.08.

A NEW INFRARED COLOR CRITERION FOR THE SELECTION OF 0 < z < 7 AGNs: APPLICATION TO DEEP FIELDS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR JWST SURVEYS

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

Messias, H.; Afonso, J.; Salvato, M.

2012-08-01

It is widely accepted that observations at mid-infrared (mid-IR) wavelengths enable the selection of galaxies with nuclear activity, which may not be revealed even in the deepest X-ray surveys. Many mid-IR color-color criteria have been explored to accomplish this goal and tested thoroughly in the literature. Besides missing many low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGNs), one of the main conclusions is that, with increasing redshift, the contamination by non-active galaxies becomes significant (especially at z {approx}> 2.5). This is problematic for the study of the AGN phenomenon in the early universe, the main goal of many of the current and futuremore » deep extragalactic surveys. In this work new near- and mid-IR color diagnostics are explored, aiming for improved efficiency-better completeness and less contamination-in selecting AGNs out to very high redshifts. We restrict our study to the James Webb Space Telescope wavelength range (0.6-27 {mu}m). The criteria are created based on the predictions by state-of-the-art galaxy and AGN templates covering a wide variety of galaxy properties, and tested against control samples with deep multi-wavelength coverage (ranging from the X-rays to radio frequencies). We show that the colors K{sub s} - [4.5], [4.5] - [8.0], and [8.0] - [24] are ideal as AGN/non-AGN diagnostics at, respectively, z {approx}< 1, 1 {approx}< z {approx}< 2.5, and z {approx}> 2.5-3. However, when the source redshift is unknown, these colors should be combined. We thus develop an improved IR criterion (using K{sub s} and IRAC bands, KI) as a new alternative at z {approx}< 2.5. KI does not show improved completeness (50%-60% overall) in comparison to commonly used Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) based AGN criteria, but is less affected by non-AGN contamination (revealing a >50%-90% level of successful AGN selection). We also propose KIM (using K{sub s} , IRAC, and MIPS 24 {mu}m bands, KIM), which aims to select AGN hosts from local distances to as far back as the end of reionization (0 < z {approx}< 7) with reduced non-AGN contamination. However, the necessary testing constraints and the small control-sample sizes prevent the confirmation of its improved efficiency at z {approx}> 2.5. Overall, KIM shows a {approx}30%-40% completeness and a >70%-90% level of successful AGN selection. KI and KIM are built to be reliable against a {approx}10%-20% error in flux, are based on existing filters, and are suitable for immediate use.« less

Psychosis prediction in secondary mental health services. A broad, comprehensive approach to the "at risk mental state" syndrome.

PubMed

Francesconi, M; Minichino, A; Carrión, R E; Delle Chiaie, R; Bevilacqua, A; Parisi, M; Rullo, S; Bersani, F Saverio; Biondi, M; Cadenhead, K

2017-02-01

Accuracy of risk algorithms for psychosis prediction in "at risk mental state" (ARMS) samples may differ according to the recruitment setting. Standardized criteria used to detect ARMS individuals may lack specificity if the recruitment setting is a secondary mental health service. The authors tested a modified strategy to predict psychosis conversion in this setting by using a systematic selection of trait-markers of the psychosis prodrome in a sample with a heterogeneous ARMS status. 138 non-psychotic outpatients (aged 17-31) were consecutively recruited in secondary mental health services and followed-up for up to 3 years (mean follow-up time, 2.2 years; SD=0.9). Baseline ARMS status, clinical, demographic, cognitive, and neurological soft signs measures were collected. Cox regression was used to derive a risk index. 48% individuals met ARMS criteria (ARMS-Positive, ARMS+). Conversion rate to psychosis was 21% for the overall sample, 34% for ARMS+, and 9% for ARMS-Negative (ARMS-). The final predictor model with a positive predictive validity of 80% consisted of four variables: Disorder of Thought Content, visuospatial/constructional deficits, sensory-integration, and theory-of-mind abnormalities. Removing Disorder of Thought Content from the model only slightly modified the predictive accuracy (-6.2%), but increased the sensitivity (+9.5%). These results suggest that in a secondary mental health setting the use of trait-markers of the psychosis prodrome may predict psychosis conversion with great accuracy despite the heterogeneity of the ARMS status. The use of the proposed predictive algorithm may enable a selective recruitment, potentially reducing duration of untreated psychosis and improving prognostic outcomes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Benign Papillomas Without Atypia Diagnosed on Core Needle Biopsy: Experience From a Single Institution and Proposed Criteria for Excision

PubMed Central

Nayak, Anupma; Carkaci, Selin; Gilcrease, Michael Z.; Liu, Ping; Middleton, Lavinia P.; Bassett, Roland L.; Zhang, Jinxia; Zhang, Hong; Coyne, Robin L.; Bevers, Therese B.; Sneige, Nour; Huo, Lei

2015-01-01

The management of benign papilloma (BP) without atypia identified on breast core needle biopsy (CNB) is controversial. We describe the clinicopathologic features of 80 patients with such lesions in our institution, with an upgrade rate to malignancy of 3.8%. A multidisciplinary approach to select patients for surgical excision is recommended. Background The management of benign papilloma (BP) without atypia identified on breast core needle biopsy (CNB) is controversial. In this study, we determined the upgrade rate to malignancy for BPs without atypia diagnosed on CNB and whether there are factors associated with upgrade. Methods Through our pathology database search, we studied 80 BPs without atypia identified on CNB from 80 patients from 1997 to 2010, including 30 lesions that had undergone excision and 50 lesions that had undergone ≥ 2 years of radiologic follow-up. Associations between surgery or upgrade to malignancy and clinical, radiologic, and pathologic features were analyzed. Results Mass lesions, lesions sampled by ultrasound-guided CNB, and palpable lesions were associated with surgical excision. All 3 upgraded cases were mass lesions sampled by ultrasound-guided CNB. None of the lesions with radiologic follow-up only were upgraded to malignancy. The overall upgrade rate was 3.8%. None of the clinical, radiologic, or histologic features were predictive of upgrade. Conclusion Because the majority of patients can be safely managed with radiologic surveillance, a selective approach for surgical excision is recommended. Our proposed criteria for excision include pathologic/radiologic discordance or sampling by ultrasound-guided CNB without vacuum assistance when the patient is symptomatic or lesion size is ≥ 1.5 cm. PMID:24119786

VizieR Online Data Catalog: SDSS DR7 voids and superclusters (Nadathur+, 2014)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nadathur, S.; Hotchkiss, S.

2016-02-01

This is a public catalogue of voids and superclusters identified in the SDSS DR7 main galaxy and luminous red galaxy samples. This version is dated 04.11.2013. We make the catalogues available for general use. If you use them for your own work, we ask that you cite the original paper, Nadathur & Hotchkiss (2014MNRAS.440.1248N). The top-level directory cat_v11.11.13 contains an example python script called postproc.py, and two folders called comovcoords and redshiftcoords containing two versions of the catalogue in different coordinate systems. The comoving coordinate system is pretty self-explanatory, for a description of the other one please refer to the paper. Each of these directories is further divided into six folders containing the Type1 and Type2 void catalogues and the supercluster catalogue for each of the galaxy samples analysed here, and a folder called tools, which contains data useful for users wishing to apply their own selection criteria. The basic information provided includes the location of the barycentre of each structure, its volume, effective radius, average density and minimum or maximum density, its core galaxy and seed zone, the total number of galaxies in the seed zone, the number of zones merged to form the structure, the total number of particles in the structure, and its density ratio. These are split between two files for each structure type and each sample, named xxxinfo.txt and xxxlist.txt, where xxx refers to the structure type. It is also possible to extract lists of member galaxies of each structure and their magnitudes. An example python script, postproc.py, demonstrates how to access this information and how to build alternative catalogues using user-defined selection criteria. (27 data files).

The application of fuzzy Delphi and fuzzy inference system in supplier ranking and selection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tahriri, Farzad; Mousavi, Maryam; Hozhabri Haghighi, Siamak; Zawiah Md Dawal, Siti

2014-06-01

In today's highly rival market, an effective supplier selection process is vital to the success of any manufacturing system. Selecting the appropriate supplier is always a difficult task because suppliers posses varied strengths and weaknesses that necessitate careful evaluations prior to suppliers' ranking. This is a complex process with many subjective and objective factors to consider before the benefits of supplier selection are achieved. This paper identifies six extremely critical criteria and thirteen sub-criteria based on the literature. A new methodology employing those criteria and sub-criteria is proposed for the assessment and ranking of a given set of suppliers. To handle the subjectivity of the decision maker's assessment, an integration of fuzzy Delphi with fuzzy inference system has been applied and a new ranking method is proposed for supplier selection problem. This supplier selection model enables decision makers to rank the suppliers based on three classifications including "extremely preferred", "moderately preferred", and "weakly preferred". In addition, in each classification, suppliers are put in order from highest final score to the lowest. Finally, the methodology is verified and validated through an example of a numerical test bed.

New decision criteria for selecting delta check methods based on the ratio of the delta difference to the width of the reference range can be generally applicable for each clinical chemistry test item.

PubMed

Park, Sang Hyuk; Kim, So-Young; Lee, Woochang; Chun, Sail; Min, Won-Ki

2012-09-01

Many laboratories use 4 delta check methods: delta difference, delta percent change, rate difference, and rate percent change. However, guidelines regarding decision criteria for selecting delta check methods have not yet been provided. We present new decision criteria for selecting delta check methods for each clinical chemistry test item. We collected 811,920 and 669,750 paired (present and previous) test results for 27 clinical chemistry test items from inpatients and outpatients, respectively. We devised new decision criteria for the selection of delta check methods based on the ratio of the delta difference to the width of the reference range (DD/RR). Delta check methods based on these criteria were compared with those based on the CV% of the absolute delta difference (ADD) as well as those reported in 2 previous studies. The delta check methods suggested by new decision criteria based on the DD/RR ratio corresponded well with those based on the CV% of the ADD except for only 2 items each in inpatients and outpatients. Delta check methods based on the DD/RR ratio also corresponded with those suggested in the 2 previous studies, except for 1 and 7 items in inpatients and outpatients, respectively. The DD/RR method appears to yield more feasible and intuitive selection criteria and can easily explain changes in the results by reflecting both the biological variation of the test item and the clinical characteristics of patients in each laboratory. We suggest this as a measure to determine delta check methods.

Active learning: a step towards automating medical concept extraction.

PubMed

Kholghi, Mahnoosh; Sitbon, Laurianne; Zuccon, Guido; Nguyen, Anthony

2016-03-01

This paper presents an automatic, active learning-based system for the extraction of medical concepts from clinical free-text reports. Specifically, (1) the contribution of active learning in reducing the annotation effort and (2) the robustness of incremental active learning framework across different selection criteria and data sets are determined. The comparative performance of an active learning framework and a fully supervised approach were investigated to study how active learning reduces the annotation effort while achieving the same effectiveness as a supervised approach. Conditional random fields as the supervised method, and least confidence and information density as 2 selection criteria for active learning framework were used. The effect of incremental learning vs standard learning on the robustness of the models within the active learning framework with different selection criteria was also investigated. The following 2 clinical data sets were used for evaluation: the Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside/Veteran Affairs (i2b2/VA) 2010 natural language processing challenge and the Shared Annotated Resources/Conference and Labs of the Evaluation Forum (ShARe/CLEF) 2013 eHealth Evaluation Lab. The annotation effort saved by active learning to achieve the same effectiveness as supervised learning is up to 77%, 57%, and 46% of the total number of sequences, tokens, and concepts, respectively. Compared with the random sampling baseline, the saving is at least doubled. Incremental active learning is a promising approach for building effective and robust medical concept extraction models while significantly reducing the burden of manual annotation. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

77 FR 4553 - Proposed Revision to Selection Criteria-Enhanced Assessment Instruments

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-01-30

... Selection Criteria--Enhanced Assessment Instruments AGENCY: Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Department of Education. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: The Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary..., Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (Attention: EAG Comments), U.S. Department of Education, 400...

Development of Selection Criteria and Their Application in Evaluation of CELSS Candidate Species

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hoff, J. E.; Howe, J. M.; Mitchell, C. A.

1982-01-01

A total of 21 criteria were considered; nine of them fall into the realm of human nutrition and convenience (the "use' criteria), and the remaining 12 are predominantly cultural considerations. Five criteria were considered to be of great importance in the selection of plant species and were given double eight relative to the remaining criteria. "Use' criteria include the following: energy concentration, nutritional composition, palatability, serving size and frequency, processing requirements, use flexibility, toxicity, and human experience. "Cultural' criteria include the following: proportion of edible biomass, yield of edible plant biomass, continuous vs. determinate harvestability, growth habit and morphology, environmental tolerance, photoperiodic and temperature requirements, symbiotic requirements and restrictions, carbon dioxide-light intensity response, suitability for soilless culture, disease resistance, familarity with species, and pollination and propagation. A total of 115 species were evaluated and scored according to suitability for a CELSS.

Best Practices and Processes for Choosing Research Priorities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Briscoe, M. G.

2015-12-01

Individuals, teams, departments, organizations, funding agencies, committees, and others all need to select desirable research priorities from many possible alternatives. One cannot do everything, one cannot afford everything, so what to select? Essays and reports since Weinberg (1963) have suggested criteria for choosing science topics. Popper et al (2000) reviewed and summarized all that had gone before in the subject of setting priorities; their main conclusions were that the underlying principles were the promotion of excellence and relevance. Sea Change (2015) from the NRC/OSB focused on four criteria. From most important to least important, they were transformative science, societal impacts, readiness, and partnership potential; these four criteria embodied the essence of the suggestions from Weinberg on, framed with the pragmatism of ORPISS (2007). Getting to the final set of priorities from many candidates involves a sequence of formal or informal processes, only the last of which is the application of the selected, weighted criteria. As developed by professional prioritization experts, the best-practice steps and processes are: Collection of input candidates from the community. Clustering and parsing/rephrasing of the input to eliminate redundancy and repetition and develop statements at a useful level of specificity. (NOTE:there is no counting of input to see how many times a particular topic was mentioned. The goal is diversity in the input, not a popularity contest.) Development of the selection criteria, and weighting the chosen criteria. Application of the selection criteria to the clustered/adjusted candidates. Finally, two more best practices: Do continuing sanity checks, to avoid losing sight of the goals of the effort. Resist the temptation to just sit around a table and talk about it to arrive at the priorities, which depends too much on who the specific members of the prioritization team are, and provides no transparency or explanation of why those specific priorities were selected.

Identifying and mitigating errors in satellite telemetry of polar bears

USGS Publications Warehouse

Arthur, Stephen M.; Garner, Gerald W.; Olson, Tamara L.

1998-01-01

Satellite radiotelemetry is a useful method of tracking movements of animals that travel long distances or inhabit remote areas. However, the logistical constraints that encourage the use of satellite telemetry also inhibit efforts to assess accuracy of the resulting data. To investigate effectiveness of methods that might be used to improve the reliability of these data, we compared 3 sets of criteria designed to select the most plausible locations of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) that were tracked using satellite radiotelemetry in the Bering, Chukchi, East Siberian, Laptev, and Kara seas during 1988-93. We also evaluated several indices of location accuracy. Our results suggested that, although indices could provide information useful in evaluating location accuracy, no index or set of criteria was sufficient to identify all the implausible locations. Thus, it was necessary to examine the data and make subjective decisions about which locations to accept or reject. However, by using a formal set of selection criteria, we simplified the task of evaluating locations and ensured that decisions were made consistently. This approach also enabled us to evaluate biases that may be introduced by the criteria used to identify location errors. For our study, the best set of selection criteria comprised: (1) rejecting locations for which the distance to the nearest other point from the same day was >50 km; (2) determining the highest accuracy code (NLOC) for a particular day and rejecting locations from that day with lesser values; and (3) from the remaining locations for each day, selecting the location closest to the location chosen for the previous transmission period. Although our selection criteria seemed unlikely to bias studies of habitat use or geographic distribution, basing selection decisions on distances between points might bias studies of movement rates or distances. It is unlikely that any set of criteria will be best for all situations; to make efficient use of data and minimize bias, these rules must be tailored to specific study objectives.

Multi-indication Pharmacotherapeutic Multicriteria Decision Analytic Model for the Comparative Formulary Inclusion of Proton Pump Inhibitors in Qatar.

PubMed

Al-Badriyeh, Daoud; Alabbadi, Ibrahim; Fahey, Michael; Al-Khal, Abdullatif; Zaidan, Manal

2016-05-01

The formulary inclusion of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) in the government hospital health services in Qatar is not comparative or restricted. Requests to include a PPI in the formulary are typically accepted if evidence of efficacy and tolerability is presented. There are no literature reports of a PPI scoring model that is based on comparatively weighted multiple indications and no reports of PPI selection in Qatar or the Middle East. This study aims to compare first-line use of the PPIs that exist in Qatar. The economic effect of the study recommendations was also quantified. A comparative, evidence-based multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) model was constructed to follow the multiple indications and pharmacotherapeutic criteria of PPIs. Literature and an expert panel informed the selection criteria of PPIs. Input from the relevant local clinician population steered the relative weighting of selection criteria. Comparatively scored PPIs, exceeding a defined score threshold, were recommended for selection. Weighted model scores were successfully developed, with 95% CI and 5% margin of error. The model comprised 7 main criteria and 38 subcriteria. Main criteria are indication, dosage frequency, treatment duration, best published evidence, available formulations, drug interactions, and pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties. Most weight was achieved for the indications selection criteria. Esomeprazole and rabeprazole were suggested as formulary options, followed by lansoprazole for nonformulary use. The estimated effect of the study recommendations was up to a 15.3% reduction in the annual PPI expenditure. Robustness of study conclusions against variabilities in study inputs was confirmed via sensitivity analyses. The implementation of a locally developed PPI-specific comparative MCDA scoring model, which is multiweighted indication and criteria based, into the Qatari formulary selection practices is a successful evidence-based cost-cutting exercise. Esomeprazole and rabeprazole should be the first-line choice from among the PPIs available at the Qatari government hospital health services. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier HS Journals, Inc. All rights reserved.

Influence of population selection on the 99th percentile reference value for cardiac troponin assays.

PubMed

Collinson, Paul O; Heung, Yen Ming; Gaze, David; Boa, Frances; Senior, Roxy; Christenson, Robert; Apple, Fred S

2012-01-01

We sought to determine the effect of patient selection on the 99th reference percentile of 2 sensitive and 1 high-sensitivity (hs) cardiac troponin assays in a well-defined reference population. Individuals>45 years old were randomly selected from 7 representative local community practices. Detailed information regarding the participants was collected via questionnaires. The healthy reference population was defined as individuals who had no history of vascular disease, hypertension, or heavy alcohol intake; were not receiving cardiac medication; and had blood pressure<140/90 mmHg, fasting blood glucose<110 mg/dL (approximately 6 mmol/L), estimated creatinine clearance>60 mL·min(-1)·(1.73 m2)(-1), and normal cardiac function according to results of echocardiography. Samples were stored at -70 °C until analysis for cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and cardiac troponin T (cTnT) and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide. Application of progressively more stringent population selection strategies to the initial baseline population of 545 participants until the only individuals who remained were completely healthy according to the study criteria reduced the number of outliers seen and led to a progressive decrease in the 99th-percentile value obtained for the Roche hs-cTnT assay and the sensitive Beckman cTnI assay but not for the sensitive Siemens Ultra cTnI assay. Furthermore, a sex difference found in the baseline population for the hs-cTnT (P=0.0018) and Beckman cTnI assays (P<0.0001) progressively decreased with more stringent population selection criteria. The reference population selection strategy significantly influenced the 99th percentile reference values determined for troponin assays and the observed sex differences in troponin concentrations.

Chemical library subset selection algorithms: a unified derivation using spatial statistics.

PubMed

Hamprecht, Fred A; Thiel, Walter; van Gunsteren, Wilfred F

2002-01-01

If similar compounds have similar activity, rational subset selection becomes superior to random selection in screening for pharmacological lead discovery programs. Traditional approaches to this experimental design problem fall into two classes: (i) a linear or quadratic response function is assumed (ii) some space filling criterion is optimized. The assumptions underlying the first approach are clear but not always defendable; the second approach yields more intuitive designs but lacks a clear theoretical foundation. We model activity in a bioassay as realization of a stochastic process and use the best linear unbiased estimator to construct spatial sampling designs that optimize the integrated mean square prediction error, the maximum mean square prediction error, or the entropy. We argue that our approach constitutes a unifying framework encompassing most proposed techniques as limiting cases and sheds light on their underlying assumptions. In particular, vector quantization is obtained, in dimensions up to eight, in the limiting case of very smooth response surfaces for the integrated mean square error criterion. Closest packing is obtained for very rough surfaces under the integrated mean square error and entropy criteria. We suggest to use either the integrated mean square prediction error or the entropy as optimization criteria rather than approximations thereof and propose a scheme for direct iterative minimization of the integrated mean square prediction error. Finally, we discuss how the quality of chemical descriptors manifests itself and clarify the assumptions underlying the selection of diverse or representative subsets.

Determination of calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium, phosphorus, sodium, and zinc in fortified food products by microwave digestion and inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry: single-laboratory validation and ring trial.

PubMed

Poitevin, Eric

2012-01-01

A single-laboratory validation (SLV) and a ring trial (RT) were undertaken to determine nine nutritional elements in food products by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry in order to modernize AOAC Official Method 984.27. The improvements involved extension of the scope to all food matrixes (including infant formula), optimized microwave digestion, selected analytical lines, internal standardization, and ion buffering. Simultaneous determination of nine elements (calcium, copper, iron, potassium, magnesium, manganese, sodium, phosphorus, and zinc) was made in food products. Sample digestion was performed through wet digestion of food samples by microwave technology with either closed- or open-vessel systems. Validation was performed to characterize the method for selectivity, sensitivity, linearity, accuracy, precision, recovery, ruggedness, and uncertainty. The robustness and efficiency of this method was proven through a successful RT using experienced independent food industry laboratories. Performance characteristics are reported for 13 certified and in-house reference materials, populating the AOAC triangle food sectors, which fulfilled AOAC criteria and recommendations for accuracy (trueness, recovery, and z-scores) and precision (repeatability and reproducibility RSD, and HorRat values) regarding SLVs and RTs. This multielemental method is cost-efficient, time-saving, accurate, and fit-for-purpose according to ISO 17025 Norm and AOAC acceptability criteria, and is proposed as an extended updated version of AOAC Official Method 984.27 for fortified food products, including infant formula.

Identifying Depressed Older Adults in Primary Care: A Secondary Analysis of a Multisite Randomized Controlled Trial

PubMed Central

Voils, Corrine I.; Olsen, Maren K.; Williams, John W.; for the IMPACT Study Investigators

2008-01-01

Objective: To determine whether a subset of depressive symptoms could be identified to facilitate diagnosis of depression in older adults in primary care. Method: Secondary analysis was conducted on 898 participants aged 60 years or older with major depressive disorder and/or dysthymic disorder (according to DSM-IV criteria) who participated in the Improving Mood–Promoting Access to Collaborative Treatment (IMPACT) study, a multisite, randomized trial of collaborative care for depression (recruitment from July 1999 to August 2001). Linear regression was used to identify a core subset of depressive symptoms associated with decreased social, physical, and mental functioning. The sensitivity and specificity, adjusting for selection bias, were evaluated for these symptoms. The sensitivity and specificity of a second subset of 4 depressive symptoms previously validated in a midlife sample was also evaluated. Results: Psychomotor changes, fatigue, and suicidal ideation were associated with decreased functioning and served as the core set of symptoms. Adjusting for selection bias, the sensitivity of these 3 symptoms was 0.012 and specificity 0.994. The sensitivity of the 4 symptoms previously validated in a midlife sample was 0.019 and specificity was 0.997. Conclusion: We identified 3 depression symptoms that were highly specific for major depressive disorder in older adults. However, these symptoms and a previously identified subset were too insensitive for accurate diagnosis. Therefore, we recommend a full assessment of DSM-IV depression criteria for accurate diagnosis. PMID:18311416

Improvement of AOAC Official Method 984.27 for the determination of nine nutritional elements in food products by Inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy after microwave digestion: single-laboratory validation and ring trial.

PubMed

Poitevin, Eric; Nicolas, Marine; Graveleau, Laetitia; Richoz, Janique; Andrey, Daniel; Monard, Florence

2009-01-01

A single-laboratory validation (SLV) and a ring trial (RT) were undertaken to determine nine nutritional elements in food products by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy in order to improve and update AOAC Official Method 984.27. The improvements involved optimized microwave digestion, selected analytical lines, internal standardization, and ion buffering. Simultaneous determination of nine elements (calcium, copper, iron, potassium, magnesium, manganese, sodium, phosphorus, and zinc) was made in food products. Sample digestion was performed through wet digestion of food samples by microwave technology with either closed or open vessel systems. Validation was performed to characterize the method for selectivity, sensitivity, linearity, accuracy, precision, recovery, ruggedness, and uncertainty. The robustness and efficiency of this method was proved through a successful internal RT using experienced food industry laboratories. Performance characteristics are reported for 13 certified and in-house reference materials, populating the AOAC triangle food sectors, which fulfilled AOAC criteria and recommendations for accuracy (trueness, recovery, and z-scores) and precision (repeatability and reproducibility RSD and HorRat values) regarding SLV and RT. This multielemental method is cost-efficient, time-saving, accurate, and fit-for-purpose according to ISO 17025 Norm and AOAC acceptability criteria, and is proposed as an improved version of AOAC Official Method 984.27 for fortified food products, including infant formula.

Phenotyping of subjects for large scale studies on patients with IBS.

PubMed

Boeckxstaens, G E; Drug, V; Dumitrascu, D; Farmer, A D; Hammer, J; Hausken, T; Niesler, B; Pohl, D; Pojskic, L; Polster, A; Simren, M; Goebel-Stengel, M; Van Oudenhove, L; Vassallo, M; Wensaas, K-A; Aziz, Q; Houghton, L A

2016-08-01

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a complex condition with multiple factors contributing to its aetiology and pathophysiology. Aetiologically these include genetics, life-time events and environment, and physiologically, changes in motility, central processing, visceral sensitivity, immunity, epithelial permeability and gastrointestinal microflora. Such complexity means there is currently no specific reliable biomarker for IBS, and thus IBS continues to be diagnosed and classified according to symptom based criteria, the Rome Criteria. Carefully phenotyping and characterisation of a 'large' pool of IBS patients across Europe and even the world however, might help identify sub-populations with accuracy and consistency. This will not only aid future research but improve tailoring of treatment and health care of IBS patients. The aim of this position paper is to discuss the requirements necessary to standardize the process of selecting and phenotyping IBS patients and how to organise the collection and storage of patient information/samples in such a large multi-centre pan European/global study. We include information on general demographics, gastrointestinal symptom assessment, psychological factors, quality of life, physiological evaluation, genetic/epigenetic and microbiota analysis, biopsy/blood sampling, together with discussion on the organisational, ethical and language issues associated with implementing such a study. The proposed approach and documents selected to be used in such a study was the result of a thoughtful and thorough four-year dialogue amongst experts associated with the European COST action BM1106 GENIEUR (www.GENIEUR.eu). © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Determination of the efficacy of preservation of non-eye area water-miscible cosmetic and toiletry formulations: collaborative study.

PubMed

Machtiger, N A; Fischler, G E; Adams, M C; Spielmaker, R; Graf, J F

2001-01-01

A collaborative study was conducted to test a method developed to distinguish between adequately and inadequately preserved cosmetic formulations. Nineteen laboratories participated in the study. Samples tested included shampoos, hair conditioners, oil-in-water emulsions, and water-in-oil-emulsions. Triplicate samples of 4 adequately preserved and 4 inadequately preserved cosmetic products were tested by each collaborative laboratory. Results showed that all inadequately preserved shampoo and conditioner samples failed to meet the acceptance criteria for adequately preserved formulations. Of the 51 preserved samples, 49 shampoos and 48 conditioners met the criteria for adequate preservation. All samples of inadequately preserved water-in-oil emulsions and oil-in-water emulsions failed to meet the acceptance criteria, whereas all adequately preserved emulsion formulations met the acceptance criteria.

The use of integer programming to select bulls across breeding companies with volume price discounts.

PubMed

McConnel, M B; Galligan, D T

2004-10-01

Optimization programs are currently used to aid in the selection of bulls to be used in herd breeding programs. While these programs offer a systematic approach to the problem of semen selection, they ignore the impact of volume discounts. Volume discounts are discounts that vary depending on the number of straws purchased. The dynamic nature of volume discounts means that, in order to be adequately accounted for, they must be considered in the optimization routine. Failing to do this creates a missed economic opportunity because the potential benefits of optimally selecting and combining breeding company discount opportunities are not captured. To address these issues, an integer program was created which used binary decision variables to incorporate the effects of quantity discounts into the optimization program. A consistent set of trait criteria was used to select a group of bulls from 3 sample breeding companies. Three different selection programs were used to select the bulls, 2 traditional methods and the integer method. After the discounts were applied using each method, the integer program resulted in the lowest cost portfolio of bulls. A sensitivity analysis showed that the integer program also resulted in a low cost portfolio when the genetic trait goals were changed to be more or less stringent. In the sample application, a net benefit of the new approach over the traditional approaches was a 12.3 to 20.0% savings in semen cost.

Hostile behavior during marital conflict alters pituitary and adrenal hormones.

PubMed

Malarkey, W B; Kiecolt-Glaser, J K; Pearl, D; Glaser, R

1994-01-01

We evaluated hormonal changes and problem-solving behaviors in 90 newlywed couples who were admitted to a hospital research unit for 24 hours. The subjects were selected on the basis of stringent mental and physical health criteria, and admissions were scheduled during the follicular phase of the woman's menstrual cycle. For frequent, unobtrusive endocrine sampling during the interaction tasks, a long polyethylene tube was attached to a heparin well, allowing nurses to draw blood samples at set intervals, out of subjects' sight. Five blood samples were obtained before, during, and after a 30-minute structured problem-solving or conflict task. The conflict session was recorded on videotapes that were later scored for problem-solving behaviors using the Marital Interaction Coding System (MICS). Marital conflict and MICS-coded hostile or negative behavior during conflict was closely linked to changes in serum hormonal levels across five of the six hormones we studied, in spite of the high marital satisfaction of our newlywed couples and the healthy lifestyles demanded by our exclusion criteria. Hostile behavior was associated with decreased levels of prolactin (PRL) and increases in epinephrine (EPI), norepinephrine (NEPI), ACTH, and growth hormone (GH), but not cortisol. These data suggest that the endocrine system may be an important mediator between personal relationships and health.

The social and community opportunities profile social inclusion measure: Structural equivalence and differential item functioning in community mental health residents in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.

PubMed

Huxley, Peter John; Chan, Kara; Chiu, Marcus; Ma, Yanni; Gaze, Sarah; Evans, Sherrill

2016-03-01

China's future major health problem will be the management of chronic diseases - of which mental health is a major one. An instrument is needed to measure mental health inclusion outcomes for mental health services in Hong Kong and mainland China as they strive to promote a more inclusive society for their citizens and particular disadvantaged groups. To report on the analysis of structural equivalence and item differentiation in two mentally unhealthy and one healthy sample in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. The mental health sample in Hong Kong was made up of non-governmental organisation (NGO) referrals meeting the selection/exclusion criteria (being well enough to be interviewed, having a formal psychiatric diagnosis and living in the community). A similar sample in the United Kingdom meeting the same selection criteria was obtained from a community mental health organisation, equivalent to the NGOs in Hong Kong. Exploratory factor analysis and logistic regression were conducted. The single-variable, self-rated 'overall social inclusion' differs significantly between all of the samples, in the way we would expect from previous research, with the healthy population feeling more included than the serious mental illness (SMI) groups. In the exploratory factor analysis, the first two factors explain between a third and half of the variance, and the single variable which enters into all the analyses in the first factor is having friends to visit the home. All the regression models were significant; however, in Hong Kong sample, only one-fifth of the total variance is explained. The structural findings imply that the social and community opportunities profile-Chinese version (SCOPE-C) gives similar results when applied to another culture. As only one-fifth of the variance of 'overall inclusion' was explained in the Hong Kong sample, it may be that the instrument needs to be refined using different or additional items within the structural domains of inclusion. © The Author(s) 2015.

40 CFR 610.32 - Test fleet selection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 30 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Test fleet selection. 610.32 Section 610.32 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) ENERGY POLICY FUEL ECONOMY RETROFIT DEVICES Test Procedures and Evaluation Criteria Test Requirement Criteria § 610.32 Test...

40 CFR 610.32 - Test fleet selection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 30 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Test fleet selection. 610.32 Section 610.32 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) ENERGY POLICY FUEL ECONOMY RETROFIT DEVICES Test Procedures and Evaluation Criteria Test Requirement Criteria § 610.32 Test...

40 CFR 610.32 - Test fleet selection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 31 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Test fleet selection. 610.32 Section 610.32 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) ENERGY POLICY FUEL ECONOMY RETROFIT DEVICES Test Procedures and Evaluation Criteria Test Requirement Criteria § 610.32 Test...

40 CFR 610.32 - Test fleet selection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 31 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Test fleet selection. 610.32 Section 610.32 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) ENERGY POLICY FUEL ECONOMY RETROFIT DEVICES Test Procedures and Evaluation Criteria Test Requirement Criteria § 610.32 Test...

40 CFR 610.32 - Test fleet selection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 29 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Test fleet selection. 610.32 Section 610.32 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) ENERGY POLICY FUEL ECONOMY RETROFIT DEVICES Test Procedures and Evaluation Criteria Test Requirement Criteria § 610.32 Test...

28 CFR 34.3 - Selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... achievement of project objectives; (4) The project management structure is adequate to the successful conduct....3 Selection criteria. (a) All individual project applications will, at a minimum, be subject to... to be addressed by the project is clearly stated; (2) The objectives of the proposed project are...

28 CFR 34.3 - Selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... achievement of project objectives; (4) The project management structure is adequate to the successful conduct....3 Selection criteria. (a) All individual project applications will, at a minimum, be subject to... to be addressed by the project is clearly stated; (2) The objectives of the proposed project are...

28 CFR 34.3 - Selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... achievement of project objectives; (4) The project management structure is adequate to the successful conduct....3 Selection criteria. (a) All individual project applications will, at a minimum, be subject to... to be addressed by the project is clearly stated; (2) The objectives of the proposed project are...

28 CFR 34.3 - Selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... achievement of project objectives; (4) The project management structure is adequate to the successful conduct....3 Selection criteria. (a) All individual project applications will, at a minimum, be subject to... to be addressed by the project is clearly stated; (2) The objectives of the proposed project are...

32 CFR 903.3 - Selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... must furnish a certified transcript from each high school or civilian preparatory school attended... Defense Department of Defense (Continued) DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE MILITARY TRAINING AND SCHOOLS AIR FORCE ACADEMY PREPARATORY SCHOOL § 903.3 Selection criteria. (a) Cadet candidates for the HQ USAFA/PL...

32 CFR 903.3 - Selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... must furnish a certified transcript from each high school or civilian preparatory school attended... Defense Department of Defense (Continued) DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE MILITARY TRAINING AND SCHOOLS AIR FORCE ACADEMY PREPARATORY SCHOOL § 903.3 Selection criteria. (a) Cadet candidates for the HQ USAFA/PL...

32 CFR 903.3 - Selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... must furnish a certified transcript from each high school or civilian preparatory school attended... Defense Department of Defense (Continued) DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE MILITARY TRAINING AND SCHOOLS AIR FORCE ACADEMY PREPARATORY SCHOOL § 903.3 Selection criteria. (a) Cadet candidates for the HQ USAFA/PL...

15 CFR 295.6 - Criteria for selection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 15 Commerce and Foreign Trade 1 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Criteria for selection. 295.6 Section 295.6 Commerce and Foreign Trade Regulations Relating to Commerce and Foreign Trade NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE NIST EXTRAMURAL PROGRAMS ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY...

15 CFR 295.6 - Criteria for selection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 15 Commerce and Foreign Trade 1 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Criteria for selection. 295.6 Section 295.6 Commerce and Foreign Trade Regulations Relating to Commerce and Foreign Trade NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE NIST EXTRAMURAL PROGRAMS ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY...

15 CFR 295.6 - Criteria for selection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 15 Commerce and Foreign Trade 1 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Criteria for selection. 295.6 Section 295.6 Commerce and Foreign Trade Regulations Relating to Commerce and Foreign Trade NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE NIST EXTRAMURAL PROGRAMS ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY...

44 CFR 150.4 - Nomination and selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Nomination and selection criteria. 150.4 Section 150.4 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY FIRE PREVENTION AND CONTROL PUBLIC SAFETY AWARDS TO PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICERS...

Selection criteria for internships in clinical neuropsychology.

PubMed

Ritchie, David; Odland, Anthony P; Ritchie, Abigail S; Mittenberg, Wiley

2012-01-01

Criteria used in the evaluation and selection of applicants for clinical neuropsychology internships were identified by a survey of programs that met guidelines for specialty training. The number of internships that offer training with specialization in clinical neuropsychology has more than doubled during the past 10 years. Supervising neuropsychologists from 75 programs replied to the survey, yielding a 72.8% response rate. Clinical experience in neuropsychological assessment, specialization in clinical neuropsychology during graduate education, personal interview, and letters of recommendation were reported to be the most salient selection criteria. Practica that provide experience with flexible or functional systems assessment approaches at university-affiliated or VA (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs) medical centers and doctoral curricula that follow International Neuropsychological Society/Division 40 course guidelines, with teaching and supervision provided by neuropsychologists, were preferred prerequisites to internship. These results are consistent with selection criteria reported over a decade ago and indicate continued endorsement of the vertically integrated model of education and training outlined by the Houston Conference on Specialty Education and Training in Clinical Neuropsychology.

Selection Criteria for Patients With Chronic Ankle Instability in Controlled Research: A Position Statement of the International Ankle Consortium

PubMed Central

Gribble, Phillip A.; Delahunt, Eamonn; Bleakley, Christopher M.; Caulfield, Brian; Docherty, Carrie L.; Fong, Daniel Tik-Pui; Fourchet, François; Hertel, Jay; Hiller, Claire E.; Kaminski, Thomas W.; McKeon, Patrick O.; Refshauge, Kathryn M.; van der Wees, Philip; Vicenzino, William; Wikstrom, Erik A.

2014-01-01

ABSTRACT While research on chronic ankle instability (CAI) and awareness of its impact on society and health care systems has grown substantially in the last 2 decades, the inconsistency in participant or patient selection criteria across studies presents a potential obstacle to addressing the problem properly. This major gap within the literature limits the ability to generalize this evidence to the target patient population. Therefore, there is a need to provide standards for patient or participant selection criteria in research focused on CAI with justifications using the best available evidence. The International Ankle Consortium provides this position paper to present and discuss an endorsed set of selection criteria for patients with CAI based on the best available evidence to be used in future research and study designs. These recommendations will enhance the validity of research conducted in this clinical population with the end goal of bringing the research evidence to the clinician and patient. PMID:24377963

Non-Cognitive Selected Students Do Not Outperform Lottery-Admitted Students in the Pre-Clinical Stage of Medical School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lucieer, Susanna M.; Stegers-Jager, Karen M.; Rikers, Remy M. J. P.; Themmen, Axel P. N.

2016-01-01

Medical schools all over the world select applicants using non-cognitive and cognitive criteria. The predictive value of these different types of selection criteria has however never been investigated within the same curriculum while using a control group. We therefore set up a study that enabled us to compare the academic performance of three…

A Primer for Model Selection: The Decisive Role of Model Complexity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Höge, Marvin; Wöhling, Thomas; Nowak, Wolfgang

2018-03-01

Selecting a "best" model among several competing candidate models poses an often encountered problem in water resources modeling (and other disciplines which employ models). For a modeler, the best model fulfills a certain purpose best (e.g., flood prediction), which is typically assessed by comparing model simulations to data (e.g., stream flow). Model selection methods find the "best" trade-off between good fit with data and model complexity. In this context, the interpretations of model complexity implied by different model selection methods are crucial, because they represent different underlying goals of modeling. Over the last decades, numerous model selection criteria have been proposed, but modelers who primarily want to apply a model selection criterion often face a lack of guidance for choosing the right criterion that matches their goal. We propose a classification scheme for model selection criteria that helps to find the right criterion for a specific goal, i.e., which employs the correct complexity interpretation. We identify four model selection classes which seek to achieve high predictive density, low predictive error, high model probability, or shortest compression of data. These goals can be achieved by following either nonconsistent or consistent model selection and by either incorporating a Bayesian parameter prior or not. We allocate commonly used criteria to these four classes, analyze how they represent model complexity and what this means for the model selection task. Finally, we provide guidance on choosing the right type of criteria for specific model selection tasks. (A quick guide through all key points is given at the end of the introduction.)

How a routine checking of Escherichia coli in retailed food of animal origin can protect consumers against exposition to Campylobacter spp. and Listeria monocytogenes?

PubMed

Trajković-Pavlović, Ljiljana; Novaković, Budimka; Martinov-Cvejin, Mirjana; Gusman, Vera; Bijelović, Sanja; Dragnić, Natasa; Balać, Dragana

2010-08-01

According to the literature that has been published over the last two decades Campylobacter spp i Listeria monocitogens can be identified as causes of numerous diseases derived by consuming food of animal origin. The purpose of this paper was to find out how established national microbiological criteria of the Republic of Serbia on food safety in retailed food of animal origin could contribute to consumer's protection against exposition to foodborne pathogens such as Campylobacter spp. and Listeria monocytogenes. During a routine microbiological safety control of randomly selected 60 samples of fresh poultry meat, 30 samples of other fresh meat readymade for grilling, 30 samples of sausage products, 37 samples of heat-treated meat, 39 samples of toppings for fast food of animal origin and 31 samples of dairy products a national food safety criteria (Escherichia coli, aerobic plate count, Salmonella spp., coagulasa positive Staphylococcus, Proteus spp., sulphito-reducting Clostridia) were applied and, as well as, testing to Campylobacter spp. and Listeria monocitogens. In determination of Campylobacter spp. and Listeria monocytogenes, food quality control methods of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) were applied, while in determination of the other above motioned bacteria, national provisions on microbiological methods were applied who are adjusted to the FAO ones. Related to the national criteria on microbiological food safety, 88 (38.8%) samples, out of the total 227 tested, were rejected. When to these results, the results of laboratory tests on Listeria monocytogens were added, a terminal number of rejected samples were not changed. When to these results, the results of Campylobacter spp. testing were added, 91 (40.1%) out of the 227 samples were unsatisfied. Results of logistic regression model with occurrence of Escherichia coli as dependent variable indicated that Escherichia coli was 4.5 times likely to occur among samples with Campylobacter spp. than among samples without Campylobacter spp. (OR = 4.515, 95% CI: 1.019-20.002). Sensitivity of the fitted model (Hosmer-Lemeshowp = 0.268) was 76.8% and its specificity was 75.0%. At the same time Escherichia coli was confound in all (100%) food samples that were contaminated by Listeria monocytogenes. Statistical analysis indicated that Escherichia coli was completely sensitive to identify all samples contaminated with Listeria monocytogenas and highly sensitive to identify samples contaminated with Campylobacter spp. Nevertheless, 3 (1.3%) of the tested samples were not covered with Escherichia coli.

Evaluation of the effects of a freeze/thaw environment on cellular glass

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Frickland, P.; Cleland, E.; Hasegawa, T.

1981-01-01

Using the evaluation criteria of water vapor permeability and conformability, a protective butylrubber/silicone conformal coating system was selected for use on Foamglas substrates in a freeze/thaw environment. The selection of a specific freeze/thaw cycle which closely models field conditions is discussed. A sampling plan is described which allows independent evaluation of the effects of conformal coatings, cycle number and location within the environmental chamber. The results of visual examination, measurement of density, modulus of rupture and Young's modulus are reported. Based upon statistical evaluation of the experimental results, it is concluded that no degradation in mechanical properties of either coated or uncoated Foamglas occurred within the duration of the test (53 freeze/thaw cycles).

Weak Lensing by Large-Scale Structure: A Dark Matter Halo Approach.

PubMed

Cooray; Hu; Miralda-Escudé

2000-05-20

Weak gravitational lensing observations probe the spectrum and evolution of density fluctuations and the cosmological parameters that govern them, but they are currently limited to small fields and subject to selection biases. We show how the expected signal from large-scale structure arises from the contributions from and correlations between individual halos. We determine the convergence power spectrum as a function of the maximum halo mass and so provide the means to interpret results from surveys that lack high-mass halos either through selection criteria or small fields. Since shot noise from rare massive halos is mainly responsible for the sample variance below 10&arcmin;, our method should aid our ability to extract cosmological information from small fields.

Rapid LC-MS/MS quantification of the major benzodiazepines and their metabolites on dried blood spots using a simple and cost-effective sample pretreatment.

PubMed

Déglon, Julien; Versace, François; Lauer, Estelle; Widmer, Christèle; Mangin, Patrice; Thomas, Aurélien; Staub, Christian

2012-06-01

Dried blood spots (DBS) sampling has gained popularity in the bioanalytical community as an alternative to conventional plasma sampling, as it provides numerous benefits in terms of sample collection and logistics. The aim of this work was to show that these advantages can be coupled with a simple and cost-effective sample pretreatment, with subsequent rapid LC-MS/MS analysis for quantitation of 15 benzodiazepines, six metabolites and three Z-drugs. For this purpose, a simplified offline procedure was developed that consisted of letting a 5-µl DBS infuse directly into 100 µl of MeOH, in a conventional LC vial. The parameters related to the DBS pretreatment, such as extraction time or internal standard addition, were investigated and optimized, demonstrating that passive infusion in a regular LC vial was sufficient to quantitatively extract the analytes of interest. The method was validated according to international criteria in the therapeutic concentration ranges of the selected compounds. The presented strategy proved to be efficient for the rapid analysis of the selected drugs. Indeed, the offline sample preparation was reduced to a minimum, using a small amount of organic solvent and consumables, without affecting the accuracy of the method. Thus, this approach enables simple and rapid DBS analysis, even when using a non-DBS-dedicated autosampler, while lowering the costs and environmental impact.

The Savannah River Site`s Groundwater Monitoring Program, first quarter 1989

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

Not Available

The Environmental Monitoring Section of the Environmental and Health Protection (EHP) Department administers the Savannah River Site`s Groundwater Monitoring Program. During first quarter 1989 (January--March), EHP conducted routine sampling of monitoring wells and drinking water locations. EHP collected the drinking water samples from Savannah River Site (SRS) drinking water systems supplied by wells. EHP established two sets of flagging criteria in 1986 to assist in the management of sample results. The flagging criteria aid personnel in sample scheduling, interpretation of data, and trend identification. The flagging criteria are based on detection limits, background levels in SRS groundwater, and drinking watermore » standards. An explanation of flagging criteria for the first quarter is presented in the Flagging Criteria section of this document. All analytical results from first quarter 1989 are listed in this report, which is distributed to all waste-site custodians.« less

The Savannah River Site`s Groundwater Monitoring Program, third quarter 1989

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

Not Available

The Environmental Monitoring Section of the Environmental and Health Protection (EHP) Department administers the Savannah River Site`s Groundwater Monitoring Program. During third quarter 1989 (July--September), EHP conducted routine sampling of monitoring wells and drinking water locations. EHP collected the drinking water samples from Savannah River Site (SRS) drinking water systems supplied by wells. EHP established two sets of flagging criteria in 1986 to assist in the management of sample results. The flagging criteria do not define contamination levels; instead they aid personnel in sample scheduling, interpretation of data, and trend identification. The flagging criteria are based on detection limits, backgroundmore » levels in SRS groundwater, and drinking water standards. An explanation of flagging criteria for the third quarter is presented in the Flagging Criteria section of this document. All analytical results from third quarter 1989 are listed in this report, which is distributed to all waste-site custodians.« less

The Savannah River Site's Groundwater Monitoring Program, third quarter 1989

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

Not Available

The Environmental Monitoring Section of the Environmental and Health Protection (EHP) Department administers the Savannah River Site's Groundwater Monitoring Program. During third quarter 1989 (July--September), EHP conducted routine sampling of monitoring wells and drinking water locations. EHP collected the drinking water samples from Savannah River Site (SRS) drinking water systems supplied by wells. EHP established two sets of flagging criteria in 1986 to assist in the management of sample results. The flagging criteria do not define contamination levels; instead they aid personnel in sample scheduling, interpretation of data, and trend identification. The flagging criteria are based on detection limits, backgroundmore » levels in SRS groundwater, and drinking water standards. An explanation of flagging criteria for the third quarter is presented in the Flagging Criteria section of this document. All analytical results from third quarter 1989 are listed in this report, which is distributed to all waste-site custodians.« less

The Savannah River Site's Groundwater Monitoring Program, first quarter 1989

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

Not Available

The Environmental Monitoring Section of the Environmental and Health Protection (EHP) Department administers the Savannah River Site's Groundwater Monitoring Program. During first quarter 1989 (January--March), EHP conducted routine sampling of monitoring wells and drinking water locations. EHP collected the drinking water samples from Savannah River Site (SRS) drinking water systems supplied by wells. EHP established two sets of flagging criteria in 1986 to assist in the management of sample results. The flagging criteria aid personnel in sample scheduling, interpretation of data, and trend identification. The flagging criteria are based on detection limits, background levels in SRS groundwater, and drinking watermore » standards. An explanation of flagging criteria for the first quarter is presented in the Flagging Criteria section of this document. All analytical results from first quarter 1989 are listed in this report, which is distributed to all waste-site custodians.« less

Cephalometric norms and esthetic profile preference for the Japanese: a systematic review.

PubMed

Bronfman, Caroline Nemetz; Janson, Guilherme; Pinzan, Arnaldo; Rocha, Thais Lima

2015-01-01

To determine the cephalometric parameters and esthetic preferences of a pleasant face for the Japanese population. For the present study, the following databases were accessed: PubMed, Embase, Scopus and Web of Science. Initial inclusion criteria comprised studies written in English and quoting cephalometric norms and/or facial attractiveness in Japanese adults. No time period of publication was determined. The quality features evaluated were sample description, variables analyzed and how cephalometric standards or facial profile were evaluated. Initially, 60 articles were retrieved. From the selected studies, 13 abstracts met the initial inclusion criteria. They were divided into two groups; seven articles were included in Group I and six articles in Group II, according to the criteria of evaluation: cephalometric or facial analyses. Japanese are characterized by having a less convex skeletal profile, bilabial protrusion, less prominent nose, more retruded chin and protruded mandibular incisor. Despite living in a society with homogeneous patterns, they seem to get an esthetic preference for white-like features. Therefore, in addition to ethnic normative values, patient's preferences to establish individual treatment plans should always be considered.

[Social and ethical criteria for prioritizing patients: a survey of students and health professionals in Portugal].

PubMed

Pinho, Micaela Moreira

2016-12-01

This qualitative/quantitative study examines the ethical dilemma of microallocation of health resources. It seeks to identify and compare the opinion of two groups in Portuguese society - students and health professionals - on the importance of personal characteristics of patients at the moment of prioritizing them and if the choices can be explained by bioethical references of a utilitarian or deontological nature. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire administered to a sample of 180 students and 60 health professionals. Faced with hypothetical emergency scenarios, the respondents had to choose between two patients (distinguished by: age, gender, social responsibility, economic and employment situation, harmful health behaviors and criminal record), duly selecting who to treat and then justifying their choice. The results suggest the existence of differences in choices between the two groups, with health professionals revealing they are less prepared to accept the use of social criteria in a context of scarce resources and co-existence of utilitarian and deontological criteria, with a predominance of efficiency on the part of health professionals and equity on the part of students.

Application of Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) Technique for Gradation of Jute Fibres

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Choudhuri, P. K.

2014-12-01

Multi-Criteria Decision Making is a branch of Operation Research (OR) having a comparatively short history of about 40 years. It is being popularly used in the field of engineering, banking, fixing policy matters etc. It can also be applied for taking decisions in daily life like selecting a car to purchase, selecting bride or groom and many others. Various MCDM methods namely Weighted Sum Model (WSM), Weighted Product Model (WPM), Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solutions (TOPSIS) and Elimination and Choice Translating Reality (ELECTRE) are there to solve many decision making problems, each having its own limitations. However it is very difficult to decide which MCDM method is the best. MCDM methods are prospective quantitative approaches for solving decision problems involving finite number of alternatives and criteria. Very few research works in textiles have been carried out with the help of this technique particularly where decision taking among several alternatives becomes the major problem based on some criteria which are conflicting in nature. Gradation of jute fibres on the basis of the criteria like strength, root content, defects, colour, density, fineness etc. is an important task to perform. The MCDM technique provides enough scope to be applied for the gradation of jute fibres or ranking among several varieties keeping in view a particular object and on the basis of some selection criteria and their relative weightage. The present paper is an attempt to explore the scope of applying the multiplicative AHP method of multi-criteria decision making technique to determine the quality values of selected jute fibres on the basis of some above stated important criteria and ranking them accordingly. A good agreement in ranking is observed between the existing Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) grading and proposed method.

Thermal buffering performance of composite phase change materials applied in low-temperature protective garments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Kai; Jiao, Mingli; Yu, Yuanyuan; Zhu, Xueying; Liu, Rangtong; Cao, Jian

2017-07-01

Phase change material (PCM) is increasingly being applied in the manufacturing of functional thermo-regulated textiles and garments. This paper investigated the thermal buffering performance of different composite PCMs which are suitable for the application in functional low-temperature protective garments. First, according to the criteria selecting PCM for functional textiles/garments, three kinds of pure PCM were selected as samples, which were n-hexadecane, n-octadecane and n-eicosane. To get the adjustable phase change temperature range and higher phase change enthalpy, three kinds of composite PCM were prepared using the above pure PCM. To evaluate the thermal buffering performance of different composite PCM samples, the simulated low-temperature experiments were performed in the climate chamber, and the skin temperature variation curves in three different low temperature conditions were obtained. Finally composite PCM samples’ thermal buffering time, thermal buffering capacity and thermal buffering efficiency were calculated. Results show that the comprehensive thermal buffering performance of n-octadecane and n-eicosane composite PCM is the best.

[Dental loss and prosthetic replacement expectation: qualitative study].

PubMed

Silva, Maria Elisa de Souza E; Magalhães, Cláudia Silami de; Ferreira, Efigênia Ferreira E

2010-05-01

This qualitative research analyses the repercussions of total dental loss on people's quality of life. The Oral Health Impact Profile short-form (OHIP14) was applied to 50 volunteers, and after analyzing the results, 13 out of those 50, were selected to be individually interviewed in an opened questions script. The criteria to select these 13 people were: perception of the impact of mouth condition on quality of life measured by the score reached on OHIP. We tried to comprise the sample with a good variety, according to the profile of the initial sample. After analyzing people's statements, it was possible to verify that dental loss had strong negative consequences on people's life, like shame, difficulty to eat, impact on social relationship and feeling of not being complete. The possibility of having their teeth replaced generates some anxiety. Although being aware that wearing total prosthesis represents some sacrifices, people considered it worthwhile because the possibility of regaining the social pattern and the self-image is renewed.

Back propagation artificial neural network for community Alzheimer's disease screening in China.

PubMed

Tang, Jun; Wu, Lei; Huang, Helang; Feng, Jiang; Yuan, Yefeng; Zhou, Yueping; Huang, Peng; Xu, Yan; Yu, Chao

2013-01-25

Alzheimer's disease patients diagnosed with the Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders diagnostic criteria were selected from the community through on-site sampling. Levels of macro and trace elements were measured in blood samples using an atomic absorption method, and neurotransmitters were measured using a radioimmunoassay method. SPSS 13.0 was used to establish a database, and a back propagation artificial neural network for Alzheimer's disease prediction was simulated using Clementine 12.0 software. With scores of activities of daily living, creatinine, 5-hydroxytryptamine, age, dopamine and aluminum as input variables, the results revealed that the area under the curve in our back propagation artificial neural network was 0.929 (95% confidence interval: 0.868-0.968), sensitivity was 90.00%, specificity was 95.00%, and accuracy was 92.50%. The findings indicated that the results of back propagation artificial neural network established based on the above six variables were satisfactory for screening and diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease in patients selected from the community.

Back propagation artificial neural network for community Alzheimer's disease screening in China★

PubMed Central

Tang, Jun; Wu, Lei; Huang, Helang; Feng, Jiang; Yuan, Yefeng; Zhou, Yueping; Huang, Peng; Xu, Yan; Yu, Chao

2013-01-01

Alzheimer's disease patients diagnosed with the Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders diagnostic criteria were selected from the community through on-site sampling. Levels of macro and trace elements were measured in blood samples using an atomic absorption method, and neurotransmitters were measured using a radioimmunoassay method. SPSS 13.0 was used to establish a database, and a back propagation artificial neural network for Alzheimer's disease prediction was simulated using Clementine 12.0 software. With scores of activities of daily living, creatinine, 5-hydroxytryptamine, age, dopamine and aluminum as input variables, the results revealed that the area under the curve in our back propagation artificial neural network was 0.929 (95% confidence interval: 0.868–0.968), sensitivity was 90.00%, specificity was 95.00%, and accuracy was 92.50%. The findings indicated that the results of back propagation artificial neural network established based on the above six variables were satisfactory for screening and diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease in patients selected from the community. PMID:25206598

45 CFR 1232.11 - Employment and volunteer selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 45 Public Welfare 4 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Employment and volunteer selection criteria. 1232.11 Section 1232.11 Public Welfare Regulations Relating to Public Welfare (Continued) CORPORATION FOR... FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE Employment and Volunteer Service Practices § 1232.11 Employment and volunteer...

45 CFR 1232.11 - Employment and volunteer selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 45 Public Welfare 4 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Employment and volunteer selection criteria. 1232.11 Section 1232.11 Public Welfare Regulations Relating to Public Welfare (Continued) CORPORATION FOR... FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE Employment and Volunteer Service Practices § 1232.11 Employment and volunteer...

45 CFR 1232.11 - Employment and volunteer selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 45 Public Welfare 4 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Employment and volunteer selection criteria. 1232.11 Section 1232.11 Public Welfare Regulations Relating to Public Welfare (Continued) CORPORATION FOR... FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE Employment and Volunteer Service Practices § 1232.11 Employment and volunteer...

49 CFR 240.105 - Criteria for selection of designated supervisors of locomotive engineers.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... of locomotive engineers. 240.105 Section 240.105 Transportation Other Regulations Relating to... CERTIFICATION OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS Component Elements of the Certification Process § 240.105 Criteria for selection of designated supervisors of locomotive engineers. (a) Each railroad's program shall include...

49 CFR 240.105 - Criteria for selection of designated supervisors of locomotive engineers.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... of locomotive engineers. 240.105 Section 240.105 Transportation Other Regulations Relating to... CERTIFICATION OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS Component Elements of the Certification Process § 240.105 Criteria for selection of designated supervisors of locomotive engineers. (a) Each railroad's program shall include...

49 CFR 240.105 - Criteria for selection of designated supervisors of locomotive engineers.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... of locomotive engineers. 240.105 Section 240.105 Transportation Other Regulations Relating to... CERTIFICATION OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS Component Elements of the Certification Process § 240.105 Criteria for selection of designated supervisors of locomotive engineers. (a) Each railroad's program shall include...

49 CFR 240.105 - Criteria for selection of designated supervisors of locomotive engineers.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... of locomotive engineers. 240.105 Section 240.105 Transportation Other Regulations Relating to... CERTIFICATION OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS Component Elements of the Certification Process § 240.105 Criteria for selection of designated supervisors of locomotive engineers. (a) Each railroad's program shall include...

29 CFR 1630.10 - Qualification standards, tests, and other selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... business necessity. (b) Qualification standards and tests related to uncorrected vision. Notwithstanding..., or other selection criteria based on an individual's uncorrected vision unless the standard, test, or... application of a qualification standard, test, or other criterion based on uncorrected vision need not be a...

48 CFR 536.602-1 - Selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... Selection criteria. (a) FAR 36.602-1 requires that agencies include “location in the general geographical... services (based on the total contract price) will be accomplished within the geographical boundaries... not apply to projects that the Chief Architect of GSA determines have national significance. (b) The...

48 CFR 536.602-1 - Selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... Selection criteria. (a) FAR 36.602-1 requires that agencies include “location in the general geographical... services (based on the total contract price) will be accomplished within the geographical boundaries... not apply to projects that the Chief Architect of GSA determines have national significance. (b) The...

48 CFR 536.602-1 - Selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... Selection criteria. (a) FAR 36.602-1 requires that agencies include “location in the general geographical... services (based on the total contract price) will be accomplished within the geographical boundaries... not apply to projects that the Chief Architect of GSA determines have national significance. (b) The...

48 CFR 536.602-1 - Selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... Selection criteria. (a) FAR 36.602-1 requires that agencies include “location in the general geographical... services (based on the total contract price) will be accomplished within the geographical boundaries... not apply to projects that the Chief Architect of GSA determines have national significance. (b) The...

24 CFR 594.17 - General criteria for competitive selection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... following general criteria for selecting and ranking applications for all competitions for John Heinz... quality of the Management/Business Plan; (4) The evidence of coordination and resident participation; and (5) The quality of the strategy to increase the capacity of the organization and the strategy...

Improving selection of markers in nutrition research: evaluation of the criteria proposed by the ILSI Europe Marker Validation Initiative.

PubMed

Calder, Philip C; Boobis, Alan; Braun, Deborah; Champ, Claire L; Dye, Louise; Einöther, Suzanne; Greyling, Arno; Matthys, Christophe; Putz, Peter; Wopereis, Suzan; Woodside, Jayne V; Antoine, Jean-Michel

2017-06-01

The conduct of high-quality nutrition research requires the selection of appropriate markers as outcomes, for example as indicators of food or nutrient intake, nutritional status, health status or disease risk. Such selection requires detailed knowledge of the markers, and consideration of the factors that may influence their measurement, other than the effects of nutritional change. A framework to guide selection of markers within nutrition research studies would be a valuable tool for researchers. A multidisciplinary Expert Group set out to test criteria designed to aid the evaluation of candidate markers for their usefulness in nutrition research and subsequently to develop a scoring system for markers. The proposed criteria were tested using thirteen markers selected from a broad range of nutrition research fields. The result of this testing was a modified list of criteria and a template for evaluating a potential marker against the criteria. Subsequently, a semi-quantitative system for scoring a marker and an associated template were developed. This system will enable the evaluation and comparison of different candidate markers within the same field of nutrition research in order to identify their relative usefulness. The ranking criteria of proven, strong, medium or low are likely to vary according to research setting, research field and the type of tool used to assess the marker and therefore the considerations for scoring need to be determined in a setting-, field- and tool-specific manner. A database of such markers, their interpretation and range of possible values would be valuable to nutrition researchers.

The Savannah River Site`s Groundwater Monitoring Program. Second quarter, 1991

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

Not Available

1992-01-10

The Environmental Protection Department/Environmental Monitoring Section (EPD/EMS) administers the Savannah River Site`s (SRS) Groundwater Monitoring Program. During second quarter 1991 EPD/EMS conducted extensive sampling of monitoring wells. EPD/EMS established two sets of flagging criteria in 1986 to assist in the management of sample results. The flagging criteria do not define contamination levels; instead, they aid personnel in sample scheduling, interpretation of data, and trend identification. Beginning in 1991, the flagging criteria are based on EPA drinking water standards and method detection limits. A detailed explanation of the current flagging criteria is presented in the Flagging Criteria section of this document.more » Analytical results from second quarter 1991 are listed in this report.« less

The Savannah River Site's Groundwater Monitoring Program

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

Not Available

1992-01-10

The Environmental Protection Department/Environmental Monitoring Section (EPD/EMS) administers the Savannah River Site's (SRS) Groundwater Monitoring Program. During second quarter 1991 EPD/EMS conducted extensive sampling of monitoring wells. EPD/EMS established two sets of flagging criteria in 1986 to assist in the management of sample results. The flagging criteria do not define contamination levels; instead, they aid personnel in sample scheduling, interpretation of data, and trend identification. Beginning in 1991, the flagging criteria are based on EPA drinking water standards and method detection limits. A detailed explanation of the current flagging criteria is presented in the Flagging Criteria section of this document.more » Analytical results from second quarter 1991 are listed in this report.« less

The Savannah River Site's Groundwater Monitoring Program: Second quarter 1992

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

Rogers, C.D.

1992-10-07

The Environmental Protection Department/Environmental Monitoring Section (EPD/EMS) administers the Savannah River Site's (SRS) Groundwater Monitoring Program. During second quarter 1992, EPD/EMS conducted extensive sampling of monitoring wells. EPD/EMS established two sets of criteria to assist in the management of sample results. The flagging criteria do not define contamination levels; instead, they aid personnel in sample scheduling, interpretation of data, and trend identification. Since 1991, the flagging criteria have been based on the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) drinking water standards and on method detection limits. A detailed explanation of the current flagging criteria is presented in the Flagging Criteria sectionmore » of this document. Analytical results from second quarter 1992 are listed in this report.« less

The development of a Martian atmospheric Sample collection canister

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kulczycki, E.; Galey, C.; Kennedy, B.; Budney, C.; Bame, D.; Van Schilfgaarde, R.; Aisen, N.; Townsend, J.; Younse, P.; Piacentine, J.

The collection of an atmospheric sample from Mars would provide significant insight to the understanding of the elemental composition and sub-surface out-gassing rates of noble gases. A team of engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology have developed an atmospheric sample collection canister for Martian application. The engineering strategy has two basic elements: first, to collect two separately sealed 50 cubic centimeter unpressurized atmospheric samples with minimal sensing and actuation in a self contained pressure vessel; and second, to package this atmospheric sample canister in such a way that it can be easily integrated into the orbiting sample capsule for collection and return to Earth. Sample collection and integrity are demonstrated by emulating the atmospheric collection portion of the Mars Sample Return mission on a compressed timeline. The test results achieved by varying the pressure inside of a thermal vacuum chamber while opening and closing the valve on the sample canister at Mars ambient pressure. A commercial off-the-shelf medical grade micro-valve is utilized in the first iteration of this design to enable rapid testing of the system. The valve has been independently leak tested at JPL to quantify and separate the leak rates associated with the canister. The results are factored in to an overall system design that quantifies mass, power, and sensing requirements for a Martian atmospheric Sample Collection (MASC) canister as outlined in the Mars Sample Return mission profile. Qualitative results include the selection of materials to minimize sample contamination, preliminary science requirements, priorities in sample composition, flight valve selection criteria, a storyboard from sample collection to loading in the orbiting sample capsule, and contributions to maintaining “ Earth” clean exterior surfaces on the orbiting sample capsule.

Selection of ionic liquids for enhancing the gas solubility of volatile organic compounds.

PubMed

Gonzalez-Miquel, Maria; Palomar, Jose; Rodriguez, Francisco

2013-01-10

A systematic thermodynamic analysis has been carried out for selecting cations and anions to enhance the absorption of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at low concentration in gaseous streams by ionic liquids (ILs), using COSMO-RS methodology. The predictability of computational procedure was validated by comparing experimental and COSMO-RS calculated Henry's law constant data over a sample of 125 gaseous solute-IL systems. For more than 2400 solute-IL mixtures evaluated, including 9 solutes and 270 ILs, it was found that the lower the activity coefficient at infinite dilution (γ(∞)) of solutes in the ILs, the more the exothermic excess enthalpy (H(E)) of the equimolar IL-solute mixtures. Then, the solubility of a representative sample of VOC solutes, with very different chemical nature, was screened in a wide number of ILs using COSMO-RS methodology by means of γ(∞) and H(E) parameters, establishing criteria to select the IL structures that promote favorable solute-solvent intermolecular interactions. As a result of this analysis, an attempt of classification of VOCs respect to their potential solubility in ILs was proposed, providing insights to rationally select the cationic and anionic species for a possible development of absorption treatments of VOC pollutants based on IL systems.

Comparison and continuous estimates of fecal coliform and Escherichia coli bacteria in selected Kansas streams, May 1999 through April 2002

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rasmussen, Patrick P.; Ziegler, Andrew C.

2003-01-01

The sanitary quality of water and its use as a public-water supply and for recreational activities, such as swimming, wading, boating, and fishing, can be evaluated on the basis of fecal coliform and Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria densities. This report describes the overall sanitary quality of surface water in selected Kansas streams, the relation between fecal coliform and E. coli, the relation between turbidity and bacteria densities, and how continuous bacteria estimates can be used to evaluate the water-quality conditions in selected Kansas streams. Samples for fecal coliform and E. coli were collected at 28 surface-water sites in Kansas. Of the 318 samples collected, 18 percent exceeded the current Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) secondary contact recreational, single-sample criterion for fecal coliform (2,000 colonies per 100 milliliters of water). Of the 219 samples collected during the recreation months (April 1 through October 31), 21 percent exceeded the current (2003) KDHE single-sample fecal coliform criterion for secondary contact rec-reation (2,000 colonies per 100 milliliters of water) and 36 percent exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) recommended single-sample primary contact recreational criterion for E. coli (576 colonies per 100 milliliters of water). Comparisons of fecal coliform and E. coli criteria indicated that more than one-half of the streams sampled could exceed USEPA recommended E. coli criteria more frequently than the current KDHE fecal coliform criteria. In addition, the ratios of E. coli to fecal coliform (EC/FC) were smallest for sites with slightly saline water (specific conductance greater than 1,000 microsiemens per centimeter at 25 degrees Celsius), indicating that E. coli may not be a good indicator of sanitary quality for those streams. Enterococci bacteria may provide a more accurate assessment of the potential for swimming-related illnesses in these streams. Ratios of EC/FC and linear regression models were developed for estimating E. coli densities on the basis of measured fecal coliform densities for six individual and six groups of surface-water sites. Regression models developed for the six individual surface-water sites and six groups of sites explain at least 89 percent of the variability in E. coli densities. The EC/FC ratios and regression models are site specific and make it possible to convert historic fecal coliform bacteria data to estimated E. coli densities for the selected sites. The EC/FC ratios can be used to estimate E. coli for any range of historical fecal coliform densities, and in some cases with less error than the regression models. The basin- and statewide regression models explained at least 93 percent of the variance and best represent the sites where a majority of the data used to develop the models were collected (Kansas and Little Arkansas Basins). Comparison of the current (2003) KDHE geometric-mean primary contact criterion for fecal coliform bacteria of 200 col/100 mL to the 2002 USEPA recommended geometric-mean criterion of 126 col/100 mL for E. coli results in an EC/FC ratio of 0.63. The geometric-mean EC/FC ratio for all sites except Rattlesnake Creek (site 21) is 0.77, indicating that considerably more than 63 percent of the fecal coliform is E. coli. This potentially could lead to more exceedances of the recommended E. coli criterion, where the water now meets the current (2003) 200-col/100 mL fecal coliform criterion. In this report, turbidity was found to be a reliable estimator of bacteria densities. Regression models are provided for estimating fecal coliform and E. coli bacteria densities using continuous turbidity measurements. Prediction intervals also are provided to show the uncertainty associated with using the regression models. Eighty percent of all measured sample densities and individual turbidity-based estimates from the regression models were in agreement as exceedi

Mining method selection by integrated AHP and PROMETHEE method.

PubMed

Bogdanovic, Dejan; Nikolic, Djordje; Ilic, Ivana

2012-03-01

Selecting the best mining method among many alternatives is a multicriteria decision making problem. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the implementation of an integrated approach that employs AHP and PROMETHEE together for selecting the most suitable mining method for the "Coka Marin" underground mine in Serbia. The related problem includes five possible mining methods and eleven criteria to evaluate them. Criteria are accurately chosen in order to cover the most important parameters that impact on the mining method selection, such as geological and geotechnical properties, economic parameters and geographical factors. The AHP is used to analyze the structure of the mining method selection problem and to determine weights of the criteria, and PROMETHEE method is used to obtain the final ranking and to make a sensitivity analysis by changing the weights. The results have shown that the proposed integrated method can be successfully used in solving mining engineering problems.

Major merging history in CANDELS. I. Evolution of the incidence of massive galaxy-galaxy pairs from z = 3 to z ˜ 0

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mantha, Kameswara Bharadwaj; McIntosh, Daniel H.; Brennan, Ryan; Ferguson, Henry C.; Kodra, Dritan; Newman, Jeffrey A.; Rafelski, Marc; Somerville, Rachel S.; Conselice, Christopher J.; Cook, Joshua S.; Hathi, Nimish P.; Koo, David C.; Lotz, Jennifer M.; Simmons, Brooke D.; Straughn, Amber N.; Snyder, Gregory F.; Wuyts, Stijn; Bell, Eric F.; Dekel, Avishai; Kartaltepe, Jeyhan; Kocevski, Dale D.; Koekemoer, Anton M.; Lee, Seong-Kook; Lucas, Ray A.; Pacifici, Camilla; Peth, Michael A.; Barro, Guillermo; Dahlen, Tomas; Finkelstein, Steven L.; Fontana, Adriano; Galametz, Audrey; Grogin, Norman A.; Guo, Yicheng; Mobasher, Bahram; Nayyeri, Hooshang; Pérez-González, Pablo G.; Pforr, Janine; Santini, Paola; Stefanon, Mauro; Wiklind, Tommy

2018-04-01

The rate of major galaxy-galaxy merging is theoretically predicted to steadily increase with redshift during the peak epoch of massive galaxy development (1 ≤ z ≤ 3). We use close-pair statistics to objectively study the incidence of massive galaxies (stellar M1 > 2 × 1010 M⊙) hosting major companions (1 ≤ M1/M2 ≤ 4; i.e. <4:1) at six epochs spanning 0 < z < 3. We select companions from a nearly complete, mass-limited (≥5 × 109 M⊙) sample of 23 696 galaxies in the five Cosmic Assembly Near-Infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey fields and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Using 5-50 kpc projected separation and close redshift proximity criteria, we find that the major companion fraction fmc(z) based on stellar mass-ratio (MR) selection increases from 6 per cent (z ˜ 0) to 16 per cent (z ˜ 0.8), then turns over at z ˜ 1 and decreases to 7 per cent (z ˜ 3). Instead, if we use a major F160W flux-ratio (FR) selection, we find that fmc(z) increases steadily until z = 3 owing to increasing contamination from minor (MR > 4:1) companions at z > 1. We show that these evolutionary trends are statistically robust to changes in companion proximity. We find disagreements between published results are resolved when selection criteria are closely matched. If we compute merger rates using constant fraction-to-rate conversion factors (Cmerg,pair = 0.6 and Tobs,pair = 0.65 Gyr), we find that MR rates disagree with theoretical predictions at z > 1.5. Instead, if we use an evolving Tobs,pair(z) ∝ (1 + z)-2 from Snyder et al., our MR-based rates agree with theory at 0 < z < 3. Our analysis underscores the need for detailed calibration of Cmerg,pair and Tobs,pair as a function of redshift, mass, and companion selection criteria to better constrain the empirical major merger history.

Rainfall, Streamflow, and Water-Quality Data During Stormwater Monitoring, Halawa Stream Drainage Basin, Oahu, Hawaii, July 1, 2000 to June 30, 2001

USGS Publications Warehouse

Presley, Todd K.

2001-01-01

The State of Hawaii Department of Transportation Stormwater Monitoring Program was implemented on January 1, 2001. The program includes the collection of rainfall, streamflow, and water-quality data at selected sites in the Halawa Stream drainage basin. Rainfall and streamflow data were collected from July 1, 2000 to June 30, 2001. Few storms during the year met criteria for antecedent dry conditions or provided enough runoff to sample. The storm of June 5, 2001 was sufficiently large to cause runoff. On June 5, 2001, grab samples were collected at five sites along North Halawa and Halawa Streams. The five samples were later analyzed for nutrients, trace metals, oil and grease, total petroleum hydrocarbons, fecal coliform, biological and chemical oxygen demands, total suspended solids, and total dissolved solids.

Metabolic syndrome in family practice in Jordan: a study of high-risk groups.

PubMed

Yasein, N; Masa'd, D

2011-12-01

This study assessed the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome, and its components, as defined by Adult Treatment Panel III criteria in Jordanian patients attending a family practice clinic for management of cardiovascular risk factors. The sample was 730 randomly selected patients aged > or = 25 years. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 37.4% (31.7% in men; 41.0% in women). The prevalence increased with age in the total sample and in both sexes. High waist circumference showed the highest prevalence in the total sample (61.6%). Among females it ranked as the first criterion (73.5%). High serum triglyceride level showed the highest prevalence in males (50.2%). Differences between the sexes were significant. Family practitioners should be alerted to the importance of multiple risk factors in the metabolic syndrome.

The Detection and Statistics of Giant Arcs behind CLASH Clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Bingxiao; Postman, Marc; Meneghetti, Massimo; Seitz, Stella; Zitrin, Adi; Merten, Julian; Maoz, Dani; Frye, Brenda; Umetsu, Keiichi; Zheng, Wei; Bradley, Larry; Vega, Jesus; Koekemoer, Anton

2016-02-01

We developed an algorithm to find and characterize gravitationally lensed galaxies (arcs) to perform a comparison of the observed and simulated arc abundance. Observations are from the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH). Simulated CLASH images are created using the MOKA package and also clusters selected from the high-resolution, hydrodynamical simulations, MUSIC, over the same mass and redshift range as the CLASH sample. The algorithm's arc elongation accuracy, completeness, and false positive rate are determined and used to compute an estimate of the true arc abundance. We derive a lensing efficiency of 4 ± 1 arcs (with length ≥6″ and length-to-width ratio ≥7) per cluster for the X-ray-selected CLASH sample, 4 ± 1 arcs per cluster for the MOKA-simulated sample, and 3 ± 1 arcs per cluster for the MUSIC-simulated sample. The observed and simulated arc statistics are in full agreement. We measure the photometric redshifts of all detected arcs and find a median redshift zs = 1.9 with 33% of the detected arcs having zs > 3. We find that the arc abundance does not depend strongly on the source redshift distribution but is sensitive to the mass distribution of the dark matter halos (e.g., the c-M relation). Our results show that consistency between the observed and simulated distributions of lensed arc sizes and axial ratios can be achieved by using cluster-lensing simulations that are carefully matched to the selection criteria used in the observations.

Sejong Open Cluster Survey (SOS). 0. Target Selection and Data Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sung, Hwankyung; Lim, Beomdu; Bessell, Michael S.; Kim, Jinyoung S.; Hur, Hyeonoh; Chun, Moo-Young; Park, Byeong-Gon

2013-06-01

Star clusters are superb astrophysical laboratories containing cospatial and coeval samples of stars with similar chemical composition. We initiate the Sejong Open cluster Survey (SOS) - a project dedicated to providing homogeneous photometry of a large number of open clusters in the SAAO Johnson-Cousins' UBVI system. To achieve our main goal, we pay much attention to the observation of standard stars in order to reproduce the SAAO standard system. Many of our targets are relatively small sparse clusters that escaped previous observations. As clusters are considered building blocks of the Galactic disk, their physical properties such as the initial mass function, the pattern of mass segregation, etc. give valuable information on the formation and evolution of the Galactic disk. The spatial distribution of young open clusters will be used to revise the local spiral arm structure of the Galaxy. In addition, the homogeneous data can also be used to test stellar evolutionary theory, especially concerning rare massive stars. In this paper we present the target selection criteria, the observational strategy for accurate photometry, and the adopted calibrations for data analysis such as color-color relations, zero-age main sequence relations, Sp - M_V relations, Sp - T_{eff} relations, Sp - color relations, and T_{eff} - BC relations. Finally we provide some data analysis such as the determination of the reddening law, the membership selection criteria, and distance determination.

34 CFR 366.27 - What selection criteria does the Secretary use?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 34 Education 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What selection criteria does the Secretary use? 366.27 Section 366.27 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education (Continued) OFFICE OF SPECIAL EDUCATION AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION CENTERS FOR INDEPENDENT LIVING...

Item Selection Criteria with Practical Constraints for Computerized Classification Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Chuan-Ju

2011-01-01

This study compares four item selection criteria for a two-category computerized classification testing: (1) Fisher information (FI), (2) Kullback-Leibler information (KLI), (3) weighted log-odds ratio (WLOR), and (4) mutual information (MI), with respect to the efficiency and accuracy of classification decision using the sequential probability…

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...

14 CFR 1251.202 - Employment criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... HANDICAP Employment Practices § 1251.202 Employment criteria. (a) A recipient may not make use of any employment test or other selection criterion that screens out or tends to screen out handicapped persons or any class of handicapped persons unless: (1) The test score or other selection criterion, as used by...

14 CFR 1251.202 - Employment criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... HANDICAP Employment Practices § 1251.202 Employment criteria. (a) A recipient may not make use of any employment test or other selection criterion that screens out or tends to screen out handicapped persons or any class of handicapped persons unless: (1) The test score or other selection criterion, as used by...

14 CFR 1251.202 - Employment criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... HANDICAP Employment Practices § 1251.202 Employment criteria. (a) A recipient may not make use of any employment test or other selection criterion that screens out or tends to screen out handicapped persons or any class of handicapped persons unless: (1) The test score or other selection criterion, as used by...

14 CFR 1251.202 - Employment criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... HANDICAP Employment Practices § 1251.202 Employment criteria. (a) A recipient may not make use of any employment test or other selection criterion that screens out or tends to screen out handicapped persons or any class of handicapped persons unless: (1) The test score or other selection criterion, as used by...

14 CFR § 1251.202 - Employment criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... OF HANDICAP Employment Practices § 1251.202 Employment criteria. (a) A recipient may not make use of any employment test or other selection criterion that screens out or tends to screen out handicapped persons or any class of handicapped persons unless: (1) The test score or other selection criterion, as...

Remarks on Height-Diameter Modeling

Treesearch

Lei Yuancai; Bernard R. Parresol

2001-01-01

Height-diameter model forms in earlier published papers are examined. The selection criteria used in height-diameter model forms are not reasonable when considering tree biological growth pattern. During model selection, forms for height-diameter relationships should include consideration of both data-related and reasonable biological criteria, not just data-related...

34 CFR 535.21 - What selection criteria does the Secretary use?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 34 Education 3 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false What selection criteria does the Secretary use? 535.21 Section 535.21 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education (Continued) OFFICE OF BILINGUAL EDUCATION AND MINORITY LANGUAGES AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION BILINGUAL EDUCATION: GRADUATE...

34 CFR 647.21 - What selection criteria does the Secretary use?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 34 Education 3 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false What selection criteria does the Secretary use? 647.21 Section 647.21 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education (Continued) OFFICE OF POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION RONALD E. MCNAIR POSTBACCALAUREATE ACHIEVEMENT PROGRAM How Does...

34 CFR 280.31 - What selection criteria does the Secretary use?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 34 Education 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false What selection criteria does the Secretary use? 280.31 Section 280.31 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education OFFICE OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION MAGNET SCHOOLS ASSISTANCE PROGRAM How Does the...

Relationship between Admission Selection Criteria and Academic Progression for Student Nurse Anesthetists

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burns, Sharon M.

2009-01-01

Today's admission selection criteria require refinement with the intention of fostering academic progression for students entering nurse anesthesia programs (Reese, 2002).With the escalating cost of graduate education coupled with the current economic crisis, efforts by educational leaders to minimize attrition remains pivotal (Andrews, Johansson,…

34 CFR 607.22 - What are the selection criteria for development grants?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 34 Education 3 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false What are the selection criteria for development grants? 607.22 Section 607.22 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education (Continued) OFFICE OF POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION STRENGTHENING INSTITUTIONS PROGRAM How Does...

34 CFR 607.22 - What are the selection criteria for development grants?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 34 Education 3 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false What are the selection criteria for development grants? 607.22 Section 607.22 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education (Continued) OFFICE OF POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION STRENGTHENING INSTITUTIONS PROGRAM How Does...

34 CFR 607.22 - What are the selection criteria for development grants?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 34 Education 3 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false What are the selection criteria for development grants? 607.22 Section 607.22 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education (Continued) OFFICE OF POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION STRENGTHENING INSTITUTIONS PROGRAM How Does...

34 CFR 373.10 - What selection criteria does the Secretary use?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 34 Education 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What selection criteria does the Secretary use? 373.10 Section 373.10 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education (Continued) OFFICE OF SPECIAL EDUCATION AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION SPECIAL DEMONSTRATION PROGRAMS How...

40 CFR 228.6 - Specific criteria for site selection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 24 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Specific criteria for site selection. 228.6 Section 228.6 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) OCEAN... designation promulgation as an environmental assessment of the impact of the use of the site for disposal, and...

34 CFR 425.21 - What selection criteria does the Secretary use?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 34 Education 3 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false What selection criteria does the Secretary use? 425.21 Section 425.21 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education (Continued) OFFICE OF VOCATIONAL AND ADULT EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS FOR THE INTEGRATION OF...

34 CFR 425.21 - What selection criteria does the Secretary use?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 34 Education 3 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false What selection criteria does the Secretary use? 425.21 Section 425.21 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education (Continued) OFFICE OF VOCATIONAL AND ADULT EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS FOR THE INTEGRATION OF...

34 CFR 425.21 - What selection criteria does the Secretary use?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 34 Education 3 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false What selection criteria does the Secretary use? 425.21 Section 425.21 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education (Continued) OFFICE OF VOCATIONAL AND ADULT EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS FOR THE INTEGRATION OF...

36 CFR 72.50 - Grant selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... quasi-public or private non-profit interests. This degree means the degree to which the private sector... alter the public sector responsibility to continue to provide and/or monitor good quality recreation... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Grant selection criteria. 72...

36 CFR 72.50 - Grant selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... quasi-public or private non-profit interests. This degree means the degree to which the private sector... alter the public sector responsibility to continue to provide and/or monitor good quality recreation... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Grant selection criteria. 72...

36 CFR 72.50 - Grant selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... quasi-public or private non-profit interests. This degree means the degree to which the private sector... alter the public sector responsibility to continue to provide and/or monitor good quality recreation... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Grant selection criteria. 72...

36 CFR 72.50 - Grant selection criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... quasi-public or private non-profit interests. This degree means the degree to which the private sector... alter the public sector responsibility to continue to provide and/or monitor good quality recreation... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Grant selection criteria. 72...

78 FR 47979 - Final Priorities, Requirements, Definitions, and Selection Criteria; Race to the Top-District

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-08-06

... equity for all students. The priorities, definitions, requirements, and selection criteria are designed... education for all students in their schools. The U.S. Department of Education (Department) conducted one... improve student achievement and educator effectiveness. Summary of the Major Provisions of This Regulatory...

Selection Interviews of Students for Master's Programs in Counseling: An Exploratory Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nagpal, Smita; Ritchie, Martin H.

2002-01-01

Counselor education faculty were interviewed regarding the evaluation criteria and decision-making processes used during selection interviews. Ten characteristics were identified that participants looked for during interviews. There was a high degree of agreement among participants on the evaluation criteria they used. However, the same…

The Predictive Value of Selection Criteria in an Urban Magnet School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lohmeier, Jill Hendrickson; Raad, Jennifer

2012-01-01

The predictive value of selection criteria on outcome data from two cohorts of students (Total N = 525) accepted to an urban magnet high school were evaluated. Regression analyses of typical screening variables (suspensions, absences, metropolitan achievement tests, middle school grade point averages [GPAs], Matrix Analogies test scores, and…