Dietary risk ranking for residual antibiotics in cultured aquatic products around Tai Lake, China.

PubMed

Song, Chao; Li, Le; Zhang, Cong; Qiu, Liping; Fan, Limin; Wu, Wei; Meng, Shunlong; Hu, Gengdong; Chen, Jiazhang; Liu, Ying; Mao, Aimin

2017-10-01

Antibiotics are widely used in aquaculture and therefore may be present as a dietary risk in cultured aquatic products. Using the Tai Lake Basin as a study area, we assessed the presence of 15 antibiotics in 5 widely cultured aquatic species using a newly developed dietary risk ranking approach. By assigning scores to each factor involved in the ranking matrices, the scores of dietary risks per antibiotic and per aquatic species were calculated. The results indicated that fluoroquinolone antibiotics posed the highest dietary risk in all aquatic species. Then, the total scores per aquatic species were summed by all 15 antibiotic scores of antibiotics, it was found that Crab (Eriocheir sinensis) had the highest dietary risks. Finally, the most concerned antibiotic category and aquatic species were selected. This study highlighted the importance of dietary risk ranking in the production and consumption of cultured aquatic products around Tai Lake. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Test Scores, Class Rank and College Performance: Lessons for Broadening Access and Promoting Success.

PubMed

Niu, Sunny X; Tienda, Marta

2012-04-01

Using administrative data for five Texas universities that differ in selectivity, this study evaluates the relative influence of two key indicators for college success-high school class rank and standardized tests. Empirical results show that class rank is the superior predictor of college performance and that test score advantages do not insulate lower ranked students from academic underperformance. Using the UT-Austin campus as a test case, we conduct a simulation to evaluate the consequences of capping students admitted automatically using both achievement metrics. We find that using class rank to cap the number of students eligible for automatic admission would have roughly uniform impacts across high schools, but imposing a minimum test score threshold on all students would have highly unequal consequences by greatly reduce the admission eligibility of the highest performing students who attend poor high schools while not jeopardizing admissibility of students who attend affluent high schools. We discuss the implications of the Texas admissions experiment for higher education in Europe.

DOCKSCORE: a webserver for ranking protein-protein docked poses.

PubMed

Malhotra, Sony; Mathew, Oommen K; Sowdhamini, Ramanathan

2015-04-24

Proteins interact with a variety of other molecules such as nucleic acids, small molecules and other proteins inside the cell. Structure-determination of protein-protein complexes is challenging due to several reasons such as the large molecular weights of these macromolecular complexes, their dynamic nature, difficulty in purification and sample preparation. Computational docking permits an early understanding of the feasibility and mode of protein-protein interactions. However, docking algorithms propose a number of solutions and it is a challenging task to select the native or near native pose(s) from this pool. DockScore is an objective scoring scheme that can be used to rank protein-protein docked poses. It considers several interface parameters, namely, surface area, evolutionary conservation, hydrophobicity, short contacts and spatial clustering at the interface for scoring. We have implemented DockScore in form of a webserver for its use by the scientific community. DockScore webserver can be employed, subsequent to docking, to perform scoring of the docked solutions, starting from multiple poses as inputs. The results, on scores and ranks for all the poses, can be downloaded as a csv file and graphical view of the interface of best ranking poses is possible. The webserver for DockScore is made freely available for the scientific community at: http://caps.ncbs.res.in/dockscore/ .

DockRank: Ranking docked conformations using partner-specific sequence homology-based protein interface prediction

PubMed Central

Xue, Li C.; Jordan, Rafael A.; EL-Manzalawy, Yasser; Dobbs, Drena; Honavar, Vasant

2015-01-01

Selecting near-native conformations from the immense number of conformations generated by docking programs remains a major challenge in molecular docking. We introduce DockRank, a novel approach to scoring docked conformations based on the degree to which the interface residues of the docked conformation match a set of predicted interface residues. Dock-Rank uses interface residues predicted by partner-specific sequence homology-based protein–protein interface predictor (PS-HomPPI), which predicts the interface residues of a query protein with a specific interaction partner. We compared the performance of DockRank with several state-of-the-art docking scoring functions using Success Rate (the percentage of cases that have at least one near-native conformation among the top m conformations) and Hit Rate (the percentage of near-native conformations that are included among the top m conformations). In cases where it is possible to obtain partner-specific (PS) interface predictions from PS-HomPPI, DockRank consistently outperforms both (i) ZRank and IRAD, two state-of-the-art energy-based scoring functions (improving Success Rate by up to 4-fold); and (ii) Variants of DockRank that use predicted interface residues obtained from several protein interface predictors that do not take into account the binding partner in making interface predictions (improving success rate by up to 39-fold). The latter result underscores the importance of using partner-specific interface residues in scoring docked conformations. We show that DockRank, when used to re-rank the conformations returned by ClusPro, improves upon the original ClusPro rankings in terms of both Success Rate and Hit Rate. DockRank is available as a server at http://einstein.cs.iastate.edu/DockRank/. PMID:23873600

DockRank: ranking docked conformations using partner-specific sequence homology-based protein interface prediction.

PubMed

Xue, Li C; Jordan, Rafael A; El-Manzalawy, Yasser; Dobbs, Drena; Honavar, Vasant

2014-02-01

Selecting near-native conformations from the immense number of conformations generated by docking programs remains a major challenge in molecular docking. We introduce DockRank, a novel approach to scoring docked conformations based on the degree to which the interface residues of the docked conformation match a set of predicted interface residues. DockRank uses interface residues predicted by partner-specific sequence homology-based protein-protein interface predictor (PS-HomPPI), which predicts the interface residues of a query protein with a specific interaction partner. We compared the performance of DockRank with several state-of-the-art docking scoring functions using Success Rate (the percentage of cases that have at least one near-native conformation among the top m conformations) and Hit Rate (the percentage of near-native conformations that are included among the top m conformations). In cases where it is possible to obtain partner-specific (PS) interface predictions from PS-HomPPI, DockRank consistently outperforms both (i) ZRank and IRAD, two state-of-the-art energy-based scoring functions (improving Success Rate by up to 4-fold); and (ii) Variants of DockRank that use predicted interface residues obtained from several protein interface predictors that do not take into account the binding partner in making interface predictions (improving success rate by up to 39-fold). The latter result underscores the importance of using partner-specific interface residues in scoring docked conformations. We show that DockRank, when used to re-rank the conformations returned by ClusPro, improves upon the original ClusPro rankings in terms of both Success Rate and Hit Rate. DockRank is available as a server at http://einstein.cs.iastate.edu/DockRank/. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A family longevity selection score: ranking sibships by their longevity, size, and availability for study.

PubMed

Sebastiani, Paola; Hadley, Evan C; Province, Michael; Christensen, Kaare; Rossi, Winifred; Perls, Thomas T; Ash, Arlene S

2009-12-15

Family studies of exceptional longevity can potentially identify genetic and other factors contributing to long life and healthy aging. Although such studies seek families that are exceptionally long lived, they also need living members who can provide DNA and phenotype information. On the basis of these considerations, the authors developed a metric to rank families for selection into a family study of longevity. Their measure, the family longevity selection score (FLoSS), is the sum of 2 components: 1) an estimated family longevity score built from birth-, gender-, and nation-specific cohort survival probabilities and 2) a bonus for older living siblings. The authors examined properties of FLoSS-based family rankings by using data from 3 ongoing studies: the New England Centenarian Study, the Framingham Heart Study, and screenees for the Long Life Family Study. FLoSS-based selection yields families with exceptional longevity, satisfactory sibship sizes and numbers of living siblings, and high ages. Parameters in the FLoSS formula can be tailored for studies of specific populations or age ranges or with different conditions. The first component of the FLoSS also provides a conceptually sound survival measure to characterize exceptional longevity in individuals or families in various types of studies and correlates well with later-observed longevity.

Ranking major and minor research misbehaviors: results from a survey among participants of four World Conferences on Research Integrity.

PubMed

Bouter, Lex M; Tijdink, Joeri; Axelsen, Nils; Martinson, Brian C; Ter Riet, Gerben

2016-01-01

Codes of conduct mainly focus on research misconduct that takes the form of fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism. However, at the aggregate level, lesser forms of research misbehavior may be more important due to their much higher prevalence. Little is known about what the most frequent research misbehaviors are and what their impact is if they occur. A survey was conducted among 1353 attendees of international research integrity conferences. They were asked to score 60 research misbehaviors according to their views on and perceptions of the frequency of occurrence, preventability, impact on truth (validity), and impact on trust between scientists on 5-point scales. We expressed the aggregate level impact as the product of frequency scores and truth, trust and preventability scores, respectively. We ranked misbehaviors based on mean scores. Additionally, relevant demographic and professional background information was collected from participants. Response was 17% of those who were sent the invitational email and 33% of those who opened it. The rankings suggest that selective reporting, selective citing, and flaws in quality assurance and mentoring are viewed as the major problems of modern research. The "deadly sins" of fabrication and falsification ranked highest on the impact on truth but low to moderate on aggregate level impact on truth, due to their low estimated frequency. Plagiarism is thought to be common but to have little impact on truth although it ranked high on aggregate level impact on trust. We designed a comprehensive list of 60 major and minor research misbehaviors. Our respondents were much more concerned over sloppy science than about scientific fraud (FFP). In the fostering of responsible conduct of research, we recommend to develop interventions that actively discourage the high ranking misbehaviors from our study.

AUCTSP: an improved biomarker gene pair class predictor.

PubMed

Kagaris, Dimitri; Khamesipour, Alireza; Yiannoutsos, Constantin T

2018-06-26

The Top Scoring Pair (TSP) classifier, based on the concept of relative ranking reversals in the expressions of pairs of genes, has been proposed as a simple, accurate, and easily interpretable decision rule for classification and class prediction of gene expression profiles. The idea that differences in gene expression ranking are associated with presence or absence of disease is compelling and has strong biological plausibility. Nevertheless, the TSP formulation ignores significant available information which can improve classification accuracy and is vulnerable to selecting genes which do not have differential expression in the two conditions ("pivot" genes). We introduce the AUCTSP classifier as an alternative rank-based estimator of the magnitude of the ranking reversals involved in the original TSP. The proposed estimator is based on the Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) Curve (AUC) and as such, takes into account the separation of the entire distribution of gene expression levels in gene pairs under the conditions considered, as opposed to comparing gene rankings within individual subjects as in the original TSP formulation. Through extensive simulations and case studies involving classification in ovarian, leukemia, colon, breast and prostate cancers and diffuse large b-cell lymphoma, we show the superiority of the proposed approach in terms of improving classification accuracy, avoiding overfitting and being less prone to selecting non-informative (pivot) genes. The proposed AUCTSP is a simple yet reliable and robust rank-based classifier for gene expression classification. While the AUCTSP works by the same principle as TSP, its ability to determine the top scoring gene pair based on the relative rankings of two marker genes across all subjects as opposed to each individual subject results in significant performance gains in classification accuracy. In addition, the proposed method tends to avoid selection of non-informative (pivot) genes as members of the top-scoring pair.

Diversity efforts, admissions, and national rankings: can we align priorities?

PubMed

Heller, Caren A; Rúa, Sandra Hurtado; Mazumdar, Madhu; Moon, Jennifer E; Bardes, Charles; Gotto, Antonio M

2014-01-01

Increasing student body diversity is a priority for national health education and professional organizations and for many medical schools. However, national rankings of medical schools, such as those published by U.S. News & World Report, place a heavy emphasis on grade point average (GPA) and Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) scores, without considering student body diversity. These rankings affect organizational reputation and admissions outcomes, even though there is considerable controversy surrounding the predictive value of GPA and MCAT scores. Our aim in this article was to explore the relationship between standard admissions practices, which typically aim to attract students with the highest academic scores, and student body diversity. We examined how changes in GPA and MCAT scores over 5 years correlated with the percentage of enrolled students who are underrepresented in medicine. In a majority of medical schools in the United States from 2005 to 2009, average GPA and MCAT scores of applicants increased, whereas the percentage of enrolled students who are underrepresented in medicine decreased. Our findings suggest that efforts to increase the diversity of medical school student bodies may be complicated by a desire to maintain high average GPA and MCAT scores. We propose that U.S. News revise its ranking methodology by incorporating a new diversity score into its student selectivity score and by reducing the weight placed on GPA and MCAT scores.

The influence of teachers' conceptions on their students' learning: children's understanding of sheet music.

PubMed

López-Íñiguez, Guadalupe; Pozo, Juan Ignacio

2014-06-01

Despite increasing interest in teachers' and students' conceptions of learning and teaching, and how they influence their practice, there are few studies testing the influence of teachers' conceptions on their students' learning. This study tests how teaching conception (TC; with a distinction between direct and constructive) influences students' representations regarding sheet music. Sixty students (8-12 years old) from music conservatories: 30 of them took lessons with teachers with a constructive TC and another 30 with teachers shown to have a direct TC. Children were given a musical comprehension task in which they were asked to select and rank the contents they needed to learn. These contents had different levels of processing and complexity: symbolic, analytical, and referential. Three factorial ANOVAs, two-one-way ANOVAs, and four 2 × 3 repeated-measures ANOVAs were used to analyse the effects of and the interaction between the independent variables TC and class, both for/on total cards selected, their ranking, and each sub-category (the three processing levels). ANOVAs on the selection and ranking of these contents showed that teachers' conceptions seem to mediate significantly in the way the students understand the music. Students from constructive teachers have more complex and deep understanding of music. They select more elements for learning scores than those from traditional teachers. Teaching conception also influences the way in which children rank those elements. No difference exists between the way 8- and 12-year-olds learn scores. Children's understanding of the scores is more complex than assumed in other studies. © 2013 The British Psychological Society.

Large-scale model quality assessment for improving protein tertiary structure prediction.

PubMed

Cao, Renzhi; Bhattacharya, Debswapna; Adhikari, Badri; Li, Jilong; Cheng, Jianlin

2015-06-15

Sampling structural models and ranking them are the two major challenges of protein structure prediction. Traditional protein structure prediction methods generally use one or a few quality assessment (QA) methods to select the best-predicted models, which cannot consistently select relatively better models and rank a large number of models well. Here, we develop a novel large-scale model QA method in conjunction with model clustering to rank and select protein structural models. It unprecedentedly applied 14 model QA methods to generate consensus model rankings, followed by model refinement based on model combination (i.e. averaging). Our experiment demonstrates that the large-scale model QA approach is more consistent and robust in selecting models of better quality than any individual QA method. Our method was blindly tested during the 11th Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction (CASP11) as MULTICOM group. It was officially ranked third out of all 143 human and server predictors according to the total scores of the first models predicted for 78 CASP11 protein domains and second according to the total scores of the best of the five models predicted for these domains. MULTICOM's outstanding performance in the extremely competitive 2014 CASP11 experiment proves that our large-scale QA approach together with model clustering is a promising solution to one of the two major problems in protein structure modeling. The web server is available at: http://sysbio.rnet.missouri.edu/multicom_cluster/human/. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press.

Multiple graph regularized protein domain ranking.

PubMed

Wang, Jim Jing-Yan; Bensmail, Halima; Gao, Xin

2012-11-19

Protein domain ranking is a fundamental task in structural biology. Most protein domain ranking methods rely on the pairwise comparison of protein domains while neglecting the global manifold structure of the protein domain database. Recently, graph regularized ranking that exploits the global structure of the graph defined by the pairwise similarities has been proposed. However, the existing graph regularized ranking methods are very sensitive to the choice of the graph model and parameters, and this remains a difficult problem for most of the protein domain ranking methods. To tackle this problem, we have developed the Multiple Graph regularized Ranking algorithm, MultiG-Rank. Instead of using a single graph to regularize the ranking scores, MultiG-Rank approximates the intrinsic manifold of protein domain distribution by combining multiple initial graphs for the regularization. Graph weights are learned with ranking scores jointly and automatically, by alternately minimizing an objective function in an iterative algorithm. Experimental results on a subset of the ASTRAL SCOP protein domain database demonstrate that MultiG-Rank achieves a better ranking performance than single graph regularized ranking methods and pairwise similarity based ranking methods. The problem of graph model and parameter selection in graph regularized protein domain ranking can be solved effectively by combining multiple graphs. This aspect of generalization introduces a new frontier in applying multiple graphs to solving protein domain ranking applications.

Multiple graph regularized protein domain ranking

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Protein domain ranking is a fundamental task in structural biology. Most protein domain ranking methods rely on the pairwise comparison of protein domains while neglecting the global manifold structure of the protein domain database. Recently, graph regularized ranking that exploits the global structure of the graph defined by the pairwise similarities has been proposed. However, the existing graph regularized ranking methods are very sensitive to the choice of the graph model and parameters, and this remains a difficult problem for most of the protein domain ranking methods. Results To tackle this problem, we have developed the Multiple Graph regularized Ranking algorithm, MultiG-Rank. Instead of using a single graph to regularize the ranking scores, MultiG-Rank approximates the intrinsic manifold of protein domain distribution by combining multiple initial graphs for the regularization. Graph weights are learned with ranking scores jointly and automatically, by alternately minimizing an objective function in an iterative algorithm. Experimental results on a subset of the ASTRAL SCOP protein domain database demonstrate that MultiG-Rank achieves a better ranking performance than single graph regularized ranking methods and pairwise similarity based ranking methods. Conclusion The problem of graph model and parameter selection in graph regularized protein domain ranking can be solved effectively by combining multiple graphs. This aspect of generalization introduces a new frontier in applying multiple graphs to solving protein domain ranking applications. PMID:23157331

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.

A Developed Meta-model for Selection of Cotton Fabrics Using Design of Experiments and TOPSIS Method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chakraborty, Shankar; Chatterjee, Prasenjit

2017-12-01

Selection of cotton fabrics for providing optimal clothing comfort is often considered as a multi-criteria decision making problem consisting of an array of candidate alternatives to be evaluated based of several conflicting properties. In this paper, design of experiments and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) are integrated so as to develop regression meta-models for identifying the most suitable cotton fabrics with respect to the computed TOPSIS scores. The applicability of the adopted method is demonstrated using two real time examples. These developed models can also identify the statistically significant fabric properties and their interactions affecting the measured TOPSIS scores and final selection decisions. There exists good degree of congruence between the ranking patterns as derived using these meta-models and the existing methods for cotton fabric ranking and subsequent selection.

A failure modes and effects analysis study for gynecologic high-dose-rate brachytherapy.

PubMed

Mayadev, Jyoti; Dieterich, Sonja; Harse, Rick; Lentz, Susan; Mathai, Mathew; Boddu, Sunita; Kern, Marianne; Courquin, Jean; Stern, Robin L

2015-01-01

To improve the quality of our gynecologic brachytherapy practice and reduce reportable events, we performed a process analysis after the failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA). The FMEA included a multidisciplinary team specifically targeting the tandem and ring brachytherapy procedure. The treatment process was divided into six subprocesses and failure modes (FMs). A scoring guideline was developed based on published FMEA studies and assigned through team consensus. FMs were ranked according to overall and severity scores. FM ranking >5% of the highest risk priority number (RPN) score was selected for in-depth analysis. The efficiency of each existing quality assurance to detect each FM was analyzed. We identified 170 FMs, and 99 were scored. RPN scores ranged from 1 to 192. Of the 13 highest-ranking FMs with RPN scores >80, half had severity scores of 8 or 9, with no mode having severity of 10. Of these FM, the originating process steps were simulation (5), treatment planning (5), treatment delivery (2), and insertion (1). Our high-ranking FM focused on communication and the potential for applicator movement. Evaluation of the efficiency and the comprehensiveness of our quality assurance program showed coverage of all but three of the top 49 FMs ranked by RPN. This is the first reported FMEA process for a comprehensive gynecologic brachytherapy procedure overview. We were able to identify FMs that could potentially and severely impact the patient's treatment. We continue to adjust our quality assurance program based on the results of our FMEA analysis. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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.

Scoring ligand similarity in structure-based virtual screening.

PubMed

Zavodszky, Maria I; Rohatgi, Anjali; Van Voorst, Jeffrey R; Yan, Honggao; Kuhn, Leslie A

2009-01-01

Scoring to identify high-affinity compounds remains a challenge in virtual screening. On one hand, protein-ligand scoring focuses on weighting favorable and unfavorable interactions between the two molecules. Ligand-based scoring, on the other hand, focuses on how well the shape and chemistry of each ligand candidate overlay on a three-dimensional reference ligand. Our hypothesis is that a hybrid approach, using ligand-based scoring to rank dockings selected by protein-ligand scoring, can ensure that high-ranking molecules mimic the shape and chemistry of a known ligand while also complementing the binding site. Results from applying this approach to screen nearly 70 000 National Cancer Institute (NCI) compounds for thrombin inhibitors tend to support the hypothesis. EON ligand-based ranking of docked molecules yielded the majority (4/5) of newly discovered, low to mid-micromolar inhibitors from a panel of 27 assayed compounds, whereas ranking docked compounds by protein-ligand scoring alone resulted in one new inhibitor. Since the results depend on the choice of scoring function, an analysis of properties was performed on the top-scoring docked compounds according to five different protein-ligand scoring functions, plus EON scoring using three different reference compounds. The results indicate that the choice of scoring function, even among scoring functions measuring the same types of interactions, can have an unexpectedly large effect on which compounds are chosen from screening. Furthermore, there was almost no overlap between the top-scoring compounds from protein-ligand versus ligand-based scoring, indicating the two approaches provide complementary information. Matchprint analysis, a new addition to the SLIDE (Screening Ligands by Induced-fit Docking, Efficiently) screening toolset, facilitated comparison of docked molecules' interactions with those of known inhibitors. The majority of interactions conserved among top-scoring compounds for a given scoring function, and from the different scoring functions, proved to be conserved interactions in known inhibitors. This was particularly true in the S1 pocket, which was occupied by all the docked compounds. (c) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Composite multi-parameter ranking of real and virtual compounds for design of MC4R agonists: renaissance of the Free-Wilson methodology.

PubMed

Nilsson, Ingemar; Polla, Magnus O

2012-10-01

Drug design is a multi-parameter task present in the analysis of experimental data for synthesized compounds and in the prediction of new compounds with desired properties. This article describes the implementation of a binned scoring and composite ranking scheme for 11 experimental parameters that were identified as key drivers in the MC4R project. The composite ranking scheme was implemented in an AstraZeneca tool for analysis of project data, thereby providing an immediate re-ranking as new experimental data was added. The automated ranking also highlighted compounds overlooked by the project team. The successful implementation of a composite ranking on experimental data led to the development of an equivalent virtual score, which was based on Free-Wilson models of the parameters from the experimental ranking. The individual Free-Wilson models showed good to high predictive power with a correlation coefficient between 0.45 and 0.97 based on the external test set. The virtual ranking adds value to the selection of compounds for synthesis but error propagation must be controlled. The experimental ranking approach adds significant value, is parameter independent and can be tuned and applied to any drug discovery project.

The relative reliability of actively participating and passively observing raters in a simulation-based assessment for selection to specialty training in anaesthesia.

PubMed

Roberts, M J; Gale, T C E; Sice, P J A; Anderson, I R

2013-06-01

Selection to specialty training is a high-stakes assessment demanding valuable consultant time. In one initial entry level and two higher level anaesthesia selection centres, we investigated the feasibility of using staff participating in simulation scenarios, rather than observing consultants, to rate candidate performance. We compared participant and observer scores using four different outcomes: inter-rater reliability; score distributions; correlation of candidate rankings; and percentage of candidates whose selection might be affected by substituting participants' for observers' ratings. Inter-rater reliability between observers was good (correlation coefficient 0.73-0.96) but lower between participants (correlation coefficient 0.39-0.92), particularly at higher level where participants also rated candidates more favourably than did observers. Station rank orderings were strongly correlated between the rater groups at entry level (rho 0.81, p < 0.001) but weaker at the two higher level centres (rho 0.52, p = 0.018; rho 0.58, p = 0.001). Substituting participants' for observers' ratings had less effect once scores were combined with those from other selection centre stations. Selection decisions for 0-20% of candidates could have changed, depending on the numbers of training posts available. We conclude that using participating raters is feasible at initial entry level only. Anaesthesia © 2013 The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland.

Health information on internet: quality, importance, and popularity of persian health websites.

PubMed

Samadbeik, Mahnaz; Ahmadi, Maryam; Mohammadi, Ali; Mohseni Saravi, Beniamin

2014-04-01

The Internet has provided great opportunities for disseminating both accurate and inaccurate health information. Therefore, the quality of information is considered as a widespread concern affecting the human life. Despite the increasingly substantial growth in the number of users, Persian health websites and the proportion of internet-using patients, little is known about the quality of Persian medical and health websites. The current study aimed to first assess the quality, popularity and importance of websites providing Persian health-related information, and second to evaluate the correlation of the popularity and importance ranking with quality score on the Internet. The sample websites were identified by entering the health-related keywords into four most popular search engines of Iranian users based on the Alexa ranking at the time of study. Each selected website was assessed using three qualified tools including the Bomba and Land Index, Google PageRank and the Alexa ranking. The evaluated sites characteristics (ownership structure, database, scope and objective) really did not have an effect on the Alexa traffic global rank, Alexa traffic rank in Iran, Google PageRank and Bomba total score. Most websites (78.9 percent, n = 56) were in the moderate category (8 ≤ x ≤ 11.99) based on their quality levels. There was no statistically significant association between Google PageRank with Bomba index variables and Alexa traffic global rank (P > 0.05). The Persian health websites had better Bomba quality scores in availability and usability guidelines as compared to other guidelines. The Google PageRank did not properly reflect the real quality of evaluated websites and Internet users seeking online health information should not merely rely on it for any kind of prejudgment regarding Persian health websites. However, they can use Iran Alexa rank as a primary filtering tool of these websites. Therefore, designing search engines dedicated to explore accredited Persian health-related Web sites can be an effective method to access high-quality Persian health websites.

Selection for family medicine residency training in Canada: How consistently are the same students ranked by different programs?

PubMed

Wycliffe-Jones, Keith; Hecker, Kent G; Schipper, Shirley; Topps, Maureen; Robinson, Jeanine; Abedin, Tasnima

2018-02-01

To examine the consistency of the ranking of Canadian and US medical graduates who applied to Canadian family medicine (FM) residency programs between 2007 and 2013. Descriptive cross-sectional study. Family medicine residency programs in Canada. All 17 Canadian medical schools allowed access to their anonymized program rank-order lists of students applying to FM residency programs submitted to the first iteration of the Canadian Resident Matching Service match from 2007 to 2013. The rank position of medical students who applied to more than 1 FM residency program on the rank-order lists submitted by the programs. Anonymized ranking data submitted to the Canadian Resident Matching Service from 2007 to 2013 by all 17 FM residency programs were used. Ranking data of eligible Canadian and US medical graduates were analyzed to assess the within-student and between-student variability in rank score. These covariance parameters were then used to calculate the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for all programs. Program descriptions and selection criteria were also reviewed to identify sites with similar profiles for subset ICC analysis. Between 2007 and 2013, the consistency of ranking by all programs was fair at best (ICC = 0.34 to 0.39). The consistency of ranking by larger urban-based sites was weak to fair (ICC = 0.23 to 0.36), and the consistency of ranking by sites focusing on training for rural practice was weak to moderate (ICC = 0.16 to 0.55). In most cases, there is a low level of consistency of ranking of students applying for FM training in Canada. This raises concerns regarding fairness, particularly in relation to expectations around equity and distributive justice in selection processes. Copyright© the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

Selection criteria for internal medicine residency applicants and professionalism ratings during internship.

PubMed

Cullen, Michael W; Reed, Darcy A; Halvorsen, Andrew J; Wittich, Christopher M; Kreuziger, Lisa M Baumann; Keddis, Mira T; McDonald, Furman S; Beckman, Thomas J

2011-03-01

To determine whether standardized admissions data in residents' Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) submissions were associated with multisource assessments of professionalism during internship. ERAS applications for all internal medicine interns (N=191) at Mayo Clinic entering training between July 1, 2005, and July 1, 2008, were reviewed by 6 raters. Extracted data included United States Medical Licensing Examination scores, medicine clerkship grades, class rank, Alpha Omega Alpha membership, advanced degrees, awards, volunteer activities, research experiences, first author publications, career choice, and red flags in performance evaluations. Medical school reputation was quantified using U.S. News & World Report rankings. Strength of comparative statements in recommendation letters (0 = no comparative statement, 1 = equal to peers, 2 = top 20%, 3 = top 10% or "best") were also recorded. Validated multisource professionalism scores (5-point scales) were obtained for each intern. Associations between application variables and professionalism scores were examined using linear regression. The mean ± SD (minimum-maximum) professionalism score was 4.09 ± 0.31 (2.13-4.56). In multivariate analysis, professionalism scores were positively associated with mean strength of comparative statements in recommendation letters (β = 0.13; P = .002). No other associations between ERAS application variables and professionalism scores were found. Comparative statements in recommendation letters for internal medicine residency applicants were associated with professionalism scores during internship. Other variables traditionally examined when selecting residents were not associated with professionalism. These findings suggest that faculty physicians' direct observations, as reflected in letters of recommendation, are useful indicators of what constitutes a best student. Residency selection committees should scrutinize applicants' letters for strongly favorable comparative statements.

Self-esteem and its associated factors among secondary school students in Klang District, Selangor.

PubMed

Sherina, M S; Rampal, L; Loh, J W; Chan, C L; Teh, P C; Tan, P O

2008-03-01

Self-esteem is an important determinant of psychological well-being that is particularly problematic during adolescent life stage. There is a correlation between low self-esteem and other social problems among today's adolescents. This study was conducted to determine the mean self-esteem score, and to determine the association between self-esteem and age, sex, race, religion, number of siblings, ranking among siblings, family function, parental marital status and smoking among adolescents aged 12 to 20-years-old. A cross sectional study design using random cluster sampling method was done. Four out of a total of 35 secondary schools in Klang District, Selangor were selected. Respondents consisted of individual students in selected classes from the four selected schools. Data was collected using a self-administered, structured, pre-tested questionnaire and was analyzed using the SPSS version 12.0. Out of 1089 respondents, 793 completed the questionnaire (response rate 73.82%). The overall mean self-esteem score was 27.65. The mean self-esteem score for males (27.99) was slightly higher than females (27.31). The differences in the mean scores by race were statistically significant. There was a statistically significant relationship between mean self-esteem scores and sex, age, race, religion, number of siblings, smoking and family function. There was no statistically significant difference between mean self-esteem score with parental marital status and with ranking among siblings. The overall mean self-esteem score was 27.65. Self-esteem was associated with sex, age, race, religion, number of siblings, smoking and family function.

Selection and Rejection in Teacher Education: Qualities of Character Crucial in Selecting and Developing Teacher Education Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGraw, Amanda; Fish, Tim

2018-01-01

The focus of recent Australian political and media reports on the selection of candidates for initial teacher education programs has focused on the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) score as one of the key indicators of worth. This narrative study conducted in an Australian regional university focuses on the life stories of twelve…

SortNet: learning to rank by a neural preference function.

PubMed

Rigutini, Leonardo; Papini, Tiziano; Maggini, Marco; Scarselli, Franco

2011-09-01

Relevance ranking consists in sorting a set of objects with respect to a given criterion. However, in personalized retrieval systems, the relevance criteria may usually vary among different users and may not be predefined. In this case, ranking algorithms that adapt their behavior from users' feedbacks must be devised. Two main approaches are proposed in the literature for learning to rank: the use of a scoring function, learned by examples, that evaluates a feature-based representation of each object yielding an absolute relevance score, a pairwise approach, where a preference function is learned to determine the object that has to be ranked first in a given pair. In this paper, we present a preference learning method for learning to rank. A neural network, the comparative neural network (CmpNN), is trained from examples to approximate the comparison function for a pair of objects. The CmpNN adopts a particular architecture designed to implement the symmetries naturally present in a preference function. The learned preference function can be embedded as the comparator into a classical sorting algorithm to provide a global ranking of a set of objects. To improve the ranking performances, an active-learning procedure is devised, that aims at selecting the most informative patterns in the training set. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on the LETOR dataset showing promising performances in comparison with other state-of-the-art algorithms.

Development of expert system for biobased polymer material selection: food packaging application.

PubMed

Sanyang, M L; Sapuan, S M

2015-10-01

Biobased food packaging materials are gaining more attention owing to their intrinsic biodegradable nature and renewability. Selection of suitable biobased polymers for food packaging applications could be a tedious task with potential mistakes in choosing the best materials. In this paper, an expert system was developed using Exsys Corvid software to select suitable biobased polymer materials for packaging fruits, dry food and dairy products. If - Then rule based system was utilized to accomplish the material selection process whereas a score system was formulated to facilitate the ranking of selected materials. The expert system selected materials that satisfied all constraints and selection results were presented in suitability sequence depending on their scores. The expert system selected polylactic acid (PLA) as the most suitable material.

Measuring the Readability of Children's Trade Books.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Popp, Helen M.; Porter, Douglas

In order to utilize interesting children's trade books in a systematic reading program, two readability formulas were devised based on a selection of children's trade books. Children's scores on selections from these books and judges' rankings were compared. The judges' decisions were considered to be highly credible and were used as the criterion…

Comparison of multianalyte proficiency test results by sum of ranking differences, principal component analysis, and hierarchical cluster analysis.

PubMed

Škrbić, Biljana; Héberger, Károly; Durišić-Mladenović, Nataša

2013-10-01

Sum of ranking differences (SRD) was applied for comparing multianalyte results obtained by several analytical methods used in one or in different laboratories, i.e., for ranking the overall performances of the methods (or laboratories) in simultaneous determination of the same set of analytes. The data sets for testing of the SRD applicability contained the results reported during one of the proficiency tests (PTs) organized by EU Reference Laboratory for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (EU-RL-PAH). In this way, the SRD was also tested as a discriminant method alternative to existing average performance scores used to compare mutlianalyte PT results. SRD should be used along with the z scores--the most commonly used PT performance statistics. SRD was further developed to handle the same rankings (ties) among laboratories. Two benchmark concentration series were selected as reference: (a) the assigned PAH concentrations (determined precisely beforehand by the EU-RL-PAH) and (b) the averages of all individual PAH concentrations determined by each laboratory. Ranking relative to the assigned values and also to the average (or median) values pointed to the laboratories with the most extreme results, as well as revealed groups of laboratories with similar overall performances. SRD reveals differences between methods or laboratories even if classical test(s) cannot. The ranking was validated using comparison of ranks by random numbers (a randomization test) and using seven folds cross-validation, which highlighted the similarities among the (methods used in) laboratories. Principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis justified the findings based on SRD ranking/grouping. If the PAH-concentrations are row-scaled, (i.e., z scores are analyzed as input for ranking) SRD can still be used for checking the normality of errors. Moreover, cross-validation of SRD on z scores groups the laboratories similarly. The SRD technique is general in nature, i.e., it can be applied to any experimental problem in which multianalyte results obtained either by several analytical procedures, analysts, instruments, or laboratories need to be compared.

Core journals that publish clinical trials of physical therapy interventions.

PubMed

Costa, Leonardo Oliveira Pena; Moseley, Anne M; Sherrington, Catherine; Maher, Christopher G; Herbert, Robert D; Elkins, Mark R

2010-11-01

The objective of this study was to identify core journals in physical therapy by identifying those that publish the most randomized controlled trials of physical therapy interventions, provide the highest-quality reports of randomized controlled trials, and have the highest journal impact factors. This study was an audit of a bibliographic database. All trials indexed in the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) were analyzed. Journals that had published at least 80 trials were selected. The journals were ranked in 4 ways: number of trials published; mean total PEDro score of the trials published in the journal, regardless of publication year; mean total PEDro score of the trials published in the journal from 2000 to 2009; and 2008 journal impact factor. The top 5 core journals in physical therapy, ranked by the total number of trials published, were Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Clinical Rehabilitation, Spine, British Medical Journal (BMJ), and Chest. When the mean total PEDro score was used as the ranking criterion, the top 5 journals were Journal of Physiotherapy, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Stroke, Spine, and Clinical Rehabilitation. When the mean total PEDro score of the trials published from 2000 to 2009 was used as the ranking criterion, the top 5 journals were Journal of Physiotherapy, JAMA, Lancet, BMJ, and Pain. The most highly ranked physical therapy-specific journals were Physical Therapy (ranked eighth on the basis of the number of trials published) and Journal of Physiotherapy (ranked first on the basis of the quality of trials). Finally, when the 2008 impact factor was used for ranking, the top 5 journals were JAMA, Lancet, BMJ, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, and Thorax. There were no significant relationships among the rankings on the basis of trial quality, number of trials, or journal impact factor. Physical therapists who are trying to keep up-to-date by reading the best available evidence on the effects of physical therapy interventions have to read more broadly than just physical therapy-specific journals. Readers of articles on physical therapy trials should be aware that high-quality trials are not necessarily published in journals with high impact factors.

Quality of Public Hospitals Websites: A Cross-Sectional Analytical Study in Iran.

PubMed

Salarvand, Shahin; Samadbeik, Mahnaz; Tarrahi, Mohammad Javad; Salarvand, Hamed

2016-04-01

Nowadays, hospitals have turned increasingly towards the Internet and develop their own web presence. Hospital Websites could be operating as effective web resources of information and interactive communication mediums to enhance hospital services to the public. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the quality of websites in Tehran's public hospitals. This cross-sectional analysis involved all public hospitals in Iran's capital city, Tehran, with a working website or subsites between April and June, 2014 (N=59). The websites were evaluated using three validated instruments: a localized checklist, Google page rank, and the Alexa traffic ranking. The mentioned checklist consisted of 112 items divided into five sections: technical characteristics, hospital information and facilities, medical services, interactive on-line services and external activities. Data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics. The mean website evaluation score was 45.7 out of 224 for selected public hospitals. All the studied websites were in the weak category based on the earned quality scores. There was no statistically significant association between the website evaluation score with Google page rank (P=0.092), Alexa global traffic rank and Alexa traffic rank in Iran (P>0.05). The hospital websites had a lower quality score in the interactive online services and external activities criteria in comparing to other criteria. Due to the low quality level of the studied websites and the importance of hospital portals in providing information and services on the Internet, the authorities should do precise planning for the appreciable improvement in the quality of hospital websites.

Infection control practices and zoonotic disease risks among veterinarians in the United States.

PubMed

Wright, Jennifer G; Jung, Sherry; Holman, Robert C; Marano, Nina N; McQuiston, Jennifer H

2008-06-15

OBJECTIVE-To assess the knowledge and use of infection control practices (ICPs) among US veterinarians. DESIGN-Anonymous mail-out population survey. PROCEDURES-In 2005 a questionnaire was mailed to US small animal, large animal, and equine veterinarians who were randomly selected from the AVMA membership to assess precaution awareness (PA) and veterinarians' perceptions of zoonotic disease risks. Respondents were assigned a PA score (0 to 4) on the basis of their responses (higher scores representing higher stringency of ICPs); within a practice type, respondents' scores were categorized as being within the upper 25% or lower 75% of scores (high and low PA ranking, respectively). Characteristics associated with low PA rankings were assessed. RESULTS-Generally, respondents did not engage in protective behaviors or use personal protective equipment considered appropriate to protect against zoonotic disease transmission. Small animal and equine veterinarians employed in practices that had no written infection control policy were significantly more likely to have low PA ranking. Male gender was associated with low PA ranking among small animal and large animal veterinarians; equine practitioners not working in a teaching or referral hospital were more likely to have low PA ranking than equine practitioners working in such institutions. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE-Results indicated that most US veterinarians are not aware of appropriate personal protective equipment use and do not engage in practices that may help reduce zoonotic disease transmission. Gender differences may influence personal choices for ICPs. Provision of information and training on ICPs and establishment of written infection control policies could be effective means of improving ICPs in veterinary practices.

Quality of Public Hospitals Websites: A Cross-Sectional Analytical Study in Iran

PubMed Central

Salarvand, Shahin; Samadbeik, Mahnaz; Tarrahi, Mohammad Javad; Salarvand, Hamed

2016-01-01

Introduction: Nowadays, hospitals have turned increasingly towards the Internet and develop their own web presence. Hospital Websites could be operating as effective web resources of information and interactive communication mediums to enhance hospital services to the public. Aim: Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the quality of websites in Tehran’s public hospitals. Material and methods: This cross-sectional analysis involved all public hospitals in Iran’s capital city, Tehran, with a working website or subsites between April and June, 2014 (N=59). The websites were evaluated using three validated instruments: a localized checklist, Google page rank, and the Alexa traffic ranking. The mentioned checklist consisted of 112 items divided into five sections: technical characteristics, hospital information and facilities, medical services, interactive on-line services and external activities. Data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics. Results: The mean website evaluation score was 45.7 out of 224 for selected public hospitals. All the studied websites were in the weak category based on the earned quality scores. There was no statistically significant association between the website evaluation score with Google page rank (P=0.092), Alexa global traffic rank and Alexa traffic rank in Iran (P>0.05). The hospital websites had a lower quality score in the interactive online services and external activities criteria in comparing to other criteria. Due to the low quality level of the studied websites and the importance of hospital portals in providing information and services on the Internet, the authorities should do precise planning for the appreciable improvement in the quality of hospital websites. PMID:27147806

Cochlear implantation: An assessment of quality and readability of web-based information aimed at patients.

PubMed

Seymour, Nicky; Lakhani, Raj; Hartley, Benjamin; Cochrane, Lesley; Jephson, Christopher

2015-01-01

Patients should have access to high-quality health information websites on which to base their decision-making. There are concerns regarding the accuracy and quality of some health websites. We aimed to objectively measure website quality related to cochlear implantation. Selected patient-information websites were scored, depending on how highly they ranked on search engines and if they were ranked on more than one of the search engines used. The top 40 websites from three major search engines were analysed. The quality of each website was scored using the DISCERN tool and the readability was scored using the Flesch-Kincaid reading ease and the Gunning-Fog index. The average Flesch-Kincaid score was 49.7, giving an average reading age of a 15-17 years old, and the average Gunning-fog score was 13.1, which equals that of an 18 years old. Internet-based information regarding cochlear implantation is of varied quality and is written above the expected reading level of an average person.

Method Development for Clinical Comprehensive Evaluation of Pediatric Drugs Based on Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis: Application to Inhaled Corticosteroids for Children with Asthma.

PubMed

Yu, Yuncui; Jia, Lulu; Meng, Yao; Hu, Lihua; Liu, Yiwei; Nie, Xiaolu; Zhang, Meng; Zhang, Xuan; Han, Sheng; Peng, Xiaoxia; Wang, Xiaoling

2018-04-01

Establishing a comprehensive clinical evaluation system is critical in enacting national drug policy and promoting rational drug use. In China, the 'Clinical Comprehensive Evaluation System for Pediatric Drugs' (CCES-P) project, which aims to compare drugs based on clinical efficacy and cost effectiveness to help decision makers, was recently proposed; therefore, a systematic and objective method is required to guide the process. An evidence-based multi-criteria decision analysis model that involved an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was developed, consisting of nine steps: (1) select the drugs to be reviewed; (2) establish the evaluation criterion system; (3) determine the criterion weight based on the AHP; (4) construct the evidence body for each drug under evaluation; (5) select comparative measures and calculate the original utility score; (6) place a common utility scale and calculate the standardized utility score; (7) calculate the comprehensive utility score; (8) rank the drugs; and (9) perform a sensitivity analysis. The model was applied to the evaluation of three different inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) used for asthma management in children (a total of 16 drugs with different dosage forms and strengths or different manufacturers). By applying the drug analysis model, the 16 ICSs under review were successfully scored and evaluated. Budesonide suspension for inhalation (drug ID number: 7) ranked the highest, with comprehensive utility score of 80.23, followed by fluticasone propionate inhaled aerosol (drug ID number: 16), with a score of 79.59, and budesonide inhalation powder (drug ID number: 6), with a score of 78.98. In the sensitivity analysis, the ranking of the top five and lowest five drugs remains unchanged, suggesting this model is generally robust. An evidence-based drug evaluation model based on AHP was successfully developed. The model incorporates sufficient utility and flexibility for aiding the decision-making process, and can be a useful tool for the CCES-P.

Selection Criteria for Internal Medicine Residency Applicants and Professionalism Ratings During Internship

PubMed Central

Cullen, Michael W.; Reed, Darcy A.; Halvorsen, Andrew J.; Wittich, Christopher M.; Kreuziger, Lisa M. Baumann; Keddis, Mira T.; McDonald, Furman S.; Beckman, Thomas J.

2011-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether standardized admissions data in residents' Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) submissions were associated with multisource assessments of professionalism during internship. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: ERAS applications for all internal medicine interns (N=191) at Mayo Clinic entering training between July 1, 2005, and July 1, 2008, were reviewed by 6 raters. Extracted data included United States Medical Licensing Examination scores, medicine clerkship grades, class rank, Alpha Omega Alpha membership, advanced degrees, awards, volunteer activities, research experiences, first author publications, career choice, and red flags in performance evaluations. Medical school reputation was quantified using U.S. News & World Report rankings. Strength of comparative statements in recommendation letters (0 = no comparative statement, 1 = equal to peers, 2 = top 20%, 3 = top 10% or “best”) were also recorded. Validated multisource professionalism scores (5-point scales) were obtained for each intern. Associations between application variables and professionalism scores were examined using linear regression. RESULTS: The mean ± SD (minimum-maximum) professionalism score was 4.09±0.31 (2.13-4.56). In multivariate analysis, professionalism scores were positively associated with mean strength of comparative statements in recommendation letters (β=0.13; P=.002). No other associations between ERAS application variables and professionalism scores were found. CONCLUSION: Comparative statements in recommendation letters for internal medicine residency applicants were associated with professionalism scores during internship. Other variables traditionally examined when selecting residents were not associated with professionalism. These findings suggest that faculty physicians' direct observations, as reflected in letters of recommendation, are useful indicators of what constitutes a best student. Residency selection committees should scrutinize applicants' letters for strongly favorable comparative statements. PMID:21364111

7 CFR 1491.6 - Ranking considerations and proposal selection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... protection including social, economic, historical and archaeological, and environmental benefits; (4...) system. This score serves as a measure of agricultural viability (access to markets and infrastructure... viability for future generations; and (8) Landowner willingness to allow public access for recreational...

7 CFR 1491.6 - Ranking considerations and proposal selection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... protection including social, economic, historical and archaeological, and environmental benefits; (4...) system. This score serves as a measure of agricultural viability (access to markets and infrastructure... viability for future generations; and (8) Landowner willingness to allow public access for recreational...

Health Information on Internet: Quality, Importance, and Popularity of Persian Health Websites

PubMed Central

Samadbeik, Mahnaz; Ahmadi, Maryam; Mohammadi, Ali; Mohseni Saravi, Beniamin

2014-01-01

Background: The Internet has provided great opportunities for disseminating both accurate and inaccurate health information. Therefore, the quality of information is considered as a widespread concern affecting the human life. Despite the increasingly substantial growth in the number of users, Persian health websites and the proportion of internet-using patients, little is known about the quality of Persian medical and health websites. Objectives: The current study aimed to first assess the quality, popularity and importance of websites providing Persian health-related information, and second to evaluate the correlation of the popularity and importance ranking with quality score on the Internet. Materials and Methods: The sample websites were identified by entering the health-related keywords into four most popular search engines of Iranian users based on the Alexa ranking at the time of study. Each selected website was assessed using three qualified tools including the Bomba and Land Index, Google PageRank and the Alexa ranking. Results: The evaluated sites characteristics (ownership structure, database, scope and objective) really did not have an effect on the Alexa traffic global rank, Alexa traffic rank in Iran, Google PageRank and Bomba total score. Most websites (78.9 percent, n = 56) were in the moderate category (8 ≤ x ≤ 11.99) based on their quality levels. There was no statistically significant association between Google PageRank with Bomba index variables and Alexa traffic global rank (P > 0.05). Conclusions: The Persian health websites had better Bomba quality scores in availability and usability guidelines as compared to other guidelines. The Google PageRank did not properly reflect the real quality of evaluated websites and Internet users seeking online health information should not merely rely on it for any kind of prejudgment regarding Persian health websites. However, they can use Iran Alexa rank as a primary filtering tool of these websites. Therefore, designing search engines dedicated to explore accredited Persian health-related Web sites can be an effective method to access high-quality Persian health websites. PMID:24910795

Molecular image-directed biopsies: improving clinical biopsy selection in patients with multiple tumors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harmon, Stephanie A.; Tuite, Michael J.; Jeraj, Robert

2016-10-01

Site selection for image-guided biopsies in patients with multiple lesions is typically based on clinical feasibility and physician preference. This study outlines the development of a selection algorithm that, in addition to clinical requirements, incorporates quantitative imaging data for automatic identification of candidate lesions for biopsy. The algorithm is designed to rank potential targets by maximizing a lesion-specific score, incorporating various criteria separated into two categories: (1) physician-feasibility category including physician-preferred lesion location and absolute volume scores, and (2) imaging-based category including various modality and application-specific metrics. This platform was benchmarked in two clinical scenarios, a pre-treatment setting and response-based setting using imaging from metastatic prostate cancer patients with high disease burden (multiple lesions) undergoing conventional treatment and receiving whole-body [18F]NaF PET/CT scans pre- and mid-treatment. Targeting of metastatic lesions was robust to different weighting ratios and candidacy for biopsy was physician confirmed. Lesion ranked as top targets for biopsy remained so for all patients in pre-treatment and post-treatment biopsy selection after sensitivity testing was completed for physician-biased or imaging-biased scenarios. After identifying candidates, biopsy feasibility was evaluated by a physician and confirmed for 90% (32/36) of high-ranking lesions, of which all top choices were confirmed. The remaining cases represented lesions with high anatomical difficulty for targeting, such as proximity to sciatic nerve. This newly developed selection method was successfully used to quantitatively identify candidate lesions for biopsies in patients with multiple lesions. In a prospective study, we were able to successfully plan, develop, and implement this technique for the selection of a pre-treatment biopsy location.

Formulary evaluation of third-generation cephalosporins using decision analysis.

PubMed

Cano, S B; Fujita, N K

1988-03-01

A structured, objective approach to formulary review of third-generation cephalosporins using the decision-analysis model is described. The pharmacy and therapeutics (P&T) committee approved the evaluation criteria for this drug class and assigned priority weights (as percentages of 100) to those drug characteristics deemed most important. Clinical data (spectrum of activity, pharmacokinetics, adverse effects, and stability) and financial data (cost of acquisition and cost of therapy per day) were used to determine ranking scores for each drug. Total scores were determined by multiplying ranking scores by the assigned priority weights for the criteria. The two highest-scoring drugs were selected for inclusion in the formulary. By this decision-analysis process, the P&T committee recommended that all current third-generation cephalosporins (cefotaxime, cefoperazone, and moxalactam) be removed from the institutions's formulary and be replaced with ceftazidime and ceftriaxone. P&T committees at other institutions may structure their criteria differently, and different recommendations may result. Using decision analysis for formulary review may promote rational drug therapy and achieve cost savings.

Building a composite score of general practitioners' intrinsic motivation: a comparison of methods.

PubMed

Sicsic, Jonathan; Le Vaillant, Marc; Franc, Carine

2014-04-01

Pay-for-performance programmes have been widely implemented in primary care, but few studies have investigated their potential adverse effects on the intrinsic motivation of general practitioners (GPs) even though intrinsic motivation may be a key determinant of quality in health care. Our aim was to compare methods for developing a composite score of GPs' intrinsic motivation and to select one that is most consistent with self-reported data. A postal survey. French GPs practicing in private practice. Using a set of variables selected to characterize the dimensions of intrinsic motivation, three alternative composite scores were calculated based on a multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and a two-parameter logistic model (2-PLM). Weighted kappa coefficients were used to evaluate variation in GPs' ranks according to each method. The three methods produced similar results on both the estimation of the indicators' weights and the order of GP rank lists. All weighted kappa coefficients were >0.80. The CFA and 2-PLM produced the most similar results. There was little difference regarding the three methods' results, validating our measure of GPs' intrinsic motivation. The 2-PLM appeared theoretically and empirically more robust for establishing the intrinsic motivation score. Code JEL C38, C43, I18.

An analysis of an optimal selection process for characteristics and technical performance of baseball pitchers.

PubMed

Lin, Wen-Bin; Tung, I-Wu; Chen, Mei-Jung; Chen, Mei-Yen

2011-08-01

Selection of a qualified pitcher has relied previously on qualitative indices; here, both quantitative and qualitative indices including pitching statistics, defense, mental skills, experience, and managers' recognition were collected, and an analytic hierarchy process was used to rank baseball pitchers. The participants were 8 experts who ranked characteristics and statistics of 15 baseball pitchers who comprised the first round of potential representatives for the Chinese Taipei National Baseball team. The results indicated a selection rate that was 91% consistent with the official national team roster, as 11 pitchers with the highest scores who were recommended as optimal choices to be official members of the Chinese Tai-pei National Baseball team actually participated in the 2009 Baseball World Cup. An analytic hierarchy can aid in selection of qualified pitchers, depending on situational and practical needs; the method could be extended to other sports and team-selection situations.

Do in-training evaluation reports deserve their bad reputations? A study of the reliability and predictive ability of ITER scores and narrative comments.

PubMed

Ginsburg, Shiphra; Eva, Kevin; Regehr, Glenn

2013-10-01

Although scores on in-training evaluation reports (ITERs) are often criticized for poor reliability and validity, ITER comments may yield valuable information. The authors assessed across-rotation reliability of ITER scores in one internal medicine program, ability of ITER scores and comments to predict postgraduate year three (PGY3) performance, and reliability and incremental predictive validity of attendings' analysis of written comments. Numeric and narrative data from the first two years of ITERs for one cohort of residents at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine (2009-2011) were assessed for reliability and predictive validity of third-year performance. Twenty-four faculty attendings rank-ordered comments (without scores) such that each resident was ranked by three faculty. Mean ITER scores and comment rankings were submitted to regression analyses; dependent variables were PGY3 ITER scores and program directors' rankings. Reliabilities of ITER scores across nine rotations for 63 residents were 0.53 for both postgraduate year one (PGY1) and postgraduate year two (PGY2). Interrater reliabilities across three attendings' rankings were 0.83 for PGY1 and 0.79 for PGY2. There were strong correlations between ITER scores and comments within each year (0.72 and 0.70). Regressions revealed that PGY1 and PGY2 ITER scores collectively explained 25% of variance in PGY3 scores and 46% of variance in PGY3 rankings. Comment rankings did not improve predictions. ITER scores across multiple rotations showed decent reliability and predictive validity. Comment ranks did not add to the predictive ability, but correlation analyses suggest that trainee performance can be measured through these comments.

The predictive value of pre-recruitment achievement on resident performance in anesthesiology.

PubMed

Chen, Fei; Arora, Harendra; Martinelli, Susan M; Teeter, Emily; Mayer, David; Zvara, David A; Passannante, Anthony; Smith, Kathleen A

2017-06-01

Selecting candidates for residency positions is challenging and there is little research on the correlation between commonly used selection criteria and subsequent performance in anesthesiology. This study examined the association between the selection measures and post-recruitment performance in residency. Retrospective review of archival data. Anesthesiology residency program at a large academic anesthesiology department. Residents who were matched to the anesthesiology program over 9years (graduation classes of 2006 to 2014). None. The pre-recruitment achievements included a comprehensive list of measures obtained from residents' application portfolios in conjunction with interview performance. The post-recruitment examination outcomes consisted of the in-training examination (ITE) scores in the three clinical anesthesia (CA) years and first-attempt success on the written board certification examination administered by the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA). Scholarly output during residency was measured by publication record. Clinical performance at the conclusion of residency was independently rated by three faculty members. Bivariate analysis and regression models were conducted to examine association between predictors and outcomes. High United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) scores, class rank in medical school and interview performance were predictive of high examination scores in residency and good clinical performance. Class rank appeared to be the best predictor of scholarly publication and pursuing an academic career beyond residency. Comparative performance with classmates (i.e., class rank) in medical school appeared to be an effective predictor of overall performance in residency, which warrants more attention in future study. Although interview performance is subject to recruitment team members' interpretation, it is an important measure to include in recruitment decisions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

7 CFR 1491.6 - Ranking considerations and proposal selection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... protection including social, economic, historical and archaeological, and environmental benefits; (4.... This score serves as a measure of agricultural viability (access to markets and infrastructure); and (7) Existence of a farm or ranch succession plan or similar plan established to encourage farm viability for...

7 CFR 1491.6 - Ranking considerations and proposal selection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... protection including social, economic, historical and archaeological, and environmental benefits; (4.... This score serves as a measure of agricultural viability (access to markets and infrastructure); and (7) Existence of a farm or ranch succession plan or similar plan established to encourage farm viability for...

7 CFR 1491.6 - Ranking considerations and proposal selection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... protection including social, economic, historical and archaeological, and environmental benefits; (4.... This score serves as a measure of agricultural viability (access to markets and infrastructure); and (7) Existence of a farm or ranch succession plan or similar plan established to encourage farm viability for...

Exercise and BMI z-score in Overweight and Obese Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis of Randomized Trials.

PubMed

Kelley, George A; Kelley, Kristi S; Pate, Russell R

2017-05-01

Examine the effects of selected types of exercise (aerobic, strength training, both) on BMI z-score in overweight and obese children and adolescents. Randomized exercise intervention trials ≥ 4 weeks were included. Studies were retrieved by searching six electronic databases, cross-referencing and expert review. Dual selection and abstraction occurred. Risk of bias and confidence in cumulative evidence were assessed. Network meta-analysis was performed using multivariate random-effects meta-regression models while surface under the cumulative ranking curves were used to calculate a hierarchy of exercise treatments. The number needed to treat (NNT) and percentile improvement (U 3 ) were also calculated. Thirty-four studies representing 2,239 participants were included. Median exercise occurred 3 times per week, 50 minutes per session over a 12-week period. Statistically significant reductions in BMI z-score were found for aerobic exercise and combined aerobic and strength exercise, but not strength training alone (M±SD, 95% CI: aerobic, -0.10, -0.15 to -0.05; aerobic and strength, -0.11, -0.19 to -0.03; strength, 0.04, -0.07 to 0.15). Combined aerobic and strength training was ranked best, followed by aerobic exercise and strength training. The NNT was 2 for both aerobic exercise and combined aerobic exercise and strength training. Percentile improvements were 28.8% for aerobic exercise and 31.5% for combined aerobic exercise and strength training. Confidence in effect estimates was ranked as low for aerobic exercise and very low for combined aerobic and strength training as well as strength training. Aerobic exercise and combined aerobic exercise and strength training are associated with reductions in BMI z-score. © 2016 Chinese Cochrane Center, West China Hospital of Sichuan University and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Exercise and BMI z-score in Overweight and Obese Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis of Randomized Trials

PubMed Central

George, Kelley; Kristi, Kelley; Russell, Pate

2017-01-01

Aim Examine the effects of selected types of exercise (aerobic, strength training, both) on BMI z-score in overweight and obese children and adolescents. Methods Randomized exercise intervention trials ≥ 4 weeks were included. Studies were retrieved by searching six electronic databases, cross-referencing and expert review. Dual selection and abstraction occurred. Risk of bias and confidence in cumulative evidence were assessed. Network meta-analysis was performed using multivariate random-effects meta-regression models while surface under the cumulative ranking curves were used to calculate a hierarchy of exercise treatments. The number needed to treat (NNT) and percentile improvement (U3) were also calculated. Results Thirty-four studies representing 2,239 participants were included. Median exercise occurred 3 times per week, 50 minutes per session over a 12-week period. Statistically significant reductions in BMI z-score were found for aerobic exercise and combined aerobic and strength exercise, but not strength training alone (M±SD, 95% CI: aerobic, -0.10, -0.15 to -0.05; aerobic and strength, -0.11, -0.19, -0.03; strength, 0.04, -0.07 to 0.15). Combined aerobic and strength training was ranked best, followed by aerobic exercise and strength training. The NNT was 2 for both aerobic exercise and combined aerobic exercise and strength training. Percentile improvements were 28.8% for aerobic exercise and 31.5% for combined aerobic exercise and strength training. Confidence in effect estimates was ranked as low for aerobic exercise and very low for combined aerobic and strength training as well as strength training. Conclusions Aerobic exercise and combined aerobic exercise and strength training are associated with reductions in BMI z-score. PMID:27792271

Hazard perception of Dutch farmers and veterinarians related to dairy young stock rearing.

PubMed

Boersema, J S C; Noordhuizen, J P T M; Lievaart, J J

2013-08-01

A group of 110 dairy farmers and 26 bovine veterinarians participated in a web-based questionnaire using the adaptive conjoint analysis technique to rank their perception regarding several hazards during 6 subsequent periods of the process of dairy young stock rearing. The method applied only involved selected respondents with a high consistency in their answering (correlation >30%). For the ranking, answers were first transformed into a utility score (US) for each hazard. The final ranking for each of the 6 periods was based on the US per hazard separately for farmers and veterinarians. Besides the ranking, the absolute values and the US itself were also compared between farmers and veterinarians to determine any statistically significant differences between the levels of the score despite the ranking. The overall conclusion is that, for almost every designated period, the ranking of the hazards differed between farmers and veterinarians. Only 1 period was observed (period IV, Pregnancy period until 4 weeks before calving) where veterinarians and farmers had the same top 3 ranking of the hazards, namely "Mastitis," "Abortion," and "Poor growth rate of the pregnant heifer." Major differences between farmers and veterinarians were seen during period II (feeding milk until weaning) for the hazard "Diarrhea in older calf," which was considered less important by farmers compared to veterinarians, and period number III (weaning until insemination) for "Over-condition," which, again, was seen as the most important hazard by veterinarians, but only ranked as number 5 by farmers. Besides the ranking, significant differences in absolute US values between veterinarians and farmers were seen in "Infection with Johne's disease" (14.5 vs. 7.8), "Diarrhea in newborn calf" (18.2 vs. 12.2), and "Insufficient feed intake" (16.2 vs. 8.4) in period I (colostrum until transition to milk replacer). Lameness represented the most important significant difference in absolute values in period III (weaning until insemination; 6.3 vs. 14.3), which was again significant in period V (4 wks before calving until calving; 7.4 vs. 12.1). The outcome of this study shows that hazard perception of veterinarians and farmers differs for most rearing periods (in ranking and absolute values). The outcome of this study can be used for 2 purposes: first, to improve communication between farmers and their consulting veterinarian about hazards and hazard perception in young stock rearing; and second, the US scores can be used to select top priority hazards which should at least be integrated into management advisory programs to improve dairy young stock rearing. Copyright © 2013 American Dairy Science Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Multicolinearity and Indicator Redundancy Problem in World University Rankings: An Example Using Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2013-2014 Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaycheng, Soh

2015-01-01

World university ranking systems used the weight-and-sum approach to combined indicator scores into overall scores on which the universities are then ranked. This approach assumes that the indicators all independently contribute to the overall score in the specified proportions. In reality, this assumption is doubtful as the indicators tend to…

A Systems Study to Determine the Attractiveness of Solar System Bodies and Sites for Eventual Human Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Andringa, Jason M.; Gray, Andrew A.

2005-01-01

A pre-phase A idea-generation team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), has conducted a study to rank all locations in the solar system based on attractiveness for human exploration. The process used to perform the study was composed of the following primary steps: determination of criteria (including value, cost, and risk criteria) upon which to rate sites in the solar system; weighting of the criteria based upon importance to eventual human exploration; selection of sites to consider and assignment of team members to the task of advocating the benefits of particular sites; rating the sites in both the short- and longterm based on team member presentations and team discussions; compilation of a score based on criteria weights and individual ratings. Finally a comparison of the total scores of different sites was completed to determine a ranking of all the bodies and sites in the solar system. Sensitivity analysis was also performed to determine how weightings affect the rankings.

National Drug Formulary review of statin therapeutic group using the multiattribute scoring tool

PubMed Central

Ramli, Azuana; Aljunid, Syed Mohamed; Sulong, Saperi; Md Yusof, Faridah Aryani

2013-01-01

Purpose HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins) are extensively used in treating hypercholesterolemia. The statins available in Malaysia include atorvastatin, lovastatin, pravastatin, rosuvastatin, simvastatin, and fluvastatin. Over the years, they have accumulated in the National Drug Formulary; hence, the need for review. Effective selection of the best drugs to remain in the formulary can become complex due to the multiple drug attributes involved, and is made worse by the limited time and resources available. The multiattribute scoring tool (MAST) systematizes the evaluation of the drug attributes to facilitate the drug selection process. In this study, a MAST framework was developed to rank the statins based on their utilities or benefits. Methods Published literature on multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) were studied and five sessions of expert group discussions were conducted to build the MAST framework and to review the evidence. The attributes identified and selected for analysis were efficacy (clinical efficacy, clinical endpoints), safety (drug interactions, serious side effects and documentation), drug applicability (drug strength/formulation, indications, dose frequency, side effects, food–drug interactions, and dose adjustments), and cost. The average weights assigned by the members for efficacy, safety, drug applicability and cost were 32.6%, 26.2%, 24.1%, and 17.1%, respectively. The utility values of the attributes were scored based on the published evidence or/and agreements during the group discussions. The attribute scores were added up to provide the total utility score. Results Using the MAST, the six statins under review were successfully scored and ranked. Atorvastatin scored the highest total utility score (TUS) of 84.48, followed by simvastatin (83.11). Atorvastatin and simvastatin scored consistently high, even before drug costs were included. The low scores on the side effects for atorvastatin were compensated for by the higher scores on the clinical endpoints resulting in a higher TUS for atorvastatin. Fluvastatin recorded the lowest TUS. Conclusion The multiattribute scoring tool was successfully applied to organize decision variables in reviewing statins for the formulary. Based on the TUS, atorvastatin is recommended to remain in the formulary and be considered as first-line in the treatment of hypercholesterolemia. PMID:24353428

The Effects of Type I Error Rate and Power of the ANCOVA F-Test and Selected Alternatives under Non-Normality and Variance Heterogeneity.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rheinheimer, David C.; Penfield, Douglas A.

The performance of analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and six selected competitors was examined under varying experimental conditions through Monte Carlo simulations. The six alternatives were: (1) Quade's procedure (D. Quade, 1967); (2) Puri and Sen's solution (M. Puri and P. Sen, 1969); (3) Burnett and Barr's rank difference scores (T. Burnett and…

A proposed method for world weightlifting championships team selection.

PubMed

Chiu, Loren Z F

2009-08-01

The caliber of competitors at the World Weightlifting Championships (WWC) has increased greatly over the past 20 years. As the WWC are the primary qualifiers for Olympic slots (1996 to present), it is imperative for a nation to select team members who will finish with a high placing and score team points. Previous selection methods were based on a simple percentage system. Analysis of the results from the 2006 and 2007 WWC indicates a curvilinear trend in each weight class, suggesting a simple percentage system will not maximize the number of team points earned. To maximize team points, weightlifters should be selected based on their potential to finish in the top 25. A 5-tier ranking system is proposed that should ensure the athletes with the greatest potential to score team points are selected.

Shaping the future medical workforce: take care with selection tools.

PubMed

Poole, Phillippa; Shulruf, Boaz

2013-12-01

Medical school selection is a first step in developing a general practice workforce. To determine the relationship between medical school selection scores and intention to pursue a career in general practice. A longitudinal cohort study of students selected in 2006 and 2007 for The University of Auckland medical programme, who completed an exit survey on career intentions. Students are ranked for selection into year 2 of a six-year programme by combining grade point average from prior university achievement (60%), interview (25%) and Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admission Test (UMAT) scores (15%). The main outcome measure was level of interest in general practice at exit. Logistic regression assessed whether any demographic variables or admission scores predicted a 'strong' interest in general practice. None of interview scores, grade point average, age, gender, or entry pathway predicted a 'strong' interest in general practice. Only UMAT scores differentiated between those with a 'strong' interest versus those with 'some' or 'no' interest, but in an inverse fashion. The best predictor of a 'strong' interest in general practice was a low UMAT score of between 45 and 55 on all three UMAT sections (OR 3.37, p=0.020). Yet, the academic scores at entry of students with these UMAT scores were not lower than those of their classmates. Setting inappropriately high cut-points for medical school selection may exclude applicants with a propensity for general practice. These findings support the use of a wider lens through which to view medical school selection tools.

Multiatlas whole heart segmentation of CT data using conditional entropy for atlas ranking and selection.

PubMed

Zhuang, Xiahai; Bai, Wenjia; Song, Jingjing; Zhan, Songhua; Qian, Xiaohua; Shi, Wenzhe; Lian, Yanyun; Rueckert, Daniel

2015-07-01

Cardiac computed tomography (CT) is widely used in clinical diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases. Whole heart segmentation (WHS) plays a vital role in developing new clinical applications of cardiac CT. However, the shape and appearance of the heart can vary greatly across different scans, making the automatic segmentation particularly challenging. The objective of this work is to develop and evaluate a multiatlas segmentation (MAS) scheme using a new atlas ranking and selection algorithm for automatic WHS of CT data. Research on different MAS strategies and their influence on WHS performance are limited. This work provides a detailed comparison study evaluating the impacts of label fusion, atlas ranking, and sizes of the atlas database on the segmentation performance. Atlases in a database were registered to the target image using a hierarchical registration scheme specifically designed for cardiac images. A subset of the atlases were selected for label fusion, according to the authors' proposed atlas ranking criterion which evaluated the performance of each atlas by computing the conditional entropy of the target image given the propagated atlas labeling. Joint label fusion was used to combine multiple label estimates to obtain the final segmentation. The authors used 30 clinical cardiac CT angiography (CTA) images to evaluate the proposed MAS scheme and to investigate different segmentation strategies. The mean WHS Dice score of the proposed MAS method was 0.918 ± 0.021, and the mean runtime for one case was 13.2 min on a workstation. This MAS scheme using joint label fusion generated significantly better Dice scores than the other label fusion strategies, including majority voting (0.901 ± 0.276, p < 0.01), locally weighted voting (0.905 ± 0.0247, p < 0.01), and probabilistic patch-based fusion (0.909 ± 0.0249, p < 0.01). In the atlas ranking study, the proposed criterion based on conditional entropy yielded a performance curve with higher WHS Dice scores compared to the conventional schemes (p < 0.03). In the atlas database study, the authors showed that the MAS using larger atlas databases generated better performance curves than the MAS using smaller ones, indicating larger atlas databases could produce more accurate segmentation. The authors have developed a new MAS framework for automatic WHS of CTA and investigated alternative implementations of MAS. With the proposed atlas ranking algorithm and joint label fusion, the MAS scheme is able to generate accurate segmentation within practically acceptable computation time. This method can be useful for the development of new clinical applications of cardiac CT.

Preformulation considerations for controlled release dosage forms. Part III. Candidate form selection using numerical weighting and scoring.

PubMed

Chrzanowski, Frank

2008-01-01

Two numerical methods, Decision Analysis (DA) and Potential Problem Analysis (PPA) are presented as alternative selection methods to the logical method presented in Part I. In DA properties are weighted and outcomes are scored. The weighted scores for each candidate are totaled and final selection is based on the totals. Higher scores indicate better candidates. In PPA potential problems are assigned a seriousness factor and test outcomes are used to define the probability of occurrence. The seriousness-probability products are totaled and forms with minimal scores are preferred. DA and PPA have never been compared to the logical-elimination method. Additional data were available for two forms of McN-5707 to provide complete preformulation data for five candidate forms. Weight and seriousness factors (independent variables) were obtained from a survey of experienced formulators. Scores and probabilities (dependent variables) were provided independently by Preformulation. The rankings of the five candidate forms, best to worst, were similar for all three methods. These results validate the applicability of DA and PPA for candidate form selection. DA and PPA are particularly applicable in cases where there are many candidate forms and where each form has some degree of unfavorable properties.

Ranking experts' preferences regarding measures and methods of assessment of welfare in dairy herds using Adaptive Conjoint Analysis.

PubMed

Lievaart, J J; Noordhuizen, J P T M

2011-07-01

Welfare in dairy herds can be addressed using different concepts. The difficulty is to extract which measures are the most important to practically address welfare at the herd level and the methods to assess traits considered most important. Therefore, the preferences of 24 acknowledged European welfare experts were ranked regarding 70 measures suitable to assess dairy cattle welfare at herd level using the Adaptive Conjoint Analysis (ACA; Sawtooth Software, Inc., Sequim, WA) technique. The experts were selected on the basis of 3 criteria: at least 5 yr experience in animal welfare research; recent scientific publications in the field of animal welfare; and, at the most, 3 animal species including dairy cattle as their field of expertise. The 70 traits were ranked by using the median ACA questionnaire utility scores and the range between the answers of the 24 experts. A high utility score with a low range between the answers of the experts was considered as suitable to assess welfare at farm level. Measures meeting these criteria were prevalence of lameness cases (107.3±11.7), competition for feed and water (96.4±13.9), and number of freestalls per 10 cows (84.8±13.3). Based on the utility score alone, these former measures were replaced by stereotypic behavior (111.7±17.1), prevalence of lameness cases (107.3±11.7), body condition score (108.0±18.9), and hock lesions (104.7±16.1). Subsequently, to demonstrate that the ACA technique can be used to rank either well-known or inconclusive methods of assessment, the methods for the traits lameness cases and the hygiene of the calving pen were ranked using another 2 ACA questionnaires. The results are based on the opinions of selected, internationally acknowledged dairy cattle welfare experts within the European Union. In the future, other parties like dairy farmers and farmers' organization should be included to achieve consensus about the most suitable traits applicable in practice. The currently investigated traits do not always apply to all dairy husbandry systems across the world, but are based on a system that includes indoor housing during winter. It is concluded that ACA is a useful technique to rank the different scientific opinions of experts regarding suitable traits and methods of assessment of dairy cattle at the herd level. Copyright © 2011 American Dairy Science Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evaluating postdoctoral dental candidates: assessing the need and recommendations for a national qualifying examination.

PubMed

Brodie, Abby J; Crow, Heidi C; Eber, Robert M; Handysides, Robert; Holexa, Roy; Kiat-amnuay, Sudarat; Spallek, Heiko

2011-06-01

Increasingly, U.S. dental schools report pass/fail grades and do not rank students. In addition, the Joint Commission on National Dental Examinations will report National Board Dental Examination (NBDE) scores as pass/fail after January 1, 2012. This article discusses how these changes will force postdoctoral dental program directors to modify how they assess candidates and how noncognitive evaluations might enhance those assessments. The authors propose developing a national qualifying examination for postdoctoral dental programs that will measure knowledge, decision making, and noncognitive traits including empathy, self-confidence, integrity, and emotional intelligence. Without NBDE scores, class rank, and GPA as a basis for decision making, a single national qualifying examination would assist postdoctoral programs in selecting high-quality candidates based on knowledge, critical thinking skills, and noncognitive traits.

ModFOLD6: an accurate web server for the global and local quality estimation of 3D protein models.

PubMed

Maghrabi, Ali H A; McGuffin, Liam J

2017-07-03

Methods that reliably estimate the likely similarity between the predicted and native structures of proteins have become essential for driving the acceptance and adoption of three-dimensional protein models by life scientists. ModFOLD6 is the latest version of our leading resource for Estimates of Model Accuracy (EMA), which uses a pioneering hybrid quasi-single model approach. The ModFOLD6 server integrates scores from three pure-single model methods and three quasi-single model methods using a neural network to estimate local quality scores. Additionally, the server provides three options for producing global score estimates, depending on the requirements of the user: (i) ModFOLD6_rank, which is optimized for ranking/selection, (ii) ModFOLD6_cor, which is optimized for correlations of predicted and observed scores and (iii) ModFOLD6 global for balanced performance. The ModFOLD6 methods rank among the top few for EMA, according to independent blind testing by the CASP12 assessors. The ModFOLD6 server is also continuously automatically evaluated as part of the CAMEO project, where significant performance gains have been observed compared to our previous server and other publicly available servers. The ModFOLD6 server is freely available at: http://www.reading.ac.uk/bioinf/ModFOLD/. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

Application of a modified selection index for honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae).

PubMed

van Engelsdorp, D; Otis, G W

2000-12-01

Nine different genetic families of honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) were compared using summed z-scores (phenotypic values) and a modified selection index (Imod). Imod values incorporated both the phenotypic scores of the different traits and the economic weightings of these traits, as determined by a survey of commercial Ontario beekeepers. Largely because of the high weight all beekeepers place on honey production, a distinct difference between line rankings based on phenotypic scores and Imod scores was apparent, thereby emphasizing the need to properly weight the traits being evaluated to select bee stocks most valuable for beekeepers. Furthermore, when beekeepers who made >10% of their income from queen and nucleus colony sales assigned relative values to the traits used in the Imod calculations, the results differed from those based on weightings assigned by honey producers. Our results underscore the difficulties the North American beekeeping industry must overcome to devise effective methods of evaluating colonies for breeding purposes.

Does Residency Selection Criteria Predict Performance in Orthopaedic Surgery Residency?

PubMed

Raman, Tina; Alrabaa, Rami George; Sood, Amit; Maloof, Paul; Benevenia, Joseph; Berberian, Wayne

2016-04-01

More than 1000 candidates applied for orthopaedic residency positions in 2014, and the competition is intense; approximately one-third of the candidates failed to secure a position in the match. However, the criteria used in the selection process often are subjective and studies have differed in terms of which criteria predict either objective measures or subjective ratings of resident performance by faculty. Do preresidency selection factors serve as predictors of success in residency? Specifically, we asked which preresidency selection factors are associated or correlated with (1) objective measures of resident knowledge and performance; and (2) subjective ratings by faculty. Charts of 60 orthopaedic residents from our institution were reviewed. Preresidency selection criteria examined included United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 and Step 2 scores, Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) scores, number of clinical clerkship honors, number of letters of recommendation, number of away rotations, Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) honor medical society membership, fourth-year subinternship at our institution, and number of publications. Resident performance was assessed using objective measures including American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery (ABOS) Part I scores and Orthopaedics In-Training Exam (OITE) scores and subjective ratings by faculty including global evaluation scores and faculty rankings of residents. We tested associations between preresidency criteria and the subsequent objective and subjective metrics using linear correlation analysis and Mann-Whitney tests when appropriate. Objective measures of resident performance namely, ABOS Part I scores, had a moderate linear correlation with the USMLE Step 2 scores (r = 0.55, p < 0.001) and number of clinical honors received in medical school (r = 0.45, p < 0.001). OITE scores had a weak linear correlation with the number of clinical honors (r = 0.35, p = 0.009) and USMLE Step 2 scores (r = 0.29, p = 0.02). With regards to subjective outcomes, AOA membership was associated with higher scores on the global evaluation (p = 0.005). AOA membership also correlated with higher global evaluation scores (r = 0.60, p = 0.005) with the strongest correlation existing between AOA membership and the "interpersonal and communication skills" subsection of the global evaluations. We found that USMLE Step 2, number of honors in medical school clerkships, and AOA membership demonstrated the strongest correlations with resident performance. Our goal in analyzing these data was to provide residency programs at large a sense of which criteria may be "high yield" in ranking applicants by analyzing data from within our own pool of residents. Similar studies across a broader scope of programs are warranted to confirm applicability of our findings. The continually emerging complexities of the field of orthopaedic surgery lend increasing importance to future work on the appropriate selection and training of orthopaedic residents.

Protein model discrimination using mutational sensitivity derived from deep sequencing.

PubMed

Adkar, Bharat V; Tripathi, Arti; Sahoo, Anusmita; Bajaj, Kanika; Goswami, Devrishi; Chakrabarti, Purbani; Swarnkar, Mohit K; Gokhale, Rajesh S; Varadarajan, Raghavan

2012-02-08

A major bottleneck in protein structure prediction is the selection of correct models from a pool of decoys. Relative activities of ∼1,200 individual single-site mutants in a saturation library of the bacterial toxin CcdB were estimated by determining their relative populations using deep sequencing. This phenotypic information was used to define an empirical score for each residue (RankScore), which correlated with the residue depth, and identify active-site residues. Using these correlations, ∼98% of correct models of CcdB (RMSD ≤ 4Å) were identified from a large set of decoys. The model-discrimination methodology was further validated on eleven different monomeric proteins using simulated RankScore values. The methodology is also a rapid, accurate way to obtain relative activities of each mutant in a large pool and derive sequence-structure-function relationships without protein isolation or characterization. It can be applied to any system in which mutational effects can be monitored by a phenotypic readout. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ranking targets in structure-based virtual screening of three-dimensional protein libraries: methods and problems.

PubMed

Kellenberger, Esther; Foata, Nicolas; Rognan, Didier

2008-05-01

Structure-based virtual screening is a promising tool to identify putative targets for a specific ligand. Instead of docking multiple ligands into a single protein cavity, a single ligand is docked in a collection of binding sites. In inverse screening, hits are in fact targets which have been prioritized within the pool of best ranked proteins. The target rate depends on specificity and promiscuity in protein-ligand interactions and, to a considerable extent, on the effectiveness of the scoring function, which still is the Achilles' heel of molecular docking. In the present retrospective study, virtual screening of the sc-PDB target library by GOLD docking was carried out for four compounds (biotin, 4-hydroxy-tamoxifen, 6-hydroxy-1,6-dihydropurine ribonucleoside, and methotrexate) of known sc-PDB targets and, several ranking protocols based on GOLD fitness score and topological molecular interaction fingerprint (IFP) comparison were evaluated. For the four investigated ligands, the fusion of GOLD fitness and two IFP scores allowed the recovery of most targets, including the rare proteins which are not readily suitable for statistical analysis, while significantly filtering out most false positive entries. The current survey suggests that selecting a small number of targets (<20) for experimental evaluation is achievable with a pure structure-based approach.

Application of Shape Similarity in Pose Selection and Virtual Screening in CSARdock2014 Exercise.

PubMed

Kumar, Ashutosh; Zhang, Kam Y J

2016-06-27

To evaluate the applicability of shape similarity in docking-based pose selection and virtual screening, we participated in the CSARdock2014 benchmark exercise for identifying the correct docking pose of inhibitors targeting factor XA, spleen tyrosine kinase, and tRNA methyltransferase. This exercise provides a valuable opportunity for researchers to test their docking programs, methods, and protocols in a blind testing environment. In the CSARdock2014 benchmark exercise, we have implemented an approach that uses ligand 3D shape similarity to facilitate docking-based pose selection and virtual screening. We showed here that ligand 3D shape similarity between bound poses could be used to identify the native-like pose from an ensemble of docking-generated poses. Our method correctly identified the native pose as the top-ranking pose for 73% of test cases in a blind testing environment. Moreover, the pose selection results also revealed an excellent correlation between ligand 3D shape similarity scores and RMSD to X-ray crystal structure ligand. In the virtual screening exercise, the average RMSD for our pose prediction was found to be 1.02 Å, and it was one of the top performances achieved in CSARdock2014 benchmark exercise. Furthermore, the inclusion of shape similarity improved virtual screening performance of docking-based scoring and ranking. The coefficient of determination (r(2)) between experimental activities and docking scores for 276 spleen tyrosine kinase inhibitors was found to be 0.365 but reached 0.614 when the ligand 3D shape similarity was included.

7 CFR 4280.42 - Application evaluation and selection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... engineering design)—up to 15 points; and (ii) An appropriate financial plan, including actual balance sheets... be ranked on a nationwide basis, based on the total points scored. (b) The application will be...) Nature of the Project. Rural Development will award up to 60 points based on whether the Project: (i) Is...

Predicting the affinity of Farnesoid X Receptor ligands through a hierarchical ranking protocol: a D3R Grand Challenge 2 case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Réau, Manon; Langenfeld, Florent; Zagury, Jean-François; Montes, Matthieu

2018-01-01

The Drug Design Data Resource (D3R) Grand Challenges are blind contests organized to assess the state-of-the-art methods accuracy in predicting binding modes and relative binding free energies of experimentally validated ligands for a given target. The second stage of the D3R Grand Challenge 2 (GC2) was focused on ranking 102 compounds according to their predicted affinity for Farnesoid X Receptor. In this task, our workflow was ranked 5th out of the 77 submissions in the structure-based category. Our strategy consisted in (1) a combination of molecular docking using AutoDock 4.2 and manual edition of available structures for binding poses generation using SeeSAR, (2) the use of HYDE scoring for pose selection, and (3) a hierarchical ranking using HYDE and MM/GBSA. In this report, we detail our pose generation and ligands ranking protocols and provide guidelines to be used in a prospective computer aided drug design program.

Concurrent Validity Between a Shared Curriculum, the Internal Medicine In-Training Examination, and the American Board of Internal Medicine Certifying Examination.

PubMed

Sisson, Stephen D; Bertram, Amanda; Yeh, Hsin-Chieh

2015-03-01

A core objective of residency education is to facilitate learning, and programs need more curricula and assessment tools with demonstrated validity evidence. We sought to demonstrate concurrent validity between performance on a widely shared, ambulatory curriculum (the Johns Hopkins Internal Medicine Curriculum), the Internal Medicine In-Training Examination (IM-ITE), and the American Board of Internal Medicine Certifying Examination (ABIM-CE). A cohort study of 443 postgraduate year (PGY)-3 residents at 22 academic and community hospital internal medicine residency programs using the curriculum through the Johns Hopkins Internet Learning Center (ILC). Total and percentile rank scores on ILC didactic modules were compared with total and percentile rank scores on the IM-ITE and total scores on the ABIM-CE. The average score on didactic modules was 80.1%; the percentile rank was 53.8. The average IM-ITE score was 64.1% with a percentile rank of 54.8. The average score on the ABIM-CE was 464. Scores on the didactic modules, IM-ITE, and ABIM-CE correlated with each other (P < .05). Residents completing greater numbers of didactic modules, regardless of scores, had higher IM-ITE total and percentile rank scores (P < .05). Resident performance on modules covering back pain, hypertension, preoperative evaluation, and upper respiratory tract infection was associated with IM-ITE percentile rank. Performance on a widely shared ambulatory curriculum is associated with performance on the IM-ITE and the ABIM-CE.

Public accountants' field dependence: Canadian evidence.

PubMed

Hicks, Elizabeth; Bagg, Robert; Doyle, Wendy; Young, Jeffrey D

2007-12-01

The cognitive styles of 113 practicing, professional accountants from Nova Scotia, Canada were examined using the Group Embedded Figures Test. They completed a demographic survey for descriptive information as well as their rank in the firm and preferred area of professional practice. Analysis suggested professional accountants tend to be more analytical than intuitive in cognitive style and, consistent with recent findings in other fields, men and women in accounting do not appear to be different in cognitive style. No statistically significant differences were found on the embedded figures scores across ranks of trainee, manager, and partner or across select, preferred areas of professional practice.

Multiatlas whole heart segmentation of CT data using conditional entropy for atlas ranking and selection

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

Zhuang, Xiahai, E-mail: zhuangxiahai@sjtu.edu.cn; Qian, Xiaohua; Bai, Wenjia

Purpose: Cardiac computed tomography (CT) is widely used in clinical diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases. Whole heart segmentation (WHS) plays a vital role in developing new clinical applications of cardiac CT. However, the shape and appearance of the heart can vary greatly across different scans, making the automatic segmentation particularly challenging. The objective of this work is to develop and evaluate a multiatlas segmentation (MAS) scheme using a new atlas ranking and selection algorithm for automatic WHS of CT data. Research on different MAS strategies and their influence on WHS performance are limited. This work provides a detailed comparison study evaluatingmore » the impacts of label fusion, atlas ranking, and sizes of the atlas database on the segmentation performance. Methods: Atlases in a database were registered to the target image using a hierarchical registration scheme specifically designed for cardiac images. A subset of the atlases were selected for label fusion, according to the authors’ proposed atlas ranking criterion which evaluated the performance of each atlas by computing the conditional entropy of the target image given the propagated atlas labeling. Joint label fusion was used to combine multiple label estimates to obtain the final segmentation. The authors used 30 clinical cardiac CT angiography (CTA) images to evaluate the proposed MAS scheme and to investigate different segmentation strategies. Results: The mean WHS Dice score of the proposed MAS method was 0.918 ± 0.021, and the mean runtime for one case was 13.2 min on a workstation. This MAS scheme using joint label fusion generated significantly better Dice scores than the other label fusion strategies, including majority voting (0.901 ± 0.276, p < 0.01), locally weighted voting (0.905 ± 0.0247, p < 0.01), and probabilistic patch-based fusion (0.909 ± 0.0249, p < 0.01). In the atlas ranking study, the proposed criterion based on conditional entropy yielded a performance curve with higher WHS Dice scores compared to the conventional schemes (p < 0.03). In the atlas database study, the authors showed that the MAS using larger atlas databases generated better performance curves than the MAS using smaller ones, indicating larger atlas databases could produce more accurate segmentation. Conclusions: The authors have developed a new MAS framework for automatic WHS of CTA and investigated alternative implementations of MAS. With the proposed atlas ranking algorithm and joint label fusion, the MAS scheme is able to generate accurate segmentation within practically acceptable computation time. This method can be useful for the development of new clinical applications of cardiac CT.« less

College and school of pharmacy characteristics associated with US News and World Report rankings.

PubMed

Schlesselman, Lauren; Coleman, Craig I

2013-04-12

OBJECTIVE. To determine the association between characteristics of colleges and schools of pharmacy and their rankings according to US News and World Report. METHODS. The 2008 US News and World Report, mean ranking scores (ranging from 2.0 to 5.0) for 78 US colleges and schools of pharmacy were compared with college and school characteristics, including academic program, students, faculty, and scholarship. The adjusted difference in mean ranking score associated with each characteristic was determined using a multivariate mixed linear regression model. RESULTS. The most powerful identified predictors of mean ranking score included the amount of grant funding (National Institutes of Health [NIH] and non-NIH funding) a college or school of pharmacy received and the yearly publication rates of its department of pharmacy (p≤0.001 for both). The adjusted mean ranking scores for colleges and schools receiving >$5 million and $1 million to $5 million in scholarly grant funding were respectively 0.77 and 0.26 points higher than those receiving none. Adjusted mean ranking scores for colleges and schools whose departments of pharmacy practice had publishing rates of >20 papers and 11 to 20 papers were respectively 0.40 and 0.17 points higher than those publishing ≤10 (p<0.05 for both). CONCLUSION. The characteristic of colleges and schools of pharmacy most associated with US News and World Report rankings appears to be their scholarly productivity.

Aggregate Interview Method of ranking orthopedic applicants predicts future performance.

PubMed

Geissler, Jacqueline; VanHeest, Ann; Tatman, Penny; Gioe, Terence

2013-07-01

This article evaluates and describes a process of ranking orthopedic applicants using what the authors term the Aggregate Interview Method. The authors hypothesized that higher-ranking applicants using this method at their institution would perform better than those ranked lower using multiple measures of resident performance. A retrospective review of 115 orthopedic residents was performed at the authors' institution. Residents were grouped into 3 categories by matching rank numbers: 1-5, 6-14, and 15 or higher. Each rank group was compared with resident performance as measured by faculty evaluations, the Orthopaedic In-Training Examination (OITE), and American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery (ABOS) test results. Residents ranked 1-5 scored significantly better on patient care, behavior, and overall competence by faculty evaluation (P<.05). Residents ranked 1-5 scored higher on the OITE compared with those ranked 6-14 during postgraduate years 2 and 3 (P⩽.5). Graduates who had been ranked 1-5 had a 100% pass rate on the ABOS part 1 examination on the first attempt. The most favorably ranked residents performed at or above the level of other residents in the program; they did not score inferiorly on any measure. These results support the authors' method of ranking residents. The rigorous Aggregate Interview Method for ranking applicants consistently identified orthopedic resident candidates who scored highly on the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education resident core competencies as measured by faculty evaluations, performed above the national average on the OITE, and passed the ABOS part 1 examination at rates exceeding the national average. Copyright 2013, SLACK Incorporated.

Ranking docking poses by graph matching of protein-ligand interactions: lessons learned from the D3R Grand Challenge 2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

da Silva Figueiredo Celestino Gomes, Priscila; Da Silva, Franck; Bret, Guillaume; Rognan, Didier

2018-01-01

A novel docking challenge has been set by the Drug Design Data Resource (D3R) in order to predict the pose and affinity ranking of a set of Farnesoid X receptor (FXR) agonists, prior to the public release of their bound X-ray structures and potencies. In a first phase, 36 agonists were docked to 26 Protein Data Bank (PDB) structures of the FXR receptor, and next rescored using the in-house developed GRIM method. GRIM aligns protein-ligand interaction patterns of docked poses to those of available PDB templates for the target protein, and rescore poses by a graph matching method. In agreement with results obtained during the previous 2015 docking challenge, we clearly show that GRIM rescoring improves the overall quality of top-ranked poses by prioritizing interaction patterns already visited in the PDB. Importantly, this challenge enables us to refine the applicability domain of the method by better defining the conditions of its success. We notably show that rescoring apolar ligands in hydrophobic pockets leads to frequent GRIM failures. In the second phase, 102 FXR agonists were ranked by decreasing affinity according to the Gibbs free energy of the corresponding GRIM-selected poses, computed by the HYDE scoring function. Interestingly, this fast and simple rescoring scheme provided the third most accurate ranking method among 57 contributions. Although the obtained ranking is still unsuitable for hit to lead optimization, the GRIM-HYDE scoring scheme is accurate and fast enough to post-process virtual screening data.

Gene Selection and Cancer Classification: A Rough Sets Based Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Lijun; Miao, Duoqian; Zhang, Hongyun

Indentification of informative gene subsets responsible for discerning between available samples of gene expression data is an important task in bioinformatics. Reducts, from rough sets theory, corresponding to a minimal set of essential genes for discerning samples, is an efficient tool for gene selection. Due to the compuational complexty of the existing reduct algoritms, feature ranking is usually used to narrow down gene space as the first step and top ranked genes are selected . In this paper,we define a novel certierion based on the expression level difference btween classes and contribution to classification of the gene for scoring genes and present a algorithm for generating all possible reduct from informative genes.The algorithm takes the whole attribute sets into account and find short reduct with a significant reduction in computational complexity. An exploration of this approach on benchmark gene expression data sets demonstrates that this approach is successful for selecting high discriminative genes and the classification accuracy is impressive.

Scientific assessment of accuracy, skill and reliability of ocean probabilistic forecast products.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wei, M.; Rowley, C. D.; Barron, C. N.; Hogan, P. J.

2016-02-01

As ocean operational centers are increasingly adopting and generating probabilistic forecast products for their customers with valuable forecast uncertainties, how to assess and measure these complicated probabilistic forecast products objectively is challenging. The first challenge is how to deal with the huge amount of the data from the ensemble forecasts. The second one is how to describe the scientific quality of probabilistic products. In fact, probabilistic forecast accuracy, skills, reliability, resolutions are different attributes of a forecast system. We briefly introduce some of the fundamental metrics such as the Reliability Diagram, Reliability, Resolution, Brier Score (BS), Brier Skill Score (BSS), Ranked Probability Score (RPS), Ranked Probability Skill Score (RPSS), Continuous Ranked Probability Score (CRPS), and Continuous Ranked Probability Skill Score (CRPSS). The values and significance of these metrics are demonstrated for the forecasts from the US Navy's regional ensemble system with different ensemble members. The advantages and differences of these metrics are studied and clarified.

Predicting Resident Performance from Preresidency Factors: A Systematic Review and Applicability to Neurosurgical Training.

PubMed

Zuckerman, Scott L; Kelly, Patrick D; Dewan, Michael C; Morone, Peter J; Yengo-Kahn, Aaron M; Magarik, Jordan A; Baticulon, Ronnie E; Zusman, Edie E; Solomon, Gary S; Wellons, John C

2018-02-01

Neurosurgical educators strive to identify the best applicants, yet formal study of resident selection has proved difficult. We conducted a systematic review to answer the following question: What objective and subjective preresidency factors predict resident success? PubMed, ProQuest, Embase, and the CINAHL databases were queried from 1952 to 2015 for literature reporting the impact of preresidency factors (PRFs) on outcomes of residency success (RS), among neurosurgery and all surgical subspecialties. Due to heterogeneity of specialties and outcomes, a qualitative summary and heat map of significant findings were constructed. From 1489 studies, 21 articles met inclusion criteria, which evaluated 1276 resident applicants across five surgical subspecialties. No neurosurgical studies met the inclusion criteria. Common objective PRFs included standardized testing (76%), medical school performance (48%), and Alpha Omega Alpha (43%). Common subjective PRFs included aggregate rank scores (57%), letters of recommendation (38%), research (33%), interviews (19%), and athletic or musical talent (19%). Outcomes of RS included faculty evaluations, in-training/board exams, chief resident status, and research productivity. Among objective factors, standardized test scores correlated well with in-training/board examinations but poorly correlated with faculty evaluations. Among subjective factors, aggregate rank scores, letters of recommendation, and athletic or musical talent demonstrated moderate correlation with faculty evaluations. Standardized testing most strongly correlated with future examination performance but correlated poorly with faculty evaluations. Moderate predictors of faculty evaluations were aggregate rank scores, letters of recommendation, and athletic or musical talent. The ability to predict success of neurosurgical residents using an evidence-based approach is limited, and few factors have correlated with future resident performance. Given the importance of recruitment to the greater field of neurosurgery, these data provide support for a national, prospective effort to improve the study of neurosurgery resident selection. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Does the patient's inherent rating tendency influence reported satisfaction scores and affect division ranking?

PubMed

Francis, Patricia; Agoritsas, Thomas; Chopard, Pierre; Perneger, Thomas

2016-04-01

To determine the impact of adjusting for rating tendency (RT) on patient satisfaction scores in a large teaching hospital and to assess the impact of adjustment on the ranking of divisions. Cross-sectional survey. Large 2200-bed university teaching hospital. All adult patients hospitalized during a 1-month period in one of 20 medical divisions. None. Patient experience of care measured by the Picker Patient Experience questionnaire and RT scores. Problem scores were weakly but significantly associated with RT. Division ranking was slightly modified in RT adjusted models. Division ranking changed substantially in case-mix adjusted models. Adjusting patient self-reported problem scores for RT did impact ranking of divisions, although marginally. Further studies are needed to determine the impact of RT when comparing different institutions, particularly across inter-cultural settings, where the difference in RT may be more substantial. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press in association with the International Society for Quality in Health Care; all rights reserved.

Model diagnostics in reduced-rank estimation

PubMed Central

Chen, Kun

2016-01-01

Reduced-rank methods are very popular in high-dimensional multivariate analysis for conducting simultaneous dimension reduction and model estimation. However, the commonly-used reduced-rank methods are not robust, as the underlying reduced-rank structure can be easily distorted by only a few data outliers. Anomalies are bound to exist in big data problems, and in some applications they themselves could be of the primary interest. While naive residual analysis is often inadequate for outlier detection due to potential masking and swamping, robust reduced-rank estimation approaches could be computationally demanding. Under Stein's unbiased risk estimation framework, we propose a set of tools, including leverage score and generalized information score, to perform model diagnostics and outlier detection in large-scale reduced-rank estimation. The leverage scores give an exact decomposition of the so-called model degrees of freedom to the observation level, which lead to exact decomposition of many commonly-used information criteria; the resulting quantities are thus named information scores of the observations. The proposed information score approach provides a principled way of combining the residuals and leverage scores for anomaly detection. Simulation studies confirm that the proposed diagnostic tools work well. A pattern recognition example with hand-writing digital images and a time series analysis example with monthly U.S. macroeconomic data further demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approaches. PMID:28003860

Model diagnostics in reduced-rank estimation.

PubMed

Chen, Kun

2016-01-01

Reduced-rank methods are very popular in high-dimensional multivariate analysis for conducting simultaneous dimension reduction and model estimation. However, the commonly-used reduced-rank methods are not robust, as the underlying reduced-rank structure can be easily distorted by only a few data outliers. Anomalies are bound to exist in big data problems, and in some applications they themselves could be of the primary interest. While naive residual analysis is often inadequate for outlier detection due to potential masking and swamping, robust reduced-rank estimation approaches could be computationally demanding. Under Stein's unbiased risk estimation framework, we propose a set of tools, including leverage score and generalized information score, to perform model diagnostics and outlier detection in large-scale reduced-rank estimation. The leverage scores give an exact decomposition of the so-called model degrees of freedom to the observation level, which lead to exact decomposition of many commonly-used information criteria; the resulting quantities are thus named information scores of the observations. The proposed information score approach provides a principled way of combining the residuals and leverage scores for anomaly detection. Simulation studies confirm that the proposed diagnostic tools work well. A pattern recognition example with hand-writing digital images and a time series analysis example with monthly U.S. macroeconomic data further demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approaches.

Concurrent Validity Between a Shared Curriculum, the Internal Medicine In-Training Examination, and the American Board of Internal Medicine Certifying Examination

PubMed Central

Sisson, Stephen D.; Bertram, Amanda; Yeh, Hsin-Chieh

2015-01-01

Background A core objective of residency education is to facilitate learning, and programs need more curricula and assessment tools with demonstrated validity evidence. Objective We sought to demonstrate concurrent validity between performance on a widely shared, ambulatory curriculum (the Johns Hopkins Internal Medicine Curriculum), the Internal Medicine In-Training Examination (IM-ITE), and the American Board of Internal Medicine Certifying Examination (ABIM-CE). Methods A cohort study of 443 postgraduate year (PGY)-3 residents at 22 academic and community hospital internal medicine residency programs using the curriculum through the Johns Hopkins Internet Learning Center (ILC). Total and percentile rank scores on ILC didactic modules were compared with total and percentile rank scores on the IM-ITE and total scores on the ABIM-CE. Results The average score on didactic modules was 80.1%; the percentile rank was 53.8. The average IM-ITE score was 64.1% with a percentile rank of 54.8. The average score on the ABIM-CE was 464. Scores on the didactic modules, IM-ITE, and ABIM-CE correlated with each other (P < .05). Residents completing greater numbers of didactic modules, regardless of scores, had higher IM-ITE total and percentile rank scores (P < .05). Resident performance on modules covering back pain, hypertension, preoperative evaluation, and upper respiratory tract infection was associated with IM-ITE percentile rank. Conclusions Performance on a widely shared ambulatory curriculum is associated with performance on the IM-ITE and the ABIM-CE. PMID:26217421

Societal Factors; An Analysis of Selected Factors of Dormitory Students and Commuting Students at Johnson and Wales College.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bukowski, Joseph E.

Focusing on freshmen commuter students and freshmen dormitory students at Johnson and Wales College, general characteristics and academic achievement were measured. General entrance characteristics included student age, College Entrance Examination Board scores and high school rank. Academic achievement was measured in terms of student grades in…

Selection and ranking of patient video cases in paediatric neurology in relation to learner levels.

PubMed

Balslev, Thomas; Muijtjens, Arno M M; Maarbjerg, Sabine Frølich; de Grave, Willem

2018-05-01

Teaching and learning with patient video cases may add authenticity, enhance diagnostic accuracy and improve chances of early diagnosis. The aim of this study is firstly to identify selection criteria for key Patient video cases (PVCs), secondly to identify trends in relevance of PVCs for learner levels and thirdly, to rank PVCs for learner levels. Based on a literature review, we identified criteria for key PVCs for use in paediatric neurology. We then performed a multi-round Delphi analysis to obtain agreement between 28 expert clinician teachers concerning key PVCs for four learner levels. We identified two major criteria: key PVCs should demonstrate key movements, and these movements should be subtle and/or difficult to note. The expert clinician teachers subsequently assessed a list of 14 topics for key PVCs. We found a clear, increasing trend in relevance scores, from medical students to young residents to experienced residents and specialists. For medical students and residents, epileptic spasms, Down syndrome, developmental delay, cerebral palsy and absence epilepsy were highly ranked. For specialists, conditions like chorea, focal seizures or eye movement disorders topped the ranking list, although ranking was less clear for this group of advanced learners. Key PVCs should demonstrate movements that are difficult to note for learners. Ranked lists of key PVCs for teaching and learning at different learner levels are now available and may help institutions build validated local libraries of PVCs. Copyright © 2017 European Paediatric Neurology Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A comparative study of selected Georgia elementary principals' perceptions of environmental knowledge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Campbell, Joyce League

This study sought to establish baseline data on environmental knowledge, opinions, and perceptions of elementary principals and to make comparisons based on academic success rankings of schools and to national results. The self-reported study looked at 200 elementary principals in the state of Georgia. The population selected for the study included principals from the 100 top and 100 bottom academically ranked elementary schools as reported in the Georgia Public Policy Foundation Report Card for Parents. Their scores on the NEETF/Roper Environmental Knowledge Survey were compared between these two Georgia groups and to a national sample. Georgia elementary principals' scores were compared to environmental programs evident in their schools. The two Georgia groups were also compared on environmental opinion and perception responses on mandates, programs in schools and time devoted to these, environmental education as a priority, and the impact of various factors on the strength of environmental studies in schools. Georgia elementary principals leading schools at the bottom of the academic performance scale achieved environmental knowledge scores comparable to the national sample. However, principals of academically successful schools scored significantly higher on environmental knowledge than their colleagues from low performing schools (p < .05) and higher than the national sample (p < .001). Both Georgia principal groups strongly support a mandated environmental education curriculum for Georgia. The two groups were comparable on distributions of time devoted to environmental education across grade levels; however, principals from the more successful schools reported significantly (p < .01) greater amounts of time allotted to environmental studies. Both groups reported the same variety of environmental programs and practices evident in their schools and similar participation in these activities at various grade levels. Most significant (p < .01) was the comparison of ratings each group gave to environmental education as an instructional priority in their schools; principals supervising successful school programs viewed environmental education as a higher priority. These successful principals also recognized the importance of both administrator and staff interest as influencing factors and ranked these two variables as strongly impacting the success or failure of environmental initiatives in schools. Comparison of principals' environmental knowledge scores to numbers of programs shown no significant relationship. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

College and School of Pharmacy Characteristics Associated With US News and World Report Rankings

PubMed Central

Coleman, Craig I.

2013-01-01

Objective. To determine the association between characteristics of colleges and schools of pharmacy and their rankings according to US News and World Report. Methods. The 2008 US News and World Report, mean ranking scores (ranging from 2.0 to 5.0) for 78 US colleges and schools of pharmacy were compared with college and school characteristics, including academic program, students, faculty, and scholarship. The adjusted difference in mean ranking score associated with each characteristic was determined using a multivariate mixed linear regression model. Results. The most powerful identified predictors of mean ranking score included the amount of grant funding (National Institutes of Health [NIH] and non-NIH funding) a college or school of pharmacy received and the yearly publication rates of its department of pharmacy (p≤0.001 for both). The adjusted mean ranking scores for colleges and schools receiving >$5 million and $1 million to $5 million in scholarly grant funding were respectively 0.77 and 0.26 points higher than those receiving none. Adjusted mean ranking scores for colleges and schools whose departments of pharmacy practice had publishing rates of >20 papers and 11 to 20 papers were respectively 0.40 and 0.17 points higher than those publishing ≤10 (p<0.05 for both). Conclusion. The characteristic of colleges and schools of pharmacy most associated with US News and World Report rankings appears to be their scholarly productivity. PMID:23610473

Reliability analysis of visual ranking of coronary artery calcification on low-dose CT of the thorax for lung cancer screening: comparison with ECG-gated calcium scoring CT.

PubMed

Kim, Yoon Kyung; Sung, Yon Mi; Cho, So Hyun; Park, Young Nam; Choi, Hye-Young

2014-12-01

Coronary artery calcification (CAC) is frequently detected on low-dose CT (LDCT) of the thorax. Concurrent assessment of CAC and lung cancer screening using LDCT is beneficial in terms of cost and radiation dose reduction. The aim of our study was to evaluate the reliability of visual ranking of positive CAC on LDCT compared to Agatston score (AS) on electrocardiogram (ECG)-gated calcium scoring CT. We studied 576 patients who were consecutively registered for health screening and undergoing both LDCT and ECG-gated calcium scoring CT. We excluded subjects with an AS of zero. The final study cohort included 117 patients with CAC (97 men; mean age, 53.4 ± 8.5). AS was used as the gold standard (mean score 166.0; range 0.4-3,719.3). Two board-certified radiologists and two radiology residents participated in an observer performance study. Visual ranking of CAC was performed according to four categories (1-10, 11-100, 101-400, and 401 or higher) for coronary artery disease risk stratification. Weighted kappa statistics were used to measure the degree of reliability on visual ranking of CAC on LDCT. The degree of reliability on visual ranking of CAC on LDCT compared to ECG-gated calcium scoring CT was excellent for board-certified radiologists and good for radiology residents. A high degree of association was observed with 71.6% of visual rankings in the same category as the Agatston category and 98.9% varying by no more than one category. Visual ranking of positive CAC on LDCT is reliable for predicting AS rank categorization.

Selection methods regulate evolution of cooperation in digital evolution

PubMed Central

Lichocki, Paweł; Floreano, Dario; Keller, Laurent

2014-01-01

A key, yet often neglected, component of digital evolution and evolutionary models is the ‘selection method’ which assigns fitness (number of offspring) to individuals based on their performance scores (efficiency in performing tasks). Here, we study with formal analysis and numerical experiments the evolution of cooperation under the five most common selection methods (proportionate, rank, truncation-proportionate, truncation-uniform and tournament). We consider related individuals engaging in a Prisoner's Dilemma game where individuals can either cooperate or defect. A cooperator pays a cost, whereas its partner receives a benefit, which affect their performance scores. These performance scores are translated into fitness by one of the five selection methods. We show that cooperation is positively associated with the relatedness between individuals under all selection methods. By contrast, the change in the performance benefit of cooperation affects the populations’ average level of cooperation only under the proportionate methods. We also demonstrate that the truncation and tournament methods may introduce negative frequency-dependence and lead to the evolution of polymorphic populations. Using the example of the evolution of cooperation, we show that the choice of selection method, though it is often marginalized, can considerably affect the evolutionary dynamics. PMID:24152811

The Publication Ranking Score for pediatric urology: quantifying thought leadership within the subspecialty.

PubMed

Lloyd, Jessica C; Madden-Fuentes, Ramiro J; Nelson, Caleb P; Kokorowski, Paul J; Wiener, John S; Ross, Sherry S; Kutikov, Alexander; Routh, Jonathan C

2013-12-01

Clinical care parameters are frequently assessed by national ranking systems. However, these rankings do little to comment on institutions' academic contributions. The Publication Ranking Score (PRS) was developed to allow for objective comparisons of scientific thought-leadership at various pediatric urology institutions. Faculty lists were compiled for each of the US News & World Report (USNWR) top-50 pediatric urology hospitals. A list of all faculty publications (2006-2011) was then compiled, after adjusting for journal impact factor, and summed to derive a Publication Ranking Score (PRS). PRS rankings were then compared to the USNWR pediatric urology top-50 hospital list. A total of 1811 publications were indexed. PRS rankings resulted in a mean change in rank of 12 positions, compared to USNWR ranks. Of the top-10 USNWR hospitals, only 4 were ranked in the top-10 by the PRS. There was little correlation between the USNWR and PRS ranks for either top-10 (r = 0.42, p = 0.23) or top-50 (r = 0.48, p = 0.0004) hospitals. PRS institutional ranking differs significantly from the USNWR top-50 hospital list in pediatric urology. While not a replacement, we believe the PRS to be a useful adjunct to the USNWR rankings of pediatric urology hospitals. Copyright © 2013 Journal of Pediatric Urology Company. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Ranking Method for Evaluating Constructed Responses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Attali, Yigal

2014-01-01

This article presents a comparative judgment approach for holistically scored constructed response tasks. In this approach, the grader rank orders (rather than rate) the quality of a small set of responses. A prior automated evaluation of responses guides both set formation and scaling of rankings. Sets are formed to have similar prior scores and…

Building expert agreement on the importance and feasibility of workplace health promotion interventions for nurses and midwives: A modified Delphi consultation.

PubMed

Perry, Lin; Nicholls, Rachel; Duffield, Christine; Gallagher, Robyn

2017-11-01

To use a Delphi panel to determine the relative importance and feasibility of workplace health promotion interventions to promote and support the health of the Australian nursing and midwifery workforce. The nursing workforce experiences rates of ill health above that of other workforces, yet there is little investment in workplace health promotion. The study used a modified Delphi design conducted between September and November 2015. Eleven of 19 purposively selected expert panellists discussed, rated and provided feedback through two rounds of an electronic questionnaire about the relative importance and feasibility of 46 workplace health promotion interventions and processes for nurses and midwives. Scores for importance and feasibility were calculated and ranked and a composite score of importance multiplied by feasibility. Mental health strategies were prioritized as the most important and feasible of the intervention topics, followed closely by healthy eating and physical activity interventions; smoking cessation ranked lowest. The most highly ranked interventions targeted healthy eating, stress management and resilience training. Highest ranked processes to support development of a healthy work environment included intersectoral collaboration and employee wellness groups. Study findings prompt consideration of health promotion opportunities to support nurses' health and well-being. Findings identified key workplace health promotion priorities and provide direction for policy makers and managers to promote nursing and midwifery workforce health. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Learning to rank-based gene summary extraction.

PubMed

Shang, Yue; Hao, Huihui; Wu, Jiajin; Lin, Hongfei

2014-01-01

In recent years, the biomedical literature has been growing rapidly. These articles provide a large amount of information about proteins, genes and their interactions. Reading such a huge amount of literature is a tedious task for researchers to gain knowledge about a gene. As a result, it is significant for biomedical researchers to have a quick understanding of the query concept by integrating its relevant resources. In the task of gene summary generation, we regard automatic summary as a ranking problem and apply the method of learning to rank to automatically solve this problem. This paper uses three features as a basis for sentence selection: gene ontology relevance, topic relevance and TextRank. From there, we obtain the feature weight vector using the learning to rank algorithm and predict the scores of candidate summary sentences and obtain top sentences to generate the summary. ROUGE (a toolkit for summarization of automatic evaluation) was used to evaluate the summarization result and the experimental results showed that our method outperforms the baseline techniques. According to the experimental result, the combination of three features can improve the performance of summary. The application of learning to rank can facilitate the further expansion of features for measuring the significance of sentences.

Toward Developing an Unbiased Scoring Algorithm for "NASA" and Similar Ranking Tasks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lane, Irving M.; And Others

1981-01-01

Presents both logical and empirical evidence to illustrate that the conventional scoring algorithm for ranking tasks significantly underestimates the initial level of group ability and that Slevin's alternative scoring algorithm significantly overestimates the initial level of ability. Presents a modification of Slevin's algorithm which authors…

Escape the Black Hole of Lecturing: Put Collaborative Ranking Tasks on Your Event Horizon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hudgins, D. W.; Prather, E. E.; Grayson, D. J.

2005-05-01

At the University of Arizona, we have been developing and testing a new type of introductory astronomy curriculum material called Ranking Tasks. Ranking Tasks are a form of conceptual exercise that presents students with four to six physical situations, usually by pictures or diagrams, and asks students to rank order the situations based on some resulting effect. Our study developed design guidelines for Ranking Tasks based on learning theory and classroom pilot studies. Our research questions were: Do in-class collaborative Ranking Task exercises result in student conceptual gains when used in conjunction with traditional lecture-based instruction? And are these gains sufficient to justify implementing them into the astronomy classroom? We conducted a single-group repeated measures experiment across eight core introductory astronomy topics with 250 students at the University of Arizona in the Fall of 2004. The study found that traditional lecture-based instruction alone produced statistically significant gains - raising test scores to 61% post-lecture from 32% on the pretest. While significant, we find these gains to be unsatisfactory from a teaching and learning perspective. The study data shows that adding a collaborative learning component to the class structured around Ranking Task exercises helped students achieve statistically significant gains - with post-Ranking Task scores over the eight astronomy topic rising to 77%. Interestingly, we found that the normalized gain from the Ranking Tasks was equal to the entire previous gain from traditional instruction. Further analysis of the data revealed that Ranking Tasks equally benefited both genders; they also equally benefited both high and low-scoring median groups based on their pretest scores. Based on these results, we conclude that adding collaborative Ranking Task exercises to traditional lecture-based instruction can significantly improve student conceptual understanding of core topics in astronomy.

Discrimination of Native-like States of Membrane Proteins with Implicit Membrane-based Scoring Functions.

PubMed

Dutagaci, Bercem; Wittayanarakul, Kitiyaporn; Mori, Takaharu; Feig, Michael

2017-06-13

A scoring protocol based on implicit membrane-based scoring functions and a new protocol for optimizing the positioning of proteins inside the membrane was evaluated for its capacity to discriminate native-like states from misfolded decoys. A decoy set previously established by the Baker lab (Proteins: Struct., Funct., Genet. 2006, 62, 1010-1025) was used along with a second set that was generated to cover higher resolution models. The Implicit Membrane Model 1 (IMM1), IMM1 model with CHARMM 36 parameters (IMM1-p36), generalized Born with simple switching (GBSW), and heterogeneous dielectric generalized Born versions 2 (HDGBv2) and 3 (HDGBv3) were tested along with the new HDGB van der Waals (HDGBvdW) model that adds implicit van der Waals contributions to the solvation free energy. For comparison, scores were also calculated with the distance-scaled finite ideal-gas reference (DFIRE) scoring function. Z-scores for native state discrimination, energy vs root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) correlations, and the ability to select the most native-like structures as top-scoring decoys were evaluated to assess the performance of the scoring functions. Ranking of the decoys in the Baker set that were relatively far from the native state was challenging and dominated largely by packing interactions that were captured best by DFIRE with less benefit of the implicit membrane-based models. Accounting for the membrane environment was much more important in the second decoy set where especially the HDGB-based scoring functions performed very well in ranking decoys and providing significant correlations between scores and RMSD, which shows promise for improving membrane protein structure prediction and refinement applications. The new membrane structure scoring protocol was implemented in the MEMScore web server ( http://feiglab.org/memscore ).

A Novel Database to Rank and Display Archeomagnetic Intensity Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Donadini, F.; Korhonen, K.; Riisager, P.; Pesonen, L. J.; Kahma, K.

2005-12-01

To understand the content and the causes of the changes in the Earth's magnetic field beyond the observatory records one has to rely on archeomagnetic and lake sediment paleomagnetic data. The regional archeointensity curves are often of different quality and temporally variable which hampers the global analysis of the data in terms of dipole vs non-dipole field. We have developed a novel archeointensity database application utilizing MySQL, PHP (PHP Hypertext Preprocessor), and the Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) for ranking and displaying geomagnetic intensity data from the last 12000 years. Our application has the advantage that no specific software is required to query the database and view the results. Querying the database is performed using any Web browser; a fill-out form is used to enter the site location and a minimum ranking value to select the data points to be displayed. The form also features the possibility to select plotting of the data as an archeointensity curve with error bars, and a Virtual Axial Dipole Moment (VADM) or ancient field value (Ba) curve calculated using the CALS7K model (Continuous Archaeomagnetic and Lake Sediment geomagnetic model) of (Korte and Constable, 2005). The results of a query are displayed on a Web page containing a table summarizing the query parameters, a table showing the archeointensity values satisfying the query parameters, and a plot of VADM or Ba as a function of sample age. The database consists of eight related tables. The main one, INTENSITIES, stores the 3704 archeointensity measurements collected from 159 publications as VADM (and VDM when available) and Ba values, including their standard deviations and sampling locations. It also contains the number of samples and specimens measured from each site. The REFS table stores the references to a particular study. The names, latitudes, and longitudes of the regions where the samples were collected are stored in the SITES table. The MATERIALS, METHODS, SPECIMEN_TYPES and DATING_METHODS tables store information about the sample materials, intensity determination methods, specimen types and age determination methods. The SIGMA_COUNT table is used indirectly for ranking data according to the number of samples measured and their standard deviations. Each intensity measurement is assigned a score (0--2) depending on the number of specimens measured and their standard deviations, the intensity determination method, the type of specimens measured and materials. The ranking of each data point is calculated as the sum of the four scores and varies between 0 and 8. Additionally, users can select the parameters that will be included in the ranking.

Quantifying C-17 Aircrew Training Priorities

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-06-19

mentally process the situation. Skill-Probability-Risk (SPR) Score Once the data from the SS, SP, and SR has been calculated, an SPR Score can...discrepancies between the SPR Rank-Score and the Vol 1 Rank-Score. Figure 4.8 illustrates the differences in scores between the two processes . Ideally, the...tables. The extreme lower left and extreme upper right of the chart are areas of major discrepancy between the two processes and potentially provide the

Construction of Nutrition Literacy Indicators for College Students in Taiwan: A Delphi Consensus Study.

PubMed

Liao, Li-Ling; Lai, I-Ju

2017-10-01

To use the Delphi process to select nutrition literacy (NL) indicators for Taiwan college students. Initial formulation of 8 principal indicators and 77 subindicators, followed by a 2-round Delphi survey and final selection of indicators. A total of 28 nutrition experts selected through snowball sampling; 100% response rate. An expert panel scored and ranked NL themes and indicators for relevance, representativeness, and importance. Quantitative analysis. For principal indicators, the defined cutoff was mean (relevance and representativeness) > 4 and SD < 1. For subindicators, screening criteria were: (1) >20 experts ranked the nutrition theme's importance in the top 50% of the 12 themes; (2) mean (relevance and representativeness) > 4 and SD < 1 and >20 experts ranked the indicator's importance in the top 50% of all indicators within a domain. Consensus was reached on 8 principal indicators and 28 subindicators in 8 themes, including 10 in understand, 8 in analyze, 5 in appraise, and 5 in apply. An initial set of NL indicators was developed for Taiwan college students, serving as a basis to develop Taiwan College's Nutrition Literacy Scale and providing information on nutrition education. Copyright © 2017 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sense and simplicity in HADDOCK scoring: Lessons from CASP‐CAPRI round 1

PubMed Central

Vangone, A.; Rodrigues, J. P. G. L. M.; Xue, L. C.; van Zundert, G. C. P.; Geng, C.; Kurkcuoglu, Z.; Nellen, M.; Narasimhan, S.; Karaca, E.; van Dijk, M.; Melquiond, A. S. J.; Visscher, K. M.; Trellet, M.; Kastritis, P. L.

2016-01-01

ABSTRACT Our information‐driven docking approach HADDOCK is a consistent top predictor and scorer since the start of its participation in the CAPRI community‐wide experiment. This sustained performance is due, in part, to its ability to integrate experimental data and/or bioinformatics information into the modelling process, and also to the overall robustness of the scoring function used to assess and rank the predictions. In the CASP‐CAPRI Round 1 scoring experiment we successfully selected acceptable/medium quality models for 18/14 of the 25 targets – a top‐ranking performance among all scorers. Considering that for only 20 targets acceptable models were generated by the community, our effective success rate reaches as high as 90% (18/20). This was achieved using the standard HADDOCK scoring function, which, thirteen years after its original publication, still consists of a simple linear combination of intermolecular van der Waals and Coulomb electrostatics energies and an empirically derived desolvation energy term. Despite its simplicity, this scoring function makes sense from a physico‐chemical perspective, encoding key aspects of biomolecular recognition. In addition to its success in the scoring experiment, the HADDOCK server takes the first place in the server prediction category, with 16 successful predictions. Much like our scoring protocol, because of the limited time per target, the predictions relied mainly on either an ab initio center‐of‐mass and symmetry restrained protocol, or on a template‐based approach whenever applicable. These results underline the success of our simple but sensible prediction and scoring scheme. Proteins 2017; 85:417–423. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. PMID:27802573

Predicting Success for Actuarial Students in Undergraduate Mathematics Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Richard Manning; Schumacher, Phyllis A.

2005-01-01

A study of undergraduate actuarial graduates found that math SAT scores, verbal SAT scores, percentile rank in high school graduating class, and percentage score on a college mathematics placement exam had some relevance to forecasting the students' grade point averages in their major. For both males and females, percentile rank in high school…

A chemical risk ranking and scoring method for the selection of harmful substances to be specially controlled in occupational environments.

PubMed

Shin, Saemi; Moon, Hyung-Il; Lee, Kwon Seob; Hong, Mun Ki; Byeon, Sang-Hoon

2014-11-20

This study aimed to devise a method for prioritizing hazardous chemicals for further regulatory action. To accomplish this objective, we chose appropriate indicators and algorithms. Nine indicators from the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals were used to identify categories to which the authors assigned numerical scores. Exposure indicators included handling volume, distribution, and exposure level. To test the method devised by this study, sixty-two harmful substances controlled by the Occupational Safety and Health Act in Korea, including acrylamide, acrylonitrile, and styrene were ranked using this proposed method. The correlation coefficients between total score and each indicator ranged from 0.160 to 0.641, and those between total score and hazard indicators ranged from 0.603 to 0.641. The latter were higher than the correlation coefficients between total score and exposure indicators, which ranged from 0.160 to 0.421. Correlations between individual indicators were low (-0.240 to 0.376), except for those between handling volume and distribution (0.613), suggesting that each indicator was not strongly correlated. The low correlations between each indicator mean that the indicators and independent and were well chosen for prioritizing harmful chemicals. This method proposed by this study can improve the cost efficiency of chemical management as utilized in occupational regulatory systems.

Differences in Online Consumer Ratings of Health Care Providers Across Medical, Surgical, and Allied Health Specialties: Observational Study of 212,933 Providers.

PubMed

Daskivich, Timothy; Luu, Michael; Noah, Benjamin; Fuller, Garth; Anger, Jennifer; Spiegel, Brennan

2018-05-09

Health care consumers are increasingly using online ratings to select providers, but differences in the distribution of scores across specialties and skew of the data have the potential to mislead consumers about the interpretation of ratings. The objective of our study was to determine whether distributions of consumer ratings differ across specialties and to provide specialty-specific data to assist consumers and clinicians in interpreting ratings. We sampled 212,933 health care providers rated on the Healthgrades consumer ratings website, representing 29 medical specialties (n=128,678), 15 surgical specialties (n=72,531), and 6 allied health (nonmedical, nonnursing) professions (n=11,724) in the United States. We created boxplots depicting distributions and tested the normality of overall patient satisfaction scores. We then determined the specialty-specific percentile rank for scores across groupings of specialties and individual specialties. Allied health providers had higher median overall satisfaction scores (4.5, interquartile range [IQR] 4.0-5.0) than physicians in medical specialties (4.0, IQR 3.3-4.5) and surgical specialties (4.2, IQR 3.6-4.6, P<.001). Overall satisfaction scores were highly left skewed (normal between -0.5 and 0.5) for all specialties, but skewness was greatest among allied health providers (-1.23, 95% CI -1.280 to -1.181), followed by surgical (-0.77, 95% CI -0.787 to -0.755) and medical specialties (-0.64, 95% CI -0.648 to -0.628). As a result of the skewness, the percentages of overall satisfaction scores less than 4 were only 23% for allied health, 37% for surgical specialties, and 50% for medical specialties. Percentile ranks for overall satisfaction scores varied across specialties; percentile ranks for scores of 2 (0.7%, 2.9%, 0.8%), 3 (5.8%, 16.6%, 8.1%), 4 (23.0%, 50.3%, 37.3%), and 5 (63.9%, 89.5%, 86.8%) differed for allied health, medical specialties, and surgical specialties, respectively. Online consumer ratings of health care providers are highly left skewed, fall within narrow ranges, and differ by specialty, which precludes meaningful interpretation by health care consumers. Specialty-specific percentile ranks may help consumers to more meaningfully assess online physician ratings. ©Timothy Daskivich, Michael Luu, Benjamin Noah, Garth Fuller, Jennifer Anger, Brennan Spiegel. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 09.05.2018.

A new plan-scoring method using normal tissue complication probability for personalized treatment plan decisions in prostate cancer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Kwang Hyeon; Lee, Suk; Shim, Jang Bo; Yang, Dae Sik; Yoon, Won Sup; Park, Young Je; Kim, Chul Yong; Cao, Yuan Jie; Chang, Kyung Hwan

2018-01-01

The aim of this study was to derive a new plan-scoring index using normal tissue complication probabilities to verify different plans in the selection of personalized treatment. Plans for 12 patients treated with tomotherapy were used to compare scoring for ranking. Dosimetric and biological indexes were analyzed for the plans for a clearly distinguishable group ( n = 7) and a similar group ( n = 12), using treatment plan verification software that we developed. The quality factor ( QF) of our support software for treatment decisions was consistent with the final treatment plan for the clearly distinguishable group (average QF = 1.202, 100% match rate, n = 7) and the similar group (average QF = 1.058, 33% match rate, n = 12). Therefore, we propose a normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) based on the plan scoring index for verification of different plans for personalized treatment-plan selection. Scoring using the new QF showed a 100% match rate (average NTCP QF = 1.0420). The NTCP-based new QF scoring method was adequate for obtaining biological verification quality and organ risk saving using the treatment-planning decision-support software we developed for prostate cancer.

Selection Input Output by Restriction Using DEA Models Based on a Fuzzy Delphi Approach and Expert Information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arsad, Roslah; Nasir Abdullah, Mohammad; Alias, Suriana; Isa, Zaidi

2017-09-01

Stock evaluation has always been an interesting problem for investors. In this paper, a comparison regarding the efficiency stocks of listed companies in Bursa Malaysia were made through the application of estimation method of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). One of the interesting research subjects in DEA is the selection of appropriate input and output parameter. In this study, DEA was used to measure efficiency of stocks of listed companies in Bursa Malaysia in terms of the financial ratio to evaluate performance of stocks. Based on previous studies and Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM), the most important financial ratio was selected. The results indicated that return on equity, return on assets, net profit margin, operating profit margin, earnings per share, price to earnings and debt to equity were the most important ratios. Using expert information, all the parameter were clarified as inputs and outputs. The main objectives were to identify most critical financial ratio, clarify them based on expert information and compute the relative efficiency scores of stocks as well as rank them in the construction industry and material completely. The methods of analysis using Alirezaee and Afsharian’s model were employed in this study, where the originality of Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes (CCR) with the assumption of Constant Return to Scale (CSR) still holds. This method of ranking relative efficiency of decision making units (DMUs) was value-added by the Balance Index. The interested data was made for year 2015 and the population of the research includes accepted companies in stock markets in the construction industry and material (63 companies). According to the ranking, the proposed model can rank completely for 63 companies using selected financial ratio.

Qualitative assessment of selected areas of the world for undiscovered sediment-hosted stratabound copper deposits: Chapter Y in Global mineral resource assessment

USGS Publications Warehouse

Zientek, Michael L.; Wintzer, Niki E.; Hayes, Timothy S.; Parks, Heather L.; Briggs, Deborah A.; Causey, J. Douglas; Hatch, Shyla A.; Jenkins, M. Christopher; Williams, David J.; Zientek, Michael L.; Hammarstrom, Jane M.; Johnson, Kathleen M.

2015-12-14

An analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to rank assessment areas according to their potential for undiscovered copper deposits. Once the main characteristics of each area were compiled (age of host rock, geologic setting, stratigraphy, host lithology, deposit subtype(s), known deposits and occurrences, and mineral system components), three criteria (mineralization, extent of study area, and lithostratigraphic framework, each with multiple subcriteria) were scored for all assessment areas. Relative weights and scores were assigned to all criteria by three geologists. In addition, the assessment areas were ranked for comparison exclusively on the basis of professional opinion. The AHP and professional opinion lists are similar but not the same. Both the professional opinion and the cumulative AHP lists rate the Northwest Botswana Rift in Botswana and Namibia as the area most likely to contain the most undiscovered copper deposits. The Salta Rift System in Argentina is rated lowest among the 10 qualitatively assessed areas.

Genome-wide predicting disease-related protein complexes by walking on the heterogeneous network based on data integration and laplacian normalization.

PubMed

Liu, Zhiming; Luo, Jiawei

2017-08-01

Associating protein complexes to human inherited diseases is critical for better understanding of biological processes and functional mechanisms of the disease. Many protein complexes have been identified and functionally annotated by computational and purification methods so far, however, the particular roles they were playing in causing disease have not yet been well determined. In this study, we present a novel method to identify associations between protein complexes and diseases. First, we construct a disease-protein heterogeneous network based on data integration and laplacian normalization. Second, we apply a random walk with restart on heterogeneous network (RWRH) algorithm on this network to quantify the strength of the association between proteins and the query disease. Third, we sum over the scores of member proteins to obtain a summary score for each candidate protein complex, and then rank all candidate protein complexes according to their scores. With a series of leave-one-out cross-validation experiments, we found that our method not only possesses high performance but also demonstrates robustness regarding the parameters and the network structure. We test our approach with breast cancer and select top 20 highly ranked protein complexes, 17 of the selected protein complexes are evidenced to be connected with breast cancer. Our proposed method is effective in identifying disease-related protein complexes based on data integration and laplacian normalization. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Motor Learning as Young Gymnast's Talent Indicator.

PubMed

di Cagno, Alessandra; Battaglia, Claudia; Fiorilli, Giovanni; Piazza, Marina; Giombini, Arrigo; Fagnani, Federica; Borrione, Paolo; Calcagno, Giuseppe; Pigozzi, Fabio

2014-12-01

Talent identification plans are designed to select young athletes with the ability to achieve future success in sports. The aim of the study was to verify the predictive value of coordination and precision in skill acquisition during motor learning, as indicators of talent. One hundred gymnasts, both cadets (aged 11.5 ± 0.5 yr.) and juniors (aged 13.3 ± 0.5 years), competing at the national level, were enrolled in the study. The assessment of motor coordination involved three tests of the validated Hirtz's battery (1985), and motor skill learning involved four technical tests, specific of rhythmic gymnastics. All the tests were correlated with ranking and performance scores reached by each gymnast in the 2011, 2012, and 2013 National Championships. Coordination tests were significantly correlated to 2013 Championships scores (p < 0.01) and ranking (p < 0.05) of elite cadet athletes. Precision, in skill acquisition test results, was positively and significantly associated with scores in 2013 (adj. R(2) = 0.26, p < 0.01). Gymnasts with the best results in coordination and motor learning tests went on to achieve better competition results in three- year time. Key pointsIn talent identification and selection procedures it is better to include the evaluation of coordination and motor learning ability.Motor learning assessment concerns performance improvement and the ability to develop it, rather than evaluating the athlete's current performance.In this manner talent identification processes should be focused on the future performance capabilities of athletes.

Motor Learning as Young Gymnast’s Talent Indicator

PubMed Central

di Cagno, Alessandra; Battaglia, Claudia; Fiorilli, Giovanni; Piazza, Marina; Giombini, Arrigo; Fagnani, Federica; Borrione, Paolo; Calcagno, Giuseppe; Pigozzi, Fabio

2014-01-01

Talent identification plans are designed to select young athletes with the ability to achieve future success in sports. The aim of the study was to verify the predictive value of coordination and precision in skill acquisition during motor learning, as indicators of talent. One hundred gymnasts, both cadets (aged 11.5 ± 0.5 yr.) and juniors (aged 13.3 ± 0.5 years), competing at the national level, were enrolled in the study. The assessment of motor coordination involved three tests of the validated Hirtz’s battery (1985), and motor skill learning involved four technical tests, specific of rhythmic gymnastics. All the tests were correlated with ranking and performance scores reached by each gymnast in the 2011, 2012, and 2013 National Championships. Coordination tests were significantly correlated to 2013 Championships scores (p < 0.01) and ranking (p < 0.05) of elite cadet athletes. Precision, in skill acquisition test results, was positively and significantly associated with scores in 2013 (adj. R2 = 0.26, p < 0.01). Gymnasts with the best results in coordination and motor learning tests went on to achieve better competition results in three- year time. Key points In talent identification and selection procedures it is better to include the evaluation of coordination and motor learning ability. Motor learning assessment concerns performance improvement and the ability to develop it, rather than evaluating the athlete’s current performance. In this manner talent identification processes should be focused on the future performance capabilities of athletes. PMID:25435768

Associations Between the Big Five Personality Traits and a Medical School Admission Interview.

PubMed

Lourinho, Isabel; Moreira, André; Mota-Cardoso, Rui; Severo, Milton; Ferreira, Maria Amélia

2016-12-30

Personality has became popular in medical student's selection. However, few research exists about the association between the big five personality traits and the existent medical school selection tools. Our aim was to study which personality traits were selected by a medical school admission interview. One hundred ninety four graduate applicants that had applied to the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto through the graduate entry approach, after ranked on previous achievement, were interviewed between the academic years of 2011 and 2013. From these, 181 (93.3%) answered to the NEO Five-Factor Inventory that assesses high order personality traits of openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. Admission interview corresponded to the second phase of the seriation process. Every applicant was interviewed and scored by three interviewers on seven dimensions asesssed by Lickert scale (1-10). Interview score was the sum of the dimensions. Linear mixed effects model and respective regression coefficients were used to estimate the association between personality traits from each interviewer's score. Final models were adjusted for gender, interviewers and previous achievement. Openness to experience (Beta = 0.18: CI 95%: 0.05; 0.30) had the strongest association with interview score followed by the interaction effect between the extraversion and conscientiousness traits (Beta = 0.14; CI 95%: 0.02; 0.25). Also, applicants scored higher when their gender was opposite to the interviewers. Previous achievement and interview score had no association. Our admission interview selected different personality traits when compared to other selection tools. Medical schools should be aware of the implications of the adopted selection tools on the admitted medical student's personality because it can help providing beneficial interventions.

Text Mining Effectively Scores and Ranks the Literature for Improving Chemical-Gene-Disease Curation at the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database

PubMed Central

Johnson, Robin J.; Lay, Jean M.; Lennon-Hopkins, Kelley; Saraceni-Richards, Cynthia; Sciaky, Daniela; Murphy, Cynthia Grondin; Mattingly, Carolyn J.

2013-01-01

The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD; http://ctdbase.org/) is a public resource that curates interactions between environmental chemicals and gene products, and their relationships to diseases, as a means of understanding the effects of environmental chemicals on human health. CTD provides a triad of core information in the form of chemical-gene, chemical-disease, and gene-disease interactions that are manually curated from scientific articles. To increase the efficiency, productivity, and data coverage of manual curation, we have leveraged text mining to help rank and prioritize the triaged literature. Here, we describe our text-mining process that computes and assigns each article a document relevancy score (DRS), wherein a high DRS suggests that an article is more likely to be relevant for curation at CTD. We evaluated our process by first text mining a corpus of 14,904 articles triaged for seven heavy metals (cadmium, cobalt, copper, lead, manganese, mercury, and nickel). Based upon initial analysis, a representative subset corpus of 3,583 articles was then selected from the 14,094 articles and sent to five CTD biocurators for review. The resulting curation of these 3,583 articles was analyzed for a variety of parameters, including article relevancy, novel data content, interaction yield rate, mean average precision, and biological and toxicological interpretability. We show that for all measured parameters, the DRS is an effective indicator for scoring and improving the ranking of literature for the curation of chemical-gene-disease information at CTD. Here, we demonstrate how fully incorporating text mining-based DRS scoring into our curation pipeline enhances manual curation by prioritizing more relevant articles, thereby increasing data content, productivity, and efficiency. PMID:23613709

Robotic Prostatectomy on the Web: A Cross-Sectional Qualitative Assessment.

PubMed

Borgmann, Hendrik; Mager, René; Salem, Johannes; Bründl, Johannes; Kunath, Frank; Thomas, Christian; Haferkamp, Axel; Tsaur, Igor

2016-08-01

Many patients diagnosed with prostate cancer search for information on robotic prostatectomy (RobP) on the Web. We aimed to evaluate the qualitative characteristics of the mostly frequented Web sites on RobP with a particular emphasis on provider-dependent issues. Google was searched for the term "robotic prostatectomy" in Europe and North America. The mostly frequented Web sites were selected and classified as physician-provided and publically-provided. Quality was measured using Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark criteria, DISCERN score, and addressing of Trifecta surgical outcomes. Popularity was analyzed using Google PageRank and Alexa tool. Accessibility, usability, and reliability were investigated using the LIDA tool and readability was assessed using readability indices. Twenty-eight Web sites were physician-provided and 15 publically-provided. For all Web sites, 88% of JAMA benchmark criteria were fulfilled, DISCERN quality score was high, and 81% of Trifecta outcome measurements were addressed. Popularity was average according to Google PageRank (mean 2.9 ± 1.5) and Alexa Traffic Rank (median, 49,109; minimum, 7; maximum, 8,582,295). Accessibility (85 ± 7%), usability (92 ± 3%), and reliability scores (88 ± 8%) were moderate to high. Automated Readability Index was 7.2 ± 2.1 and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level was 9 ± 2, rating the Web sites as difficult to read. Physician-provided Web sites had higher quality scores and lower readability compared with publically-provided Web sites. Websites providing information on RobP obtained medium to high ratings in all domains of quality in the current assessment. In contrast, readability needs to be significantly improved so that this content can become available for the populace. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Verification of learner’s differences by team-based learning in biochemistry classes

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Purpose We tested the effect of team-based learning (TBL) on medical education through the second-year premedical students’ TBL scores in biochemistry classes over 5 years. Methods We analyzed the results based on test scores before and after the students’ debate. The groups of students for statistical analysis were divided as follows: group 1 comprised the top-ranked students, group 3 comprised the low-ranked students, and group 2 comprised the medium-ranked students. Therefore, group T comprised 382 students (the total number of students in group 1, 2, and 3). To calibrate the difficulty of the test, original scores were converted into standardized scores. We determined the differences of the tests using Student t-test, and the relationship between scores before, and after the TBL using linear regression tests. Results Although there was a decrease in the lowest score, group T and 3 showed a significant increase in both original and standardized scores; there was also an increase in the standardized score of group 3. There was a positive correlation between the pre- and the post-debate scores in group T, and 2. And the beta values of the pre-debate scores and “the changes between the pre- and post-debate scores” were statistically significant in both original and standardized scores. Conclusion TBL is one of the educational methods for helping students improve their grades, particularly those of low-ranked students. PMID:29207457

Health systems around the world - a comparison of existing health system rankings.

PubMed

Schütte, Stefanie; Acevedo, Paula N Marin; Flahault, Antoine

2018-06-01

Existing health systems all over the world are different due to the different combinations of components that can be considered for their establishment. The ranking of health systems has been a focal points for many years especially the issue of performance. In 2000 the World Health Organization (WHO) performed a ranking to compare the Performance of the health system of the member countries. Since then other health system rankings have been performed and it became an issue of public discussion. A point of contention regarding these rankings is the methodology employed by each of them, since no gold standard exists. Therefore, this review focuses on evaluating the methodologies of each existing health system performance ranking to assess their reproducibility and transparency. A search was conducted to identify existing health system rankings, and a questionnaire was developed for the comparison of the methodologies based on the following indicators: (1) General information, (2) Statistical methods, (3) Data (4) Indicators. Overall nine rankings were identified whereas six of them focused rather on the measurement of population health without any financial component and were therefore excluded. Finally, three health system rankings were selected for this review: "Health Systems: Improving Performance" by the WHO, "Mirror, Mirror on the wall: How the Performance of the US Health Care System Compares Internationally" by the Commonwealth Fund and "the Most efficient Health Care" by Bloomberg. After the completion of the comparison of the rankings by giving them scores according to the indicators, the ranking performed the WHO was considered the most complete regarding the ability of reproducibility and transparency of the methodology. This review and comparison could help in establishing consensus in the field of health system research. This may also help giving recommendations for future health rankings and evaluating the current gap in the literature.

The Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative: I. A Methodology for Assessing Atmospheric Correction Processors Based on In-Situ Measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Muller, Dagmar; Krasemann, Hajo; Brewin, Robert J. W.; Deschamps, Pierre-Yves; Doerffer, Roland; Fomferra, Norman; Franz, Bryan A.; Grant, Mike G.; Groom, Steve B.; Melin, Frederic;

Laparoscopic skills assessment: an additional modality for pediatric surgery fellowship selection.

PubMed

Hazboun, Rajaie; Rodriguez, Samuel; Thirumoorthi, Arul; Baerg, Joanne; Moores, Donald; Tagge, Edward P

2017-12-01

The Pediatric Surgery fellow selection is a multi-layered process which has not included assessment of surgical dexterity. Data was collected prospectively as part of the 2016 Pediatric Surgery Match interview process. Applicants completed a questionnaire to document laparoscopic experience and fine motor skills activities. Actual laparoscopic skills were assessed using a simulator. Time to complete an intracorporeal knot was tabulated. An initial rank list was formulated based only on the ERAS application and interview scores. The rank list was re-formulated following the laparoscopic assessment. Un-paired T-test and regression were utilized to analyze the data. Forty applicants were interviewed with 18 matched (45%). The mean knot tying time was 201.31s for matched and 202.35s for unmatched applicants. Playing a musical instrument correlated with faster knot tying (p=0.03). No correlation was identified between knot tying time and either video game experience (p=0.4) or passing the FLS exam (p=0.78). Laparoscopic skills assessment lead to significant reordering of rank list (p=0.01). Laparoscopic skills performance significantly impacted ranking. Playing a musical instrument correlated with faster knot tying. No correlation was identified between laparoscopic performance and passing the FLS exam or other activities traditionally believed to improve technical ability. Prospective study. Level II. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Does optimal access to dental care counteract the oral health-related quality of life social gradient?

PubMed

Crocombe, L A; Mahoney, G D

2016-12-01

The aim of this study was to determine if an oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) social gradient existed when Australian Defence Force (ADF) members have universal and optimal access to dental care. A nominal roll included 4089 individuals who were deployed to the Solomon Islands as part of Operation ANODE and a comparison group of 4092 ADF personnel frequency matched to the deployed group on gender, age group and service type, from which 500 deployed and 500 comparison individuals were randomly selected. The dependent variables were the OHIP-14 summary measures. Rank was used to determine socioeconomic status. The demographic variables selected were: gender and age. The response rate was 44%. Of the individual OHIP-14 items, being self-conscious, painful aching and having discomfort when eating were the most common problems. Mean OHIP-14 severity was 2.8. In bivariate analysis, there was not a significant difference in mean OHIP-14 severity (p = 0.52) or frequency of OHIP-14 impacts (p = 0.57) by military rank. There was a significant increasing OHIP-14 extent score from commissioned officer to non-commissioned officer to other ranks (0.07, 0.19, 0.40, p = 0.03). Even with optimal access to dental care, there was an OHRQoL social gradient between military ranks in the ADF. © 2016 Australian Dental Association.

A Study on the Effect of the Macmillan Tutorial System on the Reading Achievement of Selected First Graders in Nash County.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Ruth Suessmuth

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the Macmillan Tutorial System when used as a supplement to regular classroom instruction in beginning reading. The experimental subjects were first grade children who ranked in the lower third of the distribution scores on the Macmillan Reading Readiness Test or who, in the opinion of their…

Automated Assessment of the Quality of Depression Websites

PubMed Central

Tang, Thanh Tin; Hawking, David; Christensen, Helen

2005-01-01

Background Since health information on the World Wide Web is of variable quality, methods are needed to assist consumers to identify health websites containing evidence-based information. Manual assessment tools may assist consumers to evaluate the quality of sites. However, these tools are poorly validated and often impractical. There is a need to develop better consumer tools, and in particular to explore the potential of automated procedures for evaluating the quality of health information on the web. Objective This study (1) describes the development of an automated quality assessment procedure (AQA) designed to automatically rank depression websites according to their evidence-based quality; (2) evaluates the validity of the AQA relative to human rated evidence-based quality scores; and (3) compares the validity of Google PageRank and the AQA as indicators of evidence-based quality. Method The AQA was developed using a quality feedback technique and a set of training websites previously rated manually according to their concordance with statements in the Oxford University Centre for Evidence-Based Mental Health’s guidelines for treating depression. The validation phase involved 30 websites compiled from the DMOZ, Yahoo! and LookSmart Depression Directories by randomly selecting six sites from each of the Google PageRank bands of 0, 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 and 7-8. Evidence-based ratings from two independent raters (based on concordance with the Oxford guidelines) were then compared with scores derived from the automated AQA and Google algorithms. There was no overlap in the websites used in the training and validation phases of the study. Results The correlation between the AQA score and the evidence-based ratings was high and significant (r=0.85, P<.001). Addition of a quadratic component improved the fit, the combined linear and quadratic model explaining 82 percent of the variance. The correlation between Google PageRank and the evidence-based score was lower than that for the AQA. When sites with zero PageRanks were included the association was weak and non-significant (r=0.23, P=.22). When sites with zero PageRanks were excluded, the correlation was moderate (r=.61, P=.002). Conclusions Depression websites of different evidence-based quality can be differentiated using an automated system. If replicable, generalizable to other health conditions and deployed in a consumer-friendly form, the automated procedure described here could represent an important advance for consumers of Internet medical information. PMID:16403723

Performance in the Duke–Elder ophthalmology undergraduate prize examination and future careers in ophthalmology

PubMed Central

Joshi, L; Shanmuganathan, V A; Kneebone, R L; Amoaku, W

2011-01-01

Aims Cognitive factors (eg, academic achievement) have had a significant role in selecting postgraduate surgical trainees in the past. This project sought to determine the role of a national undergraduate ophthalmology prize examination (Duke–Elder examination) in the selection of postgraduate ophthalmology trainees. This would also serve as a quality assurance exercise for the assessment, in which the ultimate aim is to encourage trainees into ophthalmology. Methods A retrospective analysis of the top 20 ranked candidates in the Duke–Elder examination from 1989 to 2005 (except 1995) was carried out to determine which of them subsequently entered the ophthalmic training and General Medical Council Specialist Registers. Results Out of the top 20 candidates in the exam, 29.5% went into specialist training in ophthalmology. Some appeared in the top 20 more than once, with 56% of them going into ophthalmic training, but they had a similar median time to enter training as those who appeared in the top 20 once. There was no significant evidence to suggest that the overall median ranking scores between the UK medical schools differed (P=0.23; Kruskal–Wallis test). However, there was a marked difference in frequency of top 20 candidates from each medical school, which could not be explained by the size of the medical school alone. Conclusion It is difficult to conclude from these findings the importance that the Duke–Elder examination has in the selection of trainees into ophthalmology. The role of cognitive factors in selection into postgraduate medical/surgical training is discussed, along with the potential academic criteria, which may influence interview scores. PMID:21587276

Factors affecting orthopedic residency selection: a cross-sectional survey

PubMed Central

Strelzow, Jason; Petretta, Robert; Broekhuyse, Henry M.

2017-01-01

Background Annually, orthopedic residency programs rank and recruit the best possible candidates. Little evidence exists identifying factors that potential candidates use to select their career paths. Recent literature from nonsurgical programs suggests hospital, social and program-based factors influence program selection. We sought to determine what factors influence the choice of an orthopedic career and a candidate’s choice of orthopedic residency program. Methods We surveyed medical student applicants to orthopedic programs and current Canadian orthopedic surgery residents (postgraduate year [PGY] 1–5). The confidential online survey focused on 3 broad categories of program selection: educational, program cohesion and noneducation factors. Questions were graded on a Likert Scale and tailed for mean scores. Results In total, 139 residents from 11 of 17 Canadian orthopedic programs (49% response rate) and 23 medical student applicants (88% response rate) completed our survey. Orthopedic electives and mandatory rotations were reported by 71% of participants as somewhat or very important to their career choice. Collegiality among residents (4.70 ± 0.6), program being the “right fit” (4.65 ± 0.53) and current resident satisfaction with their chosen program (4.63 ±0.66) were ranked with the highest mean scores on a 5-point Likert scale. Conclusion There are several modifiable factors that residency programs may use to attract applicants, including early availability of clerkship rotations and a strong mentorship environment emphasizing both resident–resident and resident–staff cohesion. Desirable residency programs should develop early access to surgical and operative skills. These must be balanced with a continued emphasis on top-level orthopedic training. PMID:28327273

Factors affecting orthopedic residency selection: a cross-sectional survey.

PubMed

Strelzow, Jason; Petretta, Robert; Broekhuyse, Henry M

2017-06-01

Annually, orthopedic residency programs rank and recruit the best possible candidates. Little evidence exists identifying factors that potential candidates use to select their career paths. Recent literature from nonsurgical programs suggests hospital, social and program-based factors influence program selection. We sought to determine what factors influence the choice of an orthopedic career and a candidate's choice of orthopedic residency program. We surveyed medical student applicants to orthopedic programs and current Canadian orthopedic surgery residents (postgraduate year [PGY] 1-5). The confidential online survey focused on 3 broad categories of program selection: educational, program cohesion and noneducation factors. Questions were graded on a Likert Scale and tailed for mean scores. In total, 139 residents from 11 of 17 Canadian orthopedic programs (49% response rate) and 23 medical student applicants (88% response rate) completed our survey. Orthopedic electives and mandatory rotations were reported by 71% of participants as somewhat or very important to their career choice. Collegiality among residents (4.70 ± 0.6), program being the "right fit" (4.65 ± 0.53) and current resident satisfaction with their chosen program (4.63 ±0.66) were ranked with the highest mean scores on a 5-point Likert scale. There are several modifiable factors that residency programs may use to attract applicants, including early availability of clerkship rotations and a strong mentorship environment emphasizing both resident-resident and resident-staff cohesion. Desirable residency programs should develop early access to surgical and operative skills. These must be balanced with a continued emphasis on top-level orthopedic training.

A scoring mechanism for the rank aggregation of network robustness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yazdani, Alireza; Dueñas-Osorio, Leonardo; Li, Qilin

2013-10-01

To date, a number of metrics have been proposed to quantify inherent robustness of network topology against failures. However, each single metric usually only offers a limited view of network vulnerability to different types of random failures and targeted attacks. When applied to certain network configurations, different metrics rank network topology robustness in different orders which is rather inconsistent, and no single metric fully characterizes network robustness against different modes of failure. To overcome such inconsistency, this work proposes a multi-metric approach as the basis of evaluating aggregate ranking of network topology robustness. This is based on simultaneous utilization of a minimal set of distinct robustness metrics that are standardized so to give way to a direct comparison of vulnerability across networks with different sizes and configurations, hence leading to an initial scoring of inherent topology robustness. Subsequently, based on the inputs of initial scoring a rank aggregation method is employed to allocate an overall ranking of robustness to each network topology. A discussion is presented in support of the presented multi-metric approach and its applications to more realistically assess and rank network topology robustness.

Predicting intensity ranks of peptide fragment ions.

PubMed

Frank, Ari M

2009-05-01

Accurate modeling of peptide fragmentation is necessary for the development of robust scoring functions for peptide-spectrum matches, which are the cornerstone of MS/MS-based identification algorithms. Unfortunately, peptide fragmentation is a complex process that can involve several competing chemical pathways, which makes it difficult to develop generative probabilistic models that describe it accurately. However, the vast amounts of MS/MS data being generated now make it possible to use data-driven machine learning methods to develop discriminative ranking-based models that predict the intensity ranks of a peptide's fragment ions. We use simple sequence-based features that get combined by a boosting algorithm into models that make peak rank predictions with high accuracy. In an accompanying manuscript, we demonstrate how these prediction models are used to significantly improve the performance of peptide identification algorithms. The models can also be useful in the design of optimal multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) transitions, in cases where there is insufficient experimental data to guide the peak selection process. The prediction algorithm can also be run independently through PepNovo+, which is available for download from http://bix.ucsd.edu/Software/PepNovo.html.

Predicting Intensity Ranks of Peptide Fragment Ions

PubMed Central

Frank, Ari M.

2009-01-01

Accurate modeling of peptide fragmentation is necessary for the development of robust scoring functions for peptide-spectrum matches, which are the cornerstone of MS/MS-based identification algorithms. Unfortunately, peptide fragmentation is a complex process that can involve several competing chemical pathways, which makes it difficult to develop generative probabilistic models that describe it accurately. However, the vast amounts of MS/MS data being generated now make it possible to use data-driven machine learning methods to develop discriminative ranking-based models that predict the intensity ranks of a peptide's fragment ions. We use simple sequence-based features that get combined by a boosting algorithm in to models that make peak rank predictions with high accuracy. In an accompanying manuscript, we demonstrate how these prediction models are used to significantly improve the performance of peptide identification algorithms. The models can also be useful in the design of optimal MRM transitions, in cases where there is insufficient experimental data to guide the peak selection process. The prediction algorithm can also be run independently through PepNovo+, which is available for download from http://bix.ucsd.edu/Software/PepNovo.html. PMID:19256476

Evaluation of shoulder function in clavicular fracture patients after six surgical procedures based on a network meta-analysis.

PubMed

Huang, Shou-Guo; Chen, Bo; Lv, Dong; Zhang, Yong; Nie, Feng-Feng; Li, Wei; Lv, Yao; Zhao, Huan-Li; Liu, Hong-Mei

2017-01-01

Purpose Using a network meta-analysis approach, our study aims to develop a ranking of the six surgical procedures, that is, Plate, titanium elastic nail (TEN), tension band wire (TBW), hook plate (HP), reconstruction plate (RP) and Knowles pin, by comparing the post-surgery constant shoulder scores in patients with clavicular fracture (CF). Methods A comprehensive search of electronic scientific literature databases was performed to retrieve publications investigating surgical procedures in CF, with the stringent eligible criteria, and clinical experimental studies of high quality and relevance to our area of interest were selected for network meta-analysis. Statistical analyses were conducted using Stata 12.0. Results A total of 19 studies met our inclusion criteria were eventually enrolled into our network meta-analysis, representing 1164 patients who had undergone surgical procedures for CF (TEN group = 240; Plate group = 164; TBW group  =  180; RP group  =  168; HP group  =  245; Knowles pin group  =  167). The network meta-analysis results revealed that RP significantly improved constant shoulder score in patients with CF when compared with TEN, and the post-operative constant shoulder scores in patients with CF after Plate, TBW, HP, Knowles pin and TEN were similar with no statistically significant differences. The treatment relative ranking of predictive probabilities of constant shoulder scores in patients with CF after surgery revealed the surface under the cumulative ranking curves (SUCRA) value is the highest in RP. Conclusion The current network meta-analysis suggests that RP may be the optimum surgical treatment among six inventions for patients with CF, and it can improve the shoulder score of patients with CF. Implications for Rehabilitation RP improves shoulder joint function after surgical procedure. RP achieves stability with minimal complications after surgery. RP may be the optimum surgical treatment for rehabilitation of patients with CF.

Relative importance index (RII) in ranking of procrastination factors among university students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aziz, Nazrina; Zain, Zakiyah; Mafuzi, Raja Muhammad Zahid Raja; Mustapa, Aini Mastura; Najib, Nur Hasibah Mohd; Lah, Nik Fatihah Nik

2016-08-01

Procrastination is the action of delaying or postponing something such as making a decision or starting or completing some tasks or activities. According to previous studies, students who have a strong tendency to procrastinate get low scores in their tests, resulting in poorer academic performance compared to those who do not procrastinate. This study aims to identify the procrastination factors in completing assignments among three groups of undergraduate students. The relative importance of procrastination factors was quantified by the relative importance index (RII) method prior to ranking. A multistage sampling technique was used in selecting the sample. The findings revealed that `too many works in one time' is one of the top three factors contributing to procrastination in all groups.

[Reliability of a bibliometric tool used in France for hospital founding].

PubMed

Darmoni, Stefan J; Ladner, Joël; Devos, Patrick; Gehanno, Jean-François

2009-01-01

SIGAPS is a bibliometric score that aims at making an inventory, evaluating and promoting scientific publications of hospitals that perform research. It has become a major stake in France since it is one of the most important components of the MERRI (Mission Training, Research, Reference and Innovation) founding of hospitals. This score is based on the points attributed to the authors of articles published in journals indexed in Medline, according to the rank of the authors and the Impact Factor of the journal. to compare the reliability of the score when applying different way of computing it, and different weights for the rank or the Impact Factor. we computed the scores of all the physicians of a University Hospital, using the rules that are actually applied at the national level. We then used 4 different scenarios, with different weight given to the rank of authors or the Impact Factor. We compared the scores obtained by each author according to the different scenarios with the Spearman's rank and Pearson's correlation coefficients. The score is not significantly affected when no points are given to the fourth authors and above, when the last author get more points or to change the points according to the Impact Factor of the journal. The different scenarios do not lead to significant changes for the physicians' scores, and therefore for the cumulated score of the hospital. Despite the well known limits of bibliometric indicators, the SIGAPS score appears reliable to compare the hospitals for founding decisions.

Predictive validity of the personal qualities assessment for selection of medical students in Scotland.

PubMed

Dowell, Jon; Lumsden, Mary Ann; Powis, David; Munro, Don; Bore, Miles; Makubate, Boikanyo; Kumwenda, Ben

2011-01-01

The Personal Qualities Assessment (PQA) was developed to enhance medical student selection by measuring a range of non-cognitive attributes in the applicants to medical school. Applicants to the five Scottish medical schools were invited to pilot the test in 2001 and 2002. To evaluate the predictive validity of PQA for selecting medical students. A longitudinal cohort study was conducted in which PQA scores were compared with senior year medical school performance. Consent to access performance markers was obtained from 626 students (61.6% of 1017 entrants in 2002-2003). Linkable Foundation Year (4th) rankings were available for 411 (66%) students and objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) rankings for 335 (54%) of those consenting. Both samples were representative of the original cohort. No significant correlations were detected between separate elements of the PQA assessment and student performance. However, using the algorithm advocated by Powis et al. those defined as 'non-extreme' (<±1.5 SD from the cohort mean scores; SD, standard deviation) character types on the involved-detached and on the libertarian-communitarian moral orientation scales were ranked higher in OSCEs (average of 7.5% or 25 out of 335, p = 0.049). This study was limited by high attrition and basic outcome markers which are insensitive to relevant non-cognitive characteristics. However, it is the largest currently available study of predictive validity for the PQA assessment. There was one finding of significance: that those students who were identified by PQA as 'not extreme' on the two personal characteristics scales performed better in an OSCE measure of professionalism. Futures studies are required since psychometric testing for both cognitive and non-cognitive attributes are increasingly used in admission process and these should include more and better measures of professionalism against which to correlate non-cognitive traits.

Applying machine learning to pattern analysis for automated in-design layout optimization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cain, Jason P.; Fakhry, Moutaz; Pathak, Piyush; Sweis, Jason; Gennari, Frank; Lai, Ya-Chieh

2018-04-01

Building on previous work for cataloging unique topological patterns in an integrated circuit physical design, a new process is defined in which a risk scoring methodology is used to rank patterns based on manufacturing risk. Patterns with high risk are then mapped to functionally equivalent patterns with lower risk. The higher risk patterns are then replaced in the design with their lower risk equivalents. The pattern selection and replacement is fully automated and suitable for use for full-chip designs. Results from 14nm product designs show that the approach can identify and replace risk patterns with quantifiable positive impact on the risk score distribution after replacement.

Quality of Web-based Information for the 10 Most Common Fractures.

PubMed

Memon, Muzammil; Ginsberg, Lydia; Simunovic, Nicole; Ristevski, Bill; Bhandari, Mohit; Kleinlugtenbelt, Ydo Vincent

2016-06-17

In today's technologically advanced world, 75% of patients have used Google to search for health information. As a result, health care professionals fear that patients may be misinformed. Currently, there is a paucity of data on the quality and readability of Web-based health information on fractures. In this study, we assessed the quality and readability of Web-based health information related to the 10 most common fractures. Using the Google search engine, we assessed websites from the first results page for the 10 most common fractures using lay search terms. Website quality was measured using the DISCERN instrument, which scores websites as very poor (15-22.5), poor (22.5-37.5), fair (37.5-52.5), good (52.5-67.5), or excellent (67.5-75). The presence of Health on the Net code (HONcode) certification was assessed for all websites. Website readability was measured using the Flesch Reading Ease Score (0-100), where 60-69 is ideal for the general public, and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL; -3.4 to ∞), where the mean FKGL of the US adult population is 8. Overall, website quality was "fair" for all fractures, with a mean (standard deviation) DISCERN score of 50.3 (5.8). The DISCERN score correlated positively with a higher website position on the search results page (r(2)=0.1, P=.002) and with HONcode certification (P=.007). The mean (standard deviation) Flesch Reading Ease Score and FKGL for all fractures were 62.2 (9.1) and 6.7 (1.6), respectively. The quality of Web-based health information on fracture care is fair, and its readability is appropriate for the general public. To obtain higher quality information, patients should select HONcode-certified websites. Furthermore, patients should select websites that are positioned higher on the results page because the Google ranking algorithms appear to rank the websites by quality.

Do emotional intelligence and previous caring experience influence student nurse performance? A comparative analysis.

PubMed

Stenhouse, Rosie; Snowden, Austyn; Young, Jenny; Carver, Fiona; Carver, Hannah; Brown, Norrie

2016-08-01

Reports of poor nursing care have focused attention on values based selection of candidates onto nursing programmes. Values based selection lacks clarity and valid measures. Previous caring experience might lead to better care. Emotional intelligence (EI) might be associated with performance, is conceptualised and measurable. To examine the impact of 1) previous caring experience, 2) emotional intelligence 3) social connection scores on performance and retention in a cohort of first year nursing and midwifery students in Scotland. A longitudinal, quasi experimental design. Adult and mental health nursing, and midwifery programmes in a Scottish University. Adult, mental health and midwifery students (n=598) completed the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-short form and Schutte's Emotional Intelligence Scale on entry to their programmes at a Scottish University, alongside demographic and previous caring experience data. Social connection was calculated from a subset of questions identified within the TEIQue-SF in a prior factor and Rasch analysis. Student performance was calculated as the mean mark across the year. Withdrawal data were gathered. 598 students completed baseline measures. 315 students declared previous caring experience, 277 not. An independent-samples t-test identified that those without previous caring experience scored higher on performance (57.33±11.38) than those with previous caring experience (54.87±11.19), a statistically significant difference of 2.47 (95% CI, 0.54 to 4.38), t(533)=2.52, p=.012. Emotional intelligence scores were not associated with performance. Social connection scores for those withdrawing (mean rank=249) and those remaining (mean rank=304.75) were statistically significantly different, U=15,300, z=-2.61, p$_amp_$lt;0.009. Previous caring experience led to worse performance in this cohort. Emotional intelligence was not a useful indicator of performance. Lower scores on the social connection factor were associated with withdrawal from the course. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Quality of Web-based Information for the 10 Most Common Fractures

PubMed Central

Ginsberg, Lydia; Simunovic, Nicole; Ristevski, Bill; Bhandari, Mohit; Kleinlugtenbelt, Ydo Vincent

2016-01-01

Background In today's technologically advanced world, 75% of patients have used Google to search for health information. As a result, health care professionals fear that patients may be misinformed. Currently, there is a paucity of data on the quality and readability of Web-based health information on fractures. Objectives In this study, we assessed the quality and readability of Web-based health information related to the 10 most common fractures. Methods Using the Google search engine, we assessed websites from the first results page for the 10 most common fractures using lay search terms. Website quality was measured using the DISCERN instrument, which scores websites as very poor (15-22.5), poor (22.5-37.5), fair (37.5-52.5), good (52.5-67.5), or excellent (67.5-75). The presence of Health on the Net code (HONcode) certification was assessed for all websites. Website readability was measured using the Flesch Reading Ease Score (0-100), where 60-69 is ideal for the general public, and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL; −3.4 to ∞), where the mean FKGL of the US adult population is 8. Results Overall, website quality was “fair” for all fractures, with a mean (standard deviation) DISCERN score of 50.3 (5.8). The DISCERN score correlated positively with a higher website position on the search results page (r2=0.1, P=.002) and with HONcode certification (P=.007). The mean (standard deviation) Flesch Reading Ease Score and FKGL for all fractures were 62.2 (9.1) and 6.7 (1.6), respectively. Conclusion The quality of Web-based health information on fracture care is fair, and its readability is appropriate for the general public. To obtain higher quality information, patients should select HONcode-certified websites. Furthermore, patients should select websites that are positioned higher on the results page because the Google ranking algorithms appear to rank the websites by quality. PMID:27317159

Identification of symptom and functional domains that fibromyalgia patients would like to see improved: a cluster analysis.

PubMed

Bennett, Robert M; Russell, Jon; Cappelleri, Joseph C; Bushmakin, Andrew G; Zlateva, Gergana; Sadosky, Alesia

2010-06-28

The purpose of this study was to determine whether some of the clinical features of fibromyalgia (FM) that patients would like to see improved aggregate into definable clusters. Seven hundred and eighty-eight patients with clinically confirmed FM and baseline pain > or =40 mm on a 100 mm visual analogue scale ranked 5 FM clinical features that the subjects would most like to see improved after treatment (one for each priority quintile) from a list of 20 developed during focus groups. For each subject, clinical features were transformed into vectors with rankings assigned values 1-5 (lowest to highest ranking). Logistic analysis was used to create a distance matrix and hierarchical cluster analysis was applied to identify cluster structure. The frequency of cluster selection was determined, and cluster importance was ranked using cluster scores derived from rankings of the clinical features. Multidimensional scaling was used to visualize and conceptualize cluster relationships. Six clinical features clusters were identified and named based on their key characteristics. In order of selection frequency, the clusters were Pain (90%; 4 clinical features), Fatigue (89%; 4 clinical features), Domestic (42%; 4 clinical features), Impairment (29%; 3 functions), Affective (21%; 3 clinical features), and Social (9%; 2 functional). The "Pain Cluster" was ranked of greatest importance by 54% of subjects, followed by Fatigue, which was given the highest ranking by 28% of subjects. Multidimensional scaling mapped these clusters to two dimensions: Status (bounded by Physical and Emotional domains), and Setting (bounded by Individual and Group interactions). Common clinical features of FM could be grouped into 6 clusters (Pain, Fatigue, Domestic, Impairment, Affective, and Social) based on patient perception of relevance to treatment. Furthermore, these 6 clusters could be charted in the 2 dimensions of Status and Setting, thus providing a unique perspective for interpretation of FM symptomatology.

24 CFR 599.405 - Selection of Renewal Communities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... will then select the highest ranking Category 1 urban area nominations, but will not exceed a total of... will then select, in rank order, the highest ranking Category 1 area nominations, whether urban or... Category 1 is less than six, HUD will select the highest ranking rural area applications in Category 2...

Impact factor, eigenfactor, article influence, scopus SNIP, and SCImage journal rank of occupational therapy journals.

PubMed

Brown, Ted; Gutman, Sharon A

2018-05-18

Journals are currently assessed and ranked using a number of different quantitative performance metrics. To compare and correlate the publication metrics of English-language occupational therapy journals published in 2015. Bibliometric data was sourced for 14 English-language occupational therapy journals including the Journal Citations Report (JCR) 2-year impact factor (IF), Eigenfactor Score (EFS), Article Influence Score (AIS), Scopus Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP), Scopus Citescore, and SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) score. The JCR, Scopus, and SJR 2015 bibliometric data were correlated. The top six English-language occupational therapy journals in relation to JCR IF, EFS, AIS, SNIP, Citescore, SJR score, and SJR IIF were AJOT, AOTJ, POPT, CJOT, SJOT, and BJOT. JCR IF, EFS, JCR AIS, SNIP, Citescore, SJR score and SJR IIF were all significantly correlated with coefficients ranging from 0.751 to 0.961 (p < 0.05; p < 0.01). The calculated SJR IIF was on average 0.335 larger than the JCR IFs reported. The findings indicate that the range of available bibliometric measures should be used collectively to yield a more comprehensive assessment of journal and article rankings rather than the singular use of IF scores that currently and frequently occurs in many jurisdictions.

Inheritance of Properties of Normal and Non-Normal Distributions after Transformation of Scores to Ranks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zimmerman, Donald W.

2011-01-01

This study investigated how population parameters representing heterogeneity of variance, skewness, kurtosis, bimodality, and outlier-proneness, drawn from normal and eleven non-normal distributions, also characterized the ranks corresponding to independent samples of scores. When the parameters of population distributions from which samples were…

Contrasting OLS and Quantile Regression Approaches to Student "Growth" Percentiles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Castellano, Katherine Elizabeth; Ho, Andrew Dean

2013-01-01

Regression methods can locate student test scores in a conditional distribution, given past scores. This article contrasts and clarifies two approaches to describing these locations in terms of readily interpretable percentile ranks or "conditional status percentile ranks." The first is Betebenner's quantile regression approach that results in…

Observations on the Invalid Scoring Algorithm of "NASA" and Similar Consensus Tasks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Slevin, Dennis P.

1978-01-01

The NASA ranking task and similar ranking activities used to demonstrate the superiority of group thinking are examined. It is argued that the current scores cannot be used to prove the superiority of group-consensus decision making in either training or research settings. (Author)

Multiple Citation Indicators and Their Composite across Scientific Disciplines

PubMed Central

Ioannidis, John P.A.; Klavans, Richard; Boyack, Kevin W.

2016-01-01

Many fields face an increasing prevalence of multi-authorship, and this poses challenges in assessing citation metrics. Here, we explore multiple citation indicators that address total impact (number of citations, Hirsch H index [H]), co-authorship adjustment (Schreiber Hm index [Hm]), and author order (total citations to papers as single; single or first; or single, first, or last author). We demonstrate the correlation patterns between these indicators across 84,116 scientists (those among the top 30,000 for impact in a single year [2013] in at least one of these indicators) and separately across 12 scientific fields. Correlation patterns vary across these 12 fields. In physics, total citations are highly negatively correlated with indicators of co-authorship adjustment and of author order, while in other sciences the negative correlation is seen only for total citation impact and citations to papers as single author. We propose a composite score that sums standardized values of these six log-transformed indicators. Of the 1,000 top-ranked scientists with the composite score, only 322 are in the top 1,000 based on total citations. Many Nobel laureates and other extremely influential scientists rank among the top-1,000 with the composite indicator, but would rank much lower based on total citations. Conversely, many of the top 1,000 authors on total citations have had no single/first/last-authored cited paper. More Nobel laureates of 2011–2015 are among the top authors when authors are ranked by the composite score than by total citations, H index, or Hm index; 40/47 of these laureates are among the top 30,000 by at least one of the six indicators. We also explore the sensitivity of indicators to self-citation and alphabetic ordering of authors in papers across different scientific fields. Multiple indicators and their composite may give a more comprehensive picture of impact, although no citation indicator, single or composite, can be expected to select all the best scientists. PMID:27367269

Multiple Citation Indicators and Their Composite across Scientific Disciplines.

PubMed

Ioannidis, John P A; Klavans, Richard; Boyack, Kevin W

2016-07-01

Many fields face an increasing prevalence of multi-authorship, and this poses challenges in assessing citation metrics. Here, we explore multiple citation indicators that address total impact (number of citations, Hirsch H index [H]), co-authorship adjustment (Schreiber Hm index [Hm]), and author order (total citations to papers as single; single or first; or single, first, or last author). We demonstrate the correlation patterns between these indicators across 84,116 scientists (those among the top 30,000 for impact in a single year [2013] in at least one of these indicators) and separately across 12 scientific fields. Correlation patterns vary across these 12 fields. In physics, total citations are highly negatively correlated with indicators of co-authorship adjustment and of author order, while in other sciences the negative correlation is seen only for total citation impact and citations to papers as single author. We propose a composite score that sums standardized values of these six log-transformed indicators. Of the 1,000 top-ranked scientists with the composite score, only 322 are in the top 1,000 based on total citations. Many Nobel laureates and other extremely influential scientists rank among the top-1,000 with the composite indicator, but would rank much lower based on total citations. Conversely, many of the top 1,000 authors on total citations have had no single/first/last-authored cited paper. More Nobel laureates of 2011-2015 are among the top authors when authors are ranked by the composite score than by total citations, H index, or Hm index; 40/47 of these laureates are among the top 30,000 by at least one of the six indicators. We also explore the sensitivity of indicators to self-citation and alphabetic ordering of authors in papers across different scientific fields. Multiple indicators and their composite may give a more comprehensive picture of impact, although no citation indicator, single or composite, can be expected to select all the best scientists.

Identification of priorities for improvement of medication safety in primary care: a PRIORITIZE study.

PubMed

Tudor Car, Lorainne; Papachristou, Nikolaos; Gallagher, Joseph; Samra, Rajvinder; Wazny, Kerri; El-Khatib, Mona; Bull, Adrian; Majeed, Azeem; Aylin, Paul; Atun, Rifat; Rudan, Igor; Car, Josip; Bell, Helen; Vincent, Charles; Franklin, Bryony Dean

2016-11-16

Medication error is a frequent, harmful and costly patient safety incident. Research to date has mostly focused on medication errors in hospitals. In this study, we aimed to identify the main causes of, and solutions to, medication error in primary care. We used a novel priority-setting method for identifying and ranking patient safety problems and solutions called PRIORITIZE. We invited 500 North West London primary care clinicians to complete an open-ended questionnaire to identify three main problems and solutions relating to medication error in primary care. 113 clinicians submitted responses, which we thematically synthesized into a composite list of 48 distinct problems and 45 solutions. A group of 57 clinicians randomly selected from the initial cohort scored these and an overall ranking was derived. The agreement between the clinicians' scores was presented using the average expert agreement (AEA). The study was conducted between September 2013 and November 2014. The top three problems were incomplete reconciliation of medication during patient 'hand-overs', inadequate patient education about their medication use and poor discharge summaries. The highest ranked solutions included development of a standardized discharge summary template, reduction of unnecessary prescribing, and minimisation of polypharmacy. Overall, better communication between the healthcare provider and patient, quality assurance approaches during medication prescribing and monitoring, and patient education on how to use their medication were considered the top priorities. The highest ranked suggestions received the strongest agreement among the clinicians, i.e. the highest AEA score. Clinicians identified a range of suggestions for better medication management, quality assurance procedures and patient education. According to clinicians, medication errors can be largely prevented with feasible and affordable interventions. PRIORITIZE is a new, convenient, systematic, and replicable method, and merits further exploration with a view to becoming a part of a routine preventative patient safety monitoring mechanism.

Power and sample size evaluation for the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel mean score (Wilcoxon rank sum) test and the Cochran-Armitage test for trend.

PubMed

Lachin, John M

2011-11-10

The power of a chi-square test, and thus the required sample size, are a function of the noncentrality parameter that can be obtained as the limiting expectation of the test statistic under an alternative hypothesis specification. Herein, we apply this principle to derive simple expressions for two tests that are commonly applied to discrete ordinal data. The Wilcoxon rank sum test for the equality of distributions in two groups is algebraically equivalent to the Mann-Whitney test. The Kruskal-Wallis test applies to multiple groups. These tests are equivalent to a Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel mean score test using rank scores for a set of C-discrete categories. Although various authors have assessed the power function of the Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney tests, herein it is shown that the power of these tests with discrete observations, that is, with tied ranks, is readily provided by the power function of the corresponding Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel mean scores test for two and R > 2 groups. These expressions yield results virtually identical to those derived previously for rank scores and also apply to other score functions. The Cochran-Armitage test for trend assesses whether there is an monotonically increasing or decreasing trend in the proportions with a positive outcome or response over the C-ordered categories of an ordinal independent variable, for example, dose. Herein, it is shown that the power of the test is a function of the slope of the response probabilities over the ordinal scores assigned to the groups that yields simple expressions for the power of the test. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Social media presence of otolaryngology journals: The past, present, and future.

PubMed

Wong, Kevin; Piraquive, Jacquelyn; Levi, Jessica R

2018-02-01

Evaluate the use of Twitter by otolaryngology journals and determine the relationship between social media altmetrics and measures of academic impact. Cross-sectional analysis. Twitter profiles from the top 50 otolaryngology journals per 2016 SCImago Journal & Country Rank (SJR) were included. Twitter activity for each profile was calculated using Twitonomy analytics and Riffle software. Social media influence was measured using Klout scores. Annual SJR rank and H-Index scores between 2008 and 2016 were recorded for each journal. Associations between social media influence and academic indices were assessed using Wilcoxon rank sum test, Spearman's rank order test, and Pearson correlation coefficients (α = .05). Average SJR was 0.86 ± 0.3 and H-Index was 50.9 ± 24. Eighteen journals had Twitter profiles. Journals with social media accounts had significantly higher SJR (P = .03) and H-Index (P = .01) scores compared to those without. The average Klout score of Twitter profiles was 32.5 ± 13. There was a significant association between a journal's Klout score and SJR rank (P = .004). Older Twitter profiles had higher Klout scores (P = .04). There was a direct relationship between a journal's total Twitter followers and H-Index score (P = .009), and a direct relationship between tweets and academic influence (P = .03 and .01 for SJR and H-Index, respectively). Social media is often underutilized and remains an untapped resource by many journals to increase readership and disseminate research. Journals with social media profiles had significantly higher academic metrics, and among journals with profiles, increased online activity was a predictor for academic influence. Future studies are warranted to elucidate causal relationships. NA. Laryngoscope, 128:363-368, 2018. © 2017 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.

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. ...

Empirical Selection of Informative Microsatellite Markers within Co-ancestry Pig Populations Is Required for Improving the Individual Assignment Efficiency

PubMed Central

Li, Y. H.; Chu, H. P.; Jiang, Y. N.; Lin, C. Y.; Li, S. H.; Li, K. T.; Weng, G. J.; Cheng, C. C.; Lu, D. J.; Ju, Y. T.

2014-01-01

The Lanyu is a miniature pig breed indigenous to Lanyu Island, Taiwan. It is distantly related to Asian and European pig breeds. It has been inbred to generate two breeds and crossed with Landrace and Duroc to produce two hybrids for laboratory use. Selecting sets of informative genetic markers to track the genetic qualities of laboratory animals and stud stock is an important function of genetic databases. For more than two decades, Lanyu derived breeds of common ancestry and crossbreeds have been used to examine the effectiveness of genetic marker selection and optimal approaches for individual assignment. In this paper, these pigs and the following breeds: Berkshire, Duroc, Landrace and Yorkshire, Meishan and Taoyuan, TLRI Black Pig No. 1, and Kaohsiung Animal Propagation Station Black pig are studied to build a genetic reference database. Nineteen microsatellite markers (loci) provide information on genetic variation and differentiation among studied breeds. High differentiation index (FST) and Cavalli-Sforza chord distances give genetic differentiation among breeds, including Lanyu’s inbred populations. Inbreeding values (FIS) show that Lanyu and its derived inbred breeds have significant loss of heterozygosity. Individual assignment testing of 352 animals was done with different numbers of microsatellite markers in this study. The testing assigned 99% of the animals successfully into their correct reference populations based on 9 to 14 markers ranking D-scores, allelic number, expected heterozygosity (HE) or FST, respectively. All miss-assigned individuals came from close lineage Lanyu breeds. To improve individual assignment among close lineage breeds, microsatellite markers selected from Lanyu populations with high polymorphic, heterozygosity, FST and D-scores were used. Only 6 to 8 markers ranking HE, FST or allelic number were required to obtain 99% assignment accuracy. This result suggests empirical examination of assignment-error rates is required if discernible levels of co-ancestry exist. In the reference group, optimum assignment accuracy was achievable achieved through a combination of different markers by ranking the heterozygosity, FST and allelic number of close lineage populations. PMID:25049996

Generalization of information-based concepts in forecast verification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tödter, J.; Ahrens, B.

2012-04-01

This work deals with information-theoretical methods in probabilistic forecast verification. Recent findings concerning the Ignorance Score are shortly reviewed, then the generalization to continuous forecasts is shown. For ensemble forecasts, the presented measures can be calculated exactly. The Brier Score (BS) and its generalizations to the multi-categorical Ranked Probability Score (RPS) and to the Continuous Ranked Probability Score (CRPS) are the prominent verification measures for probabilistic forecasts. Particularly, their decompositions into measures quantifying the reliability, resolution and uncertainty of the forecasts are attractive. Information theory sets up the natural framework for forecast verification. Recently, it has been shown that the BS is a second-order approximation of the information-based Ignorance Score (IGN), which also contains easily interpretable components and can also be generalized to a ranked version (RIGN). Here, the IGN, its generalizations and decompositions are systematically discussed in analogy to the variants of the BS. Additionally, a Continuous Ranked IGN (CRIGN) is introduced in analogy to the CRPS. The applicability and usefulness of the conceptually appealing CRIGN is illustrated, together with an algorithm to evaluate its components reliability, resolution, and uncertainty for ensemble-generated forecasts. This is also directly applicable to the more traditional CRPS.

The Privilege of Ranking: Google Plays Ball.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wiggins, Richard

2003-01-01

Discussion of ranking systems used in various settings, including college football and academic admissions, focuses on the Google search engine. Explains the PageRank mathematical formula that scores Web pages by connecting the number of links; limitations, including authenticity and accuracy of ranked Web pages; relevancy; adjusting algorithms;…

Structural MRI-based detection of Alzheimer's disease using feature ranking and classification error.

PubMed

Beheshti, Iman; Demirel, Hasan; Farokhian, Farnaz; Yang, Chunlan; Matsuda, Hiroshi

2016-12-01

This paper presents an automatic computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system based on feature ranking for detection of Alzheimer's disease (AD) using structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) data. The proposed CAD system is composed of four systematic stages. First, global and local differences in the gray matter (GM) of AD patients compared to the GM of healthy controls (HCs) are analyzed using a voxel-based morphometry technique. The aim is to identify significant local differences in the volume of GM as volumes of interests (VOIs). Second, the voxel intensity values of the VOIs are extracted as raw features. Third, the raw features are ranked using a seven-feature ranking method, namely, statistical dependency (SD), mutual information (MI), information gain (IG), Pearson's correlation coefficient (PCC), t-test score (TS), Fisher's criterion (FC), and the Gini index (GI). The features with higher scores are more discriminative. To determine the number of top features, the estimated classification error based on training set made up of the AD and HC groups is calculated, with the vector size that minimized this error selected as the top discriminative feature. Fourth, the classification is performed using a support vector machine (SVM). In addition, a data fusion approach among feature ranking methods is introduced to improve the classification performance. The proposed method is evaluated using a data-set from ADNI (130 AD and 130 HC) with 10-fold cross-validation. The classification accuracy of the proposed automatic system for the diagnosis of AD is up to 92.48% using the sMRI data. An automatic CAD system for the classification of AD based on feature-ranking method and classification errors is proposed. In this regard, seven-feature ranking methods (i.e., SD, MI, IG, PCC, TS, FC, and GI) are evaluated. The optimal size of top discriminative features is determined by the classification error estimation in the training phase. The experimental results indicate that the performance of the proposed system is comparative to that of state-of-the-art classification models. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Combining stakeholder analysis and spatial multicriteria evaluation to select and rank inert landfill sites.

PubMed

Geneletti, Davide

2010-02-01

This paper presents a method based on the combination of stakeholder analysis and spatial multicriteria evaluation (SMCE) to first design possible sites for an inert landfill, and then rank them according to their suitability. The method was tested for the siting of an inert landfill in the Sarca's Plain, located in south-western Trentino, an alpine region in northern Italy. Firstly, stakeholder analysis was conducted to identify a set of criteria to be satisfied by new inert landfill sites. SMCE techniques were then applied to combine the criteria, and obtain a suitability map of the study region. Subsequently, the most suitable sites were extracted by taking into account also thresholds based on size and shape. These sites were then compared and ranked according to their visibility, accessibility and dust pollution. All these criteria were assessed through GIS modelling. Sensitivity analyses were performed on the results to assess the stability of the ranking with respect to variations in the input (criterion scores and weights). The study concluded that the three top-ranking sites are located close to each other, in the northernmost sector of the study area. A more general finding was that the use of different criteria in the different stages of the analysis allowed to better differentiate the suitability of the potential landfill sites.

Critical review of methods for risk ranking of food-related hazards, based on risks for human health.

PubMed

Van der Fels-Klerx, H J; Van Asselt, E D; Raley, M; Poulsen, M; Korsgaard, H; Bredsdorff, L; Nauta, M; D'agostino, M; Coles, D; Marvin, H J P; Frewer, L J

2018-01-22

This study aimed to critically review methods for ranking risks related to food safety and dietary hazards on the basis of their anticipated human health impacts. A literature review was performed to identify and characterize methods for risk ranking from the fields of food, environmental science and socio-economic sciences. The review used a predefined search protocol, and covered the bibliographic databases Scopus, CAB Abstracts, Web of Sciences, and PubMed over the period 1993-2013. All references deemed relevant, on the basis of predefined evaluation criteria, were included in the review, and the risk ranking method characterized. The methods were then clustered-based on their characteristics-into eleven method categories. These categories included: risk assessment, comparative risk assessment, risk ratio method, scoring method, cost of illness, health adjusted life years (HALY), multi-criteria decision analysis, risk matrix, flow charts/decision trees, stated preference techniques and expert synthesis. Method categories were described by their characteristics, weaknesses and strengths, data resources, and fields of applications. It was concluded there is no single best method for risk ranking. The method to be used should be selected on the basis of risk manager/assessor requirements, data availability, and the characteristics of the method. Recommendations for future use and application are provided.

Can We Weight Satisfaction Score with Importance Ranks across Life Domains?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, Chia-Huei

2008-01-01

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the utility of importance weighting when importance ranks were considered as the weighting values by (1) examining the range-of-affect hypothesis in the within-subject context and (2) comparing performances of weighted and unweighted satisfaction scores in predicting overall judgment of subjective…

Comparison of Customer Preference for Bulk Material Handling Equipment through Fuzzy-AHP Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sen, Kingshuk; Ghosh, Surojit; Sarkar, Bijan

2017-06-01

In the present study, customer's perception has played one of the important roles for selection of the exact equipment out of available alternatives. The present study is dealt with the method of optimization of selection criteria of a material handling equipment, based on the technical specifications considered to be available at the user end. In this work, the needs of customers have been identified and prioritized, that lead to the selection of number of criteria, which have direct effect upon the performance of the equipment. To check the consistency of selection criteria, first of all an AHP based methodology is adopted with the identified criteria and available product categories, based upon which, the judgments of the users are defined to derive the priority scales. Such judgments expressed the relative strength or intensity of the impact of the elements of the hierarchy. Subsequently, all the alternatives have ranked for each identified criteria with subsequent constitution of weighted matrices. The same has been compared with the normalized values of approximate selling prices of the equipments to determine individual cost-benefit ratio. Based on the cost-benefit ratio, the equipment is ranked. With same conditions, the study is obtained again with a Fuzzy AHP concept, where a fuzzy linguistic approach has reduced the amount of uncertainty in decision making, caused by conventional AHP due to lack of deterministic approach. The priority vectors of category and criteria are determined separately and multiplied to obtain composite score. Subsequently, the average of fuzzy weights was determined and the preferences of equipment are ranked.

The Correlation of Media Ranking's "Best" Hospitals and Surgical Outcomes Following Radical Cystectomy for Urothelial Cancer.

PubMed

Lascano, Danny; Finkelstein, Julia B; Barlow, LaMont J; Kabat, Daniel; RoyChoudhury, Arindam; Caso, Jorge R; DeCastro, G Joel; Gold, William; McKiernan, James M

2015-12-01

To evaluate whether there is a correlation between publicized health ranking systems and surgical outcomes after radical cystectomy (RC) in New York State (NYS). Using the Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System, data were collected in an aggregated fashion per hospital for the 20 hospitals with the highest RC volume in NYS from 2009 to 2012. Hospital characteristics were obtained from the publicly available sources such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Publicized ranking systems evaluated included the US News & World Health Report for Urology ranking (USHR), Healthgrades (HG) score, and Consumer Reports (CR) safety ranking. Outcomes measured included mortality, readmissions, and causes of readmissions. CR safety scores were inversely associated with overall death at 90 days after surgery (R = -0.527, P = .030), number of readmissions (R = -0.608, P = .030), and readmissions because of surgical complications (R = -0.523, P = .031) on a Pearson correlation test. On Kendall rank tau test, USHR and HG were not associated with any outcome of interest, although the scores correlated with increasing RC volume. In our analysis of 20 hospitals with the highest RC volume in NYS, USHR and HG scores were not strongly associated with any clinical outcome after RC. CR performed well in comparison with USHR and HG. Nevertheless, better metrics are needed to compare hospitals and to incorporate curative rates for morbid surgeries. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Relationship between Journal-Ranking Metrics for a Multidisciplinary Set of Journals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perera, Upeksha; Wijewickrema, Manjula

2018-01-01

Ranking of scholarly journals is important to many parties. Studying the relationships among various ranking metrics is key to understanding the significance of one metric based on another. This research investigates the relationship among four major journal-ranking indicators: the impact factor (IF), the Eigenfactor score (ES), the "h."…

Anchoring Effects in World University Rankings: Exploring Biases in Reputation Scores

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowman, Nicholas A.; Bastedo, Michael N.

2011-01-01

Despite ongoing debates about their uses and validity, university rankings are a popular means to compare institutions within a country and around the world. Anchoring theory suggests that these rankings may influence assessments of institutional reputation, and this effect may be particularly strong when a new rankings system is introduced. We…

Is USMLE Step 1 score a valid predictor of success in surgical residency?

PubMed

Sutton, Erica; Richardson, James David; Ziegler, Craig; Bond, Jordan; Burke-Poole, Molly; McMasters, Kelly M

2014-12-01

Many programs rely extensively on United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) scores for interviews/selection of surgical residents. However, their predictive ability remains controversial. We examined the association between USMLE scores and success in surgical residency. We compared USMLE scores for 123 general surgical residents who trained in the past 20 years and their performance evaluation. Scores were normalized to the mean for the testing year and expressed as a ratio (1 = mean). Performances were evaluated by (1) rotation evaluations; (2) "dropouts;" (3) overall American Board of Surgery pass rate; (4) first-time American Board of Surgery pass rate; and (5) a retrospective comprehensive faculty evaluation. For the latter, 16 surgeons (average faculty tenure 22 years) rated residents on a 1 to 4 score (1 = fair; 4 = excellent). Rotation evaluations by faculty and "drop out" rates were not associated with USMLE score differences (dropouts had average above the mean). One hundred percent of general surgery practitioners achieved board certification regardless of USMLE score but trainees with an average above the mean had a higher first-time pass rate (P = .04). Data from the comprehensive faculty evaluations were conflicting: there was a moderate degree of correlation between board scores and faculty evaluations (r = .287, P = .001). However, a score above the mean was associated with a faculty ranking of 3 to 4 in only 51.7% of trainees. Higher USMLE scores were associated with higher faculty evaluations and first-time board pass rates. However, their positive predictive value was only 50% for higher faculty evaluations and a high overall board pass rate can be achieved regardless of USMLE scores. USMLE Step 1 score is a valid tool for selecting residents but caution might be indicated in using it as a single selection factor. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evaluation and ranking of candidate ceramic wafer engine seal materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Steinetz, Bruce M.

1991-01-01

Modern engineered ceramics offer high temperature capabilities not found in even the best superalloy metals. The high temperature properties of several selected ceramics including aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, and silicon nitride are reviewed as they apply to hypersonic engine seal design. A ranking procedure is employed to objectively differentiate among four different monolithic ceramic materials considered, including: a cold-pressed and sintered aluminum oxide; a sintered alpha-phase silicon carbide; a hot-isostatically pressed silicon nitride; and a cold-pressed and sintered silicon nitride. This procedure is used to narrow the wide range of potential ceramics considered to an acceptable number for future detailed and costly analyses and tests. The materials are numerically scored according to their high temperature flexural strength; high temperature thermal conductivity; resistance to crack growth; resistance to high heating rates; fracture toughness; Weibull modulus; and finally according to their resistance to leakage flow, where materials having coefficients of thermal expansion closely matching the engine panel material resist leakage flow best. The cold-pressed and sintered material (Kyocera SN-251) ranked the highest in the overall ranking especially when implemented in engine panels made of low expansion rate materials being considered for the engine, including Incoloy and titanium alloys.

"That was intense!" Spirituality during childbirth: a mixed-method comparative study of mothers' and fathers' experiences in a public hospital.

PubMed

Bélanger-Lévesque, Marie-Noëlle; Dumas, Marc; Blouin, Simon; Pasquier, Jean-Charles

2016-09-30

While spirituality is well described in end-of-life care literature, research on its place in the delivery room remains largely limited to mother-oriented qualitative studies focusing on life-threatening situations (e.g., high-risk pregnancies). Our aim was to compare mothers' and fathers' spirituality during childbirth. A mixed methods questionnaire was developed from our childbirth-related spirituality categorization and distributed to all parents of newborns, 12-24 h postpartum, over 45 consecutive days. Paired-sample t-tests and qualitative thematic analysis were used to compare mothers and fathers. Multiple linear regressions identified factors associated with their respective global scores (vaginal and cesarean deliveries separately). The global scores for mothers (38.6/50) and fathers (37.2/50) were similarly high (N = 197; p = 0.001). Highest-ranked ("respect", "moral responsibility", "beauty of life", "gratitude") and lowest-ranked spiritual themes ("prayer", "greater than self") were in agreement. Fathers scored higher on "fragility of life" (p = 0.006) and mothers on "self-accomplishment" (p‹0.001), "letting go" (p‹0.001), and "meaningfulness" (p = 0.003). "Admission of baby in neonatal unit" was associated with higher global score for both mothers and fathers. Other factors also increased fathers' (witnessing a severe tear) and mothers' scores (birthplace outside Canada; for vaginal deliveries, religious belonging and longer pushing stage). These first quantitative data on the prevalence of spirituality during childbirth highlight a high score for both parents, among a non-selected public hospital population. Spirituality emerges not only from unordinary situations but from any childbirth as an "intensification of the human experience". Significant differences for some spiritual themes indicate the need to consider the spirituality of both parents.

Instructional Comparative Advantages May Exist Despite the "Comprehensive Uniformity" of Traditional Public Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Merrifield, John

2012-01-01

A special tabulation of individual student scores from the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test allowed a ranking of Texas schools according to test score changes ("value added"). The rankings varied greatly by student subpopulation. That is, the vast majority of schools are much more effective with some kinds of students than…

Can Tracking Raise the Test Scores of High-Ability Minority Students?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Card, David; Giuliano, Laura

2016-01-01

We evaluate a tracking program in a large urban district where schools with at least one gifted fourth grader create a separate "gifted/high achiever" classroom. Most seats are filled by non-gifted high achievers, ranked by previous-year test scores. We study the program's effects on the high achievers using (1) a rank-based regression…

Validity and reliability of an application review process using dedicated reviewers in one stage of a multi-stage admissions model.

PubMed

Zeeman, Jacqueline M; McLaughlin, Jacqueline E; Cox, Wendy C

2017-11-01

With increased emphasis placed on non-academic skills in the workplace, a need exists to identify an admissions process that evaluates these skills. This study assessed the validity and reliability of an application review process involving three dedicated application reviewers in a multi-stage admissions model. A multi-stage admissions model was utilized during the 2014-2015 admissions cycle. After advancing through the academic review, each application was independently reviewed by two dedicated application reviewers utilizing a six-construct rubric (written communication, extracurricular and community service activities, leadership experience, pharmacy career appreciation, research experience, and resiliency). Rubric scores were extrapolated to a three-tier ranking to select candidates for on-site interviews. Kappa statistics were used to assess interrater reliability. A three-facet Many-Facet Rasch Model (MFRM) determined reviewer severity, candidate suitability, and rubric construct difficulty. The kappa statistic for candidates' tier rank score (n = 388 candidates) was 0.692 with a perfect agreement frequency of 84.3%. There was substantial interrater reliability between reviewers for the tier ranking (kappa: 0.654-0.710). Highest construct agreement occurred in written communication (kappa: 0.924-0.984). A three-facet MFRM analysis explained 36.9% of variance in the ratings, with 0.06% reflecting application reviewer scoring patterns (i.e., severity or leniency), 22.8% reflecting candidate suitability, and 14.1% reflecting construct difficulty. Utilization of dedicated application reviewers and a defined tiered rubric provided a valid and reliable method to effectively evaluate candidates during the application review process. These analyses provide insight into opportunities for improving the application review process among schools and colleges of pharmacy. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Efficacy of antidepressive medication for depression in Parkinson disease: a network meta-analysis

PubMed Central

Zhuo, Chuanjun; Xue, Rong; Luo, Lanlan; Ji, Feng; Tian, Hongjun; Qu, Hongru; Lin, Xiaodong; Jiang, Ronghuan; Tao, Ran

2017-01-01

Abstract Background: Parkinson disease (PD) was considered as the 2nd most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer disease, while depression is a prevailing nonmotor symptom of PD. Typically used antidepression medication includes tricyclic antidepressants (TCA), selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRI), monoamine-oxidase inhibitors (MAOI), and dopamine agonists (DA). Our study aimed at evaluating the efficacy of antidepressive medications for depression of PD. Methods: Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane library were searched for related articles. Traditional meta-analysis and network meta-analysis (NMA) were performed with outcomes including depression score, UPDRS-II, UPDRS-III, and adverse effects. Surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) was also performed to illustrate the rank probabilities of different medications on various outcomes. The consistency of direct and indirect evidence was also assessed by node-splitting method. Results: Results of traditional pairwise meta-analysis were performed. Concerning depression score, significant improvement was observed in AD, MAOI, SSRI, and SNRI compared with placebo. NMA was performed and more information could be obtained. DA was illustrated to be effective over placebo concerning UPDRS-III, MAOI, and SNRI. DA demonstrated a better prognosis in UPDRS-II scores compared with placebo and MAOI. However, DA and SSRI demonstrated a significant increase in adverse effects compared with placebo. The SUCRA value was calculated to evaluate the ranking probabilities of all medications on investigated outcomes, and the consistency between direct and indirect evidences was assessed by node-splitting method. Conclusion: SSRI had a satisfying efficacy for the depression of PD patients and could improve activities of daily living and motor function of patient but the adverse effects are unneglectable. SNRI are the safest medication with high efficacy for depression as well while other outcomes are relatively poor. PMID:28562526

Eleven Years of Data on the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Medical Student Version (JSE-S): Proxy Norm Data and Tentative Cutoff Scores.

PubMed

Hojat, Mohammadreza; Gonnella, Joseph S

2015-01-01

This study was designed to provide typical descriptive statistics, score distributions and percentile ranks of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Medical Student version (JSE-S) of male and female medical school matriculants to serve as proxy norm data and tentative cutoff scores. The participants were 2,637 students (1,336 women and 1,301 men) who matriculated at Sidney Kimmel (formerly Jefferson) Medical College between 2002 and 2012, and completed the JSE at the beginning of medical school. Information extracted from descriptive statistics, score distributions and percentile ranks for male and female matriculants were used to develop proxy norm data and tentative cutoff scores. The score distributions of the JSE tended to be moderately skewed and platykurtic. Women obtained a significantly higher mean score (116.2 ± 9.7) than men (112.3 ± 10.8) on the JSE-S (t2,635 = 9.9, p < 0.01). It was suggested that percentile ranks can be used as proxy norm data. The tentative cutoff score to identify low scorers was ≤ 95 for men and ≤ 100 for women. Our findings provide norm data and cutoff scores for admission decisions under certain conditions and for identifying students in need of enhancing their empathy. © 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel.

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.

Development and validation of an Opioid Attractiveness Scale: a novel measure of the attractiveness of opioid products to potential abusers

PubMed Central

Butler, Stephen F; Benoit, Christine; Budman, Simon H; Fernandez, Kathrine C; McCormick, Cynthia; Venuti, Synne Wing; Katz, Nathaniel

2006-01-01

Background The growing trends in opioid abuse, assessment of the abuse liability of prescription opioid products, and growing efforts by the pharmaceutical industry to develop 'abuse-resistant' formulations highlight a need to understand the features that make one product more 'attractive' than another to potential abusers. We developed a scale to measure the 'attractiveness' of prescription opioids to potential abusers, and used the scale to measure the relative attractiveness of 14 opioid analgesic products. Methods First, the concept of attractiveness was empirically defined with a group of prescription opioid abusers and experts in opioid abuse using a process called Concept Mapping. Abuse liability consisted of two components: factors intrinsic to the drug formulation (e.g., speed of onset, duration) and factors extrinsic to drug formulation (e.g., availability, availability of alternatives, cost). A 17-item Opioid Attractiveness Scale (OAS) was constructed, focusing on factors intrinsic to the drug product. Results A total of 144 individuals participated in tests of validity and reliability. Internal consistency was excellent (Cronbach's α = 0.85–0.94). Drug rankings based on OAS scores achieved good inter-rater agreement (Kendall's W 0.37, p < 0.001). Agreement on drug OAS scores between the developmental sample and a confirmation sample was good (IntraClass Correlations [ICC] of 0.65–0.69). Global ratings of overall attractiveness of the 14 selected opioid products by substance abuse counselors corresponded with the rankings based on OAS ratings of the abuser group. Finally, substance abuse counselors completed the OAS, yielding a high level of correspondence with ratings by the abuser group (ICC = 0.83, p = 0.002). The OAS differentiated attractiveness among 14 selected pharmaceutical opioid products. OxyContin, Dilaudid, and Percocet were ranked highest (most attractive); Talwin NX and Duragesic were ranked lowest (least attractive). Conclusion An initial examination of the psychometric properties of the OAS suggests that it is a valid and reliable scale. The OAS may be useful in providing important guidance on product features that are attractive to potential abusers. PMID:16457713

Development and validation of an Opioid Attractiveness Scale: a novel measure of the attractiveness of opioid products to potential abusers.

PubMed

Butler, Stephen F; Benoit, Christine; Budman, Simon H; Fernandez, Kathrine C; McCormick, Cynthia; Venuti, Synne Wing; Katz, Nathaniel

2006-02-02

The growing trends in opioid abuse, assessment of the abuse liability of prescription opioid products, and growing efforts by the pharmaceutical industry to develop 'abuse-resistant' formulations highlight a need to understand the features that make one product more 'attractive' than another to potential abusers. We developed a scale to measure the 'attractiveness' of prescription opioids to potential abusers, and used the scale to measure the relative attractiveness of 14 opioid analgesic products. First, the concept of attractiveness was empirically defined with a group of prescription opioid abusers and experts in opioid abuse using a process called Concept Mapping. Abuse liability consisted of two components: factors intrinsic to the drug formulation (e.g., speed of onset, duration) and factors extrinsic to drug formulation (e.g., availability, availability of alternatives, cost). A 17-item Opioid Attractiveness Scale (OAS) was constructed, focusing on factors intrinsic to the drug product. A total of 144 individuals participated in tests of validity and reliability. Internal consistency was excellent (Cronbach's alpha = 0.85-0.94). Drug rankings based on OAS scores achieved good inter-rater agreement (Kendall's W 0.37, p < 0.001). Agreement on drug OAS scores between the developmental sample and a confirmation sample was good (IntraClass Correlations [ICC] of 0.65-0.69). Global ratings of overall attractiveness of the 14 selected opioid products by substance abuse counselors corresponded with the rankings based on OAS ratings of the abuser group. Finally, substance abuse counselors completed the OAS, yielding a high level of correspondence with ratings by the abuser group (ICC = 0.83, p = 0.002). The OAS differentiated attractiveness among 14 selected pharmaceutical opioid products. OxyContin, Dilaudid, and Percocet were ranked highest (most attractive); Talwin NX and Duragesic were ranked lowest (least attractive). An initial examination of the psychometric properties of the OAS suggests that it is a valid and reliable scale. The OAS may be useful in providing important guidance on product features that are attractive to potential abusers.

Publication Metrics of Dental Journals - What is the Role of Self Citations in Determining the Impact Factor of Journals?

PubMed

Elangovan, Satheesh; Allareddy, Veerasathpurush

2015-09-01

The objectives of the present study are to examine the publication metrics of dental journals and to delineate the role of self citations in determining the impact factor of journals. The Journal Citation Reports database was used. All dental journals that had an impact factor assigned for year 2013 were selected. The outcomes were Impact Factor (IF), Eigenfactor™ (EF), article influence score (AIS), and proportion of self-citations to total citations. Independent variables were geographic region of journal and ranking of journal (based on IF). Non-parametric tests were used to examine the associations between outcomes and independent variables. During the year 2013, 82 journals in dentistry had an IF. Mean IF was 1.489 and mean IF without including self-citations was 1.231. Mean EF scores and AIS were .00458 and .5141 respectively. Mean percentage of self cites to total citations for all dental journals was 12.24%. Higher ranking journals were associated with significantly higher EF and AIS. Journals published in USA/Canada or Europe were associated with higher IF and EF compared to those published in other regions. There were no differences in percentages of self citations to total citations either across journal rankings or geographic region. Top ranking journals tend to have higher IFs due to higher EF and AIS rather than by self-citations. Self-citations increase the impact factors of dental journals by 21%. There was no geographic influence in the percentage of self-citations to total citations thus indicating a healthy dental scientific publishing environment. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Predicting performance of junior doctors: Association of workplace based assessment with demographic characteristics, emotional intelligence, selection scores, and undergraduate academic performance.

PubMed

Carr, Sandra E; Celenza, Antonio; Mercer, Annette M; Lake, Fiona; Puddey, Ian B

2018-01-21

Predicting workplace performance of junior doctors from before entry or during medical school is difficult and has limited available evidence. This study explored the association between selected predictor variables and workplace based performance in junior doctors during their first postgraduate year. Two cohorts of medical students (n = 200) from one university in Western Australia participated in the longitudinal study. Pearson correlation coefficients and multivariate analyses utilizing linear regression were used to assess the relationships between performance on the Junior Doctor Assessment Tool (JDAT) and its sub-components with demographic characteristics, selection scores for medical school entry, emotional intelligence, and undergraduate academic performance. Grade Point Average (GPA) at the completion of undergraduate studies had the most significant association with better performance on the overall JDAT and each subscale. Increased age was a negative predictor for junior doctor performance on the Clinical management subscale and understanding emotion was a predictor for the JDAT Communication subscale. Secondary school performance measured by Tertiary Entry Rank on entry to medical school score predicted GPA but not junior doctor performance. The GPA as a composite measure of ability and performance in medical school is associated with junior doctor assessment scores. Using this variable to identify students at risk of difficulty could assist planning for appropriate supervision, support, and training for medical graduates transitioning to the workplace.

Orthopedic surgery postgraduate year 1 intern curriculum improves initial orthopedic in-training examination performance.

PubMed

Roberts, Craig S; Nyland, John; Broome, Brandon

2012-04-01

To determine the efficacy of an educational curriculum designed for orthopedic surgery postgraduate year 1 (PGY-1) interns to improve initial Orthopedic In-Training Examination (OITE) performance. A retrospective cohort study was performed that evaluated the PGY-1 intern OITE performance of one residency training program (n = 55) during 7-year periods before (1996-2002) and after structured curriculum implementation (2003-2009). Linear regression analysis revealed insignificant changes in median PGY-1 intern OITE percentile rank during the precurriculum period (R = 0.08, P = 0.53). Postcurriculum period comparisons revealed significantly improving PGY-1 intern OITE percentile rank (R = 0.46, P = 0.048). Pre- and postcurriculum median US Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step I scores did not display statistically significant differences (218.2 ± 6.6 vs 229.1 ± 13.8, Mann-Whitney U test, z = -1.5, P = 0.10). Spearman rho correlations revealed a moderate relation (r = 0.61) between postcurriculum PGY-1 intern OITE percentile rank and USMLE Step I score, but not during the precurriculum period. A moderate relation (r = 0.50) also was observed between postcurriculum USMLE Step I score and average OITE percentile rank during the 5-year residency program, but not during the precurriculum period. PGY-1 intern OITE percentile rank improved significantly with the addition of a specially designed educational curriculum. The stronger USMLE Step I score and PGY-1 intern OITE percentile rank relation observed during the postcurriculum period suggests that interns who participated in the educational curriculum were better prepared to translate general medical and patient care knowledge into orthopedic surgery knowledge.

Benefits and risks of emerging technologies: integrating life cycle assessment and decision analysis to assess lumber treatment alternatives.

PubMed

Tsang, Michael P; Bates, Matthew E; Madison, Marcus; Linkov, Igor

2014-10-07

Assessing the best options among emerging technologies (e.g., new chemicals, nanotechnologies) is complicated because of trade-offs across benefits and risks that are difficult to quantify given limited and fragmented availability of information. This study demonstrates the integration of multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) to address technology alternative selection decisions. As a case study, prioritization of six lumber treatment alternatives [micronized copper quaternary (MCQ); alkaline copper quaternary (ACQ); water-borne copper naphthenate (CN); oil-borne copper naphthenate (CNo); water-borne copper quinolate (CQ); and water-borne zinc naphthenate (ZN)] for military use are considered. Multiattribute value theory (MAVT) is used to derive risk and benefit scores. Risk scores are calculated using a cradle-to-gate LCA. Benefit scores are calculated by scoring of cost, durability, and corrosiveness criteria. Three weighting schemes are used, representing Environmental, Military and Balanced stakeholder perspectives. Aggregated scores from all three perspectives show CQ to be the least favorable alterative. MCQ is identified as the most favorable alternative from the Environmental stakeholder perspective. From the Military stakeholder perspective, ZN is determined to be the most favorable alternative, followed closely by MCQ. This type of scoring and ranking of multiple heterogeneous criteria in a systematic and transparent way facilitates better justification of technology selection and regulation.

Setting Priorities in Global Child Health Research Investments: Guidelines for Implementation of the CHNRI Method

PubMed Central

Rudan, Igor; Gibson, Jennifer L.; Ameratunga, Shanthi; El Arifeen, Shams; Bhutta, Zulfiqar A.; Black, Maureen; Black, Robert E.; Brown, Kenneth H.; Campbell, Harry; Carneiro, Ilona; Chan, Kit Yee; Chandramohan, Daniel; Chopra, Mickey; Cousens, Simon; Darmstadt, Gary L.; Gardner, Julie Meeks; Hess, Sonja Y.; Hyder, Adnan A.; Kapiriri, Lydia; Kosek, Margaret; Lanata, Claudio F.; Lansang, Mary Ann; Lawn, Joy; Tomlinson, Mark; Tsai, Alexander C.; Webster, Jayne

2008-01-01

This article provides detailed guidelines for the implementation of systematic method for setting priorities in health research investments that was recently developed by Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI). The target audience for the proposed method are international agencies, large research funding donors, and national governments and policy-makers. The process has the following steps: (i) selecting the managers of the process; (ii) specifying the context and risk management preferences; (iii) discussing criteria for setting health research priorities; (iv) choosing a limited set of the most useful and important criteria; (v) developing means to assess the likelihood that proposed health research options will satisfy the selected criteria; (vi) systematic listing of a large number of proposed health research options; (vii) pre-scoring check of all competing health research options; (viii) scoring of health research options using the chosen set of criteria; (ix) calculating intermediate scores for each health research option; (x) obtaining further input from the stakeholders; (xi) adjusting intermediate scores taking into account the values of stakeholders; (xii) calculating overall priority scores and assigning ranks; (xiii) performing an analysis of agreement between the scorers; (xiv) linking computed research priority scores with investment decisions; (xv) feedback and revision. The CHNRI method is a flexible process that enables prioritizing health research investments at any level: institutional, regional, national, international, or global. PMID:19090596

Docking pose selection by interaction pattern graph similarity: application to the D3R grand challenge 2015

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Slynko, Inna; Da Silva, Franck; Bret, Guillaume; Rognan, Didier

2016-09-01

High affinity ligands for a given target tend to share key molecular interactions with important anchoring amino acids and therefore often present quite conserved interaction patterns. This simple concept was formalized in a topological knowledge-based scoring function (GRIM) for selecting the most appropriate docking poses from previously X-rayed interaction patterns. GRIM first converts protein-ligand atomic coordinates (docking poses) into a simple 3D graph describing the corresponding interaction pattern. In a second step, proposed graphs are compared to that found from template structures in the Protein Data Bank. Last, all docking poses are rescored according to an empirical score (GRIMscore) accounting for overlap of maximum common subgraphs. Taking the opportunity of the public D3R Grand Challenge 2015, GRIM was used to rescore docking poses for 36 ligands (6 HSP90α inhibitors, 30 MAP4K4 inhibitors) prior to the release of the corresponding protein-ligand X-ray structures. When applied to the HSP90α dataset, for which many protein-ligand X-ray structures are already available, GRIM provided very high quality solutions (mean rmsd = 1.06 Å, n = 6) as top-ranked poses, and significantly outperformed a state-of-the-art scoring function. In the case of MAP4K4 inhibitors, for which preexisting 3D knowledge is scarce and chemical diversity is much larger, the accuracy of GRIM poses decays (mean rmsd = 3.18 Å, n = 30) although GRIM still outperforms an energy-based scoring function. GRIM rescoring appears to be quite robust with comparison to the other approaches competing for the same challenge (42 submissions for the HSP90 dataset, 27 for the MAP4K4 dataset) as it ranked 3rd and 2nd respectively, for the two investigated datasets. The rescoring method is quite simple to implement, independent on a docking engine, and applicable to any target for which at least one holo X-ray structure is available.

An examination of predictive variables toward graduation of minority students in science at a selected urban university

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hunter, Evelyn M. Irving

1998-12-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship and predictive power of the variables gender, high school GPA, class rank, SAT scores, ACT scores, and socioeconomic status on the graduation rates of minority college students majoring in the sciences at a selected urban university. Data was examined on these variables as they related to minority students majoring in science. The population consisted of 101 minority college students who had majored in the sciences from 1986 to 1996 at an urban university in the southwestern region of Texas. A non-probability sampling procedure was used in this study. The non-probability sampling procedure in this investigation was incidental sampling technique. A profile sheet was developed to record the information regarding the variables. The composite scores from SAT and ACT testing were used in the study. The dichotomous variables gender and socioeconomic status were dummy coded for analysis. For the gender variable, zero (0) indicated male, and one (1) indicated female. Additionally, zero (0) indicated high SES, and one (1) indicated low SES. Two parametric procedures were used to analyze the data in this investigation. They were the multiple correlation and multiple regression procedures. Multiple correlation is a statistical technique that indicates the relationship between one variable and a combination of two other variables. The variables socioeconomic status and GPA were found to contribute significantly to the graduation rates of minority students majoring in all sciences when combined with chemistry (Hypotheses Two and Four). These variables accounted for 7% and 15% of the respective variance in the graduation rates of minority students in the sciences and in chemistry. Hypotheses One and Three, the predictor variables gender, high school GPA, SAT Total Scores, class rank, and socioeconomic status did not contribute significantly to the graduation rates of minority students in biology and pharmacy.

MetaKTSP: a meta-analytic top scoring pair method for robust cross-study validation of omics prediction analysis.

PubMed

Kim, SungHwan; Lin, Chien-Wei; Tseng, George C

2016-07-01

Supervised machine learning is widely applied to transcriptomic data to predict disease diagnosis, prognosis or survival. Robust and interpretable classifiers with high accuracy are usually favored for their clinical and translational potential. The top scoring pair (TSP) algorithm is an example that applies a simple rank-based algorithm to identify rank-altered gene pairs for classifier construction. Although many classification methods perform well in cross-validation of single expression profile, the performance usually greatly reduces in cross-study validation (i.e. the prediction model is established in the training study and applied to an independent test study) for all machine learning methods, including TSP. The failure of cross-study validation has largely diminished the potential translational and clinical values of the models. The purpose of this article is to develop a meta-analytic top scoring pair (MetaKTSP) framework that combines multiple transcriptomic studies and generates a robust prediction model applicable to independent test studies. We proposed two frameworks, by averaging TSP scores or by combining P-values from individual studies, to select the top gene pairs for model construction. We applied the proposed methods in simulated data sets and three large-scale real applications in breast cancer, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and pan-cancer methylation. The result showed superior performance of cross-study validation accuracy and biomarker selection for the new meta-analytic framework. In conclusion, combining multiple omics data sets in the public domain increases robustness and accuracy of the classification model that will ultimately improve disease understanding and clinical treatment decisions to benefit patients. An R package MetaKTSP is available online. (http://tsenglab.biostat.pitt.edu/software.htm). ctseng@pitt.edu Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Flat-panel-detector chest radiography: effect of tube voltage on image quality.

PubMed

Uffmann, Martin; Neitzel, Ulrich; Prokop, Mathias; Kabalan, Nahla; Weber, Michael; Herold, Christian J; Schaefer-Prokop, Cornelia

2005-05-01

To compare the visibility of anatomic structures in direct-detector chest radiographs acquired with different tube voltages at equal effective doses to the patient. The study protocol was approved by the institutional internal review board, and written informed consent was obtained from all patients. Posteroanterior chest radiographs of 48 consecutively selected patients were obtained at 90, 121, and 150 kVp by using a flat-panel-detector unit that was based on cesium iodide technology and automated exposure control. Monte Carlo simulations were used to verify that the effective dose for all kilovoltage settings was equal. Five radiologists subjectively and independently rated the delineation of anatomic structures on hard-copy images by using a five-point scale. They also ranked image quality in a blinded side-by-side comparison. Average ranking scores were compared by using one-way analysis of variance with repeated measures. Data were analyzed for the entire patient group and for two patient subgroups that were formed according to body mass index (BMI). The visibility scores of most anatomic structures were significantly superior with the 90-kVp images (mean score, 3.11), followed by the 121-kVp (mean score, 2.95) and 150-kVp images (mean score, 2.80). Differences did not reach significance (P > .05) only for the delineation of the peripheral vessels, the heart contours, and the carina. This was also true for the subgroup of patients (n = 24) with a BMI greater than and the subgroup of patients (n = 24) with a BMI less than the mean BMI (26.9 kg/m(2)). At side-by-side comparison, the readers rated 90-kVp images as having superior image quality in the majority of image triplets; the percentage of 90-kVp images rated as "first choice" ranged from 60% (29 of 48 patients) to 90% (43 of 48 patients), with a median of 88% (42 of 48 patients), among the readers. Delineation of most anatomic structures and overall image quality were ranked superior in digital radiographs acquired with lower kilovoltage at a constant effective patient dose. (c) RSNA, 2005.

Evaluating the Rank-Ordering Method for Standard Maintaining

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bramley, Tom; Gill, Tim

2010-01-01

The rank-ordering method for standard maintaining was designed for the purpose of mapping a known cut-score (e.g. a grade boundary mark) on one test to an equivalent point on the test score scale of another test, using holistic expert judgements about the quality of exemplars of examinees' work (scripts). It is a novel application of an old…

Extrapolating Weak Selection in Evolutionary Games

PubMed Central

Wu, Bin; García, Julián; Hauert, Christoph; Traulsen, Arne

2013-01-01

In evolutionary games, reproductive success is determined by payoffs. Weak selection means that even large differences in game outcomes translate into small fitness differences. Many results have been derived using weak selection approximations, in which perturbation analysis facilitates the derivation of analytical results. Here, we ask whether results derived under weak selection are also qualitatively valid for intermediate and strong selection. By “qualitatively valid” we mean that the ranking of strategies induced by an evolutionary process does not change when the intensity of selection increases. For two-strategy games, we show that the ranking obtained under weak selection cannot be carried over to higher selection intensity if the number of players exceeds two. For games with three (or more) strategies, previous examples for multiplayer games have shown that the ranking of strategies can change with the intensity of selection. In particular, rank changes imply that the most abundant strategy at one intensity of selection can become the least abundant for another. We show that this applies already to pairwise interactions for a broad class of evolutionary processes. Even when both weak and strong selection limits lead to consistent predictions, rank changes can occur for intermediate intensities of selection. To analyze how common such games are, we show numerically that for randomly drawn two-player games with three or more strategies, rank changes frequently occur and their likelihood increases rapidly with the number of strategies . In particular, rank changes are almost certain for , which jeopardizes the predictive power of results derived for weak selection. PMID:24339769

PageRank without hyperlinks: Reranking with PubMed related article networks for biomedical text retrieval

PubMed Central

Lin, Jimmy

2008-01-01

Background Graph analysis algorithms such as PageRank and HITS have been successful in Web environments because they are able to extract important inter-document relationships from manually-created hyperlinks. We consider the application of these techniques to biomedical text retrieval. In the current PubMed® search interface, a MEDLINE® citation is connected to a number of related citations, which are in turn connected to other citations. Thus, a MEDLINE record represents a node in a vast content-similarity network. This article explores the hypothesis that these networks can be exploited for text retrieval, in the same manner as hyperlink graphs on the Web. Results We conducted a number of reranking experiments using the TREC 2005 genomics track test collection in which scores extracted from PageRank and HITS analysis were combined with scores returned by an off-the-shelf retrieval engine. Experiments demonstrate that incorporating PageRank scores yields significant improvements in terms of standard ranked-retrieval metrics. Conclusion The link structure of content-similarity networks can be exploited to improve the effectiveness of information retrieval systems. These results generalize the applicability of graph analysis algorithms to text retrieval in the biomedical domain. PMID:18538027

Risk-based approach to developing a national residue sampling plan for testing under European Union regulation for veterinary medicinal products and coccidiostat feed additives in domestic animal production.

PubMed

Danaher, Martin; Shanahan, Conor; Butler, Francis; Evans, Rhodri; O'Sullivan, Dan; Glynn, Denise; Camon, Tim; Lawlor, Peadar; O'Keeffe, Michael

2016-07-01

A ranking system for veterinary medicinal products and coccidiostat feed additives has been developed as a tool to be applied in a risk-based approach to the residue testing programme for foods of animal origin in the Irish National Residue Control Plan (NRCP). Three characteristics of substances that may occur as residues in food are included in the developed risk ranking system: Potency, as measured by the acceptable daily intake assigned by the European Medicines Agency Committee for Medicinal Products for Veterinary Use, to each substance; Usage, as measured by the three factors of Number of Doses, use on Individual animals or for Group treatment, and Withdrawal Period; and Residue Occurrence, as measured by the number of Non-Compliant Samples in the NRCP. For both Number of Doses and Non-Compliant Samples, data for the 5-year period 2008-12 have been used. The risk ranking system for substances was developed for beef cattle, sheep and goats, pigs, chickens and dairy cattle using a scoring system applied to the various parameters described above to give an overall score based on the following equation: Potency × Usage (Number of Doses + Individual/Group Use + Withdrawal Period) × Residue Occurrence. Applying this risk ranking system, the following substances are ranked very highly: antimicrobials such as amoxicillin (for all species except pigs), marbofloxacillin (for beef cattle), oxytetracycline (for all species except chickens), sulfadiazine with trimethoprim (for pigs and chickens) and tilmicosin (for chickens); antiparasitic drugs, such as the benzimidazoles triclabendazole (for beef and dairy cattle), fenbendazole/oxfendazole (for sheep/goats and dairy cattle) and albendazole (for dairy cattle), the avermectin ivermectin (for beef cattle), and anti-fluke drugs closantel and rafoxanide (for sheep/goats); the anticoccidials monensin, narasin, nicarbazin and toltrazuril (for chickens). The risk ranking system described is a relatively simple system designed to provide a reliable basis for selecting the veterinary medicinal products and coccidiostat feed additives that might be prioritised for residue testing.

Is It Reliable to Take the Molecular Docking Top Scoring Position as the Best Solution without Considering Available Structural Data?

PubMed

Ramírez, David; Caballero, Julio

2018-04-28

Molecular docking is the most frequently used computational method for studying the interactions between organic molecules and biological macromolecules. In this context, docking allows predicting the preferred pose of a ligand inside a receptor binding site. However, the selection of the “best” solution is not a trivial task, despite the widely accepted selection criterion that the best pose corresponds to the best energy score. Here, several rigid-target docking methods were evaluated on the same dataset with respect to their ability to reproduce crystallographic binding orientations, to test if the best energy score is a reliable criterion for selecting the best solution. For this, two experiments were performed: (A) to reconstruct the ligand-receptor complex by performing docking of the ligand in its own crystal structure receptor (defined as self-docking), and (B) to reconstruct the ligand-receptor complex by performing docking of the ligand in a crystal structure receptor that contains other ligand (defined as cross-docking). Root-mean square deviation (RMSD) was used to evaluate how different the obtained docking orientation is from the corresponding co-crystallized pose of the same ligand molecule. We found that docking score function is capable of predicting crystallographic binding orientations, but the best ranked solution according to the docking energy is not always the pose that reproduces the experimental binding orientation. This happened when self-docking was achieved, but it was critical in cross-docking. Taking into account that docking is typically used with predictive purposes, during cross-docking experiments, our results indicate that the best energy score is not a reliable criterion to select the best solution in common docking applications. It is strongly recommended to choose the best docking solution according to the scoring function along with additional structural criteria described for analogue ligands to assure the selection of a correct docking solution.

A network-based dynamical ranking system for competitive sports

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Motegi, Shun; Masuda, Naoki

2012-12-01

From the viewpoint of networks, a ranking system for players or teams in sports is equivalent to a centrality measure for sports networks, whereby a directed link represents the result of a single game. Previously proposed network-based ranking systems are derived from static networks, i.e., aggregation of the results of games over time. However, the score of a player (or team) fluctuates over time. Defeating a renowned player in the peak performance is intuitively more rewarding than defeating the same player in other periods. To account for this factor, we propose a dynamic variant of such a network-based ranking system and apply it to professional men's tennis data. We derive a set of linear online update equations for the score of each player. The proposed ranking system predicts the outcome of the future games with a higher accuracy than the static counterparts.

FSMRank: feature selection algorithm for learning to rank.

PubMed

Lai, Han-Jiang; Pan, Yan; Tang, Yong; Yu, Rong

2013-06-01

In recent years, there has been growing interest in learning to rank. The introduction of feature selection into different learning problems has been proven effective. These facts motivate us to investigate the problem of feature selection for learning to rank. We propose a joint convex optimization formulation which minimizes ranking errors while simultaneously conducting feature selection. This optimization formulation provides a flexible framework in which we can easily incorporate various importance measures and similarity measures of the features. To solve this optimization problem, we use the Nesterov's approach to derive an accelerated gradient algorithm with a fast convergence rate O(1/T(2)). We further develop a generalization bound for the proposed optimization problem using the Rademacher complexities. Extensive experimental evaluations are conducted on the public LETOR benchmark datasets. The results demonstrate that the proposed method shows: 1) significant ranking performance gain compared to several feature selection baselines for ranking, and 2) very competitive performance compared to several state-of-the-art learning-to-rank algorithms.

An Optimization-Based Method for Feature Ranking in Nonlinear Regression Problems.

PubMed

Bravi, Luca; Piccialli, Veronica; Sciandrone, Marco

2017-04-01

In this paper, we consider the feature ranking problem, where, given a set of training instances, the task is to associate a score with the features in order to assess their relevance. Feature ranking is a very important tool for decision support systems, and may be used as an auxiliary step of feature selection to reduce the high dimensionality of real-world data. We focus on regression problems by assuming that the process underlying the generated data can be approximated by a continuous function (for instance, a feedforward neural network). We formally state the notion of relevance of a feature by introducing a minimum zero-norm inversion problem of a neural network, which is a nonsmooth, constrained optimization problem. We employ a concave approximation of the zero-norm function, and we define a smooth, global optimization problem to be solved in order to assess the relevance of the features. We present the new feature ranking method based on the solution of instances of the global optimization problem depending on the available training data. Computational experiments on both artificial and real data sets are performed, and point out that the proposed feature ranking method is a valid alternative to existing methods in terms of effectiveness. The obtained results also show that the method is costly in terms of CPU time, and this may be a limitation in the solution of large-dimensional problems.

AGU journals increase in importance according to 2010 Impact Factors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cook, Bill

2011-07-01

AGU journals continue to rank highly in many categories in the 2010 Journal Citation Report (JCR), which was released by Thomson Reuters on 28 June. JCR reports on several measures of journal usage, including a journal's Eigenfactor score, its Article Influence score, its Impact Factor, and its rank within a cohort of similar journals. According to the 2010 statistics, AGU again has outperformed its larger competitors. Four different AGU titles are ranked in the top three journals in six different cohorts. The Impact Factor of several AGU journals increased significantly over the previous year.

Eleven Years of Data on the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Medical Student Version (JSE-S): Proxy Norm Data and Tentative Cutoff Scores

PubMed Central

Hojat, Mohammadreza; Gonnella, Joseph S.

2015-01-01

Objective This study was designed to provide typical descriptive statistics, score distributions and percentile ranks of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Medical Student version (JSE-S) of male and female medical school matriculants to serve as proxy norm data and tentative cutoff scores. Subjects and Methods The participants were 2,637 students (1,336 women and 1,301 men) who matriculated at Sidney Kimmel (formerly Jefferson) Medical College between 2002 and 2012, and completed the JSE at the beginning of medical school. Information extracted from descriptive statistics, score distributions and percentile ranks for male and female matriculants were used to develop proxy norm data and tentative cutoff scores. Results The score distributions of the JSE tended to be moderately skewed and platykurtic. Women obtained a significantly higher mean score (116.2 ± 9.7) than men (112.3 ± 10.8) on the JSE-S (t2,635 = 9.9, p < 0.01). It was suggested that percentile ranks can be used as proxy norm data. The tentative cutoff score to identify low scorers was ≤95 for men and ≤100 for women. Conclusions Our findings provide norm data and cutoff scores for admission decisions under certain conditions and for identifying students in need of enhancing their empathy. PMID:25924560

New Aspects of Probabilistic Forecast Verification Using Information Theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tödter, Julian; Ahrens, Bodo

2013-04-01

This work deals with information-theoretical methods in probabilistic forecast verification, particularly concerning ensemble forecasts. Recent findings concerning the "Ignorance Score" are shortly reviewed, then a consistent generalization to continuous forecasts is motivated. For ensemble-generated forecasts, the presented measures can be calculated exactly. The Brier Score (BS) and its generalizations to the multi-categorical Ranked Probability Score (RPS) and to the Continuous Ranked Probability Score (CRPS) are prominent verification measures for probabilistic forecasts. Particularly, their decompositions into measures quantifying the reliability, resolution and uncertainty of the forecasts are attractive. Information theory sets up a natural framework for forecast verification. Recently, it has been shown that the BS is a second-order approximation of the information-based Ignorance Score (IGN), which also contains easily interpretable components and can also be generalized to a ranked version (RIGN). Here, the IGN, its generalizations and decompositions are systematically discussed in analogy to the variants of the BS. Additionally, a Continuous Ranked IGN (CRIGN) is introduced in analogy to the CRPS. The useful properties of the conceptually appealing CRIGN are illustrated, together with an algorithm to evaluate its components reliability, resolution, and uncertainty for ensemble-generated forecasts. This algorithm can also be used to calculate the decomposition of the more traditional CRPS exactly. The applicability of the "new" measures is demonstrated in a small evaluation study of ensemble-based precipitation forecasts.

Patient perceptions of glucocorticoid side effects: a cross-sectional survey of users in an online health community.

PubMed

Costello, Ruth; Patel, Rikesh; Humphreys, Jennifer; McBeth, John; Dixon, William G

2017-04-03

To identify the side effects most important to glucocorticoid (GC) users through a survey of a UK online health community (Healthunlocked.com). Online cross-sectional survey. Participants were recruited through Healthunlocked.com, an online social network for health. Adults who were currently taking GCs, or had taken GCs in the past month. Responders scored the importance of listed side effects from 1 to 10, with 10 being of high importance to them. For each side effect, histograms were plotted, and the median rating and IQR were determined. Side effects were ranked by median ranking (largest to smallest) and then IQR (smallest to largest). The scores were categorised as low (scores 1-3), medium (scores 4-7) and high (scores 8-10) importance. 604 responders completed the survey. Histograms of side effect scores showed a skew towards high importance for weight gain, a U-shaped distribution for cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, eye disease and infections, and a skew towards low importance for acne. When ranked, the side effect of most importance to responders was weight gain (median score=9, IQR 6-10) followed by insomnia and moon face with equal median score (8) and IQR (5-10). Three serious side effects, CVD, diabetes and infections, were ranked of lower importance overall but had wide ranging scores (median score=8, IQR 1-10). The three most highly rated side effects were not clinically serious but remained important to patients, perhaps reflecting their impact on quality of life and high prevalence. This should be taken into consideration when discussing treatment options and planning future GC safety studies. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Proposed Project Selection Method for Human Support Research and Technology Development (HSR&TD)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jones, Harry

2005-01-01

The purpose of HSR&TD is to deliver human support technologies to the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) that will be selected for future missions. This requires identifying promising candidate technologies and advancing them in technology readiness until they are acceptable. HSR&TD must select an may of technology development projects, guide them, and either terminate or continue them, so as to maximize the resulting number of usable advanced human support technologies. This paper proposes an effective project scoring methodology to support managing the HSR&TD project portfolio. Researchers strongly disagree as to what are the best technology project selection methods, or even if there are any proven ones. Technology development is risky and outstanding achievements are rare and unpredictable. There is no simple formula for success. Organizations that are satisfied with their project selection approach typically use a mix of financial, strategic, and scoring methods in an open, established, explicit, formal process. This approach helps to build consensus and develop management insight. It encourages better project proposals by clarifying the desired project attributes. We propose a project scoring technique based on a method previously used in a federal laboratory and supported by recent research. Projects are ranked by their perceived relevance, risk, and return - a new 3 R's. Relevance is the degree to which the project objective supports the HSR&TD goal of developing usable advanced human support technologies. Risk is the estimated probability that the project will achieve its specific objective. Return is the reduction in mission life cycle cost obtained if the project is successful. If the project objective technology performs a new function with no current cost, its return is the estimated cash value of performing the new function. The proposed project selection scoring method includes definitions of the criteria, a project evaluation questionnaire, and a scoring formula.

A Different Approach to University Rankings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tofallis, Chris

2012-01-01

Educationalists are well able to find fault with rankings on numerous grounds and may reject them outright. However, given that they are here to stay, we could also try to improve them wherever possible. All currently published university rankings combine various measures to produce an overall score using an additive approach. The individual…

De-Mystifying the "U.S. News" Rankings: How to Understand What Matters, What Doesn't and What You Can Actually Do about It

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brennan, Joe; Brodnick, Robert; Pinckley, Diana

2008-01-01

College rankings present challenges and opportunities for higher education marketers. Statistical analysis of data on the national universities reveals which measures are associated with peer assessment scores, whether it is possible to influence the score, and what underlying factors are present. Marketers can use the findings to counsel senior…

Determinants of Undergraduate GPAs: SAT Scores, High-School GPA and High-School Rank

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohn, Elchanan; Cohn, Sharon; Balch, Donald C.; Bradley, James, Jr.

2004-01-01

The primary purpose of the study is to assess the degree to which SAT scores, high-school GPA (HSGPA) and class rank predict success in college. Data collected from students enrolled in several sections of Principles of Economics at the University of South Carolina in 2000 and 2001 are used to study the relation between college GPA (the dependent…

Quantum anonymous ranking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Wei; Wen, Qiao-Yan; Liu, Bin; Su, Qi; Qin, Su-Juan; Gao, Fei

2014-03-01

Anonymous ranking is a kind of privacy-preserving ranking whereby each of the involved participants can correctly and anonymously get the rankings of his data. It can be utilized to solve many practical problems, such as anonymously ranking the students' exam scores. We investigate the issue of how quantum mechanics can be of use in maintaining the anonymity of the participants in multiparty ranking and present a series of quantum anonymous multiparty, multidata ranking protocols. In each of these protocols, a participant can get the correct rankings of his data and nobody else can match the identity to his data. Furthermore, the security of these protocols with respect to different kinds of attacks is proved.

Facial Aesthetic Outcomes of Cleft Surgery: Assessment of Discrete Lip and Nose Images Compared with Digital Symmetry Analysis.

PubMed

Deall, Ciara E; Kornmann, Nirvana S S; Bella, Husam; Wallis, Katy L; Hardwicke, Joseph T; Su, Ting-Li; Richard, Bruce M

2016-10-01

High-quality aesthetic outcomes are of paramount importance to children growing up after cleft lip and palate surgery. Establishing a validated and reliable assessment tool for cleft professionals and families will facilitate cleft units, surgeons, techniques, and protocols to be audited and compared with greater confidence. This study used exemplar images across a five-point aesthetic scale, identified in a pilot project, to score lips and noses as separate units and compared these human scores with computer-based SymNose symmetry scores. Forty-five assessors (17 cleft surgeons nationally and 28 other cleft professionals from the UK South West Tri-centre units), scored 25 standardized photographs, uploaded randomly onto a Web-based platform, twice. Each photograph was shown in three forms: lip and nose together, and separately cropped images of nose only and lip only. The same images were analyzed using the SymNose software program. Scoring lips gave the best intrarater and interrater reliabilities. Nose scores were more variable. Lip scoring associated most closely with the whole-image score. SymNose ranking of the lip images related highly to the same ranking by humans (p = 0.001). The exemplar images maintained their established previous ranking. Images illustrating the aesthetic outcome grades are confirmed. The lip score is reliable and seems to dominate in the whole-image score. Noses are much harder to score reliably. It appears that SymNose can score lip images very effectively by symmetry. Further use of SymNose will be investigated, and families of children with cleft will trial the scoring system. Therapeutic, III.

A multicriteria-based methodology for site prioritisation in sediment management.

PubMed

Alvarez-Guerra, Manuel; Viguri, Javier R; Voulvoulis, Nikolaos

2009-08-01

Decision-making for sediment management is a complex task that incorporates the selections of areas for remediation and the assessment of options for any mitigation required. The application of Multicriteria Analysis (MCA) to rank different areas, according to their need for sediment management, provides a great opportunity for prioritisation, a first step in an integrated methodology that finally aims to assess and select suitable alternatives for managing the identified priority sites. This paper develops a methodology that starts with the delimitation of management units within areas of study, followed by the application of MCA methods that allows ranking of these management units, according to their need for remediation. This proposed process considers not only scientific evidence on sediment quality, but also other relevant aspects such as social and economic criteria associated with such decisions. This methodology is illustrated with its application to the case study area of the Bay of Santander, in northern Spain, highlighting some of the implications of utilising different MCA methods in the process. It also uses site-specific data to assess the subjectivity in the decision-making process, mainly reflected through the assignment of the criteria weights and uncertainties in the criteria scores. Analysis of the sensitivity of the results to these factors is used as a way to assess the stability and robustness of the ranking as a first step of the sediment management decision-making process.

Using binary classification to prioritize and curate articles for the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database.

PubMed

Vishnyakova, Dina; Pasche, Emilie; Ruch, Patrick

2012-01-01

We report on the original integration of an automatic text categorization pipeline, so-called ToxiCat (Toxicogenomic Categorizer), that we developed to perform biomedical documents classification and prioritization in order to speed up the curation of the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD). The task can be basically described as a binary classification task, where a scoring function is used to rank a selected set of articles. Then components of a question-answering system are used to extract CTD-specific annotations from the ranked list of articles. The ranking function is generated using a Support Vector Machine, which combines three main modules: an information retrieval engine for MEDLINE (EAGLi), a gene normalization service (NormaGene) developed for a previous BioCreative campaign and finally, a set of answering components and entity recognizer for diseases and chemicals. The main components of the pipeline are publicly available both as web application and web services. The specific integration performed for the BioCreative competition is available via a web user interface at http://pingu.unige.ch:8080/Toxicat.

Analysis of high-throughput biological data using their rank values.

PubMed

Dembélé, Doulaye

2018-01-01

High-throughput biological technologies are routinely used to generate gene expression profiling or cytogenetics data. To achieve high performance, methods available in the literature become more specialized and often require high computational resources. Here, we propose a new versatile method based on the data-ordering rank values. We use linear algebra, the Perron-Frobenius theorem and also extend a method presented earlier for searching differentially expressed genes for the detection of recurrent copy number aberration. A result derived from the proposed method is a one-sample Student's t-test based on rank values. The proposed method is to our knowledge the only that applies to gene expression profiling and to cytogenetics data sets. This new method is fast, deterministic, and requires a low computational load. Probabilities are associated with genes to allow a statistically significant subset selection in the data set. Stability scores are also introduced as quality parameters. The performance and comparative analyses were carried out using real data sets. The proposed method can be accessed through an R package available from the CRAN (Comprehensive R Archive Network) website: https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/fcros .

14 CFR 1214.1105 - Final ranking.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... Recruitment and Selection Program § 1214.1105 Final ranking. Final rankings will be based on a combination of the selection board's initial evaluations and the results of the interview process. Veteran's...

ToxReporter: viewing the genome through the eyes of a toxicologist.

PubMed

Gosink, Mark

2016-01-01

One of the many roles of a toxicologist is to determine if an observed adverse event (AE) is related to a previously unrecognized function of a given gene/protein. Towards that end, he or she will search a variety of public and propriety databases for information linking that protein to the observed AE. However, these databases tend to present all available information about a protein, which can be overwhelming, limiting the ability to find information about the specific toxicity being investigated. ToxReporter compiles information from a broad selection of resources and limits display of the information to user-selected areas of interest. ToxReporter is a PERL-based web-application which utilizes a MySQL database to streamline this process by categorizing public and proprietary domain-derived information into predefined safety categories according to a customizable lexicon. Users can view gene information that is 'red-flagged' according to the safety issue under investigation. ToxReporter also uses a scoring system based on relative counts of the red-flags to rank all genes for the amount of information pertaining to each safety issue and to display their scored ranking as an easily interpretable 'Tox-At-A-Glance' chart. Although ToxReporter was originally developed to display safety information, its flexible design could easily be adapted to display disease information as well.Database URL: ToxReporter is freely available at https://github.com/mgosink/ToxReporter. © The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

PSSP-RFE: accurate prediction of protein structural class by recursive feature extraction from PSI-BLAST profile, physical-chemical property and functional annotations.

PubMed

Li, Liqi; Cui, Xiang; Yu, Sanjiu; Zhang, Yuan; Luo, Zhong; Yang, Hua; Zhou, Yue; Zheng, Xiaoqi

2014-01-01

Protein structure prediction is critical to functional annotation of the massively accumulated biological sequences, which prompts an imperative need for the development of high-throughput technologies. As a first and key step in protein structure prediction, protein structural class prediction becomes an increasingly challenging task. Amongst most homological-based approaches, the accuracies of protein structural class prediction are sufficiently high for high similarity datasets, but still far from being satisfactory for low similarity datasets, i.e., below 40% in pairwise sequence similarity. Therefore, we present a novel method for accurate and reliable protein structural class prediction for both high and low similarity datasets. This method is based on Support Vector Machine (SVM) in conjunction with integrated features from position-specific score matrix (PSSM), PROFEAT and Gene Ontology (GO). A feature selection approach, SVM-RFE, is also used to rank the integrated feature vectors through recursively removing the feature with the lowest ranking score. The definitive top features selected by SVM-RFE are input into the SVM engines to predict the structural class of a query protein. To validate our method, jackknife tests were applied to seven widely used benchmark datasets, reaching overall accuracies between 84.61% and 99.79%, which are significantly higher than those achieved by state-of-the-art tools. These results suggest that our method could serve as an accurate and cost-effective alternative to existing methods in protein structural classification, especially for low similarity datasets.

Ranking of Palliative Care Development in the Countries of the European Union.

PubMed

Woitha, Kathrin; Garralda, Eduardo; Martin-Moreno, Jose María; Clark, David; Centeno, Carlos

2016-09-01

There is growing interest in monitoring palliative care (PC) development internationally. One aspect of this is the ranking of such development for comparative purposes. To generate a ranking classification and to compare scores for PC development in the countries of the European Union, 2007 and 2013. PC "development" in this study is understood as a combination of the existence of relevant services in a country ("resources") plus the capacity to develop further resources in the future ("vitality"). "Resources" comprise indicators of three types of PC services per population (inpatient palliative care units and inpatient hospices, hospital support teams, and home care teams). "Vitality" of PC is estimated by numerical scores for the existence of a national association, a directory of services, physician accreditation, attendances at a key European conference and volume of publications on PC development. The leading country (by raw score) is then considered as the reference point against which all other countries are measured. Different weightings are applied to resources (75%) and vitality (25%). From this, an overall ranking is constructed. The U.K. achieved the highest level of development (86% of the maximum possible score), followed by Belgium and overall The Netherlands (81%), and Sweden (80%). In the resources domain, Luxembourg, the U.K., and Belgium were leading. The top countries in vitality were Germany and the U.K. In comparison to 2007, The Netherlands, Malta, and Portugal showed the biggest improvements, whereas the positions of Spain, France, and Greece deteriorated. The ranking method permitted a comparison of palliative care development between countries and shows changes over time. Recommendations for improving the ranking include improvements to the methodology and greater explanation of the levels and changes it reveals. Copyright © 2016 Universidad Navarra. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

QUASAR--scoring and ranking of sequence-structure alignments.

PubMed

Birzele, Fabian; Gewehr, Jan E; Zimmer, Ralf

2005-12-15

Sequence-structure alignments are a common means for protein structure prediction in the fields of fold recognition and homology modeling, and there is a broad variety of programs that provide such alignments based on sequence similarity, secondary structure or contact potentials. Nevertheless, finding the best sequence-structure alignment in a pool of alignments remains a difficult problem. QUASAR (quality of sequence-structure alignments ranking) provides a unifying framework for scoring sequence-structure alignments that aids finding well-performing combinations of well-known and custom-made scoring schemes. Those scoring functions can be benchmarked against widely accepted quality scores like MaxSub, TMScore, Touch and APDB, thus enabling users to test their own alignment scores against 'standard-of-truth' structure-based scores. Furthermore, individual score combinations can be optimized with respect to benchmark sets based on known structural relationships using QUASAR's in-built optimization routines.

Minority Student Academic Performance under the Uniform Admission Law: Evidence from the University of Texas at Austin.

PubMed

Niu, Sunny X; Tienda, Marta

2010-03-01

UT-Austin administrative data between 1990 and 2003 are used to evaluate claims that students granted automatic admission based on top 10% class rank underperform academically relative to lower ranked students who graduate from highly competitive high schools. Compared with white students ranked at or below the third decile, top 10% black and Hispanic enrollees arrive with lower average standardized test scores, yet consistently performed as well or better in grades, first year persistence, and four-year graduation likelihood. A similar story obtains for top 10% graduates from Longhorn high schools verses lower-ranked students who graduated from highly competitive feeder high schools. Multivariate results reveal that high school attended rather than test scores is largely responsible for racial differences in college performance.

Designing experiments on thermal interactions by secondary-school students in a simulated laboratory environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lefkos, Ioannis; Psillos, Dimitris; Hatzikraniotis, Euripides

2011-07-01

Background and purpose: The aim of this study was to explore the effect of investigative activities with manipulations in a virtual laboratory on students' ability to design experiments. Sample Fourteen students in a lower secondary school in Greece attended a teaching sequence on thermal phenomena based on the use of information and communication technology, and specifically of the simulated virtual laboratory 'ThermoLab'. Design and methods A pre-post comparison was applied. Students' design of experiments was rated in eight dimensions; namely, hypothesis forming and verification, selection of variables, initial conditions, device settings, materials and devices used, process and phenomena description. A three-level ranking scheme was employed for the evaluation of students' answers in each dimension. Results A Wilcoxon signed-rank test revealed a statistically significant difference between the students' pre- and post-test scores. Additional analysis by comparing the pre- and post-test scores using the Hake gain showed high gains in all but one dimension, which suggests that this improvement was almost inclusive. Conclusions We consider that our findings support the statement that there was an improvement in students' ability to design experiments.

Evaluation and selection of open-source EMR software packages based on integrated AHP and TOPSIS.

PubMed

Zaidan, A A; Zaidan, B B; Al-Haiqi, Ahmed; Kiah, M L M; Hussain, Muzammil; Abdulnabi, Mohamed

2015-02-01

Evaluating and selecting software packages that meet the requirements of an organization are difficult aspects of software engineering process. Selecting the wrong open-source EMR software package can be costly and may adversely affect business processes and functioning of the organization. This study aims to evaluate and select open-source EMR software packages based on multi-criteria decision-making. A hands-on study was performed and a set of open-source EMR software packages were implemented locally on separate virtual machines to examine the systems more closely. Several measures as evaluation basis were specified, and the systems were selected based a set of metric outcomes using Integrated Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and TOPSIS. The experimental results showed that GNUmed and OpenEMR software can provide better basis on ranking score records than other open-source EMR software packages. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Identification of Genes Involved in Breast Cancer Metastasis by Integrating Protein-Protein Interaction Information with Expression Data.

PubMed

Tian, Xin; Xin, Mingyuan; Luo, Jian; Liu, Mingyao; Jiang, Zhenran

2017-02-01

The selection of relevant genes for breast cancer metastasis is critical for the treatment and prognosis of cancer patients. Although much effort has been devoted to the gene selection procedures by use of different statistical analysis methods or computational techniques, the interpretation of the variables in the resulting survival models has been limited so far. This article proposes a new Random Forest (RF)-based algorithm to identify important variables highly related with breast cancer metastasis, which is based on the important scores of two variable selection algorithms, including the mean decrease Gini (MDG) criteria of Random Forest and the GeneRank algorithm with protein-protein interaction (PPI) information. The new gene selection algorithm can be called PPIRF. The improved prediction accuracy fully illustrated the reliability and high interpretability of gene list selected by the PPIRF approach.

Viewer discretion advised: is YouTube a friend or foe in surgical education?

PubMed

Rodriguez, H Alejandro; Young, Monica T; Jackson, Hope T; Oelschlager, Brant K; Wright, Andrew S

2018-04-01

In the current era, trainees frequently use unvetted online resources for their own education, including viewing surgical videos on YouTube. While operative videos are an important resource in surgical education, YouTube content is not selected or organized by quality but instead is ranked by popularity and other factors. This creates a potential for videos that feature poor technique or critical safety violations to become the most viewed for a given procedure. A YouTube search for "Laparoscopic cholecystectomy" was performed. Search results were screened to exclude animations and lectures; the top ten operative videos were evaluated. Three reviewers independently analyzed each of the 10 videos. Technical skill was rated using the GOALS score. Establishment of a critical view of safety (CVS) was scored according to CVS "doublet view" score, where a score of ≥5 points (out of 6) is considered satisfactory. Videos were also screened for safety concerns not listed by the previous tools. Median competence score was 8 (±1.76) and difficulty was 2 (±1.8). GOALS score median was 18 (±3.4). Only one video achieved adequate critical view of safety; median CVS score was 2 (range 0-6). Five videos were noted to have other potentially dangerous safety violations, including placing hot ultrasonic shears on the duodenum, non-clipping of the cystic artery, blind dissection in the hepatocystic triangle, and damage to the liver capsule. Top ranked laparoscopic cholecystectomy videos on YouTube show suboptimal technique with half of videos demonstrating concerning maneuvers and only one in ten having an adequate critical view of safety. While observing operative videos can be an important learning tool, surgical educators should be aware of the low quality of popular videos on YouTube. Dissemination of high-quality content on video sharing platforms should be a priority for surgical societies.

43 CFR 3420.3-4 - Regional tract ranking, selection, environmental analysis and scheduling.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 43 Public Lands: Interior 2 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Regional tract ranking, selection...) COMPETITIVE LEASING Competitive Leasing § 3420.3-4 Regional tract ranking, selection, environmental analysis... natural environment; and socioeconomic impacts. The subfactors the regional coal team will consider under...

Optimizing data collection for public health decisions: a data mining approach

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Collecting data can be cumbersome and expensive. Lack of relevant, accurate and timely data for research to inform policy may negatively impact public health. The aim of this study was to test if the careful removal of items from two community nutrition surveys guided by a data mining technique called feature selection, can (a) identify a reduced dataset, while (b) not damaging the signal inside that data. Methods The Nutrition Environment Measures Surveys for stores (NEMS-S) and restaurants (NEMS-R) were completed on 885 retail food outlets in two counties in West Virginia between May and November of 2011. A reduced dataset was identified for each outlet type using feature selection. Coefficients from linear regression modeling were used to weight items in the reduced datasets. Weighted item values were summed with the error term to compute reduced item survey scores. Scores produced by the full survey were compared to the reduced item scores using a Wilcoxon rank-sum test. Results Feature selection identified 9 store and 16 restaurant survey items as significant predictors of the score produced from the full survey. The linear regression models built from the reduced feature sets had R2 values of 92% and 94% for restaurant and grocery store data, respectively. Conclusions While there are many potentially important variables in any domain, the most useful set may only be a small subset. The use of feature selection in the initial phase of data collection to identify the most influential variables may be a useful tool to greatly reduce the amount of data needed thereby reducing cost. PMID:24919484

Optimizing data collection for public health decisions: a data mining approach.

PubMed

Partington, Susan N; Papakroni, Vasil; Menzies, Tim

2014-06-12

Collecting data can be cumbersome and expensive. Lack of relevant, accurate and timely data for research to inform policy may negatively impact public health. The aim of this study was to test if the careful removal of items from two community nutrition surveys guided by a data mining technique called feature selection, can (a) identify a reduced dataset, while (b) not damaging the signal inside that data. The Nutrition Environment Measures Surveys for stores (NEMS-S) and restaurants (NEMS-R) were completed on 885 retail food outlets in two counties in West Virginia between May and November of 2011. A reduced dataset was identified for each outlet type using feature selection. Coefficients from linear regression modeling were used to weight items in the reduced datasets. Weighted item values were summed with the error term to compute reduced item survey scores. Scores produced by the full survey were compared to the reduced item scores using a Wilcoxon rank-sum test. Feature selection identified 9 store and 16 restaurant survey items as significant predictors of the score produced from the full survey. The linear regression models built from the reduced feature sets had R2 values of 92% and 94% for restaurant and grocery store data, respectively. While there are many potentially important variables in any domain, the most useful set may only be a small subset. The use of feature selection in the initial phase of data collection to identify the most influential variables may be a useful tool to greatly reduce the amount of data needed thereby reducing cost.

QMEANclust: estimation of protein model quality by combining a composite scoring function with structural density information.

PubMed

Benkert, Pascal; Schwede, Torsten; Tosatto, Silvio Ce

2009-05-20

The selection of the most accurate protein model from a set of alternatives is a crucial step in protein structure prediction both in template-based and ab initio approaches. Scoring functions have been developed which can either return a quality estimate for a single model or derive a score from the information contained in the ensemble of models for a given sequence. Local structural features occurring more frequently in the ensemble have a greater probability of being correct. Within the context of the CASP experiment, these so called consensus methods have been shown to perform considerably better in selecting good candidate models, but tend to fail if the best models are far from the dominant structural cluster. In this paper we show that model selection can be improved if both approaches are combined by pre-filtering the models used during the calculation of the structural consensus. Our recently published QMEAN composite scoring function has been improved by including an all-atom interaction potential term. The preliminary model ranking based on the new QMEAN score is used to select a subset of reliable models against which the structural consensus score is calculated. This scoring function called QMEANclust achieves a correlation coefficient of predicted quality score and GDT_TS of 0.9 averaged over the 98 CASP7 targets and perform significantly better in selecting good models from the ensemble of server models than any other groups participating in the quality estimation category of CASP7. Both scoring functions are also benchmarked on the MOULDER test set consisting of 20 target proteins each with 300 alternatives models generated by MODELLER. QMEAN outperforms all other tested scoring functions operating on individual models, while the consensus method QMEANclust only works properly on decoy sets containing a certain fraction of near-native conformations. We also present a local version of QMEAN for the per-residue estimation of model quality (QMEANlocal) and compare it to a new local consensus-based approach. Improved model selection is obtained by using a composite scoring function operating on single models in order to enrich higher quality models which are subsequently used to calculate the structural consensus. The performance of consensus-based methods such as QMEANclust highly depends on the composition and quality of the model ensemble to be analysed. Therefore, performance estimates for consensus methods based on large meta-datasets (e.g. CASP) might overrate their applicability in more realistic modelling situations with smaller sets of models based on individual methods.

A ranking system for prescribed burn prioritization in Table Mountain National Park, South Africa.

PubMed

Cowell, Carly Ruth; Cheney, Chad

2017-04-01

To aid prescribed burn decision making in Table Mountain National Park, in South Africa a priority ranking system was tested. Historically a wildfire suppression strategy was adopted due to wildfires threatening urban areas close to the park, with few prescribed burns conducted. A large percentage of vegetation across the park exceeded the ecological threshold of 15 years. We held a multidisciplinary workshop, to prioritize areas for prescribed burning. Fire Management Blocks were mapped and assessed using the following seven categories: (1) ecological, (2) management, (3) tourism, (4) infrastructure, (5) invasive alien vegetation, (6) wildland-urban interface and (7) heritage. A priority ranking system was used to score each block. The oldest or most threatened vegetation types were not necessarily the top priority blocks. Selected blocks were burnt and burning fewer large blocks proved more effective economically, ecologically and practically due to the limited burning days permitted. The prioritization process was efficient as it could be updated annually following prescribed burns and wildfire incidents. Integration of prescribed burn planning and wildfire suppression strategies resulted in a reduction in operational costs. We recommend protected areas make use of a priority ranking system developed with expert knowledge and stakeholder engagement to determine objective prescribed burn plans. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection criteria of residents for residency programs in Kuwait

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background In Kuwait, 21 residency training programs were offered in the year 2011; however, no data is available regarding the criteria of selecting residents for these programs. This study aims to provide information about the importance of these criteria. Methods A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from members (e.g. chairmen, directors, assistants …etc.) of residency programs in Kuwait. A total of 108 members were invited to participate. They were asked to rate the importance level (scale from 1 to 5) of criteria that may affect the acceptance of an applicant to their residency programs. Average scores were calculated for each criterion. Results Of the 108 members invited to participate, only 12 (11.1%) declined to participate. Interview performance was ranked as the most important criteria for selecting residents (average score: 4.63/5.00), followed by grade point average (average score: 3.78/5.00) and honors during medical school (average score: 3.67/5.00). On the other hand, receiving disciplinary action during medical school and failure in a required clerkship were considered as the most concerning among other criteria used to reject applicants (average scores: 3.83/5.00 and 3.54/5.00 respectively). Minor differences regarding the importance level of each criterion were noted across different programs. Conclusions This study provided general information about the criteria that are used to accept/reject applicants to residency programs in Kuwait. Future studies should be conducted to investigate each criterion individually, and to assess if these criteria are related to residents' success during their training. PMID:23331670

Critical Appraisal of Emergency Medicine Education Research: The Best Publications of 2014.

PubMed

Yarris, Lalena M; Juve, Amy Miller; Coates, Wendy C; Fisher, Jonathan; Heitz, Corey; Shayne, Philip; Farrell, Susan E

2015-11-01

The objective was to critically appraise and highlight rigorous education research study articles published in 2014 whose outcomes advance the science of emergency medicine (EM) education. A search of the English language literature in 2014 querying Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), PsychINFO, PubMed, and Scopus identified 243 EM-related articles using either quantitative (hypothesis-testing or observational investigations of educational interventions) or qualitative (exploring important phenomena in EM education) methods. Two reviewers independently screened all of the publications using previously established exclusion criteria. Six reviewers then independently scored the 25 selected publications using either a qualitative or a quantitative scoring system. Each scoring system consisted of nine criteria. Selected criteria were based on accepted educational review literature and chosen a priori. Both scoring systems use parallel scoring metrics and have been used previously within this annual review. Twenty-five medical education research papers (22 quantitative, three qualitative) met the criteria for inclusion and were reviewed. Five quantitative and two qualitative studies were ranked most highly by the reviewers as exemplary and are summarized in this article. This annual critical appraisal series highlights seven excellent EM education research studies, meeting a priori criteria and published in 2014. Methodologic strengths in the 2014 papers are noted, and current trends in medical education research in EM are discussed. © 2015 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

Discrimination Level of Students' Ratio, Number of Students per Faculty Member and Article Scores Indicators According to Place of Turkish Universities in International Ranking Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Özkan, Metin

2016-01-01

The aim of this research is to determine classification in which the level of accuracy in Turkish universities rankings is detected by the international assessments according to the independent variables PhD students ratio, the number of students per faculty member and the article scores. The data of research were obtained from University Ranking…

Clinical use of the ABO-Scoring Index: reliability and subtraction frequency.

PubMed

Lieber, William S; Carlson, Sean K; Baumrind, Sheldon; Poulton, Donald R

2003-10-01

This study tested the reliability and subtraction frequency of the study model-scoring system of the American Board of Orthodontists (ABO). We used a sample of 36 posttreatment study models that were selected randomly from six different orthodontic offices. Intrajudge and interjudge reliability was calculated using nonparametric statistics (Spearman rank coefficient, Wilcoxon, Kruskal-Wallis, and Mann-Whitney tests). We found differences ranging from 3 to 6 subtraction points (total score) for intrajudge scoring between two sessions. For overall total ABO score, the average correlation was .77. Intrajudge correlation was greatest for occlusal relationships and least for interproximal contacts. Interjudge correlation for ABO score averaged r = .85. Correlation was greatest for buccolingual inclination and least for overjet. The data show that some judges, on average, were much more lenient than others and that this resulted in a range of total scores between 19.7 and 27.5. Most of the deductions were found in the buccal segments and most were related to the second molars. We present these findings in the context of clinicians preparing for the ABO phase III examination and for orthodontists in their ongoing evaluation of clinical results.

pROC-Chemotype Plots Enhance the Interpretability of Benchmarking Results in Structure-Based Virtual Screening.

PubMed

Ibrahim, Tamer M; Bauer, Matthias R; Dörr, Alexander; Veyisoglu, Erdem; Boeckler, Frank M

2015-11-23

Recently, we have reported a systematic comparison of molecular preparation protocols (using MOE or Maestro) in combination with two docking tools (GOLD or Glide), employing our DEKOIS 2.0 benchmark sets. Herein, we demonstrate how comparable settings of data preparation protocols can affect the profile and AUC of pROC curves based on variations in chemotype enrichment. We show how the recognition of different classes of chemotypes can affect the docking performance, particularly in the early enrichment, and monitor changes in this recognition behavior based on score normalization and rescoring strategies. For this, we have developed "pROC-Chemotype", which is an automated protocol that matches and visualizes ligand chemotype information together with potency classes in the pROC profiles obtained by docking. This tool enhances the understanding of the influence of chemotype recognition in early enrichment, but also reveals trends of impaired recognition of chemotype classes at the end of the score-ordered rank. Identifying such issues helps to devise score-normalization strategies to overcome this potential bias in an intuitive manner. Furthermore, strong perturbations in chemotype ranking between different methods can help to identify the underlying reasons (e.g., changes in the protonation/tautomerization state). It also assists in the selection of appropriate scoring functions that are capable to retrieve more potent and diverse hits. In summary, we demonstrate how this new tool can be utilized to identify and highlight chemotype-specific behavior, e.g., in dataset preparation. This can help to overcome some chemistry-related bias in virtual screening campaigns. pROC-Chemotype is made freely available at www.dekois.com.

Two-Way Gene Interaction From Microarray Data Based on Correlation Methods.

PubMed

Alavi Majd, Hamid; Talebi, Atefeh; Gilany, Kambiz; Khayyer, Nasibeh

2016-06-01

Gene networks have generated a massive explosion in the development of high-throughput techniques for monitoring various aspects of gene activity. Networks offer a natural way to model interactions between genes, and extracting gene network information from high-throughput genomic data is an important and difficult task. The purpose of this study is to construct a two-way gene network based on parametric and nonparametric correlation coefficients. The first step in constructing a Gene Co-expression Network is to score all pairs of gene vectors. The second step is to select a score threshold and connect all gene pairs whose scores exceed this value. In the foundation-application study, we constructed two-way gene networks using nonparametric methods, such as Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and Blomqvist's measure, and compared them with Pearson's correlation coefficient. We surveyed six genes of venous thrombosis disease, made a matrix entry representing the score for the corresponding gene pair, and obtained two-way interactions using Pearson's correlation, Spearman's rank correlation, and Blomqvist's coefficient. Finally, these methods were compared with Cytoscape, based on BIND, and Gene Ontology, based on molecular function visual methods; R software version 3.2 and Bioconductor were used to perform these methods. Based on the Pearson and Spearman correlations, the results were the same and were confirmed by Cytoscape and GO visual methods; however, Blomqvist's coefficient was not confirmed by visual methods. Some results of the correlation coefficients are not the same with visualization. The reason may be due to the small number of data.

University Rankings: How Well Do They Measure Library Service Quality?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Brian

2015-01-01

University rankings play an increasingly large role in shaping the goals of academic institutions and departments, while removing universities themselves from the evaluation process. This study compares the library-related results of two university ranking publications with scores on the LibQUAL+™ survey to identify if library service quality--as…

Misleading University Rankings: Cause and Cure for Discrepancies between Nominal and Attained Weights

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soh, Kaycheng

2013-01-01

Recent research into university ranking methodologies uncovered several methodological problems among the systems currently in vogue. One of these is the discrepancy between the nominal and attained weights. The problem is the summation of unstandardized indicators for the total scores used in ranking. It is demonstrated that weight discrepancy…

Exploring methodological frameworks for a mental task-based near-infrared spectroscopy brain-computer interface.

PubMed

Weyand, Sabine; Takehara-Nishiuchi, Kaori; Chau, Tom

2015-10-30

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) enable users to interact with their environment using only cognitive activities. This paper presents the results of a comparison of four methodological frameworks used to select a pair of tasks to control a binary NIRS-BCI; specifically, three novel personalized task paradigms and the state-of-the-art prescribed task framework were explored. Three types of personalized task selection approaches were compared, including: user-selected mental tasks using weighted slope scores (WS-scores), user-selected mental tasks using pair-wise accuracy rankings (PWAR), and researcher-selected mental tasks using PWAR. These paradigms, along with the state-of-the-art prescribed mental task framework, where mental tasks are selected based on the most commonly used tasks in literature, were tested by ten able-bodied participants who took part in five NIRS-BCI sessions. The frameworks were compared in terms of their accuracy, perceived ease-of-use, computational time, user preference, and length of training. Most notably, researcher-selected personalized tasks resulted in significantly higher accuracies, while user-selected personalized tasks resulted in significantly higher perceived ease-of-use. It was also concluded that PWAR minimized the amount of data that needed to be collected; while, WS-scores maximized user satisfaction and minimized computational time. In comparison to the state-of-the-art prescribed mental tasks, our findings show that overall, personalized tasks appear to be superior to prescribed tasks with respect to accuracy and perceived ease-of-use. The deployment of personalized rather than prescribed mental tasks ought to be considered and further investigated in future NIRS-BCI studies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[Mediator effect analysis of the trait coping style on job stress and fatigue of the military personnel stationed in plateau and high cold region].

PubMed

Zhang, J J; Jia, J M; Tao, N; Song, Z X; Ge, H; Jiang, Y; Tian, H; Qiu, E C; Tang, J H; Liu, J W

2017-03-20

Objective: To investigate the fatigue status of military personnel stationed in plateau and high cold region, and to analyze the mediator effect of trait coping style on job stress and fatigue. Methods: In October 2010, with the method of cluster random sampling survey, 531 military personnel stationed in plateau and high cold region were chosen as subject. The fatigue status were evaluated by the Chinese version multidimensional fatigue inventory (MFI-20) , job stress were evaluated by the Job Stress Survey (JSS) , and trait coping style were evaluated by the Trait Coping Style Questionnaire (TCSQ) . Results: According to the information of different population characteristics, mean rank of physical fatigue about the urban (town) group were higher than that of rural group ( Z =-2.200, P <0.05) ; mean rank of reduced motivation about the urban (town) group were higher than that of rural group ( Z =-2.781, P <0.05) ; mean rank of general fatigue scores about the urban (town) group were higher than that of rural group ( Z =-3.026, P <0.05) ; mean rank of physical fatigue about the up or equal 20-years old age group were higher than that of below 20-years old age group ( Z =-4.045, P <0.05) ; mean rank of reduced motivation about the up or equal 20-years old age group were higher than that of below 20-years old age group ( Z =-2.182, P <0.05) ; mean rank of mental fatigue about the up or equal 20-years old age group were higher than that of below 20-years old age group ( Z =-2.879, P <0.05) ; mean rank of general fatigue scores about the up or equal 20-years old age group were higher than that of below 20-years old age group ( Z =-3.647, P <0.05) ; mean rank of reduced motivation were significant statistical difference among the military officers, sergeancy and soldier group ( F =18.965, P <0.05) ; mean rank of general fatigue scores were significant statistical difference among the military officers, sergeancy and soldier group ( F =14.711, P <0.05) . The score of negative coping style were positively correlated with the score of physical fatigue ( r (s)=0.129) , reduced activity ( r (s)=0.123) , reduced motivation ( r (s)=0.149) and general fatigue ( r (s)=0.174) respectively, the score of organizational support lack strength were positively correlated with the score of physical fatigue ( r (s)=0.090) , reduced activity ( r (s)=0.098) , reduced motivation ( r (s)=0.099) and general fatigue ( r (s)=0.130) respectively. The mediator effect of negative coping style on the job stress and fatigue was 0.013 ( P <0.01) . Conclusion: The fatigue statuses of the urban (town) group and the up or equal 20-years old age group are poor, and the negative coping style plays mediator effect on the job stress and fatigue.

A New Direction of Cancer Classification: Positive Effect of Low-Ranking MicroRNAs.

PubMed

Li, Feifei; Piao, Minghao; Piao, Yongjun; Li, Meijing; Ryu, Keun Ho

2014-10-01

Many studies based on microRNA (miRNA) expression profiles showed a new aspect of cancer classification. Because one characteristic of miRNA expression data is the high dimensionality, feature selection methods have been used to facilitate dimensionality reduction. The feature selection methods have one shortcoming thus far: they just consider the problem of where feature to class is 1:1 or n:1. However, because one miRNA may influence more than one type of cancer, human miRNA is considered to be ranked low in traditional feature selection methods and are removed most of the time. In view of the limitation of the miRNA number, low-ranking miRNAs are also important to cancer classification. We considered both high- and low-ranking features to cover all problems (1:1, n:1, 1:n, and m:n) in cancer classification. First, we used the correlation-based feature selection method to select the high-ranking miRNAs, and chose the support vector machine, Bayes network, decision tree, k-nearest-neighbor, and logistic classifier to construct cancer classification. Then, we chose Chi-square test, information gain, gain ratio, and Pearson's correlation feature selection methods to build the m:n feature subset, and used the selected miRNAs to determine cancer classification. The low-ranking miRNA expression profiles achieved higher classification accuracy compared with just using high-ranking miRNAs in traditional feature selection methods. Our results demonstrate that the m:n feature subset made a positive impression of low-ranking miRNAs in cancer classification.

Reranking candidate gene models with cross-species comparison for improved gene prediction

PubMed Central

Liu, Qian; Crammer, Koby; Pereira, Fernando CN; Roos, David S

2008-01-01

Background Most gene finders score candidate gene models with state-based methods, typically HMMs, by combining local properties (coding potential, splice donor and acceptor patterns, etc). Competing models with similar state-based scores may be distinguishable with additional information. In particular, functional and comparative genomics datasets may help to select among competing models of comparable probability by exploiting features likely to be associated with the correct gene models, such as conserved exon/intron structure or protein sequence features. Results We have investigated the utility of a simple post-processing step for selecting among a set of alternative gene models, using global scoring rules to rerank competing models for more accurate prediction. For each gene locus, we first generate the K best candidate gene models using the gene finder Evigan, and then rerank these models using comparisons with putative orthologous genes from closely-related species. Candidate gene models with lower scores in the original gene finder may be selected if they exhibit strong similarity to probable orthologs in coding sequence, splice site location, or signal peptide occurrence. Experiments on Drosophila melanogaster demonstrate that reranking based on cross-species comparison outperforms the best gene models identified by Evigan alone, and also outperforms the comparative gene finders GeneWise and Augustus+. Conclusion Reranking gene models with cross-species comparison improves gene prediction accuracy. This straightforward method can be readily adapted to incorporate additional lines of evidence, as it requires only a ranked source of candidate gene models. PMID:18854050

Does medical student membership in the gold humanism honor society influence selection for residency?

PubMed

Rosenthal, Susan; Howard, Brian; Schlussel, Yvette R; Lazarus, Cathy J; Wong, Jeffrey G; Moutier, Christine; Savoia, Maria; Trooskin, Stanley; Wagoner, Norma

2009-01-01

With the creation of the Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS) in 2002, the Arnold P. Gold Foundation established a mechanism for recognizing medical students who demonstrate exemplary humanism/professionalism/communication skills. Currently, 80 medical schools have GHHS chapters. Selection is based on peer nomination using a validated tool. The objective of this survey was to assess the percentage of residency program directors (PDs) who are aware of and are using GHHS membership as a residency selection tool. Surgery (SURG) and internal medicine (IM) PDs in 4 United States regions were surveyed for familiarity with GHHS and perceived rank of GHHS membership relative to Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) membership, class rank, medical student performance evaluation (MSPE), clerkship grade, and United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) score, in evaluating an applicant's humanism/professionalism, service orientation, and fit with their program. Program demographics and familiarity with GHHS were also surveyed. The response rate was 56% (149 respondents). IM PDs rated GHHS membership higher than did SURG PDs when evaluating professionalism/humanism and service orientation. PDs familiar with GHHS ranked membership higher when considering professionalism/humanism (4.1 vs 3.2; p < 0.05) and service orientation (4.1 vs 2.9; p < 0.01). Familiarity with GHHS correlated with being an IM PD, residency based at teaching hospital, large residency program, knowledge of residents who were GHHS members, and having a GHHS chapter at their school (p < 0.01). Familiarity with GHHS was related to rankings of GHHS (professionalism/humanism F = 3.36; p < 0.05; service orientation F = 3.86; p < 0.05) more than the PDs' specialty was. In all, 157 GHHS students (from all 4 United States regions) were also surveyed about the 1197 interviews they had with residency PDs. They reported that although a few PDs were aware of GHHS, PDs of core medical specialties were more aware of GHHS than SURG PDs. IM PDs were more aware of GHHS (70%) than SURG PDs (30%). Awareness was related to the favorable ranking of GHHS as a selection criterion for humanism/professionalism/service orientation. PDs familiar with GHHS were from larger programs, were likely to know residents who were members, and were likely to think that GHHS membership predicted humanistic care. Membership in GHHS may set candidates apart from their peers and allow PDs to distinguish objectively the candidates who demonstrate compassionate medical care. Increased knowledge about the GHHS may therefore serve to be a useful adjunct for PDs when selecting medical students for their residency programs.

Comparative study on DuPont analysis and DEA models for measuring stock performance using financial ratio

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arsad, Roslah; Shaari, Siti Nabilah Mohd; Isa, Zaidi

2017-11-01

Determining stock performance using financial ratio is challenging for many investors and researchers. Financial ratio can indicate the strengths and weaknesses of a company's stock performance. There are five categories of financial ratios namely liquidity, efficiency, leverage, profitability and market ratios. It is important to interpret the ratio correctly for proper financial decision making. The purpose of this study is to compare the performance of listed companies in Bursa Malaysia using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and DuPont analysis Models. The study is conducted in 2015 involving 116 consumer products companies listed in Bursa Malaysia. The estimation method of Data Envelopment Analysis computes the efficiency scores and ranks the companies accordingly. The Alirezaee and Afsharian's method of analysis based Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes (CCR) where Constant Return to Scale (CRS) is employed. The DuPont analysis is a traditional tool for measuring the operating performance of companies. In this study, DuPont analysis is used to evaluate three different aspects such as profitability, efficiency of assets utilization and financial leverage. Return on Equity (ROE) is also calculated in DuPont analysis. This study finds that both analysis models provide different rankings of the selected samples. Hypothesis testing based on Pearson's correlation, indicates that there is no correlation between rankings produced by DEA and DuPont analysis. The DEA ranking model proposed by Alirezaee and Asharian is unstable. The method cannot provide complete ranking because the values of Balance Index is equal and zero.

Michigan's Top-to-Bottom Ranking: A Measure of School Quality or Student Poverty?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spalding, Audrey

2013-01-01

This study examines the state's "Top-to-Bottom" ranking, which has been repeatedly criticized by educators for appearing to be correlated with school poverty rates. Mackinac Center research finds that schools that serve more lower-income students tend to receive lower scores on the TTB list. These results matters because TTB rankings are…

Efficiency of including first-generation information in second-generation ranking and selection: results of computer simulation.

Treesearch

T.Z. Ye; K.J.S. Jayawickrama; G.R. Johnson

2006-01-01

Using computer simulation, we evaluated the impact of using first-generation information to increase selection efficiency in a second-generation breeding program. Selection efficiency was compared in terms of increase in rank correlation between estimated and true breeding values (i.e., ranking accuracy), reduction in coefficient of variation of correlation...

System for ranking relative threats of U.S. volcanoes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ewert, J.W.

2007-01-01

A methodology to systematically rank volcanic threat was developed as the basis for prioritizing volcanoes for long-term hazards evaluations, monitoring, and mitigation activities. A ranking of 169 volcanoes in the United States and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (U.S. volcanoes) is presented based on scores assigned for various hazard and exposure factors. Fifteen factors define the hazard: Volcano type, maximum known eruptive explosivity, magnitude of recent explosivity within the past 500 and 5,000 years, average eruption-recurrence interval, presence or potential for a suite of hazardous phenomena (pyroclastic flows, lahars, lava flows, tsunami, flank collapse, hydrothermal explosion, primary lahar), and deformation, seismic, or degassing unrest. Nine factors define exposure: a measure of ground-based human population in hazard zones, past fatalities and evacuations, a measure of airport exposure, a measure of human population on aircraft, the presence of power, transportation, and developed infrastructure, and whether or not the volcano forms a significant part of a populated island. The hazard score and exposure score for each volcano are multiplied to give its overall threat score. Once scored, the ordered list of volcanoes is divided into five overall threat categories from very high to very low. ?? 2007 ASCE.

Detecting determinism with improved sensitivity in time series: rank-based nonlinear predictability score.

PubMed

Naro, Daniel; Rummel, Christian; Schindler, Kaspar; Andrzejak, Ralph G

2014-09-01

The rank-based nonlinear predictability score was recently introduced as a test for determinism in point processes. We here adapt this measure to time series sampled from time-continuous flows. We use noisy Lorenz signals to compare this approach against a classical amplitude-based nonlinear prediction error. Both measures show an almost identical robustness against Gaussian white noise. In contrast, when the amplitude distribution of the noise has a narrower central peak and heavier tails than the normal distribution, the rank-based nonlinear predictability score outperforms the amplitude-based nonlinear prediction error. For this type of noise, the nonlinear predictability score has a higher sensitivity for deterministic structure in noisy signals. It also yields a higher statistical power in a surrogate test of the null hypothesis of linear stochastic correlated signals. We show the high relevance of this improved performance in an application to electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings from epilepsy patients. Here the nonlinear predictability score again appears of higher sensitivity to nonrandomness. Importantly, it yields an improved contrast between signals recorded from brain areas where the first ictal EEG signal changes were detected (focal EEG signals) versus signals recorded from brain areas that were not involved at seizure onset (nonfocal EEG signals).

Detecting determinism with improved sensitivity in time series: Rank-based nonlinear predictability score

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Naro, Daniel; Rummel, Christian; Schindler, Kaspar; Andrzejak, Ralph G.

2014-09-01

The rank-based nonlinear predictability score was recently introduced as a test for determinism in point processes. We here adapt this measure to time series sampled from time-continuous flows. We use noisy Lorenz signals to compare this approach against a classical amplitude-based nonlinear prediction error. Both measures show an almost identical robustness against Gaussian white noise. In contrast, when the amplitude distribution of the noise has a narrower central peak and heavier tails than the normal distribution, the rank-based nonlinear predictability score outperforms the amplitude-based nonlinear prediction error. For this type of noise, the nonlinear predictability score has a higher sensitivity for deterministic structure in noisy signals. It also yields a higher statistical power in a surrogate test of the null hypothesis of linear stochastic correlated signals. We show the high relevance of this improved performance in an application to electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings from epilepsy patients. Here the nonlinear predictability score again appears of higher sensitivity to nonrandomness. Importantly, it yields an improved contrast between signals recorded from brain areas where the first ictal EEG signal changes were detected (focal EEG signals) versus signals recorded from brain areas that were not involved at seizure onset (nonfocal EEG signals).

A Ranking Approach to Genomic Selection.

PubMed

Blondel, Mathieu; Onogi, Akio; Iwata, Hiroyoshi; Ueda, Naonori

2015-01-01

Genomic selection (GS) is a recent selective breeding method which uses predictive models based on whole-genome molecular markers. Until now, existing studies formulated GS as the problem of modeling an individual's breeding value for a particular trait of interest, i.e., as a regression problem. To assess predictive accuracy of the model, the Pearson correlation between observed and predicted trait values was used. In this paper, we propose to formulate GS as the problem of ranking individuals according to their breeding value. Our proposed framework allows us to employ machine learning methods for ranking which had previously not been considered in the GS literature. To assess ranking accuracy of a model, we introduce a new measure originating from the information retrieval literature called normalized discounted cumulative gain (NDCG). NDCG rewards more strongly models which assign a high rank to individuals with high breeding value. Therefore, NDCG reflects a prerequisite objective in selective breeding: accurate selection of individuals with high breeding value. We conducted a comparison of 10 existing regression methods and 3 new ranking methods on 6 datasets, consisting of 4 plant species and 25 traits. Our experimental results suggest that tree-based ensemble methods including McRank, Random Forests and Gradient Boosting Regression Trees achieve excellent ranking accuracy. RKHS regression and RankSVM also achieve good accuracy when used with an RBF kernel. Traditional regression methods such as Bayesian lasso, wBSR and BayesC were found less suitable for ranking. Pearson correlation was found to correlate poorly with NDCG. Our study suggests two important messages. First, ranking methods are a promising research direction in GS. Second, NDCG can be a useful evaluation measure for GS.

Overall and class-specific scores of pesticide residues from fruits and vegetables as a tool to rank intake of pesticide residues in United States: a validation study

PubMed Central

Hu, Yang; Chiu, Yu Han; Hauser, Russ; Chavarro, Jorge; Sun, Qi

2016-01-01

Pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables are among the primary sources of pesticide exposure through diet, but the lack of adequate measurements hinder the research on health effects of pesticide residues. Pesticide Residue Burden Score (PRBS) for estimating overall dietary pesticide intake, organochlorine pesticide score (OC-PRBS) and organophosphate pesticide score (OP-PRBS) for estimating organochlorine and organophosphate pesticides-specific intake, respectively, were derived using U.S. Department of Agriculture Pesticide Data Program data and National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) food frequency questionnaire data. We evaluated the performance of these scores by validating the scores against pesticide metabolites measured in urine or serum among 3,679 participants in NHANES using generalized linear regression. The PRBS was positively associated with a score summarizing the ranks of all pesticide metabolites in a linear fashion (p for linear trend <0.001). Furthermore, individuals in the top quintile of this score had urinary pesticide metabolite levels 13.0% (95% CI 8.3%-17.7%) higher than individuals in the lowest quintile. Similarly, we observed significant associations of the OC-PRBS and OP-PRBS with the levels of lipid-adjusted total serum organochlorine pesticides and urinary creatinine-adjusted organophosphate pesticides, respectively. The relative difference (RD) in average pesticide metabolite rank between extreme quintiles was 17.8% (95% CI: 11.1%-24.4%, p for trend <0.001) for the OP-PRBS, whereas the RD was marginally significant at 7.0% (95% CI: -0.5%-14.4%, p for trend 0.07) for the OC-PRBS. The PRBS and OP-PRBS had similar performance when they were derived from fruits and vegetables with high vs. low pesticide residues, respectively (p for trend <0.001 for all associations). The OP-PRBS was associated with all measured organophosphate pesticides, whereas the positive association between OC-PRBS and averaged measured organochlorine pesticide residue rank was primarily driven by hexachlorobenzene. OC-PRBS had better performance when derived from more contaminated fruits and vegetables (p for trend 0.07) than from less contaminated Fruits and vegetables (p for trend 0.63), although neither of the associations achieved statistical significance. The PRBS and the class-specific scores for two major types of pesticides were significantly associated with pesticide biomarkers. These scores can reasonably rank study participants by their pesticide residue exposures from fruits and vegetables in large-scale environmental epidemiological studies. PMID:27128714

Overall and class-specific scores of pesticide residues from fruits and vegetables as a tool to rank intake of pesticide residues in United States: A validation study.

PubMed

Hu, Yang; Chiu, Yu-Han; Hauser, Russ; Chavarro, Jorge; Sun, Qi

2016-01-01

Pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables are among the primary sources of pesticide exposure through diet, but the lack of adequate measurements hinder the research on health effects of pesticide residues. Pesticide Residue Burden Score (PRBS) for estimating overall dietary pesticide intake, organochlorine pesticide score (OC-PRBS) and organophosphate pesticide score (OP-PRBS) for estimating organochlorine and organophosphate pesticides-specific intake, respectively, were derived using U.S. Department of Agriculture Pesticide Data Program data and National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) food frequency questionnaire data. We evaluated the performance of these scores by validating the scores against pesticide metabolites measured in urine or serum among 3,679 participants in NHANES using generalized linear regression. The PRBS was positively associated with a score summarizing the ranks of all pesticide metabolites in a linear fashion (p for linear trend <0.001). Furthermore, individuals in the top quintile of this score had urinary pesticide metabolite levels 13.0% (95% CI 8.3%-17.7%) higher than individuals in the lowest quintile. Similarly, we observed significant associations of the OC-PRBS and OP-PRBS with the levels of lipid-adjusted total serum organochlorine pesticides and urinary creatinine-adjusted organophosphate pesticides, respectively. The relative difference (RD) in average pesticide metabolite rank between extreme quintiles was 17.8% (95% CI: 11.1%-24.4%, p for trend <0.001) for the OP-PRBS, whereas the RD was marginally significant at 7.0% (95% CI: -0.5%-14.4%, p for trend 0.07) for the OC-PRBS. The PRBS and OP-PRBS had similar performance when they were derived from fruits and vegetables with high vs. low pesticide residues, respectively (p for trend <0.001 for all associations). The OP-PRBS was associated with all measured organophosphate pesticides, whereas the positive association between OC-PRBS and averaged measured organochlorine pesticide residue rank was primarily driven by hexachlorobenzene. OC-PRBS had better performance when derived from more contaminated fruits and vegetables (p for trend 0.07) than from less contaminated Fruits and vegetables (p for trend 0.63), although neither of the associations achieved statistical significance. The PRBS and the class-specific scores for two major types of pesticides were significantly associated with pesticide biomarkers. These scores can reasonably rank study participants by their pesticide residue exposures from fruits and vegetables in large-scale environmental epidemiological studies. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Learning style preferences of surgical residency applicants.

PubMed

Kim, Roger H; Gilbert, Timothy

2015-09-01

The learning style preferences of general surgery residents have been previously reported; there is evidence that residents who prefer read/write learning styles perform better on the American Board of Surgery In-Training Examination (ABSITE). However, little is known regarding the learning style preferences of applicants to general surgery residency and their impact on educational outcomes. In this study, the preferred learning styles of surgical residency applicants were determined. We hypothesized that applicant rank data are associated with specific learning style preferences. The Fleming VARK learning styles inventory was offered to all general surgery residency applicants that were interviewed at a university hospital-based program. The VARK model categorizes learners as visual (V), aural (A), read/write (R), kinesthetic (K), or multimodal (MM). Responses on the inventory were scored to determine the preferred learning style for each applicant. Applicant data, including United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) scores, class rank, interview score, and overall final applicant ranking, were examined for association with preferred learning styles. Sixty-seven applicants were interviewed. Five applicants were excluded due to not completing the VARK inventory or having incomplete applicant data. The remaining 62 applicants (92%) were included for analysis. Most applicants (57%) had a multimodal preference. Sixty-nine percent of all applicants had some degree of preference for kinesthetic learning. There were statistically significant differences between applicants of different learning styles in terms of USMLE step 1 scores (P = 0.001) and USMLE step 2 clinical knowledge scores (P = 0.01), but not for class ranks (P = 0.27), interview scores (P = 0.20), or final ranks (P = 0.14). Multiple comparison analysis demonstrated that applicants with aural preferences had higher USMLE 1 scores (233.2) than those with kinesthetic (211.8, P = 0.005) or multimodal (214.5, P = 0.008) preferences, whereas applicants with visual preferences had higher USMLE 1 scores (230.0) than those with kinesthetic preferences (P = 0.047). Applicants with aural preferences also had higher USMLE 2 scores (249.6) than those with kinesthetic (227.6, P = 0.006) or multimodal (230.1, P = 0.008) preferences. Most applicants to general surgery residency have a multimodal learning style preference. Learning style preferences are associated with higher USMLE step 1 and step 2 scores, in particular for applicants with aural preferences. Students who performed well in lecture-dominated medical school environments because of their aural preferences could be at a disadvantage in the more independent, reading-focused learning environments of surgical residency. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Microtia and Social Media: Patient Versus Physician Perspective of Quality of Information.

PubMed

Sepehripour, Sarvnaz; McDermott, Ann Louise; Lloyd, Mark Sheldon

2017-05-01

Previous research demonstrates that patients seek high-quality information on the World Wide Web, especially in rare conditions such as microtia. Social media has overtaken other sources of patient information but quality remains untested. This study quantifies the quality of information for patients with Microtia on social media compared with nonsocial media websites and compares physician and patient scoring on quality using the DISCERN tool. In phase 1, quality of the top 100 websites featuring information "Microtia" was ranked according to quality score and position on Google showing the position of social media websites among other nonsocial media websites. Phase 2 involved independent scoring of websites on microtia compared with a patient group with microtia to test whether physicians score differently to patients with t test comparison. Social media websites account for 2% of the scored websites with health providers linking to social media. Social media websites were among the highest ranked on Google. No correlation was found between the quality of information and Google rank. Social media scored higher than nonsocial media websites regarding quality of information on microtia. No significant difference existed between physician and patient quality of information scores on social media and nonsocial media websites (p 1.033). Physicians and patients objectively score microtia websites alike. Social media websites have higher use despite being few in number compared with nonsocial media websites. Physicians providing links to social media on information websites on rare conditions such as microtia are engaging in current information-seeking trends.

Match score affects activity profile and skill performance in professional Australian Football players.

PubMed

Sullivan, Courtney; Bilsborough, Johann C; Cianciosi, Michael; Hocking, Joel; Cordy, Justin; Coutts, Aaron J

2014-05-01

To examine the influence of quarter outcome and the margin of the score differential on both the physical activity profile and skill performance of players during professional Australian Football matches. Prospective, longitudinal. Physical activity profiles were assessed via microtechnology (Global Positioning System and accelerometer) from 40 professional AF players from the same team during 15 Australian Football League games. Skill performance measures (involvement and effectiveness) and player rank scores (Champion Data(©) Rank) were provided by a commercial statistical provider. The physical performance variables, skill involvements and individual player performance scores were expressed relative to playing time for each quarter. The influence of the quarter result (i.e. win vs. loss) and score margin (i.e. small: <9 points, moderate: 10-18 points, and large: >19 points) on activity profile and skill involvements and skill efficiency performance of players were examined. Skill involvements (total disposals/min, long kicks/min, marks/min, running bounces/min and player rank/min) were greater in quarters won (all p<0.01). In contrast, the players high speed running distance per minute (>14.5 km h(-1), HSR/min), sprints/min and peak speed were higher in losing quarters (all p<0.01). Smaller score margins were associated with increased physical activity (m/min, HSR/min, and body load/min, all p<0.05) and decreased skill efficiency (handball clangers/min and player rank/min, all p<0.05). Professional AF players are likely to have an increased physical activity profile and decreased skill involvement and proficiency when their team is less successful. Copyright © 2013 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Spectacle design preferences among Chinese primary and secondary students and their parents: a qualitative and quantitative study.

PubMed

Zhou, Zhongqiang; Kecman, Maja; Chen, Tingting; Liu, Tianyu; Jin, Ling; Chen, Shangji; Chen, Qianyun; He, Mingguang; Silver, Josh; Moore, Bruce; Congdon, Nathan

2014-01-01

To identify the specific characteristics making glasses designs, particularly those compatible with adjustable glasses, more or less appealing to Chinese children and their parents. Primary and secondary school children from urban and rural China with < = -1.00 diopters of bilateral myopia and their parents ranked four conventional-style frames identified by local optical shops as popular versus four child-specific frames compatible with adjustable spectacles. Scores based on the proportion of maximum possible ranking were computed for each style. Selected children and their parents also participated in Focus Groups (FGs) discussing spectacle design preference. Recordings were transcribed and coded by two independents reviewers using NVivo software. Among 136 urban primary school children (age range 9-11 years), 290 rural secondary school children (11-17 years) and 16 parents, all adjustable-style frames (scores on 0-100 scale 25.7-62.4) were ranked behind all conventional frames (63.0-87.5). For eight FGs including 12 primary children, 26 secondary children and 16 parents, average kappa values for NVivo coding were 0.81 (students) and 0.70 (parents). All groups agreed that the key changes to make adjustable designs more attractive were altering the round lenses to rectangular or oval shapes and adding curved earpieces for more stable wear. The thick frames of the adjustable designs were considered stylish, and children indicated they would wear them if the lens shape were modified. Current adjustable lens designs are unattractive to Chinese children and their parents, though this study identified specific modifications which would make them more appealing.

Selection of suitable e-learning approach using TOPSIS technique with best ranked criteria weights

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mohammed, Husam Jasim; Kasim, Maznah Mat; Shaharanee, Izwan Nizal Mohd

2017-11-01

This paper compares the performances of four rank-based weighting assessment techniques, Rank Sum (RS), Rank Reciprocal (RR), Rank Exponent (RE), and Rank Order Centroid (ROC) on five identified e-learning criteria to select the best weights method. A total of 35 experts in a public university in Malaysia were asked to rank the criteria and to evaluate five e-learning approaches which include blended learning, flipped classroom, ICT supported face to face learning, synchronous learning, and asynchronous learning. The best ranked criteria weights are defined as weights that have the least total absolute differences with the geometric mean of all weights, were then used to select the most suitable e-learning approach by using TOPSIS method. The results show that RR weights are the best, while flipped classroom approach implementation is the most suitable approach. This paper has developed a decision framework to aid decision makers (DMs) in choosing the most suitable weighting method for solving MCDM problems.

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.

Improving the residency admissions process by integrating a professionalism assessment: a validity and feasibility study.

PubMed

Bajwa, Nadia M; Yudkowsky, Rachel; Belli, Dominique; Vu, Nu Viet; Park, Yoon Soo

2017-03-01

The purpose of this study was to provide validity and feasibility evidence in measuring professionalism using the Professionalism Mini-Evaluation Exercise (P-MEX) scores as part of a residency admissions process. In 2012 and 2013, three standardized-patient-based P-MEX encounters were administered to applicants invited for an interview at the University of Geneva Pediatrics Residency Program. Validity evidence was gathered for P-MEX content (item analysis); response process (qualitative feedback); internal structure (inter-rater reliability with intraclass correlation and Generalizability); relations to other variables (correlations); and consequences (logistic regression to predict admission). To improve reliability, Kane's formula was used to create an applicant composite score using P-MEX, structured letter of recommendation (SLR), and structured interview (SI) scores. Applicant rank lists using composite scores versus faculty global ratings were compared using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Seventy applicants were assessed. Moderate associations were found between pairwise correlations of P-MEX scores and SLR (r = 0.25, P = .036), SI (r = 0.34, P = .004), and global ratings (r = 0.48, P < .001). Generalizability of the P-MEX using three cases was moderate (G-coefficient = 0.45). P-MEX scores had the greatest correlation with acceptance (r = 0.56, P < .001), were the strongest predictor of acceptance (OR 4.37, P < .001), and increased pseudo R-squared by 0.20 points. Including P-MEX scores increased composite score reliability from 0.51 to 0.74. Rank lists of applicants using composite score versus global rating differed significantly (z = 5.41, P < .001). Validity evidence supports the use of P-MEX scores to improve the reliability of the residency admissions process by improving applicant composite score reliability.

Modeling aesthetics to support an ecosystem services approach for natural resource management decision making.

PubMed

Booth, Pieter N; Law, Sheryl A; Ma, Jane; Buonagurio, John; Boyd, James; Turnley, Jessica

2017-09-01

This paper reviews literature on aesthetics and describes the development of vista and landscape aesthetics models. Spatially explicit variables were chosen to represent physical characteristics of natural landscapes that are important to aesthetic preferences. A vista aesthetics model evaluates the aesthetics of natural landscapes viewed from distances of more than 1000 m, and a landscape aesthetics model evaluates the aesthetic value of wetlands and forests within 1000 m from the viewer. Each of the model variables is quantified using spatially explicit metrics on a pixel-specific basis within EcoAIM™, a geographic information system (GIS)-based ecosystem services (ES) decision analysis support tool. Pixel values are "binned" into ranked categories, and weights are assigned to select variables to represent stakeholder preferences. The final aesthetic score is the weighted sum of all variables and is assigned ranked values from 1 to 10. Ranked aesthetic values are displayed on maps by patch type and integrated within EcoAIM. The response of the aesthetic scoring in the models was tested by comparing current conditions in a discrete area of the facility with a Development scenario in the same area. The Development scenario consisted of two 6-story buildings and a trail replacing natural areas. The results of the vista aesthetic model indicate that the viewshed area variable had the greatest effect on the aesthetics overall score. Results from the landscape aesthetics model indicate a 10% increase in overall aesthetics value, attributed to the increase in landscape diversity. The models are sensitive to the weights assigned to certain variables by the user, and these weights should be set to reflect regional landscape characteristics as well as stakeholder preferences. This demonstration project shows that natural landscape aesthetics can be evaluated as part of a nonmonetary assessment of ES, and a scenario-building exercise provides end users with a tradeoff analysis in support of natural resource management decisions. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2017;13:926-938. © 2017 SETAC. © 2017 SETAC.

A new approach for modeling patient overall radiosensitivity and predicting multiple toxicity endpoints for breast cancer patients.

PubMed

Mbah, Chamberlain; De Ruyck, Kim; De Schrijver, Silke; De Sutter, Charlotte; Schiettecatte, Kimberly; Monten, Chris; Paelinck, Leen; De Neve, Wilfried; Thierens, Hubert; West, Catharine; Amorim, Gustavo; Thas, Olivier; Veldeman, Liv

2018-05-01

Evaluation of patient characteristics inducing toxicity in breast radiotherapy, using simultaneous modeling of multiple endpoints. In 269 early-stage breast cancer patients treated with whole-breast irradiation (WBI) after breast-conserving surgery, toxicity was scored, based on five dichotomized endpoints. Five logistic regression models were fitted, one for each endpoint and the effect sizes of all variables were estimated using maximum likelihood (MLE). The MLEs are improved with James-Stein estimates (JSEs). The method combines all the MLEs, obtained for the same variable but from different endpoints. Misclassification errors were computed using MLE- and JSE-based prediction models. For associations, p-values from the sum of squares of MLEs were compared with p-values from the Standardized Total Average Toxicity (STAT) Score. With JSEs, 19 highest ranked variables were predictive of the five different endpoints. Important variables increasing radiation-induced toxicity were chemotherapy, age, SATB2 rs2881208 SNP and nodal irradiation. Treatment position (prone position) was most protective and ranked eighth. Overall, the misclassification errors were 45% and 34% for the MLE- and JSE-based models, respectively. p-Values from the sum of squares of MLEs and p-values from STAT score led to very similar conclusions, except for the variables nodal irradiation and treatment position, for which STAT p-values suggested an association with radiosensitivity, whereas p-values from the sum of squares indicated no association. Breast volume was ranked as the most significant variable in both strategies. The James-Stein estimator was used for selecting variables that are predictive for multiple toxicity endpoints. With this estimator, 19 variables were predictive for all toxicities of which four were significantly associated with overall radiosensitivity. JSEs led to almost 25% reduction in the misclassification error rate compared to conventional MLEs. Finally, patient characteristics that are associated with radiosensitivity were identified without explicitly quantifying radiosensitivity.

SU-E-T-654: Quantifying Plan Quality Can Effectively Distinguish Between Competing Equivocal IMRT Prostate Plans

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

Price, A; Lo, J; Department of Radiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC

2015-06-15

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to create a prostate IMRT plan quality index (PQI) that may be used to quantitatively compare competing plans using a methodology that mimics physician preference. This methodology allows planners to choose between plans with equivocal characteristics, prior to physician scrutiny. Methods: An observer study was conducted to gather data from 3 radiation oncology physicians who ranked a set of 20 patients (each with 5 plans). The rankings were used to optimize a PQI that combined weighted portions of the rectum, bladder, and planning target volume DVHs, such that the relative PQI mimicked physicianmore » rankings as best as possible. Once optimized, a test study assessed the PQI by comparison to physician rankings in a new set of 25 patients (each with 4 plans). The physician group in the test study included 6 physicians, 5 of whom were not included in the modeling study. PQI scores were evaluated against the physicians’ rank list using Spearman rank correlation. Results: The optimized plan quality index combined the following DVH features: high dose regions above 40Gy/60Gy (rectum/bladder), organ weightings, and PTV shoulder coverage. Mean correlation of the PQI vs. physicians’ rankings in the modeling study was 0.507 (range: 0.345–0.706). By comparison, the mean correlation between physicians was 0.301 (range: 0.242–0.334). The mean correlation of the PQI vs. physician rankings in test study was 0.726 (range: 0.416–0.936), indicating robustness of the PQI by virtue of producing similar results to the modeling study. Intra-physician correlation was 0.564 (range: 0.398–0.689). Conclusion: The correlation coefficients of the PQI vs. physicians were similar to the correlation coefficients of the physicians with each other, implying that the PQI developed in this work shows promise in reflecting physician clinical preference when selecting between competing, dosimetrically equivocal plans.« less

Improving the efficiency of selection to Core Medical Training: a study of the use of multiple assessment stations.

PubMed

Atkinson, J M; Tullo, E; Mitchison, H; Pearce, M S; Kumar, N

2012-06-01

To compare three separate assessment stations used for selection to Core Medical Training (CMT) and to determine the effect of reducing the number from three to two. Quantitative analysis of candidates' assessment station scores, financial analysis of costs of the selection process and quantitative and qualitative surveys of candidates and assessors. The assessment stations used for selection to CMT were reliable and valid for assessing suitability for employment as a CMT trainee. There was no significant difference in candidate ranking if only two assessment stations were used rather than three, i.e. there was no change in the likelihood of receiving a job offer. All of the assessment stations were perceived to have face validity by candidates and assessors. The efficiency of the selection process could be improved without loss of quality if two stations were used rather than three. Using two assessment stations rather than three would appear to improve the efficiency and maintain the quality of the CMT selection process while reducing costs.

A total merit selection index for Ontario organic dairy farmers.

PubMed

Rozzi, P; Miglior, F; Hand, K J

2007-03-01

Organic standards require changes in management practices so that health, fertility, and overall fitness are more important than on conventional dairy farms and require different selection objectives. A survey involving 18 (40%) Ontario organic dairy farms was carried out to collect data on their production systems, breeding policies, and concerns. Compared with conventional farms, organic farms had lower milk production, lower replacement rate, higher somatic cell count, and a much higher rate of crossbreeding. Actual culling rate was 21%, and the main causes were fertility, mastitis, feet and legs, production, and old age. The major areas of concern expressed by organic dairy farmers were related to grazing traits, fertility, health, and longevity. An organic total merit index was developed based on the subjective scores for traits with a genetic evaluation in Canada. The relative weights of production to fitness traits (28:72) were substantially different from those in the Canadian Lifetime Profit Index (54:46), but similar to those used in conventional indices in Sweden and Denmark and in the Swiss organic index. The overall weight on health traits was 2.5 times higher in the organic index and, among fitness traits, the emphasis was substantially higher for lactation persistency, somatic cell score, and body capacity. Correlations between the organic index and Lifetime Profit Index were 0.88 for all bulls proven in Canada, 0.70 for the top 1,000, and 0.65 for the top 100, indicating that a different group of bulls would rank at the top of these 2 indices. When the top 100 bulls for either index were compared, those selected for the organic index were about 0.5 standard deviations lower for all yield traits, but were much better for body capacity and somatic cell score, and 0.25 standard deviations higher for herd life, feet and legs, udder conformation, and lactation persistency. Given the small population size, a separate breeding program for an organic management system is not viable in the foreseeable future. However, the organic index would allow producers to rank proven bulls in accordance with their perceived needs.

Anterior iliac crest, posterior iliac crest, and proximal tibia donor sites: a comparison of cancellous bone volumes in fresh cadavers.

PubMed

Engelstad, Mark E; Morse, Timothy

2010-12-01

The anterior iliac crest, posterior iliac crest, and proximal tibia are common cancellous donor sites used for autogenous bone grafting. Donor site selection is partly dependent on the expected volume of available bone, but reports of cancellous bone volumes at each of these sites are variable. The goal of this study was to compare the volumes of cancellous bone harvested from donor sites within the same cadaver. Within each of 10 fresh frozen cadavers, cancellous bone was harvested from 3 donor sites-anterior iliac crest, posterior iliac crest, and proximal tibia-using established surgical techniques. Bone volumes were measured by fluid displacement. Mean compressed cancellous bone volumes from the 3 donor sites were compared among cadavers. Within each cadaver, the 3 donor sites were given a volume rank score from 1 (least volume) to 3 (most volume). Among cadavers, mean compressed cancellous bone volumes from the proximal tibia (11.3 mL) and posterior iliac crest (10.1 mL) were significantly greater than the anterior iliac crest (7.0 mL). Within cadavers, the mean volume rank score of the proximal tibia (mean rank, 2.7) was statistically greater than that for the posterior iliac crest (mean rank, 2.0), which was statistically greater than that for the anterior iliac crest (mean rank, 1.2). Strong correlations in bone volume existed between the proximal tibia and iliac crests (r = 0.67) and between the anterior iliac crest and posterior iliac crest (r = 0.93). The proximal tibia and posterior iliac crest yielded a significantly greater mean volume of compressed cancellous bone than the anterior iliac crest. Within individual cadaver skeletons, the proximal tibia was most likely to yield the largest cancellous volume, whereas the anterior iliac crest was most likely to yield the smallest cancellous volume. Although the proximal tibia contains relatively large volumes of cancellous bone, further investigation is required to determine how much cancellous bone can safely be harvested. Copyright © 2010 American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Investigating a Judgemental Rank-Ordering Method for Maintaining Standards in UK Examinations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Black, Beth; Bramley, Tom

2008-01-01

A new judgemental method of equating raw scores on two tests, based on rank-ordering scripts from both tests, has been developed by Bramley. The rank-ordering method has potential application as a judgemental standard-maintaining mechanism, because given a mark on one test (e.g. the A grade boundary mark), the equivalent mark (i.e. at the same…

What the "Overall" Doesn't Tell about World University Rankings: Examples from ARWU, QSWUR, and THEWUR in 2013

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soh, Kaycheng

2015-01-01

In the various world university ranking schemes, the "Overall" is a sum of the weighted indicator scores. As the indicators are of a different nature from each other, "Overall" conceals important differences. Factor analysis of the data from three prominent ranking schemes reveals that there are two factors in each of the…

Acrylamide mitigation strategies: critical appraisal of the FoodDrinkEurope toolbox.

PubMed

Palermo, M; Gökmen, V; De Meulenaer, B; Ciesarová, Z; Zhang, Y; Pedreschi, F; Fogliano, V

2016-06-15

FoodDrinkEurope Federation recently released the latest version of the Acrylamide Toolbox to support manufacturers in acrylamide reduction activities giving indication about the possible mitigation strategies. The Toolbox is intended for small and medium size enterprises with limited R&D resources, however no comments about the pro and cons of the different measures were provided to advise the potential users. Experts of the field are aware that not all the strategies proposed have equal value in terms of efficacy and cost/benefit ratio. This consideration prompted us to provide a qualitative science-based ranking of the mitigation strategies proposed in the acrylamide Toolbox, focusing on bakery and fried potato products. Five authors from different geographical areas having a publication record on acrylamide mitigation strategies worked independently ranking the efficacy of the acrylamide mitigation strategies taking into account three key parameters: (i) reduction rate; (ii) side effects; and (iii) applicability and economic impact. On the basis of their own experience and considering selected literature of the last ten years, the authors scored for each key parameter the acrylamide mitigation strategies proposed in the Toolbox. As expected, all strategies selected in the Toolbox turned out to be useful, however, not at the same level. The use of enzyme asparaginase and the selection of low sugar varieties were considered the best mitigation strategies in bakery and in potato products, respectively. According to authors' opinion most of the other mitigation strategies, although effective, either have relevant side effects on the sensory profile of the products, or they are not easy to implement in industrial production. The final outcome was a science based commented ranking which can enrich the acrylamide Toolbox supporting individual manufacturer in taking the best actions to reduce the acrylamide content in their specific production context.

Performance of combined fragmentation and retention prediction for the identification of organic micropollutants by LC-HRMS.

PubMed

Hu, Meng; Müller, Erik; Schymanski, Emma L; Ruttkies, Christoph; Schulze, Tobias; Brack, Werner; Krauss, Martin

2018-03-01

In nontarget screening, structure elucidation of small molecules from high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) data is challenging, particularly the selection of the most likely candidate structure among the many retrieved from compound databases. Several fragmentation and retention prediction methods have been developed to improve this candidate selection. In order to evaluate their performance, we compared two in silico fragmenters (MetFrag and CFM-ID) and two retention time prediction models (based on the chromatographic hydrophobicity index (CHI) and on log D). A set of 78 known organic micropollutants was analyzed by liquid chromatography coupled to a LTQ Orbitrap HRMS with electrospray ionization (ESI) in positive and negative mode using two fragmentation techniques with different collision energies. Both fragmenters (MetFrag and CFM-ID) performed well for most compounds, with average ranking the correct candidate structure within the top 25% and 22 to 37% for ESI+ and ESI- mode, respectively. The rank of the correct candidate structure slightly improved when MetFrag and CFM-ID were combined. For unknown compounds detected in both ESI+ and ESI-, generally positive mode mass spectra were better for further structure elucidation. Both retention prediction models performed reasonably well for more hydrophobic compounds but not for early eluting hydrophilic substances. The log D prediction showed a better accuracy than the CHI model. Although the two fragmentation prediction methods are more diagnostic and sensitive for candidate selection, the inclusion of retention prediction by calculating a consensus score with optimized weighting can improve the ranking of correct candidates as compared to the individual methods. Graphical abstract Consensus workflow for combining fragmentation and retention prediction in LC-HRMS-based micropollutant identification.

Y90 Radioembolization in chemo-refractory metastastic, liver dominant colorectal cancer patients: outcome assessment applying a predictive scoring system.

PubMed

Damm, Robert; Seidensticker, Ricarda; Ulrich, Gerhard; Breier, Leonie; Steffen, Ingo G; Seidensticker, Max; Garlipp, Benjamin; Mohnike, Konrad; Pech, Maciej; Amthauer, Holger; Ricke, Jens

2016-07-20

In treatment-refractory liver dominant metastatic colorectal cancer, the role of liver directed therapies still is unclear. We sought to determine a prognostic score for Y90 radioembolization in these patients. We analyzed 106 patients with refractory liver dominant mCRC who had undergone a total of 178 Y90 radioembolizations with resin microspheres was collected. Potential factors influencing survival were analyzed using a Cox regression. The Log rank test served to establish prognostic factors and to form a clinical score for outcome prediction after Y90 radioembolization. Median survival of all patients was 6.7 months. Neither age nor prior surgical or systemic therapy nor metastatic spread had an effect on survival. In contrast, hepatic tumor load, Karnofsky index as well as CEA and CA19-9 serums level had a significant influence (p < 0.001, p = 0.037, p = 0.023 and p < 0.001, respectively). These three factors formed a score with 1 point each for tumor load >20 %, CEA >130 ng/ml or CA19-9 > 200U/ml and Karnofsky index <80 %. Patients with a score of 0 and 1 displayed a median OS of 10.4 months. Patients with a score of 2 and 3 demonstrated a median OS of 5.1 months only (p < 0.001). Overaggressive patient selection for Y90 radioembolization of liver dominant chemorefractory mCRC is of questionable benefit. A scoring system comprising hepatic tumor load, CEA and CA19-9 serum levels and Karnofsky index (TuCK-score) may support an improved patient selection. In our cohort of liver only versus liver dominant disease, extrahepatic lung or lymphatic metastases did not significantly alter the prognosis.

Prognostic relevance of motor talent predictors in early adolescence: A group- and individual-based evaluation considering different levels of achievement in youth football.

PubMed

Höner, Oliver; Votteler, Andreas

2016-12-01

In the debate about the usefulness of motor diagnostics in the talent identification process, the prognostic validity for tests conducted in early adolescence is of critical interest. Using a group- and individual-based statistical approach, this prospective cohort study evaluated a nationwide assessment of speed abilities and technical skills regarding its relevance for future achievement levels. The sample consisted of 22,843 U12-players belonging to the top 4% in German football. The U12-results in five tests served as predictors for players' selection levels in U16-U19 (youth national team, regional association, youth academy, not selected). Group-mean differences proved the prognostic relevance for all predictors. Low individual selection probabilities demonstrated limited predictive values, while excellent test results proved their particular prognostic relevance. Players scoring percentile ranks (PRs) ≥ 99 had a 12 times higher chance to become youth national team players than players scoring PR < 99. Simulating increasing score cut-off values not only enhanced specificity (correctly identified non-talents) but also led to lower sensitivity (loss of talents). Extending the current research, these different approaches revealed the ambiguity of the diagnostics' prognostic relevance, representing both the usefulness and several pitfalls of nationwide diagnostics. Therefore, the present diagnostics can support but not substitute for coaches' subjective decisions for talent identification, and multidisciplinary designs are required.

D3R grand challenge 2015: Evaluation of protein-ligand pose and affinity predictions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gathiaka, Symon; Liu, Shuai; Chiu, Michael; Yang, Huanwang; Stuckey, Jeanne A.; Kang, You Na; Delproposto, Jim; Kubish, Ginger; Dunbar, James B.; Carlson, Heather A.; Burley, Stephen K.; Walters, W. Patrick; Amaro, Rommie E.; Feher, Victoria A.; Gilson, Michael K.

2016-09-01

The Drug Design Data Resource (D3R) ran Grand Challenge 2015 between September 2015 and February 2016. Two targets served as the framework to test community docking and scoring methods: (1) HSP90, donated by AbbVie and the Community Structure Activity Resource (CSAR), and (2) MAP4K4, donated by Genentech. The challenges for both target datasets were conducted in two stages, with the first stage testing pose predictions and the capacity to rank compounds by affinity with minimal structural data; and the second stage testing methods for ranking compounds with knowledge of at least a subset of the ligand-protein poses. An additional sub-challenge provided small groups of chemically similar HSP90 compounds amenable to alchemical calculations of relative binding free energy. Unlike previous blinded Challenges, we did not provide cognate receptors or receptors prepared with hydrogens and likewise did not require a specified crystal structure to be used for pose or affinity prediction in Stage 1. Given the freedom to select from over 200 crystal structures of HSP90 in the PDB, participants employed workflows that tested not only core docking and scoring technologies, but also methods for addressing water-mediated ligand-protein interactions, binding pocket flexibility, and the optimal selection of protein structures for use in docking calculations. Nearly 40 participating groups submitted over 350 prediction sets for Grand Challenge 2015. This overview describes the datasets and the organization of the challenge components, summarizes the results across all submitted predictions, and considers broad conclusions that may be drawn from this collaborative community endeavor.

D3R Grand Challenge 2015: Evaluation of Protein-Ligand Pose and Affinity Predictions

PubMed Central

Gathiaka, Symon; Liu, Shuai; Chiu, Michael; Yang, Huanwang; Stuckey, Jeanne A; Kang, You Na; Delproposto, Jim; Kubish, Ginger; Dunbar, James B.; Carlson, Heather A.; Burley, Stephen K.; Walters, W. Patrick; Amaro, Rommie E.; Feher, Victoria A.; Gilson, Michael K.

2017-01-01

The Drug Design Data Resource (D3R) ran Grand Challenge 2015 between September 2015 and February 2016. Two targets served as the framework to test community docking and scoring methods: (i) HSP90, donated by AbbVie and the Community Structure Activity Resource (CSAR), and (ii) MAP4K4, donated by Genentech. The challenges for both target datasets were conducted in two stages, with the first stage testing pose predictions and the capacity to rank compounds by affinity with minimal structural data; and the second stage testing methods for ranking compounds with knowledge of at least a subset of the ligand-protein poses. An additional sub-challenge provided small groups of chemically similar HSP90 compounds amenable to alchemical calculations of relative binding free energy. Unlike previous blinded Challenges, we did not provide cognate receptors or receptors prepared with hydrogens and likewise did not require a specified crystal structure to be used for pose or affinity prediction in Stage 1. Given the freedom to select from over 200 crystal structures of HSP90 in the PDB, participants employed workflows that tested not only core docking and scoring technologies, but also methods for addressing water-mediated ligand-protein interactions, binding pocket flexibility, and the optimal selection of protein structures for use in docking calculations. Nearly 40 participating groups submitted over 350 prediction sets for Grand Challenge 2015. This overview describes the datasets and the organization of the challenge components, summarizes the results across all submitted predictions, and considers broad conclusions that may be drawn from this collaborative community endeavor. PMID:27696240

Prioritizing health technologies in a Primary Care Trust.

PubMed

Wilson, Edward; Sussex, Jon; Macleod, Christine; Fordham, Richard

2007-04-01

In the English National Health Service (NHS), Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) are responsible for commissioning health-care services on behalf of their populations. As resources are finite, decisions are required as to which services best fulfil population needs. Evidence on effectiveness varies in quality and availability. Nevertheless, decisions still have to be made. We report the development and pilot application of a multi-criteria prioritization mechanism in an English PCT, capable of accommodating a wide variety of evidence to rank six service developments. The mechanism proved valuable in assisting prioritization decisions and feedback was positive. Two community-based interventions were expected to save money in the long term and were ranked at the top of the list. Based on weighted benefit score and cost, two preventive programmes were ranked third and fourth. Finally, two National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)-approved interventions were ranked fifth and sixth. Sensitivity analysis revealed overlap in benefit scores for some of the interventions, representing diversity of opinion among the scoring panel. The method appears to be a practical approach to prioritization for commissioners of health care, but the pilot also revealed interesting divergences in relative priority between nationally mandated service developments and local health-care priorities.

Measuring Scholastic Production by Dermatopathologists Using the H-Index: A Cross-Sectional Study.

PubMed

Fraga, Garth R

2018-06-01

Academic advancement in dermatopathology requires evidence of scientific production. The H-index is a useful bibliometric for measuring scientific production because it weights both volume and impact of an individual's scholastic production. The H-index distribution among academic dermatopathologists is unknown. In this cross-sectional study of 299 dermatopathologists with academic appointments in North America, H-index, publication counts, and citation counts were retrieved from Thomas Reuters Web of Science. Analytic statistics were performed to identify best predictors of academic rank and cutoff points between academic ranks. The H-index was a superior predictor of overall academic rank than publication or citation counts. The median H-index for assistant, associate, and full professors was 4, 6, and 11, respectively. H-index cutoff scores of 8 and 10 favored associate and full professor rank, respectively. These data provide benchmarks for dermatopathologists to gauge their scientific productivity against that of their peers. Although advancement decisions will depend on a careful examination of the scope and impact of a candidate's work, assistant professors of dermatopathology with H-index scores of >7 and associate professors of dermatopathology with H-index scores of >9 may wish to consider application for promotion.

Validation of a patient-level medication regimen complexity index as a possible tool to identify patients for medication therapy management intervention.

PubMed

Hirsch, Jan D; Metz, Kelli R; Hosokawa, Patrick W; Libby, Anne M

2014-08-01

The Medication Regimen Complexity Index (MRCI) is a 65-item instrument that can be used to quantify medication regimen complexity at the patient level, capturing all prescribed and over-the-counter medications. Although the MRCI has been used in several studies, the narrow scope of the initial validation limits application at a population or clinical practice level. To conduct a MRCI validation pertinent to the desired clinical use to identify patients for medication therapy management interventions. An expert panel of clinical pharmacists ranked medication regimen complexity for two samples of cases: a single-disease cohort (diabetes mellitus) and a multiple-disease cohort (diabetes mellitus, hypertension, human immunodeficiency virus infection, geriatric depression). Cases for expert panel review were selected from 400 ambulatory clinic patients, and each case description included data that were available via claims or electronic medical records (EMRs). Construct validity was assessed using patient-level MRCI scores, medication count, and additional patient data. Concordance was evaluated using weighted κ agreement statistic, and correlations were determined using Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient (ρ) or Kendall τ. Moderate to good concordance between patient-level MRCI scores and expert medication regimen complexity ranking was observed (claims data, consensus ranking: single-disease cohort 0.55, multiple disease cohort 0.63). In contrast, only fair to moderate concordance was observed for medication count (single-disease cohort 0.33, multiple-disease cohort 0.48). Adding more-detailed administration directions from EMR data did not improve concordance. MRCI convergent validity was supported by strong correlations with medication count (all cohorts 0.90) and moderate correlations with morbidity measures (e.g., all cohorts; number of comorbidities 0.46, Chronic Disease Score 0.46). Nonsignificant correlation of MRCI scores with age and gender (all cohorts 0.08 and 0.06, respectively) supported MRCI divergent validity. This study used cross-sectional, retrospective patient data for a small number of patients and clinical pharmacists from only two universities; therefore, results may have limited generalizability. The patient-level MRCI is a valid tool for assessing medication regimen complexity that can be applied by using data commonly found in claims and EMR databases and could be useful to identify patients who may benefit from medication therapy management. © 2014 The Authors Pharmacotherapy published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Pharmacotherapy Publications, Inc.

Integrative Approach to Quality Assessment of Medical Journals Using Impact Factor, Eigenfactor, and Article Influence Scores

PubMed Central

Rizkallah, Jacques; Sin, Don D.

2010-01-01

Background Impact factor (IF) is a commonly used surrogate for assessing the scientific quality of journals and articles. There is growing discontent in the medical community with the use of this quality assessment tool because of its many inherent limitations. To help address such concerns, Eigenfactor (ES) and Article Influence scores (AIS) have been devised to assess scientific impact of journals. The principal aim was to compare the temporal trends in IF, ES, and AIS on the rank order of leading medical journals over time. Methods The 2001 to 2008 IF, ES, AIS, and number of citable items (CI) of 35 leading medical journals were collected from the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) and the http://www.eigenfactor.org databases. The journals were ranked based on the published 2008 ES, AIS, and IF scores. Temporal score trends and variations were analyzed. Results In general, the AIS and IF values provided similar rank orders. Using ES values resulted in large changes in the rank orders with higher ranking being assigned to journals that publish a large volume of articles. Since 2001, the IF and AIS of most journals increased significantly; however the ES increased in only 51% of the journals in the analysis. Conversely, 26% of journals experienced a downward trend in their ES, while the rest experienced no significant changes (23%). This discordance between temporal trends in IF and ES was largely driven by temporal changes in the number of CI published by the journals. Conclusion The rank order of medical journals changes depending on whether IF, AIS or ES is used. All of these metrics are sensitive to the number of citable items published by journals. Consumers should thus consider all of these metrics rather than just IF alone in assessing the influence and importance of medical journals in their respective disciplines. PMID:20419115

7 CFR 1709.121 - Administrator's review and selection of grant awards.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... finalists for grant awards after consideration of the applications, the rankings, comments, and... application materials, ranking panel ratings, comments, and recommendations, and other pertinent information... award to the next highest ranking project. (c) The projects selected by the Administrator will be funded...

Methodology for ranking relative importance of structures to Virginia's roadway network.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2016-06-01

In 2011, the Structure and Bridge Division of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) requested assistance from : the Virginia Transportation Research Council to develop a structure scoring tool that would rank the relative importance of : V...

MeSH Now: automatic MeSH indexing at PubMed scale via learning to rank.

PubMed

Mao, Yuqing; Lu, Zhiyong

2017-04-17

MeSH indexing is the task of assigning relevant MeSH terms based on a manual reading of scholarly publications by human indexers. The task is highly important for improving literature retrieval and many other scientific investigations in biomedical research. Unfortunately, given its manual nature, the process of MeSH indexing is both time-consuming (new articles are not immediately indexed until 2 or 3 months later) and costly (approximately ten dollars per article). In response, automatic indexing by computers has been previously proposed and attempted but remains challenging. In order to advance the state of the art in automatic MeSH indexing, a community-wide shared task called BioASQ was recently organized. We propose MeSH Now, an integrated approach that first uses multiple strategies to generate a combined list of candidate MeSH terms for a target article. Through a novel learning-to-rank framework, MeSH Now then ranks the list of candidate terms based on their relevance to the target article. Finally, MeSH Now selects the highest-ranked MeSH terms via a post-processing module. We assessed MeSH Now on two separate benchmarking datasets using traditional precision, recall and F 1 -score metrics. In both evaluations, MeSH Now consistently achieved over 0.60 in F-score, ranging from 0.610 to 0.612. Furthermore, additional experiments show that MeSH Now can be optimized by parallel computing in order to process MEDLINE documents on a large scale. We conclude that MeSH Now is a robust approach with state-of-the-art performance for automatic MeSH indexing and that MeSH Now is capable of processing PubMed scale documents within a reasonable time frame. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/CBBresearch/Lu/Demo/MeSHNow/ .

Ranking viruses: measures of positional importance within networks define core viruses for rational polyvalent vaccine development.

PubMed

Anderson, Tavis K; Laegreid, William W; Cerutti, Francesco; Osorio, Fernando A; Nelson, Eric A; Christopher-Hennings, Jane; Goldberg, Tony L

2012-06-15

The extraordinary genetic and antigenic variability of RNA viruses is arguably the greatest challenge to the development of broadly effective vaccines. No single viral variant can induce sufficiently broad immunity, and incorporating all known naturally circulating variants into one multivalent vaccine is not feasible. Furthermore, no objective strategies currently exist to select actual viral variants that should be included or excluded in polyvalent vaccines. To address this problem, we demonstrate a method based on graph theory that quantifies the relative importance of viral variants. We demonstrate our method through application to the envelope glycoprotein gene of a particularly diverse RNA virus of pigs: porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV). Using distance matrices derived from sequence nucleotide difference, amino acid difference and evolutionary distance, we constructed viral networks and used common network statistics to assign each sequence an objective ranking of relative 'importance'. To validate our approach, we use an independent published algorithm to score our top-ranked wild-type variants for coverage of putative T-cell epitopes across the 9383 sequences in our dataset. Top-ranked viruses achieve significantly higher coverage than low-ranked viruses, and top-ranked viruses achieve nearly equal coverage as a synthetic mosaic protein constructed in silico from the same set of 9383 sequences. Our approach relies on the network structure of PRRSV but applies to any diverse RNA virus because it identifies subsets of viral variants that are most important to overall viral diversity. We suggest that this method, through the objective quantification of variant importance, provides criteria for choosing viral variants for further characterization, diagnostics, surveillance and ultimately polyvalent vaccine development.

Health care priority setting in Norway a multicriteria decision analysis

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Priority setting in population health is increasingly based on explicitly formulated values. The Patients Rights Act of the Norwegian tax-based health service guaranties all citizens health care in case of a severe illness, a proven health benefit, and proportionality between need and treatment. This study compares the values of the country's health policy makers with these three official principles. Methods In total 34 policy makers participated in a discrete choice experiment, weighting the relative value of six policy criteria. We used multi-variate logistic regression with selection as dependent valuable to derive odds ratios for each criterion. Next, we constructed a composite league table - based on the sum score for the probability of selection - to rank potential interventions in five major disease areas. Results The group considered cost effectiveness, large individual benefits and severity of disease as the most important criteria in decision making. Priority interventions are those related to cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases. Less attractive interventions rank those related to mental health. Conclusions Norwegian policy makers' values are in agreement with principles formulated in national health laws. Multi-criteria decision approaches may provide a tool to support explicit allocation decisions. PMID:22335815

Health care priority setting in Norway a multicriteria decision analysis.

PubMed

Defechereux, Thierry; Paolucci, Francesco; Mirelman, Andrew; Youngkong, Sitaporn; Botten, Grete; Hagen, Terje P; Niessen, Louis W

2012-02-15

Priority setting in population health is increasingly based on explicitly formulated values. The Patients Rights Act of the Norwegian tax-based health service guaranties all citizens health care in case of a severe illness, a proven health benefit, and proportionality between need and treatment. This study compares the values of the country's health policy makers with these three official principles. In total 34 policy makers participated in a discrete choice experiment, weighting the relative value of six policy criteria. We used multi-variate logistic regression with selection as dependent valuable to derive odds ratios for each criterion. Next, we constructed a composite league table - based on the sum score for the probability of selection - to rank potential interventions in five major disease areas. The group considered cost effectiveness, large individual benefits and severity of disease as the most important criteria in decision making. Priority interventions are those related to cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases. Less attractive interventions rank those related to mental health. Norwegian policy makers' values are in agreement with principles formulated in national health laws. Multi-criteria decision approaches may provide a tool to support explicit allocation decisions.

Grading of parameters for urban tree inventories by city officials, arborists, and academics using the delphi method.

PubMed

Östberg, Johan; Delshammar, Tim; Wiström, Björn; Nielsen, Anders Busse

2013-03-01

Tree inventories are expensive to conduct and update, so every inventory carried out must be maximized. However, increasing the number of constituent parameters increases the cost of performing and updating the inventory, illustrating the need for careful parameter selection. This article reports the results of a systematic expert rating of tree inventories aiming to quantify the relative importance of each parameter. Using the Delphi method, panels comprising city officials, arborists, and academics rated a total of 148 parameters. The total mean score, the top ranking parameters, which can serve as a guide for decision-making at practical level and for standardization of tree inventories, were: Scientific name of the tree species and genera, Vitality, Coordinates, Hazard class, and Identification number. The study also examined whether the different responsibilities and usage of urban tree databases among organizations and people engaged in urban tree inventories affected their prioritization. The results revealed noticeable dissimilarities in the ranking of parameters between the panels, underlining the need for collaboration between the research community and those commissioning, administrating, and conducting inventories. Only by applying such a transdisciplinary approach to parameter selection can urban tree inventories be strengthened and made more relevant.

Grading of Parameters for Urban Tree Inventories by City Officials, Arborists, and Academics Using the Delphi Method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Östberg, Johan; Delshammar, Tim; Wiström, Björn; Nielsen, Anders Busse

2013-03-01

Tree inventories are expensive to conduct and update, so every inventory carried out must be maximized. However, increasing the number of constituent parameters increases the cost of performing and updating the inventory, illustrating the need for careful parameter selection. This article reports the results of a systematic expert rating of tree inventories aiming to quantify the relative importance of each parameter. Using the Delphi method, panels comprising city officials, arborists, and academics rated a total of 148 parameters. The total mean score, the top ranking parameters, which can serve as a guide for decision-making at practical level and for standardization of tree inventories, were: Scientific name of the tree species and genera, Vitality, Coordinates, Hazard class, and Identification number. The study also examined whether the different responsibilities and usage of urban tree databases among organizations and people engaged in urban tree inventories affected their prioritization. The results revealed noticeable dissimilarities in the ranking of parameters between the panels, underlining the need for collaboration between the research community and those commissioning, administrating, and conducting inventories. Only by applying such a transdisciplinary approach to parameter selection can urban tree inventories be strengthened and made more relevant.

Docking pose selection by interaction pattern graph similarity: application to the D3R grand challenge 2015.

PubMed

Slynko, Inna; Da Silva, Franck; Bret, Guillaume; Rognan, Didier

2016-09-01

High affinity ligands for a given target tend to share key molecular interactions with important anchoring amino acids and therefore often present quite conserved interaction patterns. This simple concept was formalized in a topological knowledge-based scoring function (GRIM) for selecting the most appropriate docking poses from previously X-rayed interaction patterns. GRIM first converts protein-ligand atomic coordinates (docking poses) into a simple 3D graph describing the corresponding interaction pattern. In a second step, proposed graphs are compared to that found from template structures in the Protein Data Bank. Last, all docking poses are rescored according to an empirical score (GRIMscore) accounting for overlap of maximum common subgraphs. Taking the opportunity of the public D3R Grand Challenge 2015, GRIM was used to rescore docking poses for 36 ligands (6 HSP90α inhibitors, 30 MAP4K4 inhibitors) prior to the release of the corresponding protein-ligand X-ray structures. When applied to the HSP90α dataset, for which many protein-ligand X-ray structures are already available, GRIM provided very high quality solutions (mean rmsd = 1.06 Å, n = 6) as top-ranked poses, and significantly outperformed a state-of-the-art scoring function. In the case of MAP4K4 inhibitors, for which preexisting 3D knowledge is scarce and chemical diversity is much larger, the accuracy of GRIM poses decays (mean rmsd = 3.18 Å, n = 30) although GRIM still outperforms an energy-based scoring function. GRIM rescoring appears to be quite robust with comparison to the other approaches competing for the same challenge (42 submissions for the HSP90 dataset, 27 for the MAP4K4 dataset) as it ranked 3rd and 2nd respectively, for the two investigated datasets. The rescoring method is quite simple to implement, independent on a docking engine, and applicable to any target for which at least one holo X-ray structure is available.

Two-Way Gene Interaction From Microarray Data Based on Correlation Methods

PubMed Central

Alavi Majd, Hamid; Talebi, Atefeh; Gilany, Kambiz; Khayyer, Nasibeh

2016-01-01

Background Gene networks have generated a massive explosion in the development of high-throughput techniques for monitoring various aspects of gene activity. Networks offer a natural way to model interactions between genes, and extracting gene network information from high-throughput genomic data is an important and difficult task. Objectives The purpose of this study is to construct a two-way gene network based on parametric and nonparametric correlation coefficients. The first step in constructing a Gene Co-expression Network is to score all pairs of gene vectors. The second step is to select a score threshold and connect all gene pairs whose scores exceed this value. Materials and Methods In the foundation-application study, we constructed two-way gene networks using nonparametric methods, such as Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient and Blomqvist’s measure, and compared them with Pearson’s correlation coefficient. We surveyed six genes of venous thrombosis disease, made a matrix entry representing the score for the corresponding gene pair, and obtained two-way interactions using Pearson’s correlation, Spearman’s rank correlation, and Blomqvist’s coefficient. Finally, these methods were compared with Cytoscape, based on BIND, and Gene Ontology, based on molecular function visual methods; R software version 3.2 and Bioconductor were used to perform these methods. Results Based on the Pearson and Spearman correlations, the results were the same and were confirmed by Cytoscape and GO visual methods; however, Blomqvist’s coefficient was not confirmed by visual methods. Conclusions Some results of the correlation coefficients are not the same with visualization. The reason may be due to the small number of data. PMID:27621916

Statistical interpretation of machine learning-based feature importance scores for biomarker discovery.

PubMed

Huynh-Thu, Vân Anh; Saeys, Yvan; Wehenkel, Louis; Geurts, Pierre

2012-07-01

Univariate statistical tests are widely used for biomarker discovery in bioinformatics. These procedures are simple, fast and their output is easily interpretable by biologists but they can only identify variables that provide a significant amount of information in isolation from the other variables. As biological processes are expected to involve complex interactions between variables, univariate methods thus potentially miss some informative biomarkers. Variable relevance scores provided by machine learning techniques, however, are potentially able to highlight multivariate interacting effects, but unlike the p-values returned by univariate tests, these relevance scores are usually not statistically interpretable. This lack of interpretability hampers the determination of a relevance threshold for extracting a feature subset from the rankings and also prevents the wide adoption of these methods by practicians. We evaluated several, existing and novel, procedures that extract relevant features from rankings derived from machine learning approaches. These procedures replace the relevance scores with measures that can be interpreted in a statistical way, such as p-values, false discovery rates, or family wise error rates, for which it is easier to determine a significance level. Experiments were performed on several artificial problems as well as on real microarray datasets. Although the methods differ in terms of computing times and the tradeoff, they achieve in terms of false positives and false negatives, some of them greatly help in the extraction of truly relevant biomarkers and should thus be of great practical interest for biologists and physicians. As a side conclusion, our experiments also clearly highlight that using model performance as a criterion for feature selection is often counter-productive. Python source codes of all tested methods, as well as the MATLAB scripts used for data simulation, can be found in the Supplementary Material.

Impact of fellowship training on research productivity in academic neurological surgery.

PubMed

Agarwal, Nitin; Clark, Scott; Svider, Peter F; Couldwell, William T; Eloy, Jean Anderson; Liu, James K

2013-12-01

An increasing number of neurological surgeons have sought fellowship training in recent years, and previous analyses have suggested these practitioners are more likely to pursue an academic career. Scholarly productivity is a key component in academic advancement. We used the h-index to evaluate whether fellowship training impacts research productivity and whether any differences exist in scholarly output among practitioners in the various neurosurgical subspecialties. Online listings from academic neurological surgery departments were used to organize faculty by academic rank and fellowship training. Using the Scopus database, we calculated the h-index for 869 full-time clinical faculty. Mean h-index did not differ between fellowship- and nonfellowship-trained practitioners (h = 12.6 vs. 13.0, P = 0.96). When organized by academic rank, the difference between h-indices of those who completed fellowships was substantially greater at all ranks, with statistical significance at the associate professor rank (P = 0.003). Upon further examination by individual subspecialties, significant differences in relative research impact were noted (P < 0.0001). The stereotactic and functional fellowship was found to have the greatest mean h-index score, whereas the trauma/critical care fellowship had the lowest. No significant difference existed between the mean h-index scores of neurological surgeons who completed fellowships and those who did not. However, when stratified by academic rank, a trend was observed showing greater mean h-index scores for those who completed fellowships. This trend persists across nearly all subspecialties. Overall, being a senior faculty member corresponds with a greater h-index score, regardless of whether a fellowship was completed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Correlation of admissions statistics to graduate student success in medical physics

PubMed Central

McSpadden, Erin; Rakowski, Joseph; Nalichowski, Adrian; Yudelev, Mark; Snyder, Michael

2014-01-01

The purpose of this work is to develop metrics for evaluation of medical physics graduate student performance, assess relationships between success and other quantifiable factors, and determine whether graduate student performance can be accurately predicted by admissions statistics. A cohort of 108 medical physics graduate students from a single institution were rated for performance after matriculation based on final scores in specific courses, first year graduate Grade Point Average (GPA), performance on the program exit exam, performance in oral review sessions, and faculty rating. Admissions statistics including matriculating program (MS vs. PhD); undergraduate degree type, GPA, and country; graduate degree; general and subject GRE scores; traditional vs. nontraditional status; and ranking by admissions committee were evaluated for potential correlation with the performance metrics. GRE verbal and quantitative scores were correlated with higher scores in the most difficult courses in the program and with the program exit exam; however, the GRE section most correlated with overall faculty rating was the analytical writing section. Students with undergraduate degrees in engineering had a higher faculty rating than those from other disciplines and faculty rating was strongly correlated with undergraduate country. Undergraduate GPA was not statistically correlated with any success metrics investigated in this study. However, the high degree of selection on GPA and quantitative GRE scores during the admissions process results in relatively narrow ranges for these quantities. As such, these results do not necessarily imply that one should not strongly consider traditional metrics, such as undergraduate GPA and quantitative GRE score, during the admissions process. They suggest that once applicants have been initially filtered by these metrics, additional selection should be performed via the other metrics shown here to be correlated with success. The parameters used to make admissions decisions for our program are accurate in predicting student success, as illustrated by the very strong statistical correlation between admissions rank and course average, first year graduate GPA, and faculty rating (p<0.002). Overall, this study indicates that an undergraduate degree in physics should not be considered a fundamental requirement for entry into our program and that within the relatively narrow range of undergraduate GPA and quantitative GRE scores of those admitted into our program, additional variations in these metrics are not important predictors of success. While the high degree of selection on particular statistics involved in the admissions process, along with the relatively small sample size, makes it difficult to draw concrete conclusions about the meaning of correlations here, these results suggest that success in medical physics is based on more than quantitative capabilities. Specifically, they indicate that analytical and communication skills play a major role in student success in our program, as well as predicted future success by program faculty members. Finally, this study confirms that our current admissions process is effective in identifying candidates who will be successful in our program and are expected to be successful after graduation, and provides additional insight useful in improving our admissions selection process. PACS number: 01.40.‐d PMID:24423842

SU-E-T-105: An FMEA Survey of Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) Step and Shoot Dose Delivery Failure Modes

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

Faught, J Tonigan; Johnson, J; Stingo, F

2015-06-15

Purpose: To assess the perception of TG-142 tolerance level dose delivery failures in IMRT and the application of FMEA process to this specific aspect of IMRT. Methods: An online survey was distributed to medical physicists worldwide that briefly described 11 different failure modes (FMs) covered by basic quality assurance in step- and-shoot IMRT at or near TG-142 tolerance criteria levels. For each FM, respondents estimated the worst case H&N patient percent dose error and FMEA scores for Occurrence, Detectability, and Severity. Demographic data was also collected. Results: 181 individual and three group responses were submitted. 84% were from North America.more » Most (76%) individual respondents performed at least 80% clinical work and 92% were nationally certified. Respondent medical physics experience ranged from 2.5–45 years (average 18 years). 52% of individual respondents were at least somewhat familiar with FMEA, while 17% were not familiar. Several IMRT techniques, treatment planning systems and linear accelerator manufacturers were represented. All FMs received widely varying scores ranging from 1–10 for occurrence, at least 1–9 for detectability, and at least 1–7 for severity. Ranking FMs by RPN scores also resulted in large variability, with each FM being ranked both most risky (1st ) and least risky (11th) by different respondents. On average MLC modeling had the highest RPN scores. Individual estimated percent dose errors and severity scores positively correlated (p<0.10) for each FM as expected. No universal correlations were found between the demographic information collected and scoring, percent dose errors, or ranking. Conclusion: FMs investigated overall were evaluated as low to medium risk, with average RPNs less than 110. The ranking of 11 FMs was not agreed upon by the community. Large variability in FMEA scoring may be caused by individual interpretation and/or experience, thus reflecting the subjective nature of the FMEA tool.« less

[Effect of stock abundance and environmental factors on the recruitment success of small yellow croaker in the East China Sea].

PubMed

Liu, Zun-lei; Yuan, Xing-wei; Yang, Lin-lin; Yan, Li-ping; Zhang, Hui; Cheng, Jia-hua

2015-02-01

Multiple hypotheses are available to explain recruitment rate. Model selection methods can be used to identify the best model that supports a particular hypothesis. However, using a single model for estimating recruitment success is often inadequate for overexploited population because of high model uncertainty. In this study, stock-recruitment data of small yellow croaker in the East China Sea collected from fishery dependent and independent surveys between 1992 and 2012 were used to examine density-dependent effects on recruitment success. Model selection methods based on frequentist (AIC, maximum adjusted R2 and P-values) and Bayesian (Bayesian model averaging, BMA) methods were applied to identify the relationship between recruitment and environment conditions. Interannual variability of the East China Sea environment was indicated by sea surface temperature ( SST) , meridional wind stress (MWS), zonal wind stress (ZWS), sea surface pressure (SPP) and runoff of Changjiang River ( RCR). Mean absolute error, mean squared predictive error and continuous ranked probability score were calculated to evaluate the predictive performance of recruitment success. The results showed that models structures were not consistent based on three kinds of model selection methods, predictive variables of models were spawning abundance and MWS by AIC, spawning abundance by P-values, spawning abundance, MWS and RCR by maximum adjusted R2. The recruitment success decreased linearly with stock abundance (P < 0.01), suggesting overcompensation effect in the recruitment success might be due to cannibalism or food competition. Meridional wind intensity showed marginally significant and positive effects on the recruitment success (P = 0.06), while runoff of Changjiang River showed a marginally negative effect (P = 0.07). Based on mean absolute error and continuous ranked probability score, predictive error associated with models obtained from BMA was the smallest amongst different approaches, while that from models selected based on the P-value of the independent variables was the highest. However, mean squared predictive error from models selected based on the maximum adjusted R2 was highest. We found that BMA method could improve the prediction of recruitment success, derive more accurate prediction interval and quantitatively evaluate model uncertainty.

Teacher Ratings from Incomplete Student Ranking Data.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaiser, Henry F.; Cerny, Barbara A.

1979-01-01

A method for obtaining teacher ratings from incomplete student ranking data is presented. The procedure involves finding the scores for the teachers on the first principal component of a student intercorrelation matrix, where the missing data are supplied by least squares. (Author)

Space Shuttle RTOS Bayesian Network

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morris, A. Terry; Beling, Peter A.

2001-01-01

With shrinking budgets and the requirements to increase reliability and operational life of the existing orbiter fleet, NASA has proposed various upgrades for the Space Shuttle that are consistent with national space policy. The cockpit avionics upgrade (CAU), a high priority item, has been selected as the next major upgrade. The primary functions of cockpit avionics include flight control, guidance and navigation, communication, and orbiter landing support. Secondary functions include the provision of operational services for non-avionics systems such as data handling for the payloads and caution and warning alerts to the crew. Recently, a process to selection the optimal commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) real-time operating system (RTOS) for the CAU was conducted by United Space Alliance (USA) Corporation, which is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor for space shuttle operations. In order to independently assess the RTOS selection, NASA has used the Bayesian network-based scoring methodology described in this paper. Our two-stage methodology addresses the issue of RTOS acceptability by incorporating functional, performance and non-functional software measures related to reliability, interoperability, certifiability, efficiency, correctness, business, legal, product history, cost and life cycle. The first stage of the methodology involves obtaining scores for the various measures using a Bayesian network. The Bayesian network incorporates the causal relationships between the various and often competing measures of interest while also assisting the inherently complex decision analysis process with its ability to reason under uncertainty. The structure and selection of prior probabilities for the network is extracted from experts in the field of real-time operating systems. Scores for the various measures are computed using Bayesian probability. In the second stage, multi-criteria trade-off analyses are performed between the scores. Using a prioritization of measures from the decision-maker, trade-offs between the scores are used to rank order the available set of RTOS candidates.

Establishment of a 12-gene expression signature to predict colon cancer prognosis

PubMed Central

Zhao, Guangxi; Dong, Pingping; Wu, Bingrui

2018-01-01

A robust and accurate gene expression signature is essential to assist oncologists to determine which subset of patients at similar Tumor-Lymph Node-Metastasis (TNM) stage has high recurrence risk and could benefit from adjuvant therapies. Here we applied a two-step supervised machine-learning method and established a 12-gene expression signature to precisely predict colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) prognosis by using COAD RNA-seq transcriptome data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The predictive performance of the 12-gene signature was validated with two independent gene expression microarray datasets: GSE39582 includes 566 COAD cases for the development of six molecular subtypes with distinct clinical, molecular and survival characteristics; GSE17538 is a dataset containing 232 colon cancer patients for the generation of a metastasis gene expression profile to predict recurrence and death in COAD patients. The signature could effectively separate the poor prognosis patients from good prognosis group (disease specific survival (DSS): Kaplan Meier (KM) Log Rank p = 0.0034; overall survival (OS): KM Log Rank p = 0.0336) in GSE17538. For patients with proficient mismatch repair system (pMMR) in GSE39582, the signature could also effectively distinguish high risk group from low risk group (OS: KM Log Rank p = 0.005; Relapse free survival (RFS): KM Log Rank p = 0.022). Interestingly, advanced stage patients were significantly enriched in high 12-gene score group (Fisher’s exact test p = 0.0003). After stage stratification, the signature could still distinguish poor prognosis patients in GSE17538 from good prognosis within stage II (Log Rank p = 0.01) and stage II & III (Log Rank p = 0.017) in the outcome of DFS. Within stage III or II/III pMMR patients treated with Adjuvant Chemotherapies (ACT) and patients with higher 12-gene score showed poorer prognosis (III, OS: KM Log Rank p = 0.046; III & II, OS: KM Log Rank p = 0.041). Among stage II/III pMMR patients with lower 12-gene scores in GSE39582, the subgroup receiving ACT showed significantly longer OS time compared with those who received no ACT (Log Rank p = 0.021), while there is no obvious difference between counterparts among patients with higher 12-gene scores (Log Rank p = 0.12). Besides COAD, our 12-gene signature is multifunctional in several other cancer types including kidney cancer, lung cancer, uveal and skin melanoma, brain cancer, and pancreatic cancer. Functional classification showed that seven of the twelve genes are involved in immune system function and regulation, so our 12-gene signature could potentially be used to guide decisions about adjuvant therapy for patients with stage II/III and pMMR COAD.

Automatic Compound Annotation from Mass Spectrometry Data Using MAGMa

PubMed Central

Ridder, Lars; van der Hooft, Justin J. J.; Verhoeven, Stefan

2014-01-01

The MAGMa software for automatic annotation of mass spectrometry based fragmentation data was applied to 16 MS/MS datasets of the CASMI 2013 contest. Eight solutions were submitted in category 1 (molecular formula assignments) and twelve in category 2 (molecular structure assignment). The MS/MS peaks of each challenge were matched with in silico generated substructures of candidate molecules from PubChem, resulting in penalty scores that were used for candidate ranking. In 6 of the 12 submitted solutions in category 2, the correct chemical structure obtained the best score, whereas 3 molecules were ranked outside the top 5. All top ranked molecular formulas submitted in category 1 were correct. In addition, we present MAGMa results generated retrospectively for the remaining challenges. Successful application of the MAGMa algorithm required inclusion of the relevant candidate molecules, application of the appropriate mass tolerance and a sufficient degree of in silico fragmentation of the candidate molecules. Furthermore, the effect of the exhaustiveness of the candidate lists and limitations of substructure based scoring are discussed. PMID:26819876

Automatic Compound Annotation from Mass Spectrometry Data Using MAGMa.

PubMed

Ridder, Lars; van der Hooft, Justin J J; Verhoeven, Stefan

2014-01-01

The MAGMa software for automatic annotation of mass spectrometry based fragmentation data was applied to 16 MS/MS datasets of the CASMI 2013 contest. Eight solutions were submitted in category 1 (molecular formula assignments) and twelve in category 2 (molecular structure assignment). The MS/MS peaks of each challenge were matched with in silico generated substructures of candidate molecules from PubChem, resulting in penalty scores that were used for candidate ranking. In 6 of the 12 submitted solutions in category 2, the correct chemical structure obtained the best score, whereas 3 molecules were ranked outside the top 5. All top ranked molecular formulas submitted in category 1 were correct. In addition, we present MAGMa results generated retrospectively for the remaining challenges. Successful application of the MAGMa algorithm required inclusion of the relevant candidate molecules, application of the appropriate mass tolerance and a sufficient degree of in silico fragmentation of the candidate molecules. Furthermore, the effect of the exhaustiveness of the candidate lists and limitations of substructure based scoring are discussed.

KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PERCEPTION OF PARENTS ON THE USE OF COUGH AND COLD MEDICATIONS IN CHILDREN.

PubMed

Yong, Chew Chin; Islahudin, Farida; Shah, Noraida Mohamed

2015-05-01

This study investigated the knowledge, attitude and perception of parents on the use of cough and cold medications in children. Questionnaires were distributed to parents of children aged < or =6 years in selected kindergartens. The overall knowledge of the parents (n=248) was satisfactory with a mean score of 5.87 +/- 1.70 (from a total of 10) and the overall attitude was positive with a mean score of 41.15 +/- 6.72 (from a total of 50). Ten percent of parents admitted administering cough and cold medications in children aged <2 years. Age of the parents, education level and monthly income were found to significantly influence knowledge level (p<0.05). Spearman's rank-order correlation between knowledge and attitude scores showed a statistically significant positive linear relationship (r(s), = 0.290, p<0.05). The study provides some insights into the use of cough and cold medications in children from the parents' perspectives.

A rational approach to selecting and ranking some pharmaceuticals of concern for the aquatic environment and their relative importance compared with other chemicals.

PubMed

Donnachie, Rachel L; Johnson, Andrew C; Sumpter, John P

2016-04-01

Aquatic organisms can be exposed to thousands of chemicals discharged by the human population. Many of these chemicals are considered disruptive to aquatic wildlife, and the literature on the impacts of these chemicals grows daily. However, because time and resources are not infinite, research must focus on the chemicals that represent the greatest threat. One group of chemicals of increasing concern is pharmaceuticals, for which the primary challenge is to identify which represent the greatest threat. In the present study, a list of 12 pharmaceuticals was compiled based on scoring the prevalence of different compounds from previous prioritization reviews. These included rankings based on prescription data, environmental concentrations, predicted environmental concentration/predicted no-effect concentration (PEC/PNEC) ratios, persistency/bioaccumulation/(eco)toxicity (PBT), and fish plasma model approaches. The most frequently cited were diclofenac, paracetamol, ibuprofen, carbamazepine, naproxen, atenolol, ethinyl estradiol, aspirin, fluoxetine, propranolol, metoprolol, and sulfamethoxazole. For each pharmaceutical, literature on effect concentrations was compiled and compared with river concentrations in the United Kingdom. The pharmaceuticals were ranked by degree of difference between the median effect and median river concentrations. Ethinyl estradiol was ranked as the highest concern, followed by fluoxetine, propranolol, and paracetamol. The relative risk of these pharmaceuticals was compared with those of metals and some persistent organic pollutants. Pharmaceuticals appear to be less of a threat to aquatic organisms than some metals (Cu, Al, Zn) and triclosan, using this ranking approach. © 2015 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of SETAC.

Four suggestions for addressing public concern regarding synthetic biology.

PubMed

Hatch, Alex David

2010-06-09

The following essay was written by Mr. Alex Hatch, a junior undergraduate student majoring in Biological Engineering at Utah State University. Mr. Hatch submitted a 1000-1200 word essay to the 5th Annual Bioethics Contest sponsored by the Institute of Biological Engineering (IBE). A group of professionals in Biological Engineering assessed and ranked the essays in a blinded process. Five semi-finalists were invited to present their essays at a session at the annual meeting of IBE in Cambridge, MA on March 6, 2010. Five judges scored all the presentations and selected Mr. Hatch's contribution as the overall winner (first place).

Use of in vitro methods to rank surfactants for irritation potential in support of new product development.

PubMed

Casterton, P L; Potts, L F; Klein, B D

1994-08-01

11 surfactant raw materials with potential applications in light-duty liquid cleaning products were evaluated in vitro using a human skin analogue (ATS SKIN(2) Model ZK1100) for predicting cytotoxicity (MTT reduction) and inflammation [prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)) release]. Two of the 11 raw materials, both in the same compound family, were selected to be individually combined with each of the other nine in a 90:10 (raw:selected raw) mixture. Selection criteria were based on desired performance characteristics and low irritation potential as suggested from the individual surfactant assay data. To determine whether irritation potential was mitigated, MTT and PGE(2) scores were again determined for each of the 18 combinations with the resulting data being compared with the untreated raw material data. A plot of the data indicated that one of two selected materials may have an 'anti-irritant' effect. For raw materials with intrinsic MTT scores of less than 50 mug/ml and with the original data corrected for possible dilution effects, a statistical comparison between individual raw materials and the two sets of combinations was done using a one-sample analysis. Both cytotoxicity (MTT) and inflammation (PGE(2)) were significantly decreased by the milder of the two selected raw materials. By factoring the data into future new product decisions, this methodology has become a useful and practical tool for Amway product development.

Universality, correlations, and rankings in the Brazilian universities national admission examinations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

da Silva, Roberto; Lamb, Luis C.; Barbosa, Marcia C.

2016-09-01

We analyze the scores obtained by students who have taken the ENEM examination, The Brazilian High School National Examination which is used in the admission process at Brazilian universities. The average high schools scores from different disciplines are compared through the Pearson correlation coefficient. The results show a very large correlation between the performance in the different school subjects. Even though the students' scores in the ENEM form a Gaussian due to the standardization, we show that the high schools' scores form a bimodal distribution that cannot be used to evaluate and compare students performance over time. We also show that this high schools distribution reflects the correlation between school performance and the economic level (based on the average family income) of the students. The ENEM scores are compared with a Brazilian non standardized exam, the entrance examination from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. The analysis of the performance of the same individuals in both tests shows that the two tests not only select different abilities, but also lead to the admission of different sets of individuals. Our results indicate that standardized tests might be an interesting tool to compare performance of individuals over the years, but not of institutions.

Impact of case-mix on comparisons of patient-reported experience in NHS acute hospital trusts in England.

PubMed

Raleigh, Veena; Sizmur, Steve; Tian, Yang; Thompson, James

2015-04-01

To examine the impact of patient-mix on National Health Service (NHS) acute hospital trust scores in two national NHS patient surveys. Secondary analysis of 2012 patient survey data for 57,915 adult inpatients at 142 NHS acute hospital trusts and 45,263 adult emergency department attendees at 146 NHS acute hospital trusts in England. Changes in trust scores for selected questions, ranks, inter-trust variance and score-based performance bands were examined using three methods: no adjustment for case-mix; the current standardization method with weighting for age, sex and, for inpatients only, admission method; and a regression model adjusting in addition for ethnicity, presence of a long-term condition, proxy response (inpatients only) and previous emergency attendances (emergency department survey only). For both surveys, all the variables examined were associated with patients' responses and affected inter-trust variance in scores, although the direction and strength of impact differed between variables. Inter-trust variance was generally greatest for the unadjusted scores and lowest for scores derived from the full regression model. Although trust scores derived from the three methods were highly correlated (Kendall's tau coefficients 0.70-0.94), up to 14% of trusts had discordant ranks of when the standardization and regression methods were compared. Depending on the survey and question, up to 14 trusts changed performance bands when the regression model with its fuller case-mix adjustment was used rather than the current standardization method. More comprehensive case-mix adjustment of patient survey data than the current limited adjustment reduces performance variation between NHS acute hospital trusts and alters the comparative performance bands of some trusts. Given the use of these data for high-impact purposes such as performance assessment, regulation, commissioning, quality improvement and patient choice, a review of the long-standing method for analysing patient survey data would be timely, and could improve rigour and comparability across the NHS. Performance comparisons need to be perceived as fair and scientifically robust to maintain confidence in publicly reported data, and to support their use by both the public and the NHS. © The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.

CSmetaPred: a consensus method for prediction of catalytic residues.

PubMed

Choudhary, Preeti; Kumar, Shailesh; Bachhawat, Anand Kumar; Pandit, Shashi Bhushan

2017-12-22

Knowledge of catalytic residues can play an essential role in elucidating mechanistic details of an enzyme. However, experimental identification of catalytic residues is a tedious and time-consuming task, which can be expedited by computational predictions. Despite significant development in active-site prediction methods, one of the remaining issues is ranked positions of putative catalytic residues among all ranked residues. In order to improve ranking of catalytic residues and their prediction accuracy, we have developed a meta-approach based method CSmetaPred. In this approach, residues are ranked based on the mean of normalized residue scores derived from four well-known catalytic residue predictors. The mean residue score of CSmetaPred is combined with predicted pocket information to improve prediction performance in meta-predictor, CSmetaPred_poc. Both meta-predictors are evaluated on two comprehensive benchmark datasets and three legacy datasets using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) and Precision Recall (PR) curves. The visual and quantitative analysis of ROC and PR curves shows that meta-predictors outperform their constituent methods and CSmetaPred_poc is the best of evaluated methods. For instance, on CSAMAC dataset CSmetaPred_poc (CSmetaPred) achieves highest Mean Average Specificity (MAS), a scalar measure for ROC curve, of 0.97 (0.96). Importantly, median predicted rank of catalytic residues is the lowest (best) for CSmetaPred_poc. Considering residues ranked ≤20 classified as true positive in binary classification, CSmetaPred_poc achieves prediction accuracy of 0.94 on CSAMAC dataset. Moreover, on the same dataset CSmetaPred_poc predicts all catalytic residues within top 20 ranks for ~73% of enzymes. Furthermore, benchmarking of prediction on comparative modelled structures showed that models result in better prediction than only sequence based predictions. These analyses suggest that CSmetaPred_poc is able to rank putative catalytic residues at lower (better) ranked positions, which can facilitate and expedite their experimental characterization. The benchmarking studies showed that employing meta-approach in combining residue-level scores derived from well-known catalytic residue predictors can improve prediction accuracy as well as provide improved ranked positions of known catalytic residues. Hence, such predictions can assist experimentalist to prioritize residues for mutational studies in their efforts to characterize catalytic residues. Both meta-predictors are available as webserver at: http://14.139.227.206/csmetapred/ .

Evaluation of motion artifact metrics for coronary CT angiography.

PubMed

Ma, Hongfeng; Gros, Eric; Szabo, Aniko; Baginski, Scott G; Laste, Zachary R; Kulkarni, Naveen M; Okerlund, Darin; Schmidt, Taly G

2018-02-01

This study quantified the performance of coronary artery motion artifact metrics relative to human observer ratings. Motion artifact metrics have been used as part of motion correction and best-phase selection algorithms for Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography (CCTA). However, the lack of ground truth makes it difficult to validate how well the metrics quantify the level of motion artifact. This study investigated five motion artifact metrics, including two novel metrics, using a dynamic phantom, clinical CCTA images, and an observer study that provided ground-truth motion artifact scores from a series of pairwise comparisons. Five motion artifact metrics were calculated for the coronary artery regions on both phantom and clinical CCTA images: positivity, entropy, normalized circularity, Fold Overlap Ratio (FOR), and Low-Intensity Region Score (LIRS). CT images were acquired of a dynamic cardiac phantom that simulated cardiac motion and contained six iodine-filled vessels of varying diameter and with regions of soft plaque and calcifications. Scans were repeated with different gantry start angles. Images were reconstructed at five phases of the motion cycle. Clinical images were acquired from 14 CCTA exams with patient heart rates ranging from 52 to 82 bpm. The vessel and shading artifacts were manually segmented by three readers and combined to create ground-truth artifact regions. Motion artifact levels were also assessed by readers using a pairwise comparison method to establish a ground-truth reader score. The Kendall's Tau coefficients were calculated to evaluate the statistical agreement in ranking between the motion artifacts metrics and reader scores. Linear regression between the reader scores and the metrics was also performed. On phantom images, the Kendall's Tau coefficients of the five motion artifact metrics were 0.50 (normalized circularity), 0.35 (entropy), 0.82 (positivity), 0.77 (FOR), 0.77(LIRS), where higher Kendall's Tau signifies higher agreement. The FOR, LIRS, and transformed positivity (the fourth root of the positivity) were further evaluated in the study of clinical images. The Kendall's Tau coefficients of the selected metrics were 0.59 (FOR), 0.53 (LIRS), and 0.21 (Transformed positivity). In the study of clinical data, a Motion Artifact Score, defined as the product of FOR and LIRS metrics, further improved agreement with reader scores, with a Kendall's Tau coefficient of 0.65. The metrics of FOR, LIRS, and the product of the two metrics provided the highest agreement in motion artifact ranking when compared to the readers, and the highest linear correlation to the reader scores. The validated motion artifact metrics may be useful for developing and evaluating methods to reduce motion in Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography (CCTA) images. © 2017 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Learning to Select Supplier Portfolios for Service Supply Chain

PubMed Central

Zhang, Rui; Li, Jingfei; Wu, Shaoyu; Meng, Dabin

2016-01-01

The research on service supply chain has attracted more and more focus from both academia and industrial community. In a service supply chain, the selection of supplier portfolio is an important and difficult problem due to the fact that a supplier portfolio may include multiple suppliers from a variety of fields. To address this problem, we propose a novel supplier portfolio selection method based on a well known machine learning approach, i.e., Ranking Neural Network (RankNet). In the proposed method, we regard the problem of supplier portfolio selection as a ranking problem, which integrates a large scale of decision making features into a ranking neural network. Extensive simulation experiments are conducted, which demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method. The proposed supplier portfolio selection model can be applied in a real corporation easily in the future. PMID:27195756

Rescore protein-protein docked ensembles with an interface contact statistics.

PubMed

Mezei, Mihaly

2017-02-01

The recently developed statistical measure for the type of residue-residue contact at protein complex interfaces, based on a parameter-free definition of contact, has been used to define a contact score that is correlated with the likelihood of correctness of a proposed complex structure. Comparing the proposed contact scores on the native structure and on a set of model structures the proposed measure was shown to generally favor the native structure but in itself was not able to reliably score the native structure to be the best. Adjusting the scores of redocking experiments with the contact score showed that the adjusted score was able to move up the ranking of the native-like structure among the proposed complexes when the native-like was not ranked the best by the respective program. Tests on docking of unbound proteins compared the contact scores of the complexes with the contact score of the crystal structure again showing the tendency of the contact score to favor native-like conformations. The possibility of using the contact score to improve the determination of biological dimers in a crystal structure was also explored. Proteins 2017; 85:235-241. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Pitch ranking, electrode discrimination, and physiological spread-of-excitation using Cochlear's dual-electrode mode.

PubMed

Goehring, Jenny L; Neff, Donna L; Baudhuin, Jacquelyn L; Hughes, Michelle L

2014-08-01

This study compared pitch ranking, electrode discrimination, and electrically evoked compound action potential (ECAP) spatial excitation patterns for adjacent physical electrodes (PEs) and the corresponding dual electrodes (DEs) for newer-generation Cochlear devices (Cochlear Ltd., Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia). The first goal was to determine whether pitch ranking and electrode discrimination yield similar outcomes for PEs and DEs. The second goal was to determine if the amount of spatial separation among ECAP excitation patterns (separation index, Σ) between adjacent PEs and the PE-DE pairs can predict performance on the psychophysical tasks. Using non-adaptive procedures, 13 subjects completed pitch ranking and electrode discrimination for adjacent PEs and the corresponding PE-DE pairs (DE versus each flanking PE) from the basal, middle, and apical electrode regions. Analysis of d' scores indicated that pitch-ranking and electrode-discrimination scores were not significantly different, but rather produced similar levels of performance. As expected, accuracy was significantly better for the PE-PE comparison than either PE-DE comparison. Correlations of the psychophysical versus ECAP Σ measures were positive; however, not all test/region correlations were significant across the array. Thus, the ECAP separation index is not sensitive enough to predict performance on behavioral tasks of pitch ranking or electrode discrimination for adjacent PEs or corresponding DEs.

Pitch ranking, electrode discrimination, and physiological spread-of-excitation using Cochlear's dual-electrode mode

PubMed Central

Goehring, Jenny L.; Neff, Donna L.; Baudhuin, Jacquelyn L.; Hughes, Michelle L.

2014-01-01

This study compared pitch ranking, electrode discrimination, and electrically evoked compound action potential (ECAP) spatial excitation patterns for adjacent physical electrodes (PEs) and the corresponding dual electrodes (DEs) for newer-generation Cochlear devices (Cochlear Ltd., Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia). The first goal was to determine whether pitch ranking and electrode discrimination yield similar outcomes for PEs and DEs. The second goal was to determine if the amount of spatial separation among ECAP excitation patterns (separation index, Σ) between adjacent PEs and the PE-DE pairs can predict performance on the psychophysical tasks. Using non-adaptive procedures, 13 subjects completed pitch ranking and electrode discrimination for adjacent PEs and the corresponding PE-DE pairs (DE versus each flanking PE) from the basal, middle, and apical electrode regions. Analysis of d′ scores indicated that pitch-ranking and electrode-discrimination scores were not significantly different, but rather produced similar levels of performance. As expected, accuracy was significantly better for the PE-PE comparison than either PE-DE comparison. Correlations of the psychophysical versus ECAP Σ measures were positive; however, not all test/region correlations were significant across the array. Thus, the ECAP separation index is not sensitive enough to predict performance on behavioral tasks of pitch ranking or electrode discrimination for adjacent PEs or corresponding DEs. PMID:25096106

EPG therapy for children with long-standing speech disorders: predictions and outcomes.

PubMed

Carter, Penny; Edwards, Susan

2004-01-01

This paper reports on a project using a series of single subjects to investigate the effectiveness of using electropalatography (EPG) in treating ten children with persisting speech difficulties of no known organic aetiology. The aims of the project were two-fold, firstly to assess whether the subjects selected benefited from this treatment, and secondly to investigate whether it was possible to predict which children would make maximum improvement. A number of factors were identified as possible predictors for successful EPG therapy and subjects were then ranked according to these predictions. Baseline measures of each subject's speech were taken using word lists. Scores reflected the correct number of realizations of consonants produced by each subject. Subjects received the same number of therapy sessions and were then re-tested. Scores before and after therapy were compared and found to be significantly different although the initial predictions as to the magnitude of improvement for each subject were not verified. The selection of appropriate candidates for therapy and the need for objective means of establishing effectiveness are discussed.

Spectacle Design Preferences among Chinese Primary and Secondary Students and Their Parents: A Qualitative and Quantitative Study

PubMed Central

Zhou, Zhongqiang; Kecman, Maja; Chen, Tingting; Liu, Tianyu; Jin, Ling; Chen, Shangji; Chen, Qianyun; He, Mingguang; Silver, Josh; Moore, Bruce; Congdon, Nathan

2014-01-01

Purpose To identify the specific characteristics making glasses designs, particularly those compatible with adjustable glasses, more or less appealing to Chinese children and their parents. Patients and Methods Primary and secondary school children from urban and rural China with < = −1.00 diopters of bilateral myopia and their parents ranked four conventional-style frames identified by local optical shops as popular versus four child-specific frames compatible with adjustable spectacles. Scores based on the proportion of maximum possible ranking were computed for each style. Selected children and their parents also participated in Focus Groups (FGs) discussing spectacle design preference. Recordings were transcribed and coded by two independents reviewers using NVivo software. Results Among 136 urban primary school children (age range 9–11 years), 290 rural secondary school children (11–17 years) and 16 parents, all adjustable-style frames (scores on 0–100 scale 25.7–62.4) were ranked behind all conventional frames (63.0–87.5). For eight FGs including 12 primary children, 26 secondary children and 16 parents, average kappa values for NVivo coding were 0.81 (students) and 0.70 (parents). All groups agreed that the key changes to make adjustable designs more attractive were altering the round lenses to rectangular or oval shapes and adding curved earpieces for more stable wear. The thick frames of the adjustable designs were considered stylish, and children indicated they would wear them if the lens shape were modified. Conclusions Current adjustable lens designs are unattractive to Chinese children and their parents, though this study identified specific modifications which would make them more appealing. PMID:24594799

Primary hip and knee replacement surgery: Ontario criteria for case selection and surgical priority.

PubMed Central

Naylor, C D; Williams, J I

1996-01-01

OBJECTIVES--To develop, from simple clinical factors, criteria to identify appropriate patients for referral to a surgeon for consideration for arthroplasty, and to rank them in the queue once surgery is agreed. DESIGN--Delphi process, with a panel including orthopaedic surgeons, rheumatologists, general practitioners, epidemiologists, and physiotherapists, who rated 120 case scenarios for appropriateness and 42 for waiting list priority. Scenarios incorporated combinations of relevant clinical factors. It was assumed that queues should be organised not simply by chronology but by clinical and social impact of delayed surgery. The panel focused on information obtained from clinical histories, to ensure the utility of the guidelines in practice. Relevant high quality research evidence was limited. SETTING--Ontario, Canada. MAIN MEASURES--Appropriateness ratings on a 7-point scale, and urgency rankings on a 4-point scale keyed to specific waiting times. RESULTS--Despite incomplete evidence panellists agreed on ratings in 92.5% of appropriateness and 73.8% of urgency scenarios versus 15% and 18% agreement expected by chance, respectively. Statistically validated algorithms in decision tree form, which should permit rapid estimation of urgency or appropriateness in practice, were compiled by recursive partitioning. Rating patterns and algorithms were also used to make brief written guidelines on how clinical factors affect appropriateness and urgency of surgery. A summary score was provided for each case scenario; scenarios could then be matched to chart audit results, with scoring for quality management. CONCLUSIONS--These algorithms and criteria can be used by managers or practitioners to assess appropriateness of referral for hip or knee replacement and relative rankings of patients in the queue for surgery. PMID:10157268

Methods and consequences of including feed intake and efficiency in genetic selection for multiple-trait merit.

PubMed

Barwick, Stephen A; Henzell, Anthony L; Walmsley, Brad J; Johnston, David J; Banks, Robert G

2018-05-04

Methods are presented for including feed intake and efficiency in genetic selection for multiple-trait merit when commercial production is from any combination of pasture or concentrates. Consequences for the production system and for individual animals are illustrated with a beef cattle example. Residual feed intake at pasture (RFI-p), residual feed intake in the feedlot (RFI-f), and cow condition score are additional traits of the breeding objective. Feed requirement change is costed in the economic values of other objective traits. Selection responses are examined when feed costs are ignored, partially or fully included in the breeding objective, and when net feed intake (NFI) EBVs are added to the index. When all feed cost was included and NFI EBVs were in the index, selection (with selection intensity, i = 1) increased production system $ net return by 6.0%, $ per unit of product by 5.2%, $ per unit of feed by 6.6%, total product by 0.7% and product per unit of feed by 1.3%. There was little change in production system total feed. When feed cost was ignored, selection decreased production system $ net return, $ per unit of product, and $ per unit of feed. At the individual trait level, when feed was fully included there were increases in weaning weight-direct (0.8 kg), feedlot entry weight (1.4 kg), dressing % (0.04%), carcass meat % (0.36%), carcase fat depth (0.12 mm), carcass marbling score (0.02 score), cow condition score (0.01 score), calving ease-direct (0.97%), calving ease-maternal (0.22%) and cow weaning rate (1.3%), and decreases in weaning weight-maternal (-0.9 kg), RFI-p (-0.09 kg DM/d), RFI-f (-0.11 kg DM/d), sale weight (-1.6 kg) and cow weight (-8.7 kg). Gains were evident over a range of feed price. Selection for $ net return also increased $ net return per unit of feed, suggesting that $ net return per unit area would increase in grazing industries. Feed cost for trait change was the source of a major genotype × environment interaction affecting animal rankings. Where industry production environments vary, and feed cost for trait change varies with the environment, we recommend that industry indexes be derived for more than one level of feed cost. Cow condition score did not decline while biological and economic efficiency of the production system and individual animal were improving, suggesting that efficiency can be improved under multiple-trait selection without compromising breeding cow welfare.

Application of risk-based multiple criteria decision analysis for selection of the best agricultural scenario for effective watershed management.

PubMed

Javidi Sabbaghian, Reza; Zarghami, Mahdi; Nejadhashemi, A Pouyan; Sharifi, Mohammad Bagher; Herman, Matthew R; Daneshvar, Fariborz

2016-03-01

Effective watershed management requires the evaluation of agricultural best management practice (BMP) scenarios which carefully consider the relevant environmental, economic, and social criteria involved. In the Multiple Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) process, scenarios are first evaluated and then ranked to determine the most desirable outcome for the particular watershed. The main challenge of this process is the accurate identification of the best solution for the watershed in question, despite the various risk attitudes presented by the associated decision-makers (DMs). This paper introduces a novel approach for implementation of the MCDM process based on a comparative neutral risk/risk-based decision analysis, which results in the selection of the most desirable scenario for use in the entire watershed. At the sub-basin level, each scenario includes multiple BMPs with scores that have been calculated using the criteria derived from two cases of neutral risk and risk-based decision-making. The simple additive weighting (SAW) operator is applied for use in neutral risk decision-making, while the ordered weighted averaging (OWA) and induced OWA (IOWA) operators are effective for risk-based decision-making. At the watershed level, the BMP scores of the sub-basins are aggregated to calculate each scenarios' combined goodness measurements; the most desirable scenario for the entire watershed is then selected based on the combined goodness measurements. Our final results illustrate the type of operator and risk attitudes needed to satisfy the relevant criteria within the number of sub-basins, and how they ultimately affect the final ranking of the given scenarios. The methodology proposed here has been successfully applied to the Honeyoey Creek-Pine Creek watershed in Michigan, USA to evaluate various BMP scenarios and determine the best solution for both the stakeholders and the overall stream health. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

76 FR 19951 - Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-04-11

... Appropriations Act (Pub. L. 108- 7) provided grant funds in the Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program... information to score and rank applications for funding. Scoring will consist of three categories: Rurality...

Black bear habitat use in relation to food availability in the Interior Highlands of Arkansas

USGS Publications Warehouse

Clark, Joseph D.; Clapp, Daniel L.; Smith, Kimberly G.; Ederington, Belinda

1994-01-01

A black bear (Ursus americanus) food value index (FVI) was developed and calculated for forest cover type classifications on Ozark Mountain (White Rock) and Ouachita Mountain (Dry Creek) study areas in western Arkansas. FVIs are estimates of bear food production capabilities of the major forest cover types and were calculated using percent cover, mean fruit production scorings, and the dietary percentage of each major plant food species as variables. Goodness-of-fit analyses were used to determine use of forest cover types by 23 radio-collared female bears. Habitat selection by forest cover type was not detected on White Rock but was detected on Dry Creek. Use of habitats on Dry Creek appeared to be related to food production with the exception of regeneration areas, which were used less than expected but had a high FVI ranking. In general, pine cover types had low FVI rankings and were used less than expected by bears. Forest management implications are discussed. 

Impact of the version of the abbreviated injury scale on injury severity characterization and quality assessment of trauma care.

PubMed

Tohira, Hideo; Jacobs, Ian; Matsuoka, Tetsuya; Ishikawa, Kazuo

2011-07-01

The Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) was updated in 2008 (AIS 2008). We aimed to investigate the impact of AIS 2008 on the characterization of injury severity and quality assessment of trauma care. We identified all blunt trauma patients in the Japan Trauma Data Bank. First, we converted AIS 98 codes to AIS 2008 codes using a mapping table. Next, we compared Injury Severity Scores (ISSs) and New ISSs (NISSs) based on AIS 98 and AIS 2008. We compared the proportion of major trauma (ISS >15) between the two AISs. We derived risk-adjusted models using the two AISs and separately ranked hospitals according to the observed-to-expected death (OE) ratio. We counted the number of performance outliers for the two rankings. We analyzed the association between the percent change in OE ratios and the proportion of NISS outliers (change in NISS of <-12). There were 19,899 subjects. The ISSs and NISSs based on AIS 2008 were significantly less than those based on AIS 98. The proportion of major trauma was 46.3% and 38.9% for AIS 98 and AIS 2008, respectively (p < 0.001). The numbers of performance outliers were different between the two rankings. There was a significant positive linear relationship between the percent change in the OE ratio and the proportion of NISS outliers. The use of different AIS versions influenced the selection of major trauma patients and affected the quality assessment of the trauma care. Researchers should be aware of these findings when selecting the version of the AIS.

Alternative Class Ranks Using Z-Scores

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Philip H.; Van Niel, Nicholas

2012-01-01

Grades at US colleges and universities have increased precipitously over the last 50 years, suggesting that their signalling power has become attenuated. Moreover, average grades have risen disproportionately in some departments, implying that weak students in departments with high grades may obtain better class ranks than strong students in…

Effects of parceling on model selection: Parcel-allocation variability in model ranking.

PubMed

Sterba, Sonya K; Rights, Jason D

2017-03-01

Research interest often lies in comparing structural model specifications implying different relationships among latent factors. In this context parceling is commonly accepted, assuming the item-level measurement structure is well known and, conservatively, assuming items are unidimensional in the population. Under these assumptions, researchers compare competing structural models, each specified using the same parcel-level measurement model. However, little is known about consequences of parceling for model selection in this context-including whether and when model ranking could vary across alternative item-to-parcel allocations within-sample. This article first provides a theoretical framework that predicts the occurrence of parcel-allocation variability (PAV) in model selection index values and its consequences for PAV in ranking of competing structural models. These predictions are then investigated via simulation. We show that conditions known to manifest PAV in absolute fit of a single model may or may not manifest PAV in model ranking. Thus, one cannot assume that low PAV in absolute fit implies a lack of PAV in ranking, and vice versa. PAV in ranking is shown to occur under a variety of conditions, including large samples. To provide an empirically supported strategy for selecting a model when PAV in ranking exists, we draw on relationships between structural model rankings in parcel- versus item-solutions. This strategy employs the across-allocation modal ranking. We developed software tools for implementing this strategy in practice, and illustrate them with an example. Even if a researcher has substantive reason to prefer one particular allocation, investigating PAV in ranking within-sample still provides an informative sensitivity analysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Fast Geometric Consensus Approach for Protein Model Quality Assessment

PubMed Central

Adamczak, Rafal; Pillardy, Jaroslaw; Vallat, Brinda K.

2011-01-01

Abstract Model quality assessment (MQA) is an integral part of protein structure prediction methods that typically generate multiple candidate models. The challenge lies in ranking and selecting the best models using a variety of physical, knowledge-based, and geometric consensus (GC)-based scoring functions. In particular, 3D-Jury and related GC methods assume that well-predicted (sub-)structures are more likely to occur frequently in a population of candidate models, compared to incorrectly folded fragments. While this approach is very successful in the context of diversified sets of models, identifying similar substructures is computationally expensive since all pairs of models need to be superimposed using MaxSub or related heuristics for structure-to-structure alignment. Here, we consider a fast alternative, in which structural similarity is assessed using 1D profiles, e.g., consisting of relative solvent accessibilities and secondary structures of equivalent amino acid residues in the respective models. We show that the new approach, dubbed 1D-Jury, allows to implicitly compare and rank N models in O(N) time, as opposed to quadratic complexity of 3D-Jury and related clustering-based methods. In addition, 1D-Jury avoids computationally expensive 3D superposition of pairs of models. At the same time, structural similarity scores based on 1D profiles are shown to correlate strongly with those obtained using MaxSub. In terms of the ability to select the best models as top candidates 1D-Jury performs on par with other GC methods. Other potential applications of the new approach, including fast clustering of large numbers of intermediate structures generated by folding simulations, are discussed as well. PMID:21244273

Feature selection using a one dimensional naïve Bayes' classifier increases the accuracy of support vector machine classification of CDR3 repertoires.

PubMed

Cinelli, Mattia; Sun, Yuxin; Best, Katharine; Heather, James M; Reich-Zeliger, Shlomit; Shifrut, Eric; Friedman, Nir; Shawe-Taylor, John; Chain, Benny

2017-04-01

Somatic DNA recombination, the hallmark of vertebrate adaptive immunity, has the potential to generate a vast diversity of antigen receptor sequences. How this diversity captures antigen specificity remains incompletely understood. In this study we use high throughput sequencing to compare the global changes in T cell receptor β chain complementarity determining region 3 (CDR3β) sequences following immunization with ovalbumin administered with complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) or CFA alone. The CDR3β sequences were deconstructed into short stretches of overlapping contiguous amino acids. The motifs were ranked according to a one-dimensional Bayesian classifier score comparing their frequency in the repertoires of the two immunization classes. The top ranking motifs were selected and used to create feature vectors which were used to train a support vector machine. The support vector machine achieved high classification scores in a leave-one-out validation test reaching >90% in some cases. The study describes a novel two-stage classification strategy combining a one-dimensional Bayesian classifier with a support vector machine. Using this approach we demonstrate that the frequency of a small number of linear motifs three amino acids in length can accurately identify a CD4 T cell response to ovalbumin against a background response to the complex mixture of antigens which characterize Complete Freund's Adjuvant. The sequence data is available at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra/?term¼SRP075893 . The Decombinator package is available at github.com/innate2adaptive/Decombinator . The R package e1071 is available at the CRAN repository https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/e1071/index.html . b.chain@ucl.ac.uk. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press.

Ranking Information in Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eliassi-Rad, Tina; Henderson, Keith

Given a network, we are interested in ranking sets of nodes that score highest on user-specified criteria. For instance in graphs from bibliographic data (e.g. PubMed), we would like to discover sets of authors with expertise in a wide range of disciplines. We present this ranking task as a Top-K problem; utilize fixed-memory heuristic search; and present performance of both the serial and distributed search algorithms on synthetic and real-world data sets.

Application of learning to rank to protein remote homology detection.

PubMed

Liu, Bin; Chen, Junjie; Wang, Xiaolong

2015-11-01

Protein remote homology detection is one of the fundamental problems in computational biology, aiming to find protein sequences in a database of known structures that are evolutionarily related to a given query protein. Some computational methods treat this problem as a ranking problem and achieve the state-of-the-art performance, such as PSI-BLAST, HHblits and ProtEmbed. This raises the possibility to combine these methods to improve the predictive performance. In this regard, we are to propose a new computational method called ProtDec-LTR for protein remote homology detection, which is able to combine various ranking methods in a supervised manner via using the Learning to Rank (LTR) algorithm derived from natural language processing. Experimental results on a widely used benchmark dataset showed that ProtDec-LTR can achieve an ROC1 score of 0.8442 and an ROC50 score of 0.9023 outperforming all the individual predictors and some state-of-the-art methods. These results indicate that it is correct to treat protein remote homology detection as a ranking problem, and predictive performance improvement can be achieved by combining different ranking approaches in a supervised manner via using LTR. For users' convenience, the software tools of three basic ranking predictors and Learning to Rank algorithm were provided at http://bioinformatics.hitsz.edu.cn/ProtDec-LTR/home/ bliu@insun.hit.edu.cn Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

User embracement with risk classification in an emergency care unit: an evaluative study.

PubMed

Hermida, Patrícia Madalena Vieira; Nascimento, Eliane Regina Pereira do; Echevarría-Guanilo, Maria Elena; Brüggemann, Odaléa Maria; Malfussi, Luciana Bihain Hagemann de

2018-01-01

Objective Describing the evaluation of the Structure, Process and Outcome of User Embracement with Risk Classification of an Emergency Care Unit from the perspective of physicians and nurses. Method An evaluative, descriptive, quantitative study developed in Santa Catarina. Data were collected using a validated and adapted instrument consisting of 21 items distributed in the dimensions of Structure (facilities), Process (activities and relationships in providing care) and Outcome (care effects). In the analysis, descriptive statistics and the Mean Ranking and Mean Score calculations were applied. Results The sample consisted of 37 participants. From the 21 evaluated items, 11 (52.4%) had a Mean Ranking between 3 and 4, and none of them reached the maximum ranking (5 points). "Prioritization of severe cases" and "Primary care according to the severity of the case" reached a higher Mean Ranking (4.5), while "Flowchart discussion" had the lowest Ranking (2.1). The dimensions of Structure, Process and Outcome reached mean scores of 23.9, 21.9 and 25.5, respectively, indicating a Precarious evaluation (17.5 to 26.1 points). Conclusion User Embracement with Risk Classification is precarious, especially regarding the Process which obtained a lower satisfaction level from the participants.

A multimedia retrieval framework based on semi-supervised ranking and relevance feedback.

PubMed

Yang, Yi; Nie, Feiping; Xu, Dong; Luo, Jiebo; Zhuang, Yueting; Pan, Yunhe

2012-04-01

We present a new framework for multimedia content analysis and retrieval which consists of two independent algorithms. First, we propose a new semi-supervised algorithm called ranking with Local Regression and Global Alignment (LRGA) to learn a robust Laplacian matrix for data ranking. In LRGA, for each data point, a local linear regression model is used to predict the ranking scores of its neighboring points. A unified objective function is then proposed to globally align the local models from all the data points so that an optimal ranking score can be assigned to each data point. Second, we propose a semi-supervised long-term Relevance Feedback (RF) algorithm to refine the multimedia data representation. The proposed long-term RF algorithm utilizes both the multimedia data distribution in multimedia feature space and the history RF information provided by users. A trace ratio optimization problem is then formulated and solved by an efficient algorithm. The algorithms have been applied to several content-based multimedia retrieval applications, including cross-media retrieval, image retrieval, and 3D motion/pose data retrieval. Comprehensive experiments on four data sets have demonstrated its advantages in precision, robustness, scalability, and computational efficiency.

Nutrient profiling can help identify foods of good nutritional quality for their price: a validation study with linear programming.

PubMed

Maillot, Matthieu; Ferguson, Elaine L; Drewnowski, Adam; Darmon, Nicole

2008-06-01

Nutrient profiling ranks foods based on their nutrient content. They may help identify foods with a good nutritional quality for their price. This hypothesis was tested using diet modeling with linear programming. Analyses were undertaken using food intake data from the nationally representative French INCA (enquête Individuelle et Nationale sur les Consommations Alimentaires) survey and its associated food composition and price database. For each food, a nutrient profile score was defined as the ratio between the previously published nutrient density score (NDS) and the limited nutrient score (LIM); a nutritional quality for price indicator was developed and calculated from the relationship between its NDS:LIM and energy cost (in euro/100 kcal). We developed linear programming models to design diets that fulfilled increasing levels of nutritional constraints at a minimal cost. The median NDS:LIM values of foods selected in modeled diets increased as the levels of nutritional constraints increased (P = 0.005). In addition, the proportion of foods with a good nutritional quality for price indicator was higher (P < 0.0001) among foods selected (81%) than among foods not selected (39%) in modeled diets. This agreement between the linear programming and the nutrient profiling approaches indicates that nutrient profiling can help identify foods of good nutritional quality for their price. Linear programming is a useful tool for testing nutrient profiling systems and validating the concept of nutrient profiling.

Dynamic programming re-ranking for PPI interactor and pair extraction in full-text articles

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Experimentally verified protein-protein interactions (PPIs) cannot be easily retrieved by researchers unless they are stored in PPI databases. The curation of such databases can be facilitated by employing text-mining systems to identify genes which play the interactor role in PPIs and to map these genes to unique database identifiers (interactor normalization task or INT) and then to return a list of interaction pairs for each article (interaction pair task or IPT). These two tasks are evaluated in terms of the area under curve of the interpolated precision/recall (AUC iP/R) score because the order of identifiers in the output list is important for ease of curation. Results Our INT system developed for the BioCreAtIvE II.5 INT challenge achieved a promising AUC iP/R of 43.5% by using a support vector machine (SVM)-based ranking procedure. Using our new re-ranking algorithm, we have been able to improve system performance (AUC iP/R) by 1.84%. Our experimental results also show that with the re-ranked INT results, our unsupervised IPT system can achieve a competitive AUC iP/R of 23.86%, which outperforms the best BC II.5 INT system by 1.64%. Compared to using only SVM ranked INT results, using re-ranked INT results boosts AUC iP/R by 7.84%. Statistical significance t-test results show that our INT/IPT system with re-ranking outperforms that without re-ranking by a statistically significant difference. Conclusions In this paper, we present a new re-ranking algorithm that considers co-occurrence among identifiers in an article to improve INT and IPT ranking results. Combining the re-ranked INT results with an unsupervised approach to find associations among interactors, the proposed method can boost the IPT performance. We also implement score computation using dynamic programming, which is faster and more efficient than traditional approaches. PMID:21342534

Dynamic programming re-ranking for PPI interactor and pair extraction in full-text articles.

PubMed

Tsai, Richard Tzong-Han; Lai, Po-Ting

2011-02-23

Experimentally verified protein-protein interactions (PPIs) cannot be easily retrieved by researchers unless they are stored in PPI databases. The curation of such databases can be facilitated by employing text-mining systems to identify genes which play the interactor role in PPIs and to map these genes to unique database identifiers (interactor normalization task or INT) and then to return a list of interaction pairs for each article (interaction pair task or IPT). These two tasks are evaluated in terms of the area under curve of the interpolated precision/recall (AUC iP/R) score because the order of identifiers in the output list is important for ease of curation. Our INT system developed for the BioCreAtIvE II.5 INT challenge achieved a promising AUC iP/R of 43.5% by using a support vector machine (SVM)-based ranking procedure. Using our new re-ranking algorithm, we have been able to improve system performance (AUC iP/R) by 1.84%. Our experimental results also show that with the re-ranked INT results, our unsupervised IPT system can achieve a competitive AUC iP/R of 23.86%, which outperforms the best BC II.5 INT system by 1.64%. Compared to using only SVM ranked INT results, using re-ranked INT results boosts AUC iP/R by 7.84%. Statistical significance t-test results show that our INT/IPT system with re-ranking outperforms that without re-ranking by a statistically significant difference. In this paper, we present a new re-ranking algorithm that considers co-occurrence among identifiers in an article to improve INT and IPT ranking results. Combining the re-ranked INT results with an unsupervised approach to find associations among interactors, the proposed method can boost the IPT performance. We also implement score computation using dynamic programming, which is faster and more efficient than traditional approaches.

Coppersmith Self-Esteem Inventory Scores of Boys with Severe Behavior Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wood, Frank H.; Johnson, Ardes

1972-01-01

Scores on the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory of 44 behaviorally disturbed boys ranging in age from 8 to 12 years were compared with the test's norms, with later retest scores, with teacher assigned self esteem ranks, and with peer group status as measured by sociometric procedures. (DB)

Can Percentiles Replace Raw Scores in the Statistical Analysis of Test Data?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zimmerman, Donald W.; Zumbo, Bruno D.

2005-01-01

Educational and psychological testing textbooks typically warn of the inappropriateness of performing arithmetic operations and statistical analysis on percentiles instead of raw scores. This seems inconsistent with the well-established finding that transforming scores to ranks and using nonparametric methods often improves the validity and power…

The design and content of orthodontic practise websites in the UK is suboptimal and does not correlate with search ranking.

PubMed

Patel, Annika; Cobourne, Martyn T

2015-08-01

This study investigated standards of ethical advertising; design and content; and information quality associated with UK dental practice websites offering orthodontic treatment. The World Wide Web was searched from a UK-based computer using the Google search engine combined with the term 'orthodontic braces'. The first 100 UK-based dental practice websites were pooled and saved following duplicate removal. Websites were evaluated for compliance with current General Dental Council ethical advertising guidelines; accessibility, usability, and reliability using the LIDA instrument (a validated outcome tool for healthcare website design and content evaluation); and quality of information using the DISCERN toolkit (a validated method of quality assessment for online written patient information). Nine per cent of websites demonstrated full compliance with current guidelines on ethical advertising. Mean total LIDA score was 110/144 (76%) [range: 51-135; 35-94%]. Eleven websites reached a gold standard of 90% or more for total LIDA score. Mean total DISCERN score was 48/75 (64%) [range: 19-73; 25-97%]. Five websites achieved a total DISCERN score above 90%. Spearman's rank correlation coefficients demonstrated no significant correlations between LIDA (0.1669; P = 0.4252, confidence interval [CI]: -0.2560 to 0.5362) or DISCERN (0.3572; P = 0.0796, CI: -0.0565 to 0.663) score and ranking amongst the 25 highest ranked websites. Most UK websites offering orthodontic services are not fully compliant with national guidelines relating to ethical advertising. Validated measures of website design (LIDA) and information quality (DISCERN) showed wide variation amongst sites. No correlation existed between ranking amongst the highest 25 sites and either of these measures. This investigation was limited to a subsample of UK-only websites; and whilst not representative of European-wide sites, it does suggest that in the UK at least website quality can be improved. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Orthodontic Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Identifying management and disease priorities of Canadian dairy industry stakeholders.

PubMed

Bauman, C A; Barkema, H W; Dubuc, J; Keefe, G P; Kelton, D F

2016-12-01

The objective of this study was to identify the key management and disease issues affecting the Canadian dairy industry. An online questionnaire (FluidSurveys, http://fluidsurveys.com/) was conducted between March 1 and May 31, 2014. A total of 1,025 responses were received from across Canada of which 68% (n=698) of respondents were dairy producers, and the remaining respondents represented veterinarians, university researchers, government personnel, and other allied industries. Participants were asked to identify their top 3 management and disease priorities from 2 lists offered. Topics were subsequently ranked from highest to lowest using 3 different ranking methods based on points: 5-3-1 (5 points for first priority, 3 for second, and 1 for first), 3-2-1, and 1-1-1 (equal ranking). The 5-3-1 point system was selected because it minimized the number of duplicate point scores. Stakeholder groups showed general agreement with the top management issue identified as animal welfare and the number one health concern as lameness. Other areas identified as priorities were reproductive health, antibiotic use, bovine viral diarrhea, and Staphylococcus aureus mastitis with these rankings influenced by region, herd size, and stakeholder group. This is the first national comprehensive assessment of priorities undertaken in the Canadian dairy industry and will assist researchers, policymakers, program developers, and funding agencies make future decisions based on direct industry feedback. Copyright © 2016 American Dairy Science Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The effectiveness of istradefylline for the treatment of gait deficits and sleepiness in patients with Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Matsuura, Keita; Kajikawa, Hiroyuki; Tabei, Ken-Ichi; Satoh, Masayuki; Kida, Hirotaka; Nakamura, Naoko; Tomimoto, Hidekazu

2018-01-01

Istradefylline is useful in treating the wearing-off state in Parkinson's disease (PD). We investigated the effectiveness of istradefylline (ISD) in improving arousal, sleep, and gait deficits in patients with PD. We examined 14 patients with PD treated with ISD. We assessed the patients using the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale, Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire, Timed Up-and-Go test (TUG), Freezing of Gait Questionnaire (FOG-Q), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and Parkinson's Disease Sleep Scale (PDSS) before and 1 month after ISD use. ESS scores were significantly lower 1 month after the start of ISD treatment (6.79±6.50) than before the intervention (8.14±6.15, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, p=0.0033). PDSS scores were not significantly different 1 month after beginning the treatment (112±23mm) when compared to those before the intervention (110±27mm, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, p=0.40). TUG scores were not changed after 1 month of ISD use (14.9±8.3s) when compared to those before the intervention (21.3±30.0s, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, p=0.59). Although these measures were not significantly affected by ISD treatment, some patients remarkably improved after the treatment. FOG-Q scores were significantly lower 1 month after the beginning of treatment (9.79±7.16) than those before the intervention (12.14±5.82, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, p=0.030). ISD may improve daytime sleepiness and FOG in patients with PD. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Leadership, infrastructure and capacity to support child injury prevention: can these concepts help explain differences in injury mortality rankings between 18 countries in Europe?

PubMed

MacKay, J Morag; Vincenten, Joanne A

2012-02-01

Mortality and morbidity rates, traditionally used indicators for child injury, are limited in their ability to explain differences in child injury between countries, are inadequate in capturing actions to address the problem of child injury and do not adequately identify progress made within countries. There is a need for a broader set of indicators to help better understand the success of countries with low rates of child injury, provide guidance and benchmarks for policy makers looking to make investments to reduce their rates of fatal and non-fatal child injury and allow monitoring of progress towards achieving these goals. This article describes an assessment of national leadership, infrastructure and capacity in the context of child injury prevention in 18 countries in Europe and explores the potential of these to be used as additional indicators to support child injury prevention practice. Partners in 18 countries coordinated data collection on 21 items relating to leadership, infrastructure and capacity. Responses were coded into an overall score and scores for each of the three areas and were compared with child injury mortality rankings using Spearman's rank correlation. Overall score and scores for leadership and capacity were significantly negatively correlated to child injury mortality ranking. Findings of this preliminary work suggest that these three policy areas may provide important guidance for the types of commitments that are needed in the policy arena to support advances in child safety and their assessment a way to measure progress.

COMPARISON OF CHEMICAL SCREENING AND RANKING APPROACHES: THE WASTE MINIMIZATION PRIORITIZATION TOOL VERSUS TOXIC EQUIVALENCY POTENTIALS

EPA Science Inventory

Chemical screening in the United States is often conducted using scoring and ranking methodologies. Linked models accounting for chemical fate, exposure, and toxicological effects are generally preferred in Europe and in product Life Cycle Assessment. For the first time, a compar...

Pharmacophore-Based Similarity Scoring for DOCK

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Pharmacophore modeling incorporates geometric and chemical features of known inhibitors and/or targeted binding sites to rationally identify and design new drug leads. In this study, we have encoded a three-dimensional pharmacophore matching similarity (FMS) scoring function into the structure-based design program DOCK. Validation and characterization of the method are presented through pose reproduction, crossdocking, and enrichment studies. When used alone, FMS scoring dramatically improves pose reproduction success to 93.5% (∼20% increase) and reduces sampling failures to 3.7% (∼6% drop) compared to the standard energy score (SGE) across 1043 protein–ligand complexes. The combined FMS+SGE function further improves success to 98.3%. Crossdocking experiments using FMS and FMS+SGE scoring, for six diverse protein families, similarly showed improvements in success, provided proper pharmacophore references are employed. For enrichment, incorporating pharmacophores during sampling and scoring, in most cases, also yield improved outcomes when docking and rank-ordering libraries of known actives and decoys to 15 systems. Retrospective analyses of virtual screenings to three clinical drug targets (EGFR, IGF-1R, and HIVgp41) using X-ray structures of known inhibitors as pharmacophore references are also reported, including a customized FMS scoring protocol to bias on selected regions in the reference. Overall, the results and fundamental insights gained from this study should benefit the docking community in general, particularly researchers using the new FMS method to guide computational drug discovery with DOCK. PMID:25229837

Using participatory epidemiology to investigate management options and relative importance of tick-borne diseases amongst transhumant zebu cattle in Karamoja Region, Uganda.

PubMed

Byaruhanga, C; Oosthuizen, M C; Collins, N E; Knobel, D

2015-12-01

A participatory epidemiological (PE) study was conducted with livestock keepers in Moroto and Kotido districts, Karamoja Region, Uganda, between October and December 2013 to determine the management options and relative importance of tick-borne diseases (TBDs) amongst transhumant zebu cattle. Data collection involved 24 focus group discussions (each comprising 8-12 people) in 24 settlement areas (manyattas), key informant interviews (30), direct observation, a review of surveillance data, clinical examination, and laboratory confirmation of cases of TBDs. Methods used in group discussions included semi-structured interviews, simple ranking, pairwise ranking, matrix scoring, proportional piling and participatory mapping. The results of pairwise comparison showed the Ngakarimojong-named diseases, lokit (East Coast fever, ECF), lopid (anaplasmosis), loukoi (contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, CBPP), lokou (heartwater) and lokulam (babesiosis), were considered the most important cattle diseases in Moroto in that order, while ECF, anaplasmosis, trypanosomosis (ediit), CBPP and nonspecific diarrhoea (loleo) were most important in Kotido. Strong agreement between informant groups (Kendall's coefficient of concordance W=0.568 and 0.682; p<0.001) in pairwise ranking indicated that the diseases were a common problem in selected districts. East Coast fever had the highest median score for incidence (18% [range: 2, 33]) in Moroto, followed by anaplasmosis (17.5% [8,32]) and CBPP (9% [1,21]). Most animals that suffered from ECF, anaplasmosis, heartwater and babesiosis died, as the respective median scores for case fatality rates (CFR) were 89.5% (42, 100), 82.8% (63, 100), 66.7% (20, 100) and 85.7% (0, 100). In Kotido, diseases with high incidence scores were ECF (21% [6,32]), anaplasmosis (17% [10,33]) and trypanosomosis (8% [2,18]). The CFRs for ECF and anaplasmosis were 81.7% (44, 100) and 70.7% (48, 100), respectively. Matrix scoring revealed that disease indicators showed strong agreement (W=0.382-0.659, p<0.05-p<0.001) between informant groups. Inadequate knowledge, poor veterinary services and limited availability of drugs were the main constraints that hindered the control of TBDs. Hand picking of ticks was done by all pastoralists while hand spraying with acaricides was irregular, often determined by availability of drug supplies and money. It was concluded that TBDs, particularly ECF and anaplasmosis were important diseases in this pastoral region. Results from this study may assist in the design of feasible control strategies. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Breast Milk Lipidome Is Associated with Early Growth Trajectory in Preterm Infants

PubMed Central

Moyon, Thomas; Antignac, Jean-Philippe; Qannari, El Mostafa; Croyal, Mikaël; Soumah, Mohamed; David-Sochard, Agnès; Billard, Hélène; Legrand, Arnaud; Boscher, Cécile; Darmaun, Dominique; Rozé, Jean-Christophe

2018-01-01

Human milk is recommended for feeding preterm infants. The current pilot study aims to determine whether breast-milk lipidome had any impact on the early growth-pattern of preterm infants fed their own mother’s milk. A prospective-monocentric-observational birth-cohort was established, enrolling 138 preterm infants, who received their own mother’s breast-milk throughout hospital stay. All infants were ranked according to the change in weight Z-score between birth and hospital discharge. Then, we selected infants who experienced “slower” (n = 15, −1.54 ± 0.42 Z-score) or “faster” (n = 11, −0.48 ± 0.19 Z-score) growth; as expected, although groups did not differ regarding gestational age, birth weight Z-score was lower in the “faster-growth” group (0.56 ± 0.72 vs. −1.59 ± 0.96). Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry lipidomic signatures combined with multivariate analyses made it possible to identify breast-milk lipid species that allowed clear-cut discrimination between groups. Validation of the selected biomarkers was performed using multidimensional statistical, false-discovery-rate and ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) tools. Breast-milk associated with faster growth contained more medium-chain saturated fatty acid and sphingomyelin, dihomo-γ-linolenic acid (DGLA)-containing phosphethanolamine, and less oleic acid-containing triglyceride and DGLA-oxylipin. The ability of such biomarkers to predict early-growth was validated in presence of confounding clinical factors but remains to be ascertained in larger cohort studies. PMID:29385065

Health, Safety, and Environmental Screening and Ranking Frameworkfor Geologic CO2 Storage Site Selection

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

Oldenburg, Curtis M.

2005-09-19

This report describes a screening and ranking framework(SRF) developed to evaluate potential geologic carbon dioxide (CO2) storage sites on the basis of health, safety, and environmental (HSE) risk arising from possible CO2 leakage. The approach is based on the assumption that HSE risk due to CO2 leakage is dependent on three basic characteristics of a geologic CO2 storage site: (1) the potential for primary containment by the target formation; (2) the potential for secondary containment if the primary formation leaks; and (3) the potential for attenuation and dispersion of leaking CO2 if the primary formation leaks and secondary containment fails.more » The framework is implemented in a spreadsheet in which users enter numerical scores representing expert opinions or general information available from published materials along with estimates of uncertainty to evaluate the three basic characteristics in order to screen and rank candidate sites. Application of the framework to the Rio Visa Gas Field, Ventura Oil Field, and Mammoth Mountain demonstrates the approach. Refinements and extensions are possible through the use of more detailed data or model results in place of property proxies. Revisions and extensions to improve the approach are anticipated in the near future as it is used and tested by colleagues and collaborators.« less

Hybrid Propulsion Technology Program, phase 1. Volume 1: Executive summary

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1989-01-01

The study program was contracted to evaluate concepts of hybrid propulsion, select the most optimum, and prepare a conceptual design package. Further, this study required preparation of a technology definition package to identify hybrid propulsion enabling technologies and planning to acquire that technology in Phase 2 and demonstrate that technology in Phase 3. Researchers evaluated two design philosophies for Hybrid Rocket Booster (HRB) selection. The first is an ASRM modified hybrid wherein as many components/designs as possible were used from the present Advanced Solid Rocket Motor (ASRM) design. The second was an entirely new hybrid optimized booster using ASRM criteria as a point of departure, i.e., diameter, thrust time curve, launch facilities, and external tank attach points. Researchers selected the new design based on the logic of optimizing a hybrid booster to provide NASA with a next generation vehicle in lieu of an interim advancement over the ASRM. The enabling technologies for hybrid propulsion are applicable to either and vehicle design may be selected at a downstream point (Phase 3) at NASA's discretion. The completion of these studies resulted in ranking the various concepts of boosters from the RSRM to a turbopump fed (TF) hybrid. The scoring resulting from the Figure of Merit (FOM) scoring system clearly shows a natural growth path where the turbopump fed solid liquid staged combustion hybrid provides maximized payload and the highest safety, reliability, and low life cycle costing.

A rapid food screener ranks potential renal acid load of renal stone formers similarly to a diet history questionnaire.

PubMed

Trinchieri, Alberto

2013-02-01

Dietary acid load was reported to be inversely related to urinary citrate excretion. The calcium renal stone formers (RSFs) should be recommended to lower their dietary potential renal acid load (PRAL) to reduce stone recurrence. Reduction of dietary PRAL also showed a promising role for the prevention of other metabolic diseases. However, clinicians often fail to provide nutritional screening and counseling due to lack of simple tools to obtain a reliable dietary history. A one-page food screener (LAKE score) was recently designed to obtain a reliable measure of dietary PRAL in short time. We report the testing of such an instrument in the evaluation of PRAL: in a population of 135 healthy subjects (60 males, 75 females; age range 18-73), living in the area of Milan, Italy. Each participant received both the one-page LAKE food screener and an extensive 24-h dietary questionnaire. We examined agreement between the LAKE food screener scores, and estimates of PRAL and other nutrients produced by the computerized processing of thorough 24-h dietary histories. Spearman rank order correlation coefficient (r > 0.50) showed that LAKE score ranked subjects quite well with respect to dietary PRAL. LAKE positive subscore ranked patients with respect to dietary intake of total protein (r = 0.642) and phosphate (r = 0.648). We also obtained an excellent correlation of LAKE negative subscore with potassium intake (r = -0.531) and vitamin C (r = -0.554) as estimated by 24 h recalls. The LAKE score ranked patients similar to the estimates of 24-h dietary recalls, used as the "gold standard" for the evaluation of dietary PRAL. This rapid, simple and inexpensive food screener for the evaluation of dietary PRAL could provide a "snapshot" of the diet of the RSFs to allow an immediate feedback to the patient during office consultation.

Matching methods evaluation framework for stereoscopic breast x-ray images.

PubMed

Rousson, Johanna; Naudin, Mathieu; Marchessoux, Cédric

2016-01-01

Three-dimensional (3-D) imaging has been intensively studied in the past few decades. Depth information is an important added value of 3-D systems over two-dimensional systems. Special focuses were devoted to the development of stereo matching methods for the generation of disparity maps (i.e., depth information within a 3-D scene). Dedicated frameworks were designed to evaluate and rank the performance of different stereo matching methods but never considering x-ray medical images. Yet, 3-D x-ray acquisition systems and 3-D medical displays have already been introduced into the diagnostic market. To access the depth information within x-ray stereoscopic images, computing accurate disparity maps is essential. We aimed at developing a framework dedicated to x-ray stereoscopic breast images used to evaluate and rank several stereo matching methods. A multiresolution pyramid optimization approach was integrated to the framework to increase the accuracy and the efficiency of the stereo matching techniques. Finally, a metric was designed to score the results of the stereo matching compared with the ground truth. Eight methods were evaluated and four of them [locally scaled sum of absolute differences (LSAD), zero mean sum of absolute differences, zero mean sum of squared differences, and locally scaled mean sum of squared differences] appeared to perform equally good with an average error score of 0.04 (0 is the perfect matching). LSAD was selected for generating the disparity maps.

Aligator: A computational tool for optimizing total chemical synthesis of large proteins.

PubMed

Jacobsen, Michael T; Erickson, Patrick W; Kay, Michael S

2017-09-15

The scope of chemical protein synthesis (CPS) continues to expand, driven primarily by advances in chemical ligation tools (e.g., reversible solubilizing groups and novel ligation chemistries). However, the design of an optimal synthesis route can be an arduous and fickle task due to the large number of theoretically possible, and in many cases problematic, synthetic strategies. In this perspective, we highlight recent CPS tool advances and then introduce a new and easy-to-use program, Aligator (Automated Ligator), for analyzing and designing the most efficient strategies for constructing large targets using CPS. As a model set, we selected the E. coli ribosomal proteins and associated factors for computational analysis. Aligator systematically scores and ranks all feasible synthetic strategies for a particular CPS target. The Aligator script methodically evaluates potential peptide segments for a target using a scoring function that includes solubility, ligation site quality, segment lengths, and number of ligations to provide a ranked list of potential synthetic strategies. We demonstrate the utility of Aligator by analyzing three recent CPS projects from our lab: TNFα (157 aa), GroES (97 aa), and DapA (312 aa). As the limits of CPS are extended, we expect that computational tools will play an increasingly important role in the efficient execution of ambitious CPS projects such as production of a mirror-image ribosome. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Yes, the SAT Does Help Colleges.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanford, George H.

1985-01-01

Discusses the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and its importance to colleges in admissions decisions. The author describes the admissions process, the role of test scores, and the relationships of class ranks and SAT scores to outcomes in college. (CT)

Fuzzy weighted average based on left and right scores in Malaysia tourism industry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kamis, Nor Hanimah; Abdullah, Kamilah; Zulkifli, Muhammad Hazim; Sahlan, Shahrazali; Mohd Yunus, Syaizzal

2013-04-01

Tourism is known as an important sector to the Malaysian economy including economic generator, creating business and job offers. It is reported to bring in almost RM30 billion of the national income, thanks to intense worldwide promotion by Tourism Malaysia. One of the well-known attractions in Malaysia is our beautiful islands. The islands continue to be developed into tourist spots and attracting a continuous number of tourists. Chalets, luxury bungalows and resorts quickly develop along the coastlines of popular islands like Tioman, Redang, Pangkor, Perhentian, Sibu and so many others. In this study, we applied Fuzzy Weighted Average (FWA) method based on left and right scores in order to determine the criteria weights and to select the best island in Malaysia. Cost, safety, attractive activities, accommodation and scenery are five main criteria to be considered and five selected islands in Malaysia are taken into accounts as alternatives. The most important criteria that have been considered by the tourist are defined based on criteria weights ranking order and the best island in Malaysia is then determined in terms of FWA values. This pilot study can be used as a reference to evaluate performances or solving any selection problems, where more criteria, alternatives and decision makers will be considered in the future.

Predictors of scoring at least 600 on COMLEX-USA Level 1: successful preparation strategies.

PubMed

Vora, Aditya; Maltezos, Nathan; Alfonzo, Lauren; Hernandez, Nilda; Calix, Erica; Fernandez, M Isabel

2013-02-01

Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination-USA (COMLEX-USA) Level 1 scores are an important criterion used by residency directors to make residency placement decisions. To explore the association between scoring at least 600 on COMLEX-USA Level 1 and grade point average (GPA), scores on the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), and different test preparation strategies. Third-year osteopathic medical students at Nova Southeastern University were invited to complete a self-administered survey regarding their COMLEX-USA preparation strategies and to provide consent for the researchers to access their preclinical GPA and their MCAT and COMLEX-USA scores. Descriptive analyses were conducted to understand examination preparation procedures and resources used, and bivariate analyses were conducted to identify the statisically significant predictors of scoring 600 or higher. Two separate logistic regressions were also run. The first included all of the statisically significant factors that emerged from the bivariate analyses, and the second examined which candidate predictors remained statistically significant once the effects of GPA and MCAT scores were removed. One hundred twenty-two students completed the survey, and 113 (93%) provided informed consent to access their preclinical GPA and their MCAT and COMLEX-USA scores. In the first regression, scoring 600 or higher was associated with a higher GPA (P<.02), a higher MCAT score (P<.05), earlier preparation initiation (P<.05), and not ranking the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Self-Assessment Examination (COMSAE) as the most helpful practice examination (P<.04). In the second regression, scoring 600 or higher was associated with earlier initiation of examination preparation (P<.01) and not ranking COMBANK (question bank for COMLEX-USA) as the most helpful question bank (P<.03). Among the different examination preparation methods, the specific resources ranked as most helpful were First Aid for the USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Examination) (review book), the COMSAE (practice examination); COMBANK (question bank); and Kaplan USMLE (lecture videos). Preclinical GPA and MCAT scores continue to be important predictors of scoring at least 600 on COMLEX-USA Level 1. However, the findings underscore the importance of maintaining a high GPA during the first 2 years of medical school and initiating COMLEX-USA preparation early.

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

Peressutti, D; Schipaanboord, B; Kadir, T

Purpose: To investigate the effectiveness of atlas selection methods for improving atlas-based auto-contouring in radiotherapy planning. Methods: 275 H&N clinically delineated cases were employed as an atlas database from which atlases would be selected. A further 40 previously contoured cases were used as test patients against which atlas selection could be performed and evaluated. 26 variations of selection methods proposed in the literature and used in commercial systems were investigated. Atlas selection methods comprised either global or local image similarity measures, computed after rigid or deformable registration, combined with direct atlas search or with an intermediate template image. Workflow Boxmore » (Mirada-Medical, Oxford, UK) was used for all auto-contouring. Results on brain, brainstem, parotids and spinal cord were compared to random selection, a fixed set of 10 “good” atlases, and optimal selection by an “oracle” with knowledge of the ground truth. The Dice score and the average ranking with respect to the “oracle” were employed to assess the performance of the top 10 atlases selected by each method. Results: The fixed set of “good” atlases outperformed all of the atlas-patient image similarity-based selection methods (mean Dice 0.715 c.f. 0.603 to 0.677). In general, methods based on exhaustive comparison of local similarity measures showed better average Dice scores (0.658 to 0.677) compared to the use of either template image (0.655 to 0.672) or global similarity measures (0.603 to 0.666). The performance of image-based selection methods was found to be only slightly better than a random (0.645). Dice scores given relate to the left parotid, but similar results patterns were observed for all organs. Conclusion: Intuitively, atlas selection based on the patient CT is expected to improve auto-contouring performance. However, it was found that published approaches performed marginally better than random and use of a fixed set of representative atlases showed favourable performance. This research was funded via InnovateUK Grant 600277 as part of Eurostars Grant E!9297. DP,BS,MG,TK are employees of Mirada Medical Ltd.« less

Four suggestions for addressing public concern regarding synthetic biology

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

The following essay was written by Mr. Alex Hatch, a junior undergraduate student majoring in Biological Engineering at Utah State University. Mr. Hatch submitted a 1000-1200 word essay to the 5th Annual Bioethics Contest sponsored by the Institute of Biological Engineering (IBE). A group of professionals in Biological Engineering assessed and ranked the essays in a blinded process. Five semi-finalists were invited to present their essays at a session at the annual meeting of IBE in Cambridge, MA on March 6, 2010. Five judges scored all the presentations and selected Mr. Hatch's contribution as the overall winner (first place). PMID:20534150

D3R Grand Challenge 2: blind prediction of protein-ligand poses, affinity rankings, and relative binding free energies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gaieb, Zied; Liu, Shuai; Gathiaka, Symon; Chiu, Michael; Yang, Huanwang; Shao, Chenghua; Feher, Victoria A.; Walters, W. Patrick; Kuhn, Bernd; Rudolph, Markus G.; Burley, Stephen K.; Gilson, Michael K.; Amaro, Rommie E.

2018-01-01

The Drug Design Data Resource (D3R) ran Grand Challenge 2 (GC2) from September 2016 through February 2017. This challenge was based on a dataset of structures and affinities for the nuclear receptor farnesoid X receptor (FXR), contributed by F. Hoffmann-La Roche. The dataset contained 102 IC50 values, spanning six orders of magnitude, and 36 high-resolution co-crystal structures with representatives of four major ligand classes. Strong global participation was evident, with 49 participants submitting 262 prediction submission packages in total. Procedurally, GC2 mimicked Grand Challenge 2015 (GC2015), with a Stage 1 subchallenge testing ligand pose prediction methods and ranking and scoring methods, and a Stage 2 subchallenge testing only ligand ranking and scoring methods after the release of all blinded co-crystal structures. Two smaller curated sets of 18 and 15 ligands were developed to test alchemical free energy methods. This overview summarizes all aspects of GC2, including the dataset details, challenge procedures, and participant results. We also consider implications for progress in the field, while highlighting methodological areas that merit continued development. Similar to GC2015, the outcome of GC2 underscores the pressing need for methods development in pose prediction, particularly for ligand scaffolds not currently represented in the Protein Data Bank (http://www.pdb.org), and in affinity ranking and scoring of bound ligands.

Student Ranking Differences within Institutions Using Old and New SAT Scores

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marini, Jessica P.; Beard, Jonathan; Shaw, Emily J.

2018-01-01

Admission offices at colleges and universities often use SAT® scores to make decisions about applicants for their incoming class. Many institutions use prediction models to quantify a student's potential for success using various measures, including SAT scores (NACAC, 2016). In March 2016, the College Board introduced a redesigned SAT that better…

Factors affecting match performance in professional Australian football.

PubMed

Sullivan, Courtney; Bilsborough, Johann C; Cianciosi, Michael; Hocking, Joel; Cordy, Justin T; Coutts, Aaron J

2014-05-01

To determine the physical activity measures and skill-performance characteristics that contribute to coaches' perception of performance and player performance rank in professional Australian Football (AF). Prospective, longitudinal. Physical activity profiles were assessed via microtechnology (GPS and accelerometer) from 40 professional AF players from the same team during 15 Australian Football League games. Skill-performance measure and player-rank scores (Champion Data Rank) were provided by a commercial statistical provider. The physical-performance variables, skill involvements, and individual player performance scores were expressed relative to playing time for each quarter. A stepwise multiple regression was used to examine the contribution of physical activity and skill involvements to coaches' perception of performance and player rank in AF. Stepwise multiple-regression analysis revealed that 42.2% of the variance in coaches' perception of a player's performance could be explained by the skill-performance characteristics (player rank/min, effective kicks/min, pressure points/min, handballs/min, and running bounces/ min), with a small contribution from physical activity measures (accelerations/min) (adjusted R2 = .422, F6,282 = 36.054, P < .001). Multiple regression also revealed that 66.4% of the adjusted variance in player rank could be explained by total disposals/min, effective kicks/min, pressure points/min, kick clangers/min, marks/min, speed (m/min), and peak speed (adjusted R2 = .664, F7,281 = 82.289, P < .001). Increased physical activity throughout a match (speed [m/min] β - 0.097 and peak speed β - 0.116) negatively affects player rank in AF. Skill performance rather than increased physical activity is more important to coaches' perception of performance and player rank in professional AF.

Retrospective Analysis for Genetic Improvement of Hip Joints of Cohort Labrador Retrievers in the United States: 1970–2007

PubMed Central

Lust, George; Zhu, Lan; Zhang, Zhiwu; Todhunter, Rory J.

2010-01-01

Background Canine Hip Dysplasia (CHD) is a common inherited disease that affects dog wellbeing and causes a heavy financial and emotional burden to dog owners and breeders due to secondary hip osteoarthritis. The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) initiated a program in the 1960's to radiograph hip and elbow joints and release the OFA scores to the public for breeding dogs against CHD. Over last four decades, more than one million radiographic scores have been released. Methodology/Principal Findings The pedigrees in the OFA database consisted of 258,851 Labrador retrievers, the major breed scored by the OFA (25% of total records). Of these, 154,352 dogs had an OFA hip score reported between 1970 and 2007. The rest of the dogs (104,499) were the ancestors of the 154,352 dogs to link the pedigree relationships. The OFA hip score is based on a 7-point scale with the best ranked as 1 (excellent) and the worst hip dysplasia as 7. A mixed linear model was used to estimate the effects of age, sex, and test year period and to predict the breeding value for each dog. Additive genetic and residual variances were estimated using the average information restricted maximum likelihood procedure. The analysis also provided an inbreeding coefficient for each dog. The hip scores averaged 1.93 (±SD = 0.59) and the heritability was 0.21. A steady genetic improvement has accrued over the four decades. The breeding values decreased (improved) linearly. By the end of 2005, the total genetic improvement was 0.1 units, which is equivalent to 17% of the total phenotypic standard deviation. Conclusion/Significance A steady genetic improvement has been achieved through the selection based on the raw phenotype released by the OFA. As the heritability of the hip score was on the low end (0.21) of reported ranges, we propose that selection based on breeding values will result in more rapid genetic improvement than breeding based on phenotypic selection alone. PMID:20195372

78 FR 25787 - Community Connect Broadband Grant Program

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-05-03

... Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program) during its quarterly Tribal Consultation webinar and... accommodate distance learning, telework, e-government and telemedicine, rural America will see improving... through and beyond completion. 3. Scoring Simplification. The current program scores and ranks...

Rankings, Standards, and Competition: Task vs. Scale Comparisons

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garcia, Stephen M.; Tor, Avishalom

2007-01-01

Research showing how upward social comparison breeds competitive behavior has so far conflated local comparisons in "task" performance (e.g. a test score) with comparisons on a more general "scale" (i.e. an underlying skill). Using a ranking methodology (Garcia, Tor, & Gonzalez, 2006) to separate task and scale comparisons, Studies 1-2 reveal that…

Ranked Set Sampling and Its Applications in Educational Statistics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stovall, Holly

2012-01-01

Over the past decade educational research has been stimulated by new legislation such as the No Child Left Behind Act. Increasing emphasis is being placed on accurately quantifying the success of treatment programs through student achievement scores, so precise estimation is vital for establishing the efficacy of new methodology. Ranked set…

Maryland's Achievements in Public Education, 2011

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maryland State Department of Education, 2011

2011-01-01

This report presents Maryland's achievements in public education for 2011. Maryland's achievements include: (1) Maryland's public schools again ranked #1 in the nation in Education Week's 2011 Quality Counts annual report; (2) Maryland ranked 1st nationwide for a 3rd year in a row in the percentage of public school students scoring 3 or higher on…

Creatinine-modified Child-Turcotte-Pugh score is a good predictor of a short-term survival in patients with bleeding from esophageal varices.

PubMed

Radisavljević, Mirjana; Bjelaković, Goran; Jović, Jasna; Radovanović-Dinić, Biljana; Benedoto-Stojanov, Danijela; Brzački, Vesna; Marković-Živković, Bojana

2017-01-01

Bleeding from esophageal varices is a significant factor in mortality of patients with terminal liver cirrhosis. This complication is a major health problem for recipients on the list for liver transplant. In that regard, studying predictors of variceal bleeding episode is very important. Also, it is important to find the best survival predictor among prognostic scores. The aim of the study was to compare validity of prognostic scores in assessment of survival in hospital-treated patients after bleeding from esophageal varices, and to compare validity of baseline Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) and Modul for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD) scores with CTP creatinine modified (CTP-crea) I and II scores in assessment of survival in patients within a long-term follow-up period after the episode of bleeding from esophageal varices. The study included a total of 126 patients suffering from terminal liver cirrhosis submited to testing CTP score score I and II, MELD score, MELD Na score, integrated MELD score, MELD sodium (MESO) index, United Kingdom Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (UKELD) score and updated MELD score. Patients with bleeding from esophageal varices most often had CTP score rank C (46,9%). CTP score rank B had 37.5% patients, while the smallest percentage of patients had CTP rank A, 15.6% of them. Patients who have values of CTP score higher than 10.50 and bleeding from esophagus, have 3.2 times higher chance for death outcome compared to other patients. Patients who have values of CTP-crea I score higher than 10.50 and bleeding from esophagus, have 3.1 times higher chance for death out-come than other patients. Patients who have values of CTP-crea II score higher than 11.50 and bleeding from esophagus, have 3,7 times higher chance for death outcome compared to other patients. Survival of patients with bleeding from esophageal varices in the short-term follow up can be predicted by following CTP score and creatinine modified CTP scores. Patients with bleeding from esophageal varices who have CTP score and CTP-crea I score higher than 10.5 and CTP-crea II score higher than 11.5, have statistically significantly higher risk from mortality within one-month follow-up compared to patients with bleeding from esophageal varices who have lower numerical values of scores of the CTP group.

Plasticity of the Binding Site of Renin: Optimized Selection of Protein Structures for Ensemble Docking.

PubMed

Strecker, Claas; Meyer, Bernd

2018-05-29

Protein flexibility poses a major challenge to docking of potential ligands in that the binding site can adopt different shapes. Docking algorithms usually keep the protein rigid and only allow the ligand to be treated as flexible. However, a wrong assessment of the shape of the binding pocket can prevent a ligand from adapting a correct pose. Ensemble docking is a simple yet promising method to solve this problem: Ligands are docked into multiple structures, and the results are subsequently merged. Selection of protein structures is a significant factor for this approach. In this work we perform a comprehensive and comparative study evaluating the impact of structure selection on ensemble docking. We perform ensemble docking with several crystal structures and with structures derived from molecular dynamics simulations of renin, an attractive target for antihypertensive drugs. Here, 500 ns of MD simulations revealed binding site shapes not found in any available crystal structure. We evaluate the importance of structure selection for ensemble docking by comparing binding pose prediction, ability to rank actives above nonactives (screening utility), and scoring accuracy. As a result, for ensemble definition k-means clustering appears to be better suited than hierarchical clustering with average linkage. The best performing ensemble consists of four crystal structures and is able to reproduce the native ligand poses better than any individual crystal structure. Moreover this ensemble outperforms 88% of all individual crystal structures in terms of screening utility as well as scoring accuracy. Similarly, ensembles of MD-derived structures perform on average better than 75% of any individual crystal structure in terms of scoring accuracy at all inspected ensembles sizes.

What is a species? A new universal method to measure differentiation and assess the taxonomic rank of allopatric populations, using continuous variables

PubMed Central

Donegan, Thomas M.

2018-01-01

Abstract Existing models for assigning species, subspecies, or no taxonomic rank to populations which are geographically separated from one another were analyzed. This was done by subjecting over 3,000 pairwise comparisons of vocal or biometric data based on birds to a variety of statistical tests that have been proposed as measures of differentiation. One current model which aims to test diagnosability (Isler et al. 1998) is highly conservative, applying a hard cut-off, which excludes from consideration differentiation below diagnosis. It also includes non-overlap as a requirement, a measure which penalizes increases to sample size. The “species scoring” model of Tobias et al. (2010) involves less drastic cut-offs, but unlike Isler et al. (1998), does not control adequately for sample size and attributes scores in many cases to differentiation which is not statistically significant. Four different models of assessing effect sizes were analyzed: using both pooled and unpooled standard deviations and controlling for sample size using t-distributions or omitting to do so. Pooled standard deviations produced more conservative effect sizes when uncontrolled for sample size but less conservative effect sizes when so controlled. Pooled models require assumptions to be made that are typically elusive or unsupported for taxonomic studies. Modifications to improving these frameworks are proposed, including: (i) introducing statistical significance as a gateway to attributing any weighting to findings of differentiation; (ii) abandoning non-overlap as a test; (iii) recalibrating Tobias et al. (2010) scores based on effect sizes controlled for sample size using t-distributions. A new universal method is proposed for measuring differentiation in taxonomy using continuous variables and a formula is proposed for ranking allopatric populations. This is based first on calculating effect sizes using unpooled standard deviations, controlled for sample size using t-distributions, for a series of different variables. All non-significant results are excluded by scoring them as zero. Distance between any two populations is calculated using Euclidian summation of non-zeroed effect size scores. If the score of an allopatric pair exceeds that of a related sympatric pair, then the allopatric population can be ranked as species and, if not, then at most subspecies rank should be assigned. A spreadsheet has been programmed and is being made available which allows this and other tests of differentiation and rank studied in this paper to be rapidly analyzed. PMID:29780266

State-Level Implementation of Health and Safety Policies to Prevent Sudden Death and Catastrophic Injuries Within Secondary School Athletics

PubMed Central

Adams, William M.; Scarneo, Samantha E.; Casa, Douglas J.

2017-01-01

Background: Sudden death and catastrophic injuries during sport can be attenuated with the implementation of evidence-based health and safety policies. However, the extent of the implementation of these policies within secondary school athletics is unknown. Purpose: To provide an assessment of the implementation of health and safety policies pertaining to the leading causes of sudden death and catastrophic injuries in sport within secondary school athletics in the United States. Study Design: Descriptive epidemiology study. Methods: A rubric for evidence-based practices for preventing the leading causes of death and catastrophic injuries in sport was created. The rubric comprised 5 equally weighted sections for sudden cardiac arrest, head injuries, exertional heat stroke, appropriate medical coverage, and emergency preparedness. State high school athletic association (SHSAA) policies, enacted legislation, and Department of Education policies were extensively reviewed for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. States meeting the specific criteria in the rubric, which required policies to be mandated for all SHSAA member schools, were awarded credit; the weighted scores were tabulated to calculate an aggregate score. States were then ranked from 1 (best) to 51 (worst) based on the aggregate score achieved. Results: The median score on the rubric was 47.1% (range, 23.00%-78.75%). States ranked 1 through 10 (from 78.75% to 56.98%) were North Carolina, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Jersey, South Dakota, Missouri, Washington, Hawaii, Wisconsin, and Georgia, respectively. States ranked 11 through 20 (from 56.03% to 50.55%) were Arkansas, New York, Mississippi, West Virginia, Oregon, Illinois, Tennessee, Arizona, Texas, and District of Columbia, respectively. States ranked 21 through 30 (from 49.40% to 44.00%) were Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida, New Mexico, Alabama, Maine, Rhode Island, Indiana, Nevada, and Utah, respectively. States ranked 31 through 40 (from 43.93% to 39.80%) were Ohio, Delaware, Alaska, Vermont, Louisiana, Maryland, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Idaho, and South Carolina, respectively. States ranked 41 through 51 (from 38.73% to 23.00%) were Michigan, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Kansas, Wyoming, Minnesota, Montana, Iowa, California, and Colorado, respectively. Conclusion: State scores ranged from 23.00% to 78.75% for the implementation of evidence-based best practices for preventing the leading causes of sudden death and catastrophic injuries (sudden cardiac arrest, traumatic head injuries, exertional heat stroke, and exertional sickling) in sport. Continued advocacy for the development and implementation of policies at the secondary school level surrounding sudden death and catastrophic injuries is warranted to optimize the health and safety of these student athletes. PMID:28951881

State-Level Implementation of Health and Safety Policies to Prevent Sudden Death and Catastrophic Injuries Within Secondary School Athletics.

PubMed

Adams, William M; Scarneo, Samantha E; Casa, Douglas J

2017-09-01

Sudden death and catastrophic injuries during sport can be attenuated with the implementation of evidence-based health and safety policies. However, the extent of the implementation of these policies within secondary school athletics is unknown. To provide an assessment of the implementation of health and safety policies pertaining to the leading causes of sudden death and catastrophic injuries in sport within secondary school athletics in the United States. Descriptive epidemiology study. A rubric for evidence-based practices for preventing the leading causes of death and catastrophic injuries in sport was created. The rubric comprised 5 equally weighted sections for sudden cardiac arrest, head injuries, exertional heat stroke, appropriate medical coverage, and emergency preparedness. State high school athletic association (SHSAA) policies, enacted legislation, and Department of Education policies were extensively reviewed for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. States meeting the specific criteria in the rubric, which required policies to be mandated for all SHSAA member schools, were awarded credit; the weighted scores were tabulated to calculate an aggregate score. States were then ranked from 1 (best) to 51 (worst) based on the aggregate score achieved. The median score on the rubric was 47.1% (range, 23.00%-78.75%). States ranked 1 through 10 (from 78.75% to 56.98%) were North Carolina, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Jersey, South Dakota, Missouri, Washington, Hawaii, Wisconsin, and Georgia, respectively. States ranked 11 through 20 (from 56.03% to 50.55%) were Arkansas, New York, Mississippi, West Virginia, Oregon, Illinois, Tennessee, Arizona, Texas, and District of Columbia, respectively. States ranked 21 through 30 (from 49.40% to 44.00%) were Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida, New Mexico, Alabama, Maine, Rhode Island, Indiana, Nevada, and Utah, respectively. States ranked 31 through 40 (from 43.93% to 39.80%) were Ohio, Delaware, Alaska, Vermont, Louisiana, Maryland, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Idaho, and South Carolina, respectively. States ranked 41 through 51 (from 38.73% to 23.00%) were Michigan, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Kansas, Wyoming, Minnesota, Montana, Iowa, California, and Colorado, respectively. State scores ranged from 23.00% to 78.75% for the implementation of evidence-based best practices for preventing the leading causes of sudden death and catastrophic injuries (sudden cardiac arrest, traumatic head injuries, exertional heat stroke, and exertional sickling) in sport. Continued advocacy for the development and implementation of policies at the secondary school level surrounding sudden death and catastrophic injuries is warranted to optimize the health and safety of these student athletes.

Quantitative assessments of municipal waste management systems: using different indicators to compare and rank programs in New York State.

PubMed

Greene, Krista L; Tonjes, David J

2014-04-01

The primary objective of waste management technologies and policies in the United States is to reduce the harmful environmental impacts of waste, particularly those relating to energy consumption and climate change. Performance indicators are frequently used to evaluate the environmental quality of municipal waste systems, as well as to compare and rank programs relative to each other in terms of environmental performance. However, there currently is no consensus on the best indicator for performing these environmental evaluations. The purpose of this study is to examine the common performance indicators used to assess the environmental benefits of municipal waste systems to determine if there is agreement between them regarding which system performs best environmentally. Focus is placed on how indicator selection influences comparisons between municipal waste management programs and subsequent system rankings. The waste systems of ten municipalities in the state of New York, USA, were evaluated using each common performance indicator and Spearman correlations were calculated to see if there was a significant association between system rank orderings. Analyses showed that rank orders of waste systems differ substantially when different indicators are used. Therefore, comparative system assessments based on indicators should be considered carefully, especially those intended to gauge environmental quality. Insight was also gained into specific factors which may lead to one system achieving higher rankings than another. However, despite the insufficiencies of indicators for comparative quality assessments, they do provide important information for waste managers and they can assist in evaluating internal programmatic performance and progress. To enhance these types of assessments, a framework for scoring indicators based on criteria that evaluate their utility and value for system evaluations was developed. This framework was used to construct an improved model for waste system performance assessments. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Time evolution of Wikipedia network ranking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eom, Young-Ho; Frahm, Klaus M.; Benczúr, András; Shepelyansky, Dima L.

2013-12-01

We study the time evolution of ranking and spectral properties of the Google matrix of English Wikipedia hyperlink network during years 2003-2011. The statistical properties of ranking of Wikipedia articles via PageRank and CheiRank probabilities, as well as the matrix spectrum, are shown to be stabilized for 2007-2011. A special emphasis is done on ranking of Wikipedia personalities and universities. We show that PageRank selection is dominated by politicians while 2DRank, which combines PageRank and CheiRank, gives more accent on personalities of arts. The Wikipedia PageRank of universities recovers 80% of top universities of Shanghai ranking during the considered time period.

Stakeholders' perspectives on access-to-medicines policy and research priorities in Latin America and the Caribbean: face-to-face and web-based interviews.

PubMed

Azeredo, Thiago Botelho; Luiza, Vera Lucia; Oliveira, Maria Auxiliadora; Emmerick, Isabel Cristina Martins; Bigdeli, Maryam

2014-06-25

This study aims to rank policy concerns and policy-related research issues in order to identify policy and research gaps on access to medicines (ATM) in low- and middle-income countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), as perceived by policy makers, researchers, NGO and international organization representatives, as part of a global prioritization exercise. Data collection, conducted between January and May 2011, involved face-to-face interviews in El Salvador, Colombia, Dominican Republic, and Suriname, and an e-mail survey with key-stakeholders. Respondents were asked to choose the five most relevant criteria for research prioritization and to score policy/research items according to the degree to which they represented current policies, desired policies, current research topics, and/or desired research topics. Mean scores and summary rankings were obtained. Linear regressions were performed to contrast rankings concerning current and desired policies (policy gaps), and current and desired research (research gaps). Relevance, feasibility, and research utilization were the top ranked criteria for prioritizing research. Technical capacity, research and development for new drugs, and responsiveness, were the main policy gaps. Quality assurance, staff technical capacity, price regulation, out-of-pocket payments, and cost containment policies, were the main research gaps. There was high level of coherence between current and desired policies: coefficients of determination (R2) varied from 0.46 (Health system structure; r = 0.68, P <0.01) to 0.86 (Sustainable financing; r = 0.93, P <0.01). There was also high coherence between current and desired research on Rational selection and use of medicines (r = 0.71, P <0.05, R2 = 0.51), Pricing/affordability (r = 0.82, P <0.01, R2 = 0.67), and Sustainable financing (r = 0.76, P <0.01, R2 = 0.58). Coherence was less for Health system structure (r = 0.61, P <0.01, R2 = 0.38). This study combines metrics approaches, contributing to priority setting methodology development, with country and regional level stakeholder participation. Stakeholders received feedback with the results, and we hope to have contributed to the discussion and implementation of ATM research and policy priorities in LAC.

Competing priorities in treatment decision-making: a US national survey of individuals with depression and clinicians who treat depression.

PubMed

Barr, Paul J; Forcino, Rachel C; Mishra, Manish; Blitzer, Rachel; Elwyn, Glyn

2016-01-08

To identify information priorities for consumers and clinicians making depression treatment decisions and assess shared decision-making (SDM) in routine depression care. 20 questions related to common features of depression treatments were provided. Participants were initially asked to select which features were important, and in a second stage they were asked to rank their top 5 'important features' in order of importance. Clinicians were asked to provide rankings according to both consumer and clinician perspectives. Consumers completed CollaboRATE, a measure of SDM. Multiple logistic regression analysis identified consumer characteristics associated with CollaboRATE scores. Online cross-sectional surveys fielded in September to December 2014. We administered surveys to convenience samples of US adults with depression and clinicians who treat depression. Consumer sampling was targeted to reflect age, gender and educational attainment of adults with depression in the USA. Information priority rankings; CollaboRATE, a 3-item consumer-reported measure of SDM. 972 consumers and 244 clinicians completed the surveys. The highest ranked question for both consumers and clinicians was 'Will the treatment work?' Clinicians were aware of consumers' priorities, yet did not always prioritise that information themselves, particularly insurance coverage and cost of treatment. Only 18% of consumers reported high levels of SDM. Working with a psychiatrist (OR 1.87; 95% CI 1.07 to 3.26) and female gender (OR 2.04; 95% CI 1.25 to 3.34) were associated with top CollaboRATE scores. While clinicians know what information is important to consumers making depression treatment decisions, they do not always address these concerns. This mismatch, coupled with low SDM, adversely affects the quality of depression care. Development of a decision support intervention based on our findings can improve levels of SDM and provide clinicians and consumers with a tool to address the existing misalignment in information priorities. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

Preliminary criteria for the definition of allergic rhinitis: a systematic evaluation of clinical parameters in a disease cohort (I).

PubMed

Ng, M L; Warlow, R S; Chrishanthan, N; Ellis, C; Walls, R

2000-09-01

The aim of this study is to formulate criteria for the definition of allergic rhinitis. Other studies have sought to develop scoring systems to categorize the severity of allergic rhinitis symptoms but it was never used for the formulation of diagnostic criteria. These other scoring systems were arbitrarily chosen and were not derived by any statistical analysis. To date, a study of this kind has not been performed. The hypothesis of this study is that it is possible to formulate criteria for the definition of allergic rhinitis. This is the first study to systematically examine and evaluate the relative importance of symptoms, signs and investigative tests in allergic rhinitis. We sought to statistically rank, from the most to the least important, the multiplicity of symptoms, signs and test results. Forty-seven allergic rhinitis and 23 normal subjects were evaluated with a detailed questionnaire and history, physical examination, serum total immunoglobulin E, skin prick tests and serum enzyme allergosorbent tests (EAST). Statistical ranking of variables indicated rhinitis symptoms (nasal, ocular and oronasal) were the most commonly occurring, followed by a history of allergen provocation, then serum total IgE, positive skin prick tests and positive EAST's to house dust mite, perennial rye and bermuda/couch grass. Throat symptoms ranked even lower whilst EAST's to cat epithelia, plantain and cockroach were the least important. Not all symptoms, signs and tests evaluated proved to be statistically significant when compared to a control group; this included symtoms and signs which had been considered historically to be traditionally associated with allergic rhinitis, e.g. sore throat and bleeding nose. In performing statistical analyses, we were able to rank from most to least important, the multiplicity of symptoms signs and test results. The most important symptoms and signs were identified for the first time, even though some of these were not included in our original selection criteria for defining the disease cohort i.e. sniffing, postnasal drip, oedematous nasal mucosa, impaired sense of smell, mouth breathing, itchy nose and many of the specific provocation factors.

Class Rank Weighs Down True Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guskey, Thomas R.

2014-01-01

The process of determining class rank does not help students achieve more or reach higher levels of proficiency. Evidence indicates ranking students may diminish students' motivation. High school educators argue that they are compelled to rank-order graduating students because selective colleges and universities require information about…

Discrepancies between multicriteria decision analysis-based ranking and intuitive ranking for pharmaceutical benefit-risk profiles in a hypothetical setting.

PubMed

Hoshikawa, K; Ono, S

2017-02-01

Multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) has been generally considered a promising decision-making methodology for the assessment of drug benefit-risk profiles. There have been many discussions in both public and private sectors on its feasibility and applicability, but it has not been employed in official decision-makings. For the purpose of examining to what extent MCDA would reflect the first-hand, intuitive preference of evaluators in practical pharmaceutical assessments, we conducted a questionnaire survey involving the participation of employees of pharmaceutical companies. Showing profiles of the efficacy and safety of four hypothetical drugs, each respondent was asked to rank them following the standard MCDA process and then to rank them intuitively (i.e. without applying any analytical framework). These two approaches resulted in substantially different ranking patterns from the same individuals, and the concordance rate was surprisingly low (17%). Although many respondents intuitively showed a preference for mild, balanced risk-benefit profiles over profiles with a conspicuous advantage in either risk or benefit, the ranking orders based on MCDA scores did not reflect the intuitive preference. Observed discrepancies between the rankings seemed to be primarily attributed to the structural characteristics of MCDA, which assumes that evaluation on each benefit and risk component should have monotonic impact on final scores. It would be difficult for MCDA to reflect commonly observed non-monotonic preferences for risk and benefit profiles. Possible drawbacks of MCDA should be further investigated prior to the real-world application of its benefit-risk assessment. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Support vector regression scoring of receptor-ligand complexes for rank-ordering and virtual screening of chemical libraries.

PubMed

Li, Liwei; Wang, Bo; Meroueh, Samy O

2011-09-26

The community structure-activity resource (CSAR) data sets are used to develop and test a support vector machine-based scoring function in regression mode (SVR). Two scoring functions (SVR-KB and SVR-EP) are derived with the objective of reproducing the trend of the experimental binding affinities provided within the two CSAR data sets. The features used to train SVR-KB are knowledge-based pairwise potentials, while SVR-EP is based on physicochemical properties. SVR-KB and SVR-EP were compared to seven other widely used scoring functions, including Glide, X-score, GoldScore, ChemScore, Vina, Dock, and PMF. Results showed that SVR-KB trained with features obtained from three-dimensional complexes of the PDBbind data set outperformed all other scoring functions, including best performing X-score, by nearly 0.1 using three correlation coefficients, namely Pearson, Spearman, and Kendall. It was interesting that higher performance in rank ordering did not translate into greater enrichment in virtual screening assessed using the 40 targets of the Directory of Useful Decoys (DUD). To remedy this situation, a variant of SVR-KB (SVR-KBD) was developed by following a target-specific tailoring strategy that we had previously employed to derive SVM-SP. SVR-KBD showed a much higher enrichment, outperforming all other scoring functions tested, and was comparable in performance to our previously derived scoring function SVM-SP.

Can the pre-operative Western Ontario and McMaster score predict patient satisfaction following total hip arthroplasty?

PubMed

Rogers, B A; Alolabi, B; Carrothers, A D; Kreder, H J; Jenkinson, R J

2015-02-01

In this study we evaluated whether pre-operative Western Ontario and McMaster Universities (WOMAC) osteoarthritis scores can predict satisfaction following total hip arthroplasty (THA). Prospective data for a cohort of patients undergoing THA from two large academic centres were collected, and pre-operative and one-year post-operative WOMAC scores and a 25-point satisfaction questionnaire were obtained for 446 patients. Satisfaction scores were dichotomised into either improvement or deterioration. Scatter plots and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient were used to describe the association between pre-operative WOMAC and one-year post-operative WOMAC scores and patient satisfaction. Satisfaction was compared using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis against pre-operative, post-operative and δ WOMAC scores. We found no relationship between pre-operative WOMAC scores and one-year post-operative WOMAC or satisfaction scores, with Spearman's rank correlation coefficients of 0.16 and -0.05, respectively. The ROC analysis showed areas under the curve (AUC) of 0.54 (pre-operative WOMAC), 0.67 (post-operative WOMAC) and 0.43 (δ WOMAC), respectively, for an improvement in satisfaction. We conclude that the pre-operative WOMAC score does not predict the post-operative WOMAC score or patient satisfaction after THA, and that WOMAC scores can therefore not be used to prioritise patient care. ©2015 The British Editorial Society of Bone & Joint Surgery.

Using textons to rank crystallization droplets by the likely presence of crystals

PubMed Central

Ng, Jia Tsing; Dekker, Carien; Kroemer, Markus; Osborne, Michael; von Delft, Frank

2014-01-01

The visual inspection of crystallization experiments is an important yet time-consuming and subjective step in X-ray crystallo­graphy. Previously published studies have focused on automatically classifying crystallization droplets into distinct but ultimately arbitrary experiment outcomes; here, a method is described that instead ranks droplets by their likelihood of containing crystals or microcrystals, thereby prioritizing for visual inspection those images that are most likely to contain useful information. The use of textons is introduced to describe crystallization droplets objectively, allowing them to be scored with the posterior probability of a random forest classifier trained against droplets manually annotated for the presence or absence of crystals or microcrystals. Unlike multi-class classification, this two-class system lends itself naturally to unidirectional ranking, which is most useful for assisting sequential viewing because images can be arranged simply by using these scores: this places droplets with probable crystalline behaviour early in the viewing order. Using this approach, the top ten wells included at least one human-annotated crystal or microcrystal for 94% of the plates in a data set of 196 plates imaged with a Minstrel HT system. The algorithm is robustly transferable to at least one other imaging system: when the parameters trained from Minstrel HT images are applied to a data set imaged by the Rock Imager system, human-annotated crystals ranked in the top ten wells for 90% of the plates. Because rearranging images is fundamental to the approach, a custom viewer was written to seamlessly support such ranked viewing, along with another important output of the algorithm, namely the shape of the curve of scores, which is itself a useful overview of the behaviour of the plate; additional features with known usefulness were adopted from existing viewers. Evidence is presented that such ranked viewing of images allows faster but more accurate evaluation of drops, in particular for the identification of microcrystals. PMID:25286854

Exploring the relationship between subjective wellbeing and groundwater attitudes and practices of farmers in Rural India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ward, J.; Varua, M. E.; Maheshwari, B.; Oza, S.; Purohit, R.; Hakimuddin; Dave, S.

2016-09-01

Failure to effectively coordinate opportunistic extractions by individual well owners with groundwater recharge has led to increasing Indian groundwater scarcity, affecting future opportunities for improved rural livelihoods and household wellbeing. Investigation of the relationship between groundwater institutions, management attitudes and subjective wellbeing of Indian rural households has substantial potential to reveal initiatives that jointly improve aquifer sustainability and household wellbeing, yet has received limited attention. Subjective wellbeing was calculated as an index of dissatisfaction (IDS), revealing ranked importance and the level of dissatisfaction of individual factors selected from economic, environmental and social/relational wellbeing dimensions. High economic and environmental IDS scores were calculated for respondents in the Meghraj and Dharta watersheds, India, respectively. We tested an exploratory hypothesis that observed IDS differences were correlated with differences in life circumstances, (household attributes, income and assets) and psychological disposition (life guiding values and willingness to adapt). The distribution of ranked IDS wellbeing scores was estimated across four statistically distinct clusters reflecting attitudes towards sustainable groundwater management and practice. Decision tree analysis identified significantly different correlates of overall wellbeing specific to cluster membership and the watershed, supporting the research hypothesis. High income IDS scores were weakly correlated with actual total household income (r < 0.25) consistent with international studies. The results suggest a singular reliance on initiatives to improve household income is unlikely to manifest as improved individual subjective wellbeing for the Dharta and Meghraj watersheds. In conclusion, correlates were tabulated into a systematic decision framework to assist the design of participatory processes at the village level, by targeting specific factors likely to jointly improve aquifer sustainability and household wellbeing.

Parent Involvement in the Pediatric Resident Applicant Interview.

PubMed

Dandekar, Abhay; Weintraub, Miranda L Ritterman; McFeely, Eric D; Chasnovitz, Rebecca

2018-03-19

Parents and patients are actively involved in the clinical learning environment, yet scant literature exists about their involvement in the residency interview process. We aimed to pilot a process of including parents in resident interviews and to determine its value. During the 2016-17 residency interview cycle, 22 parent volunteers, blinded to applicant credentials, conducted brief structured interviews with 118 applicants. We then surveyed all parents and applicants with the use of mixed methods: descriptive statistics to analyze 5-point Likert-type-scale responses, and content analysis to identify themes from open-ended questions. Although parent interviews were not used in ranking, we later compared final composite parent interview scores (1-10, with 10 being high) among the final rank and match list candidates. Response rates were high for both groups (parents 100%; resident applicants 98.3%). Parents felt strongly positive about meeting applicants (mean ± SD, 5.00 ± 0.00), the value of parent participation (4.90 ± 0.30), and their own experience (4.95 ± 0.22). Applicants felt positive about meeting parents (4.45 ± 0.70), the value of parent participation (3.92 ± 0.84), and their own experience (4.51 ± 0.67). Several themes emerged from both groups, with the most salient parent themes including the value of patient-centered perspectives and appreciation and joy of meeting applicants. Parent interview scores correlated with the final match list, with matched applicants scoring higher (9.08 vs 8.51; P = .05). Involvement of parents in the pediatric residency interview process is achievable, is perceived positively by parents and applicants, and may provide valuable perspectives for consideration in residency selection. Copyright © 2018 Academic Pediatric Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Delphi study on research priorities for trauma nursing.

PubMed

Bayley, E W; Richmond, T; Noroian, E L; Allen, L R

1994-05-01

To identify and prioritize research questions of importance to trauma patient care and of interest to trauma nurses. A three-round Delphi technique was used to solicit, identify, and prioritize problems for trauma nursing research. In round 1, experienced trauma nurses (N = 208) generated 513 problems, which were analyzed, categorized, and collapsed into 111 items for subsequent rounds. Round 2 participants rated each research question on a 1 to 7 scale on two criteria: impact on patient welfare and value for practicing nurses. Group median scores provided by 166 round 2 respondents and respondents' individual round 2 scores were indicated on the round 3 questionnaire. Subjects rated the questions again on the same criteria and indicated whether nurses, independently or in collaboration with other health professionals, should assume responsibility for that research. Median and mean scores and rank order were determined for each item. Respondents who completed all three rounds (n = 137) had a mean of 8.3 years of trauma experience. Nine research questions ranked within the top 20 on both criteria. The two research questions that ranked highest on both criteria were: What are the most effective nursing interventions in the prevention of pulmonary and circulatory complications in trauma patients? and What are the most effective methods for preventing aspiration in trauma patients during the postoperative phase? The third-ranked question regarding patient welfare was: What psychological and lifestyle changes result from traumatic injury? Regarding value for practicing nurses, What are the most effective educational methods to prepare and maintain proficiency in trauma care providers? ranked third. These research priorities provide impetus and direction for nursing and collaborative investigation in trauma care.

RANKL/RANK/OPG cytokine receptor system: mRNA expression pattern in BPH, primary and metastatic prostate cancer disease.

PubMed

Christoph, Frank; König, Frank; Lebentrau, Steffen; Jandrig, Burkhard; Krause, Hans; Strenziok, Romy; Schostak, Martin

2018-02-01

The cytokine system RANKL (receptor activator of NF-κB ligand), its receptor RANK and the antagonist OPG (osteoprotegerin) play a critical role in bone turnover. Our investigation was conducted to describe the gene expression at primary tumour site in prostate cancer patients and correlate the results with Gleason Score and PSA level. Seventy-one samples were obtained from prostate cancer patients at the time of radical prostatectomy and palliative prostate resection (n = 71). Patients with benign prostate hyperplasia served as controls (n = 60). We performed real-time RT-PCR after microdissection of the samples. The mRNA expression of RANK was highest in tumour tissue from patients with bone metastases (p < 0.001) as compared to BPH or locally confined tumours, also shown in clinical subgroups distinguished by Gleason Score (< 7 or ≥ 7, p = 0.028) or PSA level (< 10 or ≥ 10 µg/l, p = 0.004). RANKL and OPG mRNA expression was higher in tumour tissue from patients with metastatic compared to local disease. The RANKL/OPG ratio was low in normal prostate tissue and high tumours with bone metastases (p < 0.05). Expression of all three cytokines was high in BPH tissue but did not exceed as much as in the tumour tissue. We demonstrated that RANK, RANKL and OPG are directly expressed by prostate cancer cells at the primary tumour site and showed a clear correlation with Gleason Score, serum PSA level and advanced disease. In BPH, mRNA expression is also detectable, but RANK expression does not exceed as much as compared to tumour tissue.

14 CFR 1214.1105 - Final ranking.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 5 2011-01-01 2010-01-01 true Final ranking. 1214.1105 Section 1214.1105 Aeronautics and Space NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION SPACE FLIGHT NASA Astronaut Candidate Recruitment and Selection Program § 1214.1105 Final ranking. Final rankings will be based on a combination of...

Affecting College English Placement Scores: College Readiness Remediation for High-School Seniors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olsen Rowland, Joyce Kay

2011-01-01

The purpose of the quantitative ex post facto study was to compare the English Placement Test (EPT) scores of students before and after the Expository Reading and Writing Curriculum (ERWC) remediation efforts had been employed and to determine the effectiveness of the ERWC in raising EPT scores. Using a Wilcoxon signed rank test, the researcher…

Academic Attributes of College Freshmen that Lead to Success in Actuarial Studies in a Business College

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Richard Manning; Schumacher, Phyllis

2006-01-01

The authors studied beginning undergraduate actuarial concentrators in a business college. They identified four variables (math Scholastic Aptitude Test [SAT] score, verbal SAT score, percentile rank in high school graduating class, and percentage score on a college mathematics placement exam) that were available for entering college students that…

Should measures of patient experience in primary care be adjusted for case mix? Evidence from the English General Practice Patient Survey

PubMed Central

Paddison, Charlotte; Elliott, Marc; Parker, Richard; Staetsky, Laura; Lyratzopoulos, Georgios; Campbell, John L

2012-01-01

Objectives Uncertainties exist about when and how best to adjust performance measures for case mix. Our aims are to quantify the impact of case-mix adjustment on practice-level scores in a national survey of patient experience, to identify why and when it may be useful to adjust for case mix, and to discuss unresolved policy issues regarding the use of case-mix adjustment in performance measurement in health care. Design/setting Secondary analysis of the 2009 English General Practice Patient Survey. Responses from 2 163 456 patients registered with 8267 primary care practices. Linear mixed effects models were used with practice included as a random effect and five case-mix variables (gender, age, race/ethnicity, deprivation, and self-reported health) as fixed effects. Main outcome measures Primary outcome was the impact of case-mix adjustment on practice-level means (adjusted minus unadjusted) and changes in practice percentile ranks for questions measuring patient experience in three domains of primary care: access; interpersonal care; anticipatory care planning, and overall satisfaction with primary care services. Results Depending on the survey measure selected, case-mix adjustment changed the rank of between 0.4% and 29.8% of practices by more than 10 percentile points. Adjusting for case-mix resulted in large increases in score for a small number of practices and small decreases in score for a larger number of practices. Practices with younger patients, more ethnic minority patients and patients living in more socio-economically deprived areas were more likely to gain from case-mix adjustment. Age and race/ethnicity were the most influential adjustors. Conclusions While its effect is modest for most practices, case-mix adjustment corrects significant underestimation of scores for a small proportion of practices serving vulnerable patients and may reduce the risk that providers would ‘cream-skim’ by not enrolling patients from vulnerable socio-demographic groups. PMID:22626735

Should measures of patient experience in primary care be adjusted for case mix? Evidence from the English General Practice Patient Survey.

PubMed

Paddison, Charlotte; Elliott, Marc; Parker, Richard; Staetsky, Laura; Lyratzopoulos, Georgios; Campbell, John L; Roland, Martin

2012-08-01

Uncertainties exist about when and how best to adjust performance measures for case mix. Our aims are to quantify the impact of case-mix adjustment on practice-level scores in a national survey of patient experience, to identify why and when it may be useful to adjust for case mix, and to discuss unresolved policy issues regarding the use of case-mix adjustment in performance measurement in health care. Secondary analysis of the 2009 English General Practice Patient Survey. Responses from 2 163 456 patients registered with 8267 primary care practices. Linear mixed effects models were used with practice included as a random effect and five case-mix variables (gender, age, race/ethnicity, deprivation, and self-reported health) as fixed effects. Primary outcome was the impact of case-mix adjustment on practice-level means (adjusted minus unadjusted) and changes in practice percentile ranks for questions measuring patient experience in three domains of primary care: access; interpersonal care; anticipatory care planning, and overall satisfaction with primary care services. Depending on the survey measure selected, case-mix adjustment changed the rank of between 0.4% and 29.8% of practices by more than 10 percentile points. Adjusting for case-mix resulted in large increases in score for a small number of practices and small decreases in score for a larger number of practices. Practices with younger patients, more ethnic minority patients and patients living in more socio-economically deprived areas were more likely to gain from case-mix adjustment. Age and race/ethnicity were the most influential adjustors. While its effect is modest for most practices, case-mix adjustment corrects significant underestimation of scores for a small proportion of practices serving vulnerable patients and may reduce the risk that providers would 'cream-skim' by not enrolling patients from vulnerable socio-demographic groups.

Infection Control Practice in the Operating Room: Staff Adherence to Existing Policies in a Developing Country

PubMed Central

Cawich, Shamir O; Tennant, Ingrid A; McGaw, Clarence D; Harding, Hyacinth; Walters, Christine A; Crandon, Ivor W

2013-01-01

Context: Infection control interventions are important for containing surgery-related infections. For this reason, the modern operating room (OR) should have well-developed infection control policies. The efficacy of these policies depends on how well the OR staff adhere to them. There is a lack of available data documenting adherence to infection control policies. Objective: To evaluate OR staff adherence to existing infection control policies in Jamaica. Methods: We administered a questionnaire to all OR staff to assess their training, knowledge of local infection control protocols, and practice with regard to 8 randomly selected guidelines. Adherence to each guideline was rated with fixed-choice items on a 4-point Likert scale. The sum of points determined the adherence score. Two respondent groups were defined: adherent (score > 26) and nonadherent (score ≤ 26). We evaluated the relationship between respondent group and age, sex, occupational rank, and time since completion of basic medical training. We used χ2 and Fisher exact tests to assess associations and t tests to compare means between variables of interest. Results: The sample comprised 132 participants (90 physicians and 42 nurses) with a mean age of 36 (standard deviation ± 9.5) years. Overall, 40.1% were adherent to existing protocols. There was no significant association between the distribution of adherence scores and sex (p = 0.319), time since completion of basic training (p = 0.595), occupational rank (p = 0.461), or age (p = 0.949). Overall, 19% felt their knowledge of infection control practices was inadequate. Those with working knowledge of infection control practices attained it mostly through informal communication (80.4%) and self-directed research (62.6%). Conclusion: New approaches to the problem of nonadherence to infection control guidelines are needed in the Caribbean. Several unique cultural, financial, and environmental factors influence adherence in this region, in contrast to conditions in developed countries. PMID:24355900

Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews in Subfertility: A Comparison of Two Different Approaches

PubMed Central

Popovich, Ivor; Windsor, Bethany; Jordan, Vanessa; Showell, Marian; Shea, Bev; Farquhar, Cynthia M.

2012-01-01

Background Systematic reviews are used widely to guide health care decisions. Several tools have been created to assess systematic review quality. The measurement tool for assessing the methodological quality of systematic reviews known as the AMSTAR tool applies a yes/no score to eleven relevant domains of review methodology. This tool has been reworked so that each domain is scored based on a four point scale, producing R-AMSTAR. Methods and Findings We aimed to compare the AMSTAR and R-AMSTAR tools in assessing systematic reviews in the field of assisted reproduction for subfertility. All published systematic reviews on assisted reproductive technology, with the latest search for studies taking place from 2007–2011, were considered. Reviews that contained no included studies or considered diagnostic outcomes were excluded. Thirty each of Cochrane and non-Cochrane reviews were randomly selected from a search of relevant databases. Both tools were then applied to all sixty reviews. The results were converted to percentage scores and all reviews graded and ranked based on this. AMSTAR produced a much wider variation in percentage scores and achieved higher inter-rater reliability than R-AMSTAR according to kappa statistics. The average rating for Cochrane reviews was consistent between the two tools (88.3% for R-AMSTAR versus 83.6% for AMSTAR) but inconsistent for non-Cochrane reviews (63.9% R-AMSTAR vs. 38.5% AMSTAR). In comparing the rankings generated between the two tools Cochrane reviews changed an average of 4.2 places, compared to 2.9 for non-Cochrane. Conclusion R-AMSTAR provided greater guidance in the assessment of domains and produced quantitative results. However, there were many problems with the construction of its criteria and AMSTAR was much easier to apply consistently. We recommend that AMSTAR incorporates the findings of this study and produces additional guidance for its application in order to improve its reliability and usefulness. PMID:23300526

Minimizing the semantic gap in biomedical content-based image retrieval

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guan, Haiying; Antani, Sameer; Long, L. Rodney; Thoma, George R.

2010-03-01

A major challenge in biomedical Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) is to achieve meaningful mappings that minimize the semantic gap between the high-level biomedical semantic concepts and the low-level visual features in images. This paper presents a comprehensive learning-based scheme toward meeting this challenge and improving retrieval quality. The article presents two algorithms: a learning-based feature selection and fusion algorithm and the Ranking Support Vector Machine (Ranking SVM) algorithm. The feature selection algorithm aims to select 'good' features and fuse them using different similarity measurements to provide a better representation of the high-level concepts with the low-level image features. Ranking SVM is applied to learn the retrieval rank function and associate the selected low-level features with query concepts, given the ground-truth ranking of the training samples. The proposed scheme addresses four major issues in CBIR to improve the retrieval accuracy: image feature extraction, selection and fusion, similarity measurements, the association of the low-level features with high-level concepts, and the generation of the rank function to support high-level semantic image retrieval. It models the relationship between semantic concepts and image features, and enables retrieval at the semantic level. We apply it to the problem of vertebra shape retrieval from a digitized spine x-ray image set collected by the second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES II). The experimental results show an improvement of up to 41.92% in the mean average precision (MAP) over conventional image similarity computation methods.

Sentiment analysis of feature ranking methods for classification accuracy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Joseph, Shashank; Mugauri, Calvin; Sumathy, S.

2017-11-01

Text pre-processing and feature selection are important and critical steps in text mining. Text pre-processing of large volumes of datasets is a difficult task as unstructured raw data is converted into structured format. Traditional methods of processing and weighing took much time and were less accurate. To overcome this challenge, feature ranking techniques have been devised. A feature set from text preprocessing is fed as input for feature selection. Feature selection helps improve text classification accuracy. Of the three feature selection categories available, the filter category will be the focus. Five feature ranking methods namely: document frequency, standard deviation information gain, CHI-SQUARE, and weighted-log likelihood -ratio is analyzed.

Methodological Quality of Consensus Guidelines in Implant Dentistry.

PubMed

Faggion, Clovis Mariano; Apaza, Karol; Ariza-Fritas, Tania; Málaga, Lilian; Giannakopoulos, Nikolaos Nikitas; Alarcón, Marco Antonio

2017-01-01

Consensus guidelines are useful to improve clinical decision making. Therefore, the methodological evaluation of these guidelines is of paramount importance. Low quality information may guide to inadequate or harmful clinical decisions. To evaluate the methodological quality of consensus guidelines published in implant dentistry using a validated methodological instrument. The six implant dentistry journals with impact factors were scrutinised for consensus guidelines related to implant dentistry. Two assessors independently selected consensus guidelines, and four assessors independently evaluated their methodological quality using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research & Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument. Disagreements in the selection and evaluation of guidelines were resolved by consensus. First, the consensus guidelines were analysed alone. Then, systematic reviews conducted to support the guidelines were included in the analysis. Non-parametric statistics for dependent variables (Wilcoxon signed rank test) was used to compare both groups. Of 258 initially retrieved articles, 27 consensus guidelines were selected. Median scores in four domains (applicability, rigour of development, stakeholder involvement, and editorial independence), expressed as percentages of maximum possible domain scores, were below 50% (median, 26%, 30.70%, 41.70%, and 41.70%, respectively). The consensus guidelines and consensus guidelines + systematic reviews data sets could be compared for 19 guidelines, and the results showed significant improvements in all domain scores (p < 0.05). Methodological improvement of consensus guidelines published in major implant dentistry journals is needed. The findings of the present study may help researchers to better develop consensus guidelines in implant dentistry, which will improve the quality and trust of information needed to make proper clinical decisions.

Methodological Quality of Consensus Guidelines in Implant Dentistry

PubMed Central

Faggion, Clovis Mariano; Apaza, Karol; Ariza-Fritas, Tania; Málaga, Lilian; Giannakopoulos, Nikolaos Nikitas; Alarcón, Marco Antonio

2017-01-01

Background Consensus guidelines are useful to improve clinical decision making. Therefore, the methodological evaluation of these guidelines is of paramount importance. Low quality information may guide to inadequate or harmful clinical decisions. Objective To evaluate the methodological quality of consensus guidelines published in implant dentistry using a validated methodological instrument. Methods The six implant dentistry journals with impact factors were scrutinised for consensus guidelines related to implant dentistry. Two assessors independently selected consensus guidelines, and four assessors independently evaluated their methodological quality using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research & Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument. Disagreements in the selection and evaluation of guidelines were resolved by consensus. First, the consensus guidelines were analysed alone. Then, systematic reviews conducted to support the guidelines were included in the analysis. Non-parametric statistics for dependent variables (Wilcoxon signed rank test) was used to compare both groups. Results Of 258 initially retrieved articles, 27 consensus guidelines were selected. Median scores in four domains (applicability, rigour of development, stakeholder involvement, and editorial independence), expressed as percentages of maximum possible domain scores, were below 50% (median, 26%, 30.70%, 41.70%, and 41.70%, respectively). The consensus guidelines and consensus guidelines + systematic reviews data sets could be compared for 19 guidelines, and the results showed significant improvements in all domain scores (p < 0.05). Conclusions Methodological improvement of consensus guidelines published in major implant dentistry journals is needed. The findings of the present study may help researchers to better develop consensus guidelines in implant dentistry, which will improve the quality and trust of information needed to make proper clinical decisions. PMID:28107405

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.

An FMEA evaluation of intensity modulated radiation therapy dose delivery failures at tolerance criteria levels.

PubMed

Faught, Jacqueline Tonigan; Balter, Peter A; Johnson, Jennifer L; Kry, Stephen F; Court, Laurence E; Stingo, Francesco C; Followill, David S

2017-11-01

The objective of this work was to assess both the perception of failure modes in Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) when the linac is operated at the edge of tolerances given in AAPM TG-40 (Kutcher et al.) and TG-142 (Klein et al.) as well as the application of FMEA to this specific section of the IMRT process. An online survey was distributed to approximately 2000 physicists worldwide that participate in quality services provided by the Imaging and Radiation Oncology Core - Houston (IROC-H). The survey briefly described eleven different failure modes covered by basic quality assurance in step-and-shoot IMRT at or near TG-40 (Kutcher et al.) and TG-142 (Klein et al.) tolerance criteria levels. Respondents were asked to estimate the worst case scenario percent dose error that could be caused by each of these failure modes in a head and neck patient as well as the FMEA scores: Occurrence, Detectability, and Severity. Risk probability number (RPN) scores were calculated as the product of these scores. Demographic data were also collected. A total of 181 individual and three group responses were submitted. 84% were from North America. Most (76%) individual respondents performed at least 80% clinical work and 92% were nationally certified. Respondent medical physics experience ranged from 2.5 to 45 yr (average 18 yr). A total of 52% of individual respondents were at least somewhat familiar with FMEA, while 17% were not familiar. Several IMRT techniques, treatment planning systems, and linear accelerator manufacturers were represented. All failure modes received widely varying scores ranging from 1 to 10 for occurrence, at least 1-9 for detectability, and at least 1-7 for severity. Ranking failure modes by RPN scores also resulted in large variability, with each failure mode being ranked both most risky (1st) and least risky (11th) by different respondents. On average MLC modeling had the highest RPN scores. Individual estimated percent dose errors and severity scores positively correlated (P < 0.01) for each FM as expected. No universal correlations were found between the demographic information collected and scoring, percent dose errors or ranking. Failure modes investigated overall were evaluated as low to medium risk, with average RPNs less than 110. The ranking of 11 failure modes was not agreed upon by the community. Large variability in FMEA scoring may be caused by individual interpretation and/or experience, reflecting the subjective nature of the FMEA tool. © 2017 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Developing and Planning a Texas Based Homeschool Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Terry, Bobby K.

2011-01-01

Texas has some of the lowest SAT scores in the nation. They are ranked 36th nationwide in graduation rates and teacher salaries rank at number 33. The public school system in Texas has problems with overcrowding, violence, and poor performance on standardized testing. Currently 300,000 families have opted out of the public school system in order…

Efficiency, Costs, Rankings and Heterogeneity: The Case of US Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Agasisti, Tommaso; Johnes, Geraint

2015-01-01

Among the major trends in the higher education (HE) sector, the development of rankings as a policy and managerial tool is of particular relevance. However, despite the diffusion of these instruments, it is still not clear how they relate with traditional performance measures, like unit costs and efficiency scores. In this paper, we estimate a…

Statistically Comparing the Performance of Multiple Automated Raters across Multiple Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kieftenbeld, Vincent; Boyer, Michelle

2017-01-01

Automated scoring systems are typically evaluated by comparing the performance of a single automated rater item-by-item to human raters. This presents a challenge when the performance of multiple raters needs to be compared across multiple items. Rankings could depend on specifics of the ranking procedure; observed differences could be due to…

Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and the "Big Five" South African Research Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boshoff, N.

2009-01-01

This article critically examines the methodology of the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) by generating raw scores for the "big five" South African research universities (Stellenbosch, Cape Town, Kwazulu-Natal, Pretoria and the Witwatersrand, henceforth referred to as SU, UCT, UKZN, UP and WITS) using the ARWU…

How Do Health Care Providers Diagnose Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)?

MedlinePlus

... correlation between initial GCS score and the person's short- or long-term recovery or abilities. 2 Measurements for Level of TBI Health care providers sometimes rank the person's level of consciousness, memory loss, and GCS score. A TBI is considered ...

Speech intonation and melodic contour recognition in children with cochlear implants and with normal hearing.

PubMed

See, Rachel L; Driscoll, Virginia D; Gfeller, Kate; Kliethermes, Stephanie; Oleson, Jacob

2013-04-01

Cochlear implant (CI) users have difficulty perceiving some intonation cues in speech and melodic contours because of poor frequency selectivity in the cochlear implant signal. To assess perceptual accuracy of normal hearing (NH) children and pediatric CI users on speech intonation (prosody), melodic contour, and pitch ranking, and to determine potential predictors of outcomes. Does perceptual accuracy for speech intonation or melodic contour differ as a function of auditory status (NH, CI), perceptual category (falling versus rising intonation/contour), pitch perception, or individual differences (e.g., age, hearing history)? NH and CI groups were tested on recognition of falling intonation/contour versus rising intonation/contour presented in both spoken and melodic (sung) conditions. Pitch ranking was also tested. Outcomes were correlated with variables of age, hearing history, HINT, and CNC scores. The CI group was significantly less accurate than the NH group in spoken (CI, M = 63.1%; NH, M = 82.1%) and melodic (CI, M = 61.6%; NH, M = 84.2%) conditions. The CI group was more accurate in recognizing rising contour in the melodic condition compared with rising intonation in the spoken condition. Pitch ranking was a significant predictor of outcome for both groups in falling intonation and rising melodic contour; age at testing and hearing history variables were not predictive of outcomes. Children with CIs were less accurate than NH children in perception of speech intonation, melodic contour, and pitch ranking. However, the larger pitch excursions of the melodic condition may assist in recognition of the rising inflection associated with the interrogative form.

What Makes a Plastic Surgery Residency Program Attractive? An Applicant's Perspective.

PubMed

Atashroo, David A; Luan, Anna; Vyas, Krishna S; Zielins, Elizabeth R; Maan, Zeshaan; Duscher, Dominik; Walmsley, Graham G; Lynch, Michael P; Davenport, Daniel L; Wan, Derrick C; Longaker, Michael T; Vasconez, Henry C

2015-07-01

Plastic surgery is among the most competitive specialties in medicine, but little is known about the attributes of programs that are most attractive to successful applicants. This study aimed to understand and provide insights regarding program characteristics that are most influential to students when ranking plastic surgery programs. An anonymous online survey was conducted with newly matched plastic surgery residents for the integrated and combined Match in 2012 and 2013. Subjects were queried regarding their demographics, qualifications, application experiences, and motivations for residency program selection. A total of 92 of 245 matched plastic surgery residents (38 percent) responded to the survey. The perception of resident happiness was the most positive factor influencing program ranking, followed by high operative volume, faculty mentorship, and strong research infrastructure. Perception of a program as "malignant" was the most negative attribute. Applicants with Step 1 scores greater than 245 received significantly more interviews (p =0.001) and considered resident benefits less important (p < 0.05), but geographic location more important (p =0.005). Applicants who published more than two articles also received more interviews (p =0.001) and ranked a strong research infrastructure and program reputation as significantly more important (p < 0.05). Forty-two percent of applicants completed an away rotation at the program with which they matched, and these applicants were more likely to match at their number one ranked program (p = 0.001). Plastic surgery applicants have differing preferences regarding the ideal training program, but some attributes resonate. These trends can guide programs for improvement in attracting the best applicants.

Identifying key conservation threats to Alpine birds through expert knowledge

PubMed Central

Pedrini, Paolo; Brambilla, Mattia; Rolando, Antonio; Girardello, Marco

2016-01-01

Alpine biodiversity is subject to a range of increasing threats, but the scarcity of data for many taxa means that it is difficult to assess the level and likely future impact of a given threat. Expert opinion can be a useful tool to address knowledge gaps in the absence of adequate data. Experts with experience in Alpine ecology were approached to rank threat levels for 69 Alpine bird species over the next 50 years for the whole European Alps in relation to ten categories: land abandonment, climate change, renewable energy, fire, forestry practices, grazing practices, hunting, leisure, mining and urbanization. There was a high degree of concordance in ranking of perceived threats among experts for most threat categories. The major overall perceived threats to Alpine birds identified through expert knowledge were land abandonment, urbanization, leisure and forestry, although other perceived threats were ranked highly for particular species groups (renewable energy and hunting for raptors, hunting for gamebirds). For groups of species defined according to their breeding habitat, open habitat species and treeline species were perceived as the most threatened. A spatial risk assessment tool based on summed scores for the whole community showed threat levels were highest for bird communities of the northern and western Alps. Development of the approaches given in this paper, including addressing biases in the selection of experts and adopting a more detailed ranking procedure, could prove useful in the future in identifying future threats, and in carrying out risk assessments based on levels of threat to the whole bird community. PMID:26966659

Speech Intonation and Melodic Contour Recognition in Children with Cochlear Implants and with Normal Hearing

PubMed Central

See, Rachel L.; Driscoll, Virginia D.; Gfeller, Kate; Kliethermes, Stephanie; Oleson, Jacob

2013-01-01

Background Cochlear implant (CI) users have difficulty perceiving some intonation cues in speech and melodic contours because of poor frequency selectivity in the cochlear implant signal. Objectives To assess perceptual accuracy of normal hearing (NH) children and pediatric CI users on speech intonation (prosody), melodic contour, and pitch ranking, and to determine potential predictors of outcomes. Hypothesis Does perceptual accuracy for speech intonation or melodic contour differ as a function of auditory status (NH, CI), perceptual category (falling vs. rising intonation/contour), pitch perception, or individual differences (e.g., age, hearing history)? Method NH and CI groups were tested on recognition of falling intonation/contour vs. rising intonation/contour presented in both spoken and melodic (sung) conditions. Pitch ranking was also tested. Outcomes were correlated with variables of age, hearing history, HINT, and CNC scores. Results The CI group was significantly less accurate than the NH group in spoken (CI, M=63.1 %; NH, M=82.1%) and melodic (CI, M=61.6%; NH, M=84.2%) conditions. The CI group was more accurate in recognizing rising contour in the melodic condition compared with rising intonation in the spoken condition. Pitch ranking was a significant predictor of outcome for both groups in falling intonation and rising melodic contour; age at testing and hearing history variables were not predictive of outcomes. Conclusions Children with CIs were less accurate than NH children in perception of speech intonation, melodic contour, and pitch ranking. However, the larger pitch excursions of the melodic condition may assist in recognition of the rising inflection associated with the interrogative form. PMID:23442568

Feasibility of discussing end-of-life care goals with inpatients using a structured, conversational approach: the go wish card game.

PubMed

Lankarani-Fard, Azadeh; Knapp, Herschel; Lorenz, Karl A; Golden, Joya F; Taylor, Anne; Feld, Jamie E; Shugarman, Lisa R; Malloy, Demetria; Menkin, Elizabeth S; Asch, Steven M

2010-04-01

Establishing goals of care is important in advance care planning. However, such discussions require a significant time investment on the part of trained personnel and may be overwhelming for the patient. The Go Wish card game was designed to allow patients to consider the importance of common issues at the end of life in a nonconfrontational setting. By sorting through their values in private, patients may present to their provider ready to have a focused conversation about end-of-life care. We evaluated the feasibility of using the Go Wish card game with seriously ill patients in the hospital. Of 133 inpatients approached, 33 (25%) were able to complete the game. The "top 10" values were scored based on frequency and adjusted for rank. The value selected of highest importance by the most subjects was "to be free from pain." Other highly ranked values concerned spirituality, maintaining a sense of self, symptom management, and establishing a strong relationship with health care professionals. Average time to review the patient's rank list after the patient sorted their values in private was 21.8 minutes (range: 6-45 minutes). The rankings from the Go Wish game are similar to those from other surveys of seriously ill patients. Our results suggest that it is feasible to use the Go Wish card game even in the chaotic inpatient setting to obtain an accurate portrayal of the patient's goals of care in a time-efficient manner. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Knowledge, attitude and practice towards medicines among school teachers in Lalitpur district, Nepal before and after an educational intervention

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Few studies regarding Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) towards medicines among school teachers have been carried out in Nepal. Obtaining baseline KAP is important to note deficiencies and plan appropriate interventions. School teachers have to know about medicines as they can be an important source of information about rational and safe use of medicines. The department of Clinical Pharmacology, KIST Medical College, Lalitpur, conducted a study regarding KAP of school teachers about medicines before and after an educational intervention from April 2011 to December 2011. Methods The study was done in selected schools of Lalitpur district. Teachers were selected on a voluntary basis after obtaining written informed consent. Gender, ethnic or caste group, native place, age, educational qualifications, subject taught were noted. An educational intervention using a combination of methods like presentations, brainstorming sessions, interactive discussions using posters and distribution of information leaflets about the use of medicines was conducted. The KAP and overall scores among subgroups according to gender, age, level of education, subject, ethnicity, type of school (primary vs. secondary and government vs. private school) were studied. KAP and overall scores before and after the intervention was compared using Wilcoxon signed ranks test as the scores were not normally distributed. Results A total of 393 teachers participated before and after the intervention. The median (interquartile range) knowledge, attitude and practice scores before the intervention were 63 (10), 23 (5) and 270 (48) respectively while the overall score was 356. The median knowledge, attitude and practice scores after the intervention were 71 (10), 28 (5) and 270 (48) respectively while the overall score increased to 369. Maximum possible score of knowledge, attitude and practice were 100, 40 and 320 respectively. Scores improved significantly for knowledge (p<0.001), attitude (p<0.001) and total scores (p<0.001) but not for practice (p=0.528). Conclusion The intervention was effective in improving knowledge and attitude of the teachers. More studies among school teachers about their knowledge, attitude and practice about medicines are required in Nepal. PMID:23849402

Computer-guided design of optimal microbial consortia for immune system modulation

PubMed Central

Szabady, Rose L; Bhattarai, Shakti K; Olle, Bernat; Norman, Jason M; Suda, Wataru; Oshima, Kenshiro; Hattori, Masahira; Gerber, Georg K; Sander, Chris; Honda, Kenya

2018-01-01

Manipulation of the gut microbiota holds great promise for the treatment of diseases. However, a major challenge is the identification of therapeutically potent microbial consortia that colonize the host effectively while maximizing immunologic outcome. Here, we propose a novel workflow to select optimal immune-inducing consortia from microbiome compositicon and immune effectors measurements. Using published and newly generated microbial and regulatory T-cell (Treg) data from germ-free mice, we estimate the contributions of twelve Clostridia strains with known immune-modulating effect to Treg induction. Combining this with a longitudinal data-constrained ecological model, we predict the ability of every attainable and ecologically stable subconsortium in promoting Treg activation and rank them by the Treg Induction Score (TrIS). Experimental validation of selected consortia indicates a strong and statistically significant correlation between predicted TrIS and measured Treg. We argue that computational indexes, such as the TrIS, are valuable tools for the systematic selection of immune-modulating bacteriotherapeutics. PMID:29664397

Computer-guided design of optimal microbial consortia for immune system modulation.

PubMed

Stein, Richard R; Tanoue, Takeshi; Szabady, Rose L; Bhattarai, Shakti K; Olle, Bernat; Norman, Jason M; Suda, Wataru; Oshima, Kenshiro; Hattori, Masahira; Gerber, Georg K; Sander, Chris; Honda, Kenya; Bucci, Vanni

2018-04-17

Manipulation of the gut microbiota holds great promise for the treatment of diseases. However, a major challenge is the identification of therapeutically potent microbial consortia that colonize the host effectively while maximizing immunologic outcome. Here, we propose a novel workflow to select optimal immune-inducing consortia from microbiome compositicon and immune effectors measurements. Using published and newly generated microbial and regulatory T-cell (T reg ) data from germ-free mice, we estimate the contributions of twelve Clostridia strains with known immune-modulating effect to T reg induction. Combining this with a longitudinal data-constrained ecological model, we predict the ability of every attainable and ecologically stable subconsortium in promoting T reg activation and rank them by the T reg Induction Score (TrIS). Experimental validation of selected consortia indicates a strong and statistically significant correlation between predicted TrIS and measured T reg . We argue that computational indexes, such as the TrIS, are valuable tools for the systematic selection of immune-modulating bacteriotherapeutics. © 2018, Stein et al.

'How to stop a nosebleed': an assessment of the quality of epistaxis treatment advice on YouTube.

PubMed

Haymes, A T; Harries, V

2016-08-01

Video hosting websites are increasingly being used to disseminate health education messages. This study aimed to assess the quality of advice contained within YouTube videos on the conservative management of epistaxis. YouTube.com was searched using the phrase 'how to stop a nosebleed'. The first 50 videos were screened. Objective advice scores and subjective production quality scores were attributed by independent raters. Forty-five videos were analysed. The mean advice score was 2.0 out of 8 and the mean production quality score was 1.6 out of 3. There were no correlations between a video's advice score and its search results rank (ρ = -0.28, p = 0.068), its view count (ρ = 0.20, p = 0.19) or its number of 'likes' (ρ = 0.21, p = 0.18). The quality of information on conservative epistaxis management within YouTube videos is extremely variable. A high search rank is no indication of video quality. Many videos proffer inappropriate and dangerous 'alternative' advice. We do not recommend YouTube as a source for patient information.

An analysis of key environmental and social risks in the development of concentrated solar power projects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Otieno, George A.; Loosen, Alexander E.

2016-05-01

Concentrated Solar Power projects have impacts on local environment and social conditions. This research set out to investigate the environmental and social risks in the development of such projects and rank these risks from highest to lowest. The risks were analysed for parabolic trough and tower technologies only. A literature review was undertaken, identifying seventeen risks that were then proposed to six CSP experts for scoring. The risks were scored based of five factors on a five tier scale. The scores from the experts were compiled to develop an overall rank of the identified risks. The risk of disruption of local water resources was found to represent the highest risk before and after mitigation with a score of moderate-high and moderate respectively. This score is linked to the importance of water in water scarce regions typified by the best regions for CSP. The risks to avian species, to worker health and safety, due to noise on the environment, to visual and recreational resources completed the top five risks after mitigation.

A systematic approach to selecting task relevant neurons.

PubMed

Kahn, Kevin; Saxena, Shreya; Eskandar, Emad; Thakor, Nitish; Schieber, Marc; Gale, John T; Averbeck, Bruno; Eden, Uri; Sarma, Sridevi V

2015-04-30

Since task related neurons cannot be specifically targeted during surgery, a critical decision to make is to select which neurons are task-related when performing data analysis. Including neurons unrelated to the task degrade decoding accuracy and confound neurophysiological results. Traditionally, task-related neurons are selected as those with significant changes in firing rate when a stimulus is applied. However, this assumes that neurons' encoding of stimuli are dominated by their firing rate with little regard to temporal dynamics. This paper proposes a systematic approach for neuron selection, which uses a likelihood ratio test to capture the contribution of stimulus to spiking activity while taking into account task-irrelevant intrinsic dynamics that affect firing rates. This approach is denoted as the model deterioration excluding stimulus (MDES) test. MDES is compared to firing rate selection in four case studies: a simulation, a decoding example, and two neurophysiology examples. The MDES rankings in the simulation match closely with ideal rankings, while firing rate rankings are skewed by task-irrelevant parameters. For decoding, 95% accuracy is achieved using the top 8 MDES-ranked neurons, while the top 12 firing-rate ranked neurons are needed. In the neurophysiological examples, MDES matches published results when firing rates do encode salient stimulus information, and uncovers oscillatory modulations in task-related neurons that are not captured when neurons are selected using firing rates. These case studies illustrate the importance of accounting for intrinsic dynamics when selecting task-related neurons and following the MDES approach accomplishes that. MDES selects neurons that encode task-related information irrespective of these intrinsic dynamics which can bias firing rate based selection. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Implementation of preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation (Promethee) on selection system of student’s achievement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karlitasari, L.; Suhartini, D.; Nurrosikawati, L.

2018-03-01

Selection of Student Achievement is conducted every year, starting from the level of Study Program, Faculty, to University, which then rank one will be sent to Kopertis level. The criteria made for the selection are Academic and Rich Scientific, Organizational, Personality, and English. In order for the selection of Student Achievement is Objective, then in addition to the presence of the jury is expected to use methods that support the decision to be more optimal in determining the Student Achievement. One method used is the Promethee Method. Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (Promethee) is a method of ranking in Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM). PROMETHEE has the advantage that there is a preference type against the criteria that can take into account alternatives with other alternatives on the same criteria. The conjecture of alternate dominance over a criterion used in PROMETHEE is the use of values in the relationships between alternative ranking values. Based on the calculation result, from 7 applicants between Manual and Promethee Matrices, rank 1, 2, and 3, did not change, only 4 to 7 positions were changed. However, after the sensitivity test, almost all criteria experience a high level of sensitivity. Although it does not affect the students who will be sent to the next level, but can bring psychological impact on prospective student’s achievement

VALIDITY OF THE REARRANGEMENT EXERCISE AS A PREDICTOR OF ESSAY WRITING ABILITY.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

CONRY, JULIANNE JOYCE

DATA FROM THE PARAGRAPH ORGANIZATION PORTION OF THE CEEB ENGLISH COMPOSITION TEST (ECT) WERE CONVERTED TO THE ORIGINAL RANK-ORDER AND WERE THEN RESCORED BY THREE SYSTEMS USING SPEARMAN'S RHO TO DETERMINE WHICH METHOD YIELDED SCORES THAT CORRELATED BEST WITH TOTAL ESSAY SCORES. TWO OF THE METHODS INVESTIGATED, ONE IN WHICH THE NUMBER OF SCORES WAS…

The Impact of Measurement Error on the Accuracy of Individual and Aggregate SGP

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCaffrey, Daniel F.; Castellano, Katherine E.; Lockwood, J. R.

2015-01-01

Student growth percentiles (SGPs) express students' current observed scores as percentile ranks in the distribution of scores among students with the same prior-year scores. A common concern about SGPs at the student level, and mean or median SGPs (MGPs) at the aggregate level, is potential bias due to test measurement error (ME). Shang,…

Alternative Statistical Frameworks for Student Growth Percentile Estimation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lockwood, J. R.; Castellano, Katherine E.

2015-01-01

This article suggests two alternative statistical approaches for estimating student growth percentiles (SGP). The first is to estimate percentile ranks of current test scores conditional on past test scores directly, by modeling the conditional cumulative distribution functions, rather than indirectly through quantile regressions. This would…

Factor Analysis of the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zytowski, Donald G.

1976-01-01

The scale scores of Kuder Occupational Interest Survey (KOIS) profiles of 1,084 males and females were converted to intraindividual form by means of a z-score transformation. The results are discussed in terms of their utility for interpretation of high ranking scales. (Author)

A convenient method of obtaining percentile norms and accompanying interval estimates for self-report mood scales (DASS, DASS-21, HADS, PANAS, and sAD).

PubMed

Crawford, John R; Garthwaite, Paul H; Lawrie, Caroline J; Henry, Julie D; MacDonald, Marie A; Sutherland, Jane; Sinha, Priyanka

2009-06-01

A series of recent papers have reported normative data from the general adult population for commonly used self-report mood scales. To bring together and supplement these data in order to provide a convenient means of obtaining percentile norms for the mood scales. A computer program was developed that provides point and interval estimates of the percentile rank corresponding to raw scores on the various self-report scales. The program can be used to obtain point and interval estimates of the percentile rank of an individual's raw scores on the DASS, DASS-21, HADS, PANAS, and sAD mood scales, based on normative sample sizes ranging from 758 to 3822. The interval estimates can be obtained using either classical or Bayesian methods as preferred. The computer program (which can be downloaded at www.abdn.ac.uk/~psy086/dept/MoodScore.htm) provides a convenient and reliable means of supplementing existing cut-off scores for self-report mood scales.

Medical student selection criteria and socio-demographic factors as predictors of ultimately working rurally after graduation.

PubMed

Puddey, Ian B; Mercer, Annette; Playford, Denese E; Riley, Geoffrey J

2015-04-14

We have previously demonstrated that both coming from a rural background and spending a year-long clinical rotation in our Rural Clinical School (RCS) have independent and additive effects to increase the likelihood of medical students practicing rurally following graduation. The current study assesses the extent to which medical school selection criteria and/or the socio-demographic profile of medical students may further facilitate or hamper the selection of students ultimately destined for the rural medical workforce. The study comprised 729 students, admitted from secondary school since 1999 and having graduated by 2011, whose actual workplace location in 2014 was classified as either urban or rural using the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency database. Selection factors on entry (score from a standardised interview, percentile scores for the 3 components of the Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admission Test (UMAT) and prior academic performance as assessed by the Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank) together with socio-demographic factors (age, gender, decile for the Index of Relative Socioeconomic Advantage and Disadvantage (IRSAD)), were examined in relation to ultimate rural destination of practice. In logistic regression, those practicing in a rural location in 2014 were more likely to have come from the lower 6 IRSAD deciles (OR 2.75, 95% CI 1.44, 5.23, P = 0.002), to be older (OR 1.86, 95% CI 1.09, 3.18, p = 0.023) and to have a lower UMAT-3 (Non-verbal communication) score (OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.97, 0.99, P = 0.005). After further controlling for either rural background or RCS participation, only age and UMAT-3 remained as independent predictors of current rural practice. In terms of the socio-demographic profiles of those selected for medical school entry from secondary school, only older age weakly augmented the selection of graduates likely to ultimately work in a rural destination. Among the selection factors, having achieved higher scores in UMAT-3 tended to mitigate this outcome. The major focus in attempts to grow the rural medical workforce should therefore remain on recruiting medical students from a rural background together with providing maximal opportunity for prolonged immersion in rural clinical environments during their training.

Medical student selection criteria as predictors of intended rural practice following graduation.

PubMed

Puddey, Ian B; Mercer, Annette; Playford, Denese E; Pougnault, Sue; Riley, Geoffrey J

2014-10-14

Recruiting medical students from a rural background, together with offering them opportunities for prolonged immersion in rural clinical training environments, both lead to increased participation in the rural workforce after graduation. We have now assessed the extent to which medical students' intentions to practice rurally may also be predicted by either medical school selection criteria and/or student socio-demographic profiles. The study cohort included 538 secondary school-leaver entrants to The University of Western Australia Medical School from 2006 to 2011. On entry they completed a questionnaire indicating intention for either urban or rural practice following graduation. Selection factors (standardised interview score, percentile score from the Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admission Test (UMAT) and prior academic performance (Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank), together with socio-demographic factors (age, gender, decile for the Index of Relative Socioeconomic Advantage and Disadvantage (IRSAD) and an index of rurality) were examined in relation to intended rural or urban destination of practice. In multivariate logistic regression, students from a rural background had a nearly 8-fold increase in the odds of intention to practice rurally after graduation compared to those from urban backgrounds (OR 7.84, 95% CI 4.10, 14.99, P < 0.001). Those intending to be generalists rather than specialists had a more than 4-fold increase in the odds of intention to practice rurally (OR 4.36, 95% CI 1.69, 11.22, P < 0.001). After controlling for these 2 factors, those with rural intent had significantly lower academic entry scores (P = 0.002) and marginally lower interview scores (P = 0.045). UMAT percentile scores were no different. Those intending to work in a rural location were also more likely to be female (OR 1.93, 95% CI 1.08, 3.48, P = 0.027), to come from the lower eight IRSAD deciles (OR 2.52, 95% CI 1.47, 4.32, P = 0.001) and to come from Government vs independent schools (OR 2.02, 95% CI 1.15, 3.55, P = 0.015). Very high academic scores generally required for medical school entry may have the unintended consequence of selecting fewer graduates interested in a rural practice destination. Increased efforts to recruit students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds may be beneficial in terms of an ultimate intended rural practice destination.

Ranking prediction model using the competition record of Ladies Professional Golf Association players.

PubMed

Chae, Jin Seok; Park, Jin; So, Wi-Young

2017-07-28

The purpose of this study was to suggest a ranking prediction model using the competition record of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) players. The top 100 players on the tour money list from the 2013-2016 US Open were analyzed in this model. Stepwise regression analysis was conducted to examine the effect of performance and independent variables (i.e., driving accuracy, green in regulation, putts per round, driving distance, percentage of sand saves, par-3 average, par-4 average, par-5 average, birdies average, and eagle average) on dependent variables (i.e., scoring average, official money, top-10 finishes, winning percentage, and 60-strokes average). The following prediction model was suggested:Y (Scoring average) = 55.871 - 0.947 (Birdies average) + 4.576 (Par-4 average) - 0.028 (Green in regulation) - 0.012 (Percentage of sand saves) + 2.088 (Par-3 average) - 0.026 (Driving accuracy) - 0.017 (Driving distance) + 0.085 (Putts per round)Y (Official money) = 6628736.723 + 528557.907 (Birdies average) - 1831800.821 (Par-4 average) + 11681.739 (Green in regulation) + 6476.344 (Percentage of sand saves) - 688115.074 (Par-3 average) + 7375.971 (Driving accuracy)Y (Top-10 finish%) = 204.462 + 12.562 (Birdies average) - 47.745 (Par-4 average) + 1.633 (Green in regulation) - 5.151 (Putts per round) + 0.132 (Percentage of sand saves)Y (Winning percentage) = 49.949 + 3.191 (Birdies average) - 15.023 (Par-4 average) + 0.043 (Percentage of sand saves)Y (60-strokes average) = 217.649 + 13.978 (Birdies average) - 44.855 (Par-4 average) - 22.433 (Par-3 average) + 0.16 (Green in regulation)Scoring of the above five prediction models and the prediction of golf ranking in the 2016 Women's Golf Olympic competition in Rio revealed a significant correlation between the predicted and real ranking (r = 0.689, p < 0.001) and between the predicted and the real average score (r = 0.653, p < 0.001). Our ranking prediction model using LPGA data may help coaches and players to identify which players are likely to participate in Olympic and World competitions, based on their performance.

Mapping the moral boundaries of biological engineering.

PubMed

Russ, Zachary N

2009-05-08

The following essay was written by a sophomore undergraduate student majoring in Bioengineering at the University of Maryland, Mr. Zachary Russ. Mr. Russ was one of 174 students who submitted a 1000-1200 word essay to the 4th Annual Bioethics Contest sponsored by the Institute of Biological Engineering (IBE). A group of professionals in Biological Engineering assessed and ranked the essays in a blinded process. Five semi-finalists were invited to present their essays at a session at the annual meeting of IBE in Santa Clara, CA on March 21, 2009. Five judges scored all the presentation at the annual meeting and selected Mr. Russ's contribution as the overall winner (1st Place).

Synthetic biology: enormous possibility, exaggerated perils.

PubMed

Russ, Zachary N

2008-04-25

The following essay was written by a freshman undergraduate student majoring in Bioengineering at the University of Maryland, Mr. Zachary Russ. Mr. Russ was one of 94 students who submitted a 1000 to 1200 word essay to the 3rd Annual Bioethics Essay Contest sponsored by the Institute of Biological Engineering (IBE). A group of professionals in Biological Engineering assessed and ranked the essays in a blinded process. Five semi-finalists were invited to present their essays at a session at the annual meeting of IBE in Chapel Hill, NC on March 8, 2008. Five judges scored the presentations at the annual meeting and selected Mr. Russ's contribution as the overall winner (1st Place). Below is his essay.

Mapping the moral boundaries of biological engineering

PubMed Central

Russ, Zachary N

2009-01-01

The following essay was written by a sophomore undergraduate student majoring in Bioengineering at the University of Maryland, Mr. Zachary Russ. Mr. Russ was one of 174 students who submitted a 1000–1200 word essay to the 4th Annual Bioethics Contest sponsored by the Institute of Biological Engineering (IBE). A group of professionals in Biological Engineering assessed and ranked the essays in a blinded process. Five semi-finalists were invited to present their essays at a session at the annual meeting of IBE in Santa Clara, CA on March 21, 2009. Five judges scored all the presentation at the annual meeting and selected Mr. Russ's contribution as the overall winner (1st Place). PMID:19422721

Statistical analysis of EGFR structures' performance in virtual screening

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Yan; Li, Xiang; Dong, Zigang

2015-11-01

In this work the ability of EGFR structures to distinguish true inhibitors from decoys in docking and MM-PBSA is assessed by statistical procedures. The docking performance depends critically on the receptor conformation and bound state. The enrichment of known inhibitors is well correlated with the difference between EGFR structures rather than the bound-ligand property. The optimal structures for virtual screening can be selected based purely on the complex information. And the mixed combination of distinct EGFR conformations is recommended for ensemble docking. In MM-PBSA, a variety of EGFR structures have identically good performance in the scoring and ranking of known inhibitors, indicating that the choice of the receptor structure has little effect on the screening.

Synthetic biology: enormous possibility, exaggerated perils

PubMed Central

Russ, Zachary N

2008-01-01

The following essay was written by a freshman undergraduate student majoring in Bioengineering at the University of Maryland, Mr. Zachary Russ. Mr. Russ was one of 94 students who submitted a 1000 to 1200 word essay to the 3rd Annual Bioethics Essay Contest sponsored by the Institute of Biological Engineering (IBE). A group of professionals in Biological Engineering assessed and ranked the essays in a blinded process. Five semi-finalists were invited to present their essays at a session at the annual meeting of IBE in Chapel Hill, NC on March 8, 2008. Five judges scored the presentations at the annual meeting and selected Mr. Russ's contribution as the overall winner (1st Place). Below is his essay. PMID:18439286

Plus Disease in Retinopathy of Prematurity: Improving Diagnosis by Ranking Disease Severity and Using Quantitative Image Analysis.

PubMed

Kalpathy-Cramer, Jayashree; Campbell, J Peter; Erdogmus, Deniz; Tian, Peng; Kedarisetti, Dharanish; Moleta, Chace; Reynolds, James D; Hutcheson, Kelly; Shapiro, Michael J; Repka, Michael X; Ferrone, Philip; Drenser, Kimberly; Horowitz, Jason; Sonmez, Kemal; Swan, Ryan; Ostmo, Susan; Jonas, Karyn E; Chan, R V Paul; Chiang, Michael F

2016-11-01

To determine expert agreement on relative retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) disease severity and whether computer-based image analysis can model relative disease severity, and to propose consideration of a more continuous severity score for ROP. We developed 2 databases of clinical images of varying disease severity (100 images and 34 images) as part of the Imaging and Informatics in ROP (i-ROP) cohort study and recruited expert physician, nonexpert physician, and nonphysician graders to classify and perform pairwise comparisons on both databases. Six participating expert ROP clinician-scientists, each with a minimum of 10 years of clinical ROP experience and 5 ROP publications, and 5 image graders (3 physicians and 2 nonphysician graders) who analyzed images that were obtained during routine ROP screening in neonatal intensive care units. Images in both databases were ranked by average disease classification (classification ranking), by pairwise comparison using the Elo rating method (comparison ranking), and by correlation with the i-ROP computer-based image analysis system. Interexpert agreement (weighted κ statistic) compared with the correlation coefficient (CC) between experts on pairwise comparisons and correlation between expert rankings and computer-based image analysis modeling. There was variable interexpert agreement on diagnostic classification of disease (plus, preplus, or normal) among the 6 experts (mean weighted κ, 0.27; range, 0.06-0.63), but good correlation between experts on comparison ranking of disease severity (mean CC, 0.84; range, 0.74-0.93) on the set of 34 images. Comparison ranking provided a severity ranking that was in good agreement with ranking obtained by classification ranking (CC, 0.92). Comparison ranking on the larger dataset by both expert and nonexpert graders demonstrated good correlation (mean CC, 0.97; range, 0.95-0.98). The i-ROP system was able to model this continuous severity with good correlation (CC, 0.86). Experts diagnose plus disease on a continuum, with poor absolute agreement on classification but good relative agreement on disease severity. These results suggest that the use of pairwise rankings and a continuous severity score, such as that provided by the i-ROP system, may improve agreement on disease severity in the future. Copyright © 2016 American Academy of Ophthalmology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

76 FR 76457 - Self-Regulatory Organizations; NYSE Arca Inc.; Notice of Filing of Proposed Rule Change To List...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-12-07

... provide diversified exposure to select economies around the world. The Sub-Adviser will rank countries on... its proprietary country ranking model, the Sub-Adviser ranks countries on a monthly basis in order to... growth) factor groups. 3. Rank Countries: Each month the Sub-Adviser will use the weighted individual...

77 FR 4079 - Self-Regulatory Organizations; NYSE Arca, Inc.; Order Granting Approval of Proposed Rule Change...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-01-26

... diversified exposure to select economies around the world. The Sub-Adviser will rank countries on a monthly... of global equity returns. Through its country ranking model, the Sub-Adviser ranks countries on a... (e.g., earnings growth) factor groups. 3. Rank Countries: Each month the Sub-Adviser will use the...

Automatically extracting the significant aspects evaluated in game reviews

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fong, Chiok Hoong; Ng, Yen Kaow

2017-04-01

Understanding the criteria (or "aspects") that reviewers use to evaluate games is important to game developers and publishers, since this will give them important input on how to improve their products. Techniques for the extraction of such aspects have been studied by others, albeit not specific to the gaming industry. In this paper we demonstrate an aspect extraction and analysis system specific to computer games. The system extracts game review texts from a list of known websites and automatically extracts candidate aspects from the review text using techniques from natural language processing and sentiment analysis. It then ranks the candidate aspects using the HITS algorithm. To evaluate the correctness of the extracted aspects, we used the system to calculate an overall score for each game by aggregating its highly-rated aspects, weighted by the importance of the respective aspects. The aggregated scores resulted in a ranking of games, which we compared to a known ranking from a popular website - the rankings showed overall consistency, which suggests that the system has extracted valuable aspects from the reviews. Using the extracted aspect, our system also facilitates the analysis of a game, by evaluating how review articles have rated its performance in these extracted aspects.

Using lean Six Sigma to improve hospital based outpatient imaging satisfaction.

PubMed

McDonald, Angelic P; Kirk, Randy

2013-01-01

Within the hospital based imaging department at Methodist Willowbrook, outpatient, inpatient, and emergency patients are all performed on the same equipment with the same staff. The critical nature of the patient is the deciding factor as to who gets done first and in what order procedures are performed. After an aggressive adoption of Intentional Tools, the imaging department was finally able to move from a two year mean Press Ganey, outpatient satisfaction average score of 91.2 and UHC percentile ranking of 37th to a mean average of 92.1 and corresponding UHC ranking of 60th percentile. It was at the 60th percentile ranking that the department flat lined. Using the Six Sigma DMAIC process, opportunity for further improvement was identified. A two week focus pilot was conducted specifically on areas identified through the Six Sigma process. The department was able to jump to 88th percentile ranking and a mean of 93.7. With pay for performance focusing on outpatient satisfaction and a financial incentive to improving and maintaining the highest scores, it was important to know where the imaging department should apply its financial resources to obtain the greatest impact.

Comparison Between Impact Factor, Eigenfactor Metrics, and SCimago Journal Rank Indicator of Pediatric Neurology Journals.

PubMed

Kianifar, Hamidreza; Sadeghi, Ramin; Zarifmahmoudi, Leili

2014-04-01

Impact Factor (IF) as a major journal quality indicator has a series of shortcomings including effect of self-citation, review articles, total number of articles, etc. In this study, we compared 4 journals quality indices ((IF), Eigenfactor Score (ES), Article Influence Score (AIS) and SCImago Journal Rank indicator (SJR)) in the specific Pediatric Neurology journals. All ISI and Scopus indexed specific Pediatric Neurology journals were compared regarding their 2011 IF, ES, AIS and SJR. Fourteen pediatric Neurology journals were identified, 3 of which were only Scopus indexed and the others were both ISI and Scopus indexed. High correlation was found between IF and AIS (0.850). Correlations between IF and other indices were not that high. Self-citation, total article number and review articles were related to the IF and other indices as well as their ranks. English language and citation to non citable item didn't have any effect on pediatric neurology journals ranks. Although all the above mentioned indicators can be used interchangeably, using all considered indices is a more appropriate way than using only IF for quality assessment of pediatric neurology journals.

Comparison Between Impact Factor, Eigenfactor Metrics, and SCimago Journal Rank Indicator of Pediatric Neurology Journals

PubMed Central

Kianifar, Hamidreza; Sadeghi, Ramin; Zarifmahmoudi, Leili

2014-01-01

Background: Impact Factor (IF) as a major journal quality indicator has a series of shortcomings including effect of self-citation, review articles, total number of articles, etc. In this study, we compared 4 journals quality indices ((IF), Eigenfactor Score (ES), Article Influence Score (AIS) and SCImago Journal Rank indicator (SJR)) in the specific Pediatric Neurology journals. Methods: All ISI and Scopus indexed specific Pediatric Neurology journals were compared regarding their 2011 IF, ES, AIS and SJR. Results: Fourteen pediatric Neurology journals were identified, 3 of which were only Scopus indexed and the others were both ISI and Scopus indexed. High correlation was found between IF and AIS (0.850). Correlations between IF and other indices were not that high. Self-citation, total article number and review articles were related to the IF and other indices as well as their ranks. English language and citation to non citable item didn’t have any effect on pediatric neurology journals ranks. Conclusion: Although all the above mentioned indicators can be used interchangeably, using all considered indices is a more appropriate way than using only IF for quality assessment of pediatric neurology journals. PMID:24825934

Screening analysis and selection of emission reduction concepts for intermittent combustion aircraft engines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rezy, B. J.; Meyers, J. E.; Tucker, J. R.; Stuckas, S. J.

1976-01-01

An analysis was conducted to screen, evaluate, and select three engine exhaust emission reduction concepts from a group of 14 candidate alternatives. A comprehensive literature search was conducted to survey the emission reduction technology state-of-the-art and establish contact with firms working on intermittent combustion engine development and pollution reduction problems. Concept development, advantages, disadvantages, and expected emission reduction responses are stated. A set of cost effectiveness criteria was developed, appraised for relative importance, and traded off against each concept so that its merit could be determined. A decision model was used to aid the evaluators in managing the criteria, making consistent judgements, calculating merit scores, and ranking the concepts. An Improved Fuel Injection System, Improved Cooling Combustion Chamber, and a Variable Timing Ignition System were recommended to NASA for approval and further concept development. An alternate concept, Air Injection, was also recommended.

Exploratory analysis of normative performance on the UCSD Performance-Based Skills Assessment-Brief.

PubMed

Vella, Lea; Patterson, Thomas L; Harvey, Philip D; McClure, Margaret McNamara; Mausbach, Brent T; Taylor, Michael J; Twamley, Elizabeth W

2017-10-01

The UCSD Performance-Based Skills Assessment (UPSA) is a performance-based measure of functional capacity. The brief, two-domain (finance and communication ability) version of the assessment (UPSA-B) is now widely used in both clinical research and treatment trials. To date, research has not examined possible demographic-UPSA-B relationships within a non-psychiatric population. We aimed to produce and describe preliminary normative scores for the UPSA-B over a full range of ages and educational attainment. The finance and communication subscales of the UPSA were administered to 190 healthy participants in the context of three separate studies. These data were combined to examine the effects of age, sex, and educational attainment on the UPSA-B domain and total scores. Fractional polynomial regression was used to compute demographically-corrected T-scores for the UPSA-B total score, and percentile rank conversion was used for the two subscales. Age and education both had significant non-linear effects on the UPSA-B total score. The finance subscale was significantly related to both gender and years of education, whereas the communication subscale was not significantly related to any of the demographic characteristics. Demographically corrected T-scores and percentile ranks for UPSA-B scores are now available for use in clinical research. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Penalties for academic dishonesty in a Greek dental school environment.

PubMed

Koletsi-Kounari, Haroula; Polychronopoulou, Argy; Reppa, Christina; Teplitsky, Paul E

2011-10-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the opinions of the faculty and students of the University of Athens Dental School in Greece regarding the appropriate penalty for specific academic offenses. In addition, faculty and student opinions were compared. A questionnaire was distributed to officially registered seniors and full-time faculty members, and 177 individuals responded anonymously and voluntarily. The respondents were asked to select one from a set of nine penalties for each of fifteen hypothetical academic offenses and three cases with extenuating circumstances. Non-parametric Mann-Whitney U tests and a Wilcoxon signed-rank test, depending on the nature of variables, were used to detect significant differences in penalty scores between faculty and students. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. The penalty scores for the fifteen offenses ranged from a mean of 2.23±1.55 to 7.25±2.64. Faculty respondents gave more severe penalties than students did for all offenses, and the finding was statistically significant (p<0.05) for eleven of the fifteen offenses. Where extenuating circumstances were added, the penalty selection altered in two of the three cases. A significantly more lenient penalty was selected by both faculty and students in these two cases. The results of this study suggest that faculty members are harsher than students for the same offenses and that extenuating circumstances can sometimes significantly change recommended penalties.

Ligand efficiency based approach for efficient virtual screening of compound libraries.

PubMed

Ke, Yi-Yu; Coumar, Mohane Selvaraj; Shiao, Hui-Yi; Wang, Wen-Chieh; Chen, Chieh-Wen; Song, Jen-Shin; Chen, Chun-Hwa; Lin, Wen-Hsing; Wu, Szu-Huei; Hsu, John T A; Chang, Chung-Ming; Hsieh, Hsing-Pang

2014-08-18

Here we report for the first time the use of fit quality (FQ), a ligand efficiency (LE) based measure for virtual screening (VS) of compound libraries. The LE based VS protocol was used to screen an in-house database of 125,000 compounds to identify aurora kinase A inhibitors. First, 20 known aurora kinase inhibitors were docked to aurora kinase A crystal structure (PDB ID: 2W1C); and the conformations of docked ligand were used to create a pharmacophore (PH) model. The PH model was used to screen the database compounds, and rank (PH rank) them based on the predicted IC50 values. Next, LE_Scale, a weight-dependant LE function, was derived from 294 known aurora kinase inhibitors. Using the fit quality (FQ = LE/LE_Scale) score derived from the LE_Scale function, the database compounds were reranked (PH_FQ rank) and the top 151 (0.12% of database) compounds were assessed for aurora kinase A inhibition biochemically. This VS protocol led to the identification of 7 novel hits, with compound 5 showing aurora kinase A IC50 = 1.29 μM. Furthermore, testing of 5 against a panel of 31 kinase reveals that it is selective toward aurora kinase A & B, with <50% inhibition for other kinases at 10 μM concentrations and is a suitable candidate for further development. Incorporation of FQ score in the VS protocol not only helped identify a novel aurora kinase inhibitor, 5, but also increased the hit rate of the VS protocol by improving the enrichment factor (EF) for FQ based screening (EF = 828), compared to PH based screening (EF = 237) alone. The LE based VS protocol disclosed here could be applied to other targets for hit identification in an efficient manner. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Impact of a weekly reading program on orthopedic surgery residents' in-training examination.

PubMed

Weglein, Daniel G; Gugala, Zbigniew; Simpson, Suzanne; Lindsey, Ronald W

2015-05-01

In response to a decline in individual residents' performance and overall program performance on the Orthopaedic In-Training Examination (OITE), the authors' department initiated a daily literature reading program coupled with weekly tests on the assigned material. The goal of this study was to assess the effect of the reading program on individual residents' scores and the training program's OITE scores. The reading program consisted of daily review articles from the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, followed by a weekly written examination consisting of multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank questions. All articles were selected and all questions were written by the departmental chair. A questionnaire was given to assess residents' perceptions of the weekly tests. As a result of implementing the reading program for a 10-month period, residents' subsequent performance on the OITE significantly improved (mean score increase, 4, P<.0001; percentile score increase, 11, P=.0007). The difference in mean score was significant for residents in postgraduate years 3, 4, and 5. A statistically significant correlation was found between weekly test scores and performance on the OITE, with a significant correlation between weekly test scores and OITE percentile ranking. The study results also showed a positive correlation between reading test attendance and weekly test scores. Residents' anonymous questionnaire responses also demonstrated the reading program to be a valuable addition to the residency training curriculum. In conclusion, the study strongly supports the benefits of a weekly reading and examination program in enhancing the core knowledge of orthopedic surgery residents. Copyright 2015, SLACK Incorporated.

[Two-and-a-half year follow-up study of strategy factors in successful learning to predict academic achievements in medical education].

PubMed

Lee, Soon Ok; Lee, Sang Yeoup; Baek, Sunyong; Woo, Jae Seok; Im, Sun Ju; Yune, So Jung; Lee, Sun Hee; Kam, Beesung

2015-06-01

We performed a two-and-a-half year follow-up study of strategy factors in successful learning to predict academic achievements in medical education. Strategy factors in successful learning were identified using a content analysis of open-ended responses from 30 medical students who were ranked in the top 10 of their class. Core words were selected among their responses in each category and the frequency of the words were counted. Then, a factors survey was conducted among year 2 students, before the second semester. Finally, we performed an analysis to assess the association between the factors score and academic achievement for the same students 2.5 years later. The core words were "planning and execution," "daily reviews" in the study schedule category; "focusing in class" and "taking notes" among class-related category; and "lecture notes," "previous exams or papers," and "textbooks" in the primary self-learning resources category. There were associations between the factors scores for study planning and execution, focusing in class, and taking notes and academic achievement, representing the second year second semester credit score, third year written exam scores and fourth year written and skill exam scores. Study planning was only one independent variable to predict fourth year summative written exam scores. In a two-and-a-half year follow-up study, associations were founded between academic achievement and the factors scores for study planning and execution, focusing in class, and taking notes. Study planning as only one independent variable is useful for predicting fourth year summative written exam score.

A comprehensive representation of the birth-experience: identification and prioritization of birth-specific domains based on a mixed-method design

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background In obstetrics, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness studies often present several specific outcomes with likely contradicting results and may not reflect what is important for women. A birth-specific outcome measure that combines the core domains into one utility score would solve this problem. The aim of this study was to investigate which domains are most relevant for women’s overall experience of labor and birth and should be included in such a measure. Methods A sequential mixed-method design with three steps was applied. First, the domains were identified by literature review and online focus groups consisting of pregnant women, women who recently gave birth, and their partners. Second, in a prioritizing task, women who recently gave birth and professionals (midwives, gynecologists, and researchers) selected and ranked their top seven domains. Third, the domains that were most frequently selected and had the highest ranking scores determined the basis for a consensus discussion with experts, whereby the definitive list of domains was formed. Results In the first step, 34 birth-specific domains were identified, which cover domains regarding the caregivers, intrapersonal aspects of the mother, partner support, and contextual and medical aspects of birth. Based on the prioritizing task results (step 2) of 96 women and 89 professionals, this list was reduced to 14 most relevant domains. In a consensus discussion, the final seven domains were selected by combining several of the 14 remaining domains and giving priority to the domains indicated to be relevant by mothers. The seven definite domains were: 1) availability of competent health professionals; 2) health professionals’ support; 3) provision of information; 4) health professionals’ response to needs and requests; 5) feelings of safety; 6) worries about the child’s health; and 7) experienced duration until the first contact with the child. Conclusions The experienced availability and quality of received care, concerns about safety and the baby’s health, and first contact with the baby are regarded as key aspects for a mother’s overall birth experience. Therefore, these domains are considered to be the most crucial for inclusion in a birth-specific outcome measure. PMID:24758274

Workflows and performances in the ranking prediction of 2016 D3R Grand Challenge 2: lessons learned from a collaborative effort.

PubMed

Gao, Ying-Duo; Hu, Yuan; Crespo, Alejandro; Wang, Deping; Armacost, Kira A; Fells, James I; Fradera, Xavier; Wang, Hongwu; Wang, Huijun; Sherborne, Brad; Verras, Andreas; Peng, Zhengwei

2018-01-01

The 2016 D3R Grand Challenge 2 includes both pose and affinity or ranking predictions. This article is focused exclusively on affinity predictions submitted to the D3R challenge from a collaborative effort of the modeling and informatics group. Our submissions include ranking of 102 ligands covering 4 different chemotypes against the FXR ligand binding domain structure, and the relative binding affinity predictions of the two designated free energy subsets of 15 and 18 compounds. Using all the complex structures prepared in the same way allowed us to cover many types of workflows and compare their performances effectively. We evaluated typical workflows used in our daily structure-based design modeling support, which include docking scores, force field-based scores, QM/MM, MMGBSA, MD-MMGBSA, and MacroModel interaction energy estimations. The best performing methods for the two free energy subsets are discussed. Our results suggest that affinity ranking still remains very challenging; that the knowledge of more structural information does not necessarily yield more accurate predictions; and that visual inspection and human intervention are considerably important for ranking. Knowledge of the mode of action and protein flexibility along with visualization tools that depict polar and hydrophobic maps are very useful for visual inspection. QM/MM-based workflows were found to be powerful in affinity ranking and are encouraged to be applied more often. The standardized input and output enable systematic analysis and support methodology development and improvement for high level blinded predictions.

Workflows and performances in the ranking prediction of 2016 D3R Grand Challenge 2: lessons learned from a collaborative effort

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, Ying-Duo; Hu, Yuan; Crespo, Alejandro; Wang, Deping; Armacost, Kira A.; Fells, James I.; Fradera, Xavier; Wang, Hongwu; Wang, Huijun; Sherborne, Brad; Verras, Andreas; Peng, Zhengwei

2018-01-01

The 2016 D3R Grand Challenge 2 includes both pose and affinity or ranking predictions. This article is focused exclusively on affinity predictions submitted to the D3R challenge from a collaborative effort of the modeling and informatics group. Our submissions include ranking of 102 ligands covering 4 different chemotypes against the FXR ligand binding domain structure, and the relative binding affinity predictions of the two designated free energy subsets of 15 and 18 compounds. Using all the complex structures prepared in the same way allowed us to cover many types of workflows and compare their performances effectively. We evaluated typical workflows used in our daily structure-based design modeling support, which include docking scores, force field-based scores, QM/MM, MMGBSA, MD-MMGBSA, and MacroModel interaction energy estimations. The best performing methods for the two free energy subsets are discussed. Our results suggest that affinity ranking still remains very challenging; that the knowledge of more structural information does not necessarily yield more accurate predictions; and that visual inspection and human intervention are considerably important for ranking. Knowledge of the mode of action and protein flexibility along with visualization tools that depict polar and hydrophobic maps are very useful for visual inspection. QM/MM-based workflows were found to be powerful in affinity ranking and are encouraged to be applied more often. The standardized input and output enable systematic analysis and support methodology development and improvement for high level blinded predictions.

Glasgow Coma Scale score, mortality, and functional outcome in head-injured patients.

PubMed

Udekwu, Pascal; Kromhout-Schiro, Sharon; Vaslef, Steven; Baker, Christopher; Oller, Dale

2004-05-01

Preresuscitation Glasgow Coma Scale (P-GCS) score is frequently obtained in injured patients and incorporated into mortality prediction. Data on functional outcome in head injury is sparse. A large group of patients with head injuries was analyzed to assess relationships between P-GCS score, mortality, and functional outcome as measured by the Functional Independence Measure (FIM). Records for patients with International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision diagnosis codes indicating head injury in a statewide trauma registry between 1994 and 2002 were selected. P-GCS score, mortality, and FIM score at hospital discharge were integrated and analyzed. Of 138,750 patients, 22,924 patients were used for the mortality study and 7,150 patients for the FIM study. A good correlation exists between P-GCS score and FIM, as determined by rank correlation coefficients, whereas mortality falls steeply between a P-GCS score of 3 and a P-GCS score of 7 followed by a shallow fall. Although P-GCS score is related to mortality in head-injured patients, its relationship is nonlinear, which casts doubt on its use as a continuous measure or an equivalent set of categorical measures incorporated into outcome prediction models. The average FIM scores indicate substantial likelihood of good outcomes in survivors with low P-GCS scores, further complicating the use of the P-GCS score in the prediction of poor outcome at the time of initial patient evaluation. Although the P-GCS score is related to functional outcome as measured by the FIM score and mortality in head injury, current mortality prediction models may need to be modified to account for the nonlinear relationship between P-GCS score and mortality. The P-GCS score is not a good clinical tool for outcome prediction in individual head-injured patients, given the variability in mortality rates and functional outcomes at all scores.

Gene network inherent in genomic big data improves the accuracy of prognostic prediction for cancer patients.

PubMed

Kim, Yun Hak; Jeong, Dae Cheon; Pak, Kyoungjune; Goh, Tae Sik; Lee, Chi-Seung; Han, Myoung-Eun; Kim, Ji-Young; Liangwen, Liu; Kim, Chi Dae; Jang, Jeon Yeob; Cha, Wonjae; Oh, Sae-Ock

2017-09-29

Accurate prediction of prognosis is critical for therapeutic decisions regarding cancer patients. Many previously developed prognostic scoring systems have limitations in reflecting recent progress in the field of cancer biology such as microarray, next-generation sequencing, and signaling pathways. To develop a new prognostic scoring system for cancer patients, we used mRNA expression and clinical data in various independent breast cancer cohorts (n=1214) from the Molecular Taxonomy of Breast Cancer International Consortium (METABRIC) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). A new prognostic score that reflects gene network inherent in genomic big data was calculated using Network-Regularized high-dimensional Cox-regression (Net-score). We compared its discriminatory power with those of two previously used statistical methods: stepwise variable selection via univariate Cox regression (Uni-score) and Cox regression via Elastic net (Enet-score). The Net scoring system showed better discriminatory power in prediction of disease-specific survival (DSS) than other statistical methods (p=0 in METABRIC training cohort, p=0.000331, 4.58e-06 in two METABRIC validation cohorts) when accuracy was examined by log-rank test. Notably, comparison of C-index and AUC values in receiver operating characteristic analysis at 5 years showed fewer differences between training and validation cohorts with the Net scoring system than other statistical methods, suggesting minimal overfitting. The Net-based scoring system also successfully predicted prognosis in various independent GEO cohorts with high discriminatory power. In conclusion, the Net-based scoring system showed better discriminative power than previous statistical methods in prognostic prediction for breast cancer patients. This new system will mark a new era in prognosis prediction for cancer patients.

The Preoperative Controlling Nutritional Status Score Predicts Survival After Curative Surgery in Patients with Pathological Stage I Non-small Cell Lung Cancer.

PubMed

Shoji, Fumihiro; Haratake, Naoki; Akamine, Takaki; Takamori, Shinkichi; Katsura, Masakazu; Takada, Kazuki; Toyokawa, Gouji; Okamoto, Tatsuro; Maehara, Yoshihiko

2017-02-01

The prognostic Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) score is used to evaluate immuno-nutritional conditions and is a predictive factor of postoperative survival in patients with digestive tract cancer. We retrospectively analyzed clinicopathological features of patients with pathological stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) to identify predictors or prognostic factors of postoperative survival and to investigate the role of preoperative CONUT score in predicting survival. We selected 138 consecutive patients with pathological stage I NSCLC treated from August 2005 to August 2010. We measured their preoperative CONUT score in uni- and multivariate Cox regression analyses of postoperative survival. A high CONUT score was positively associated with preoperative serum carcinoembryonic antigen level (p=0.0100) and postoperative recurrence (p=0.0767). In multivariate analysis, the preoperative CONUT score [relative risk (RR)=6.058; 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.068-113.941; p=0.0407), increasing age (RR=7.858; 95% CI=2.034-36.185; p=0.0029), and pleural invasion (RR=36.615; 95% CI=5.900-362.620; p<0.0001) were independent prognostic factors. In Kaplan-Meier analysis of recurrence-free survival (RFS), cancer-specific survival (CS), and overall survival (OS), the group with high CONUT score had a significantly shorter RFS, CS, and OS than did the low-CONUT score group by log-rank test (p=0.0458, p=0.0104 and p=0.0096, respectively). The preoperative CONUT score is both a predictive and prognostic factor in patients with pathological stage I NSCLC. This immuno-nutritional score can indicate patients at high risk of postoperative recurrence and death. Copyright© 2017, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.

Gene network inherent in genomic big data improves the accuracy of prognostic prediction for cancer patients

PubMed Central

Kim, Yun Hak; Jeong, Dae Cheon; Pak, Kyoungjune; Goh, Tae Sik; Lee, Chi-Seung; Han, Myoung-Eun; Kim, Ji-Young; Liangwen, Liu; Kim, Chi Dae; Jang, Jeon Yeob; Cha, Wonjae; Oh, Sae-Ock

2017-01-01

Accurate prediction of prognosis is critical for therapeutic decisions regarding cancer patients. Many previously developed prognostic scoring systems have limitations in reflecting recent progress in the field of cancer biology such as microarray, next-generation sequencing, and signaling pathways. To develop a new prognostic scoring system for cancer patients, we used mRNA expression and clinical data in various independent breast cancer cohorts (n=1214) from the Molecular Taxonomy of Breast Cancer International Consortium (METABRIC) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). A new prognostic score that reflects gene network inherent in genomic big data was calculated using Network-Regularized high-dimensional Cox-regression (Net-score). We compared its discriminatory power with those of two previously used statistical methods: stepwise variable selection via univariate Cox regression (Uni-score) and Cox regression via Elastic net (Enet-score). The Net scoring system showed better discriminatory power in prediction of disease-specific survival (DSS) than other statistical methods (p=0 in METABRIC training cohort, p=0.000331, 4.58e-06 in two METABRIC validation cohorts) when accuracy was examined by log-rank test. Notably, comparison of C-index and AUC values in receiver operating characteristic analysis at 5 years showed fewer differences between training and validation cohorts with the Net scoring system than other statistical methods, suggesting minimal overfitting. The Net-based scoring system also successfully predicted prognosis in various independent GEO cohorts with high discriminatory power. In conclusion, the Net-based scoring system showed better discriminative power than previous statistical methods in prognostic prediction for breast cancer patients. This new system will mark a new era in prognosis prediction for cancer patients. PMID:29100405

A dysmorphology score system for assessing embryo abnormalities in rat whole embryo culture.

PubMed

Zhang, Cindy X; Danberry, Tracy; Jacobs, Mary Ann; Augustine-Rauch, Karen

2010-12-01

The rodent whole embryo culture (WEC) system is a well-established model for characterizing developmental toxicity of test compounds and conducting mechanistic studies. Laboratories have taken various approaches in describing type and severity of developmental findings of organogenesis-stage rodent embryos, but the Brown and Fabro morphological score system is commonly used as a quantitative approach. The associated score criteria is based upon developmental stage and growth parameters, where a series of embryonic structures are assessed and assigned respective scores relative to their gestational stage, with a Total Morphological Score (TMS) assigned to the embryo. This score system is beneficial because it assesses a series of stage-specific anatomical landmarks, facilitating harmonized evaluation across laboratories. Although the TMS provides a quantitative approach to assess growth and determine developmental delay, it is limited to its ability to identify and/or delineate subtle or structure-specific abnormalities. Because of this, the TMS may not be sufficiently sensitive for identifying compounds that induce structure or organ-selective effects. This study describes a distinct morphological score system called the "Dysmorphology Score System (DMS system)" that has been developed for assessing gestation day 11 (approximately 20-26 somite stage) rat embryos using numerical scores to differentiate normal from abnormal morphology and define the respective severity of dysmorphology of specific embryonic structures and organ systems. This method can also be used in scoring mouse embryos of the equivalent developmental stage. The DMS system enhances capabilities to rank-order compounds based upon teratogenic potency, conduct structure- relationships of chemicals, and develop statistical prediction models to support abbreviated developmental toxicity screens. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Assessment of readability, quality and popularity of online information on ureteral stents.

PubMed

Mozafarpour, Sarah; Norris, Briony; Borin, James; Eisner, Brian H

2018-02-12

To evaluate the quality and readability of online information on ureteral stents. Google.com was queried using the search terms "ureteric stent", "ureteral stent", "double J stent" and, "Kidney stent" derived from Google AdWords. Website popularity was determined using Google Rank and the Alexa tool. Website quality assessment was performed using the following criteria: Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmarks, Health on the Net (HON) criteria, and a customized DISCERN questionnaire. The customized DISCERN questionnaire was developed by combining the short validated DISCERN questionnaire with additional stent-specific items including definition, placement, complications, limitations, removal and "when to seek help". Scores related to stent items were considered as the "stent score" (SS). Readability was evaluated using five readability tests. Thirty-two websites were included. The mean customized DISCERN score and "stent score" were 27.1 ± 7.1 (maximum possible score = 59) and 14.6 ± 3.8 (maximum possible score = 24), respectively. A minority of websites adequately addressed "stent removal" and "when to seek medical attention". Only two websites (6.3%) had HON certification (drugs.com, radiologyinfo.org) and only one website (3.3%) met all JAMA criteria (bradyurology.blogspot.com). Readability level was higher than the American Medical Association recommendation of sixth-grade level for more than 75% of the websites. There was no correlation between Google rank, Alexa rank, and the quality scores (P > 0.05). Among the 32 most popular websites on the topic of ureteral stents, online information was highly variable. The readability of many of the websites was far higher than standard recommendations and the online information was questionable in many cases. These findings suggest a need for improved online resources in order to better educate patients about ureteral stents and also should inform physicians that popular websites may have incomplete information.

Cultural Competence of Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses.

PubMed

Heitzler, Ella T

To measure the cultural competence level of obstetric and neonatal nurses, explore relationships among cultural competence and selected sociodemographic variables, and identify factors related to cultural competence. Descriptive correlational study. Online survey. A convenience sample of 132 obstetric and neonatal registered nurses practicing in the United States. Nurse participants completed the Cultural Competence Assessment (CCA) instrument, which included Cultural Awareness and Sensitivity (CAS) and Cultural Competence Behaviors (CCB) subscales, and a sociodemographic questionnaire. Correlation and regression analyses were conducted. The average CCA score was 5.38 (possible range = 1.00-7.00). CCA scores were negatively correlated with age and positively correlated with self-ranked cultural competence, years of nursing experience, years of experience within the specialty area, and number of types of previous cultural diversity training. CCB subscale scores were correlated positively with age, years of nursing experience, years of experience within the specialty area, and number of types of previous diversity training. CAS subscale scores were positively correlated with number of types of previous diversity training. Standard multiple linear regression explained approximately 10%, 12%, and 11% of the variance in CCA, CAS, and CCB scores, respectively. Obstetric and neonatal registered nurses should continue to work toward greater cultural competence. Exposing nurses to more types of cultural diversity training may help achieve greater cultural competence. Copyright © 2017 AWHONN, the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Eigenfactor score and alternative bibliometrics surpass the impact factor in a 2-years ahead annual-citation calculation: a linear mixed design model analysis of Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Medical Imaging journals.

PubMed

Roldan-Valadez, Ernesto; Orbe-Arteaga, Ulises; Rios, Camilo

2018-03-05

Because we believe the journal selection before a manuscript submission deserves further investigation in each medical specialty, we aimed to evaluate the predictive ability of seven bibliometrics in the Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Medical Imaging category of the Web of Knowledge to calculate total citations over a 7-year period. A linear mixed effects design using random slopes and intercepts were performed on bibliometrics corresponding to 124 journals from 2007 to 2011, with their corresponding citations from 2009 to 2013, which appeared in the Journal Citations Report Science Edition. The Eigenfactor Score, Article Influence Score, Cited Half-life, 5-years impact factor and Number of Articles are significant predictors of 2-year-ahead total citations (p ≤ 0.010 for all variables). The impact factor and Immediacy Index are not significant predictors. There was a significant global effect size (R 2  = 0.934; p < 0.001), which yielded a total variance of 93.4%. Our findings support researchers' decision to stop the misuse of IF alone to evaluate journals. Radiologists and other researchers should review journal's bibliometrics for their decision-making during the manuscript submission phase. A re-ranking of journals using Eigenfactor Score, Article Influence Score, and Cited Half-life provides a better assessment of their significance and importance in particular disciplines.

Uncovering curvilinear relationships between conscientiousness and job performance: how theoretically appropriate measurement makes an empirical difference.

PubMed

Carter, Nathan T; Dalal, Dev K; Boyce, Anthony S; O'Connell, Matthew S; Kung, Mei-Chuan; Delgado, Kristin M

2014-07-01

The personality trait of conscientiousness has seen considerable attention from applied psychologists due to its efficacy for predicting job performance across performance dimensions and occupations. However, recent theoretical and empirical developments have questioned the assumption that more conscientiousness always results in better job performance, suggesting a curvilinear link between the 2. Despite these developments, the results of studies directly testing the idea have been mixed. Here, we propose this link has been obscured by another pervasive assumption known as the dominance model of measurement: that higher scores on traditional personality measures always indicate higher levels of conscientiousness. Recent research suggests dominance models show inferior fit to personality test scores as compared to ideal point models that allow for curvilinear relationships between traits and scores. Using data from 2 different samples of job incumbents, we show the rank-order changes that result from using an ideal point model expose a curvilinear link between conscientiousness and job performance 100% of the time, whereas results using dominance models show mixed results, similar to the current state of the literature. Finally, with an independent cross-validation sample, we show that selection based on predicted performance using ideal point scores results in more favorable objective hiring outcomes. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Predictors of surgeons' efficiency in the operating rooms.

PubMed

Nakata, Yoshinori; Watanabe, Yuichi; Narimatsu, Hiroto; Yoshimura, Tatsuya; Otake, Hiroshi; Sawa, Tomohiro

2017-02-01

The sustainability of the Japanese healthcare system is questionable because of a huge fiscal debt. One of the solutions is to improve the efficiency of healthcare. The purpose of this study is to determine what factors are predictive of surgeons' efficiency scores. The authors collected data from all the surgical procedures performed at Teikyo University Hospital from April 1 through September 30 in 2013-2015. Output-oriented Charnes-Cooper-Rhodes model of data envelopment analysis was employed to calculate each surgeon's efficiency score. Seven independent variables that may predict their efficiency scores were selected: experience, medical school, surgical volume, gender, academic rank, surgical specialty, and the surgical fee schedule. Multiple regression analysis using random-effects Tobit model was used for our panel data. The data from total 8722 surgical cases were obtained in 18-month study period. The authors analyzed 134 surgeons. The only statistically significant coefficients were surgical specialty and surgical fee schedule (p = 0.000 and p = 0.016, respectively). Experience had some positive association with efficiency scores but did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.062). The other coefficients were not statistically significant. These results demonstrated that the surgical reimbursement system, not surgeons' personal characteristics, is a significant predictor of surgeons' efficiency.

Statistical analysis to assess automated level of suspicion scoring methods in breast ultrasound

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Galperin, Michael

2003-05-01

A well-defined rule-based system has been developed for scoring 0-5 the Level of Suspicion (LOS) based on qualitative lexicon describing the ultrasound appearance of breast lesion. The purposes of the research are to asses and select one of the automated LOS scoring quantitative methods developed during preliminary studies in benign biopsies reduction. The study has used Computer Aided Imaging System (CAIS) to improve the uniformity and accuracy of applying the LOS scheme by automatically detecting, analyzing and comparing breast masses. The overall goal is to reduce biopsies on the masses with lower levels of suspicion, rather that increasing the accuracy of diagnosis of cancers (will require biopsy anyway). On complex cysts and fibroadenoma cases experienced radiologists were up to 50% less certain in true negatives than CAIS. Full correlation analysis was applied to determine which of the proposed LOS quantification methods serves CAIS accuracy the best. This paper presents current results of applying statistical analysis for automated LOS scoring quantification for breast masses with known biopsy results. It was found that First Order Ranking method yielded most the accurate results. The CAIS system (Image Companion, Data Companion software) is developed by Almen Laboratories and was used to achieve the results.

Swallowing Changes in Community-Dwelling Older Adults.

PubMed

Mulheren, Rachel W; Azola, Alba M; Kwiatkowski, Stephanie; Karagiorgos, Eleni; Humbert, Ianessa; Palmer, Jeffrey B; González-Fernández, Marlís

2018-06-08

Older adults may evidence changes in swallowing physiology. Our goals were to identify dysphagia risk in community-dwelling older adults with no history of dysphagia, and to compare swallowing physiology and safety between older and younger adults. Thirty-two older adults with no history of dysphagia were prospectively recruited and completed the Dysphagia Handicap Index (DHI), two trials of a 3 oz. swallow screen, and videofluoroscopy (VFSS). Self-ratings of swallowing function were compared to published norms by paired t tests, and multivariate logistic regression models were generated to determine whether these ratings and VFSS analysis of swallowing function were associated with failure of one or both swallow screen trials. Archived VFSS of 33 younger adults were compared to older adults with Wilcoxon rank-sum tests. The DHI scores of older adults were higher than published non-dysphagic adults but lower than dysphagic adults. Older participants with greater Oral Residue scores were more likely to fail both swallow screen trials. Older adults received higher median MBSImP™© scores for select pharyngeal components than younger adults. The two age groups did not differ on Penetration-Aspiration Scale scores, and no aspiration was observed. Measures of swallowing in older individuals may reflect age-related sensory and motor changes in the context of functional swallowing and adequate airway protection.

Stability of Scores on Super's Work Values Inventory-Revised

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leuty, Melanie E.

2013-01-01

Test-retest data on Super's Work Values Inventory-Revised for a group of predominantly White ("N" = 995) women (mean age = 23.5 years, SD = 8.07) and men (mean age = 21.5 years, SD = 5.80) showed stability in mean-level scores over a period of 1 year for the sample as a whole. However, low raw score and rank order stability coefficients…

Selecting Pesticides and Nonchemical Alternatives: Green Thumbs' Rules of Thumb Decision Tools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grieshop, James I.; And Others

1992-01-01

A sample of 78 (of 320) home gardeners use rules of thumb (heuristics) to choose between chemical pesticides and nonchemical alternatives. Pesticides rank low in 24 choice attributes where alternatives rank high, and vice versa. Gender, age, and years of pesticide use correlate with pesticide selection. (SK)

Consistency of QSAR models: Correct split of training and test sets, ranking of models and performance parameters.

PubMed

Rácz, A; Bajusz, D; Héberger, K

2015-01-01

Recent implementations of QSAR modelling software provide the user with numerous models and a wealth of information. In this work, we provide some guidance on how one should interpret the results of QSAR modelling, compare and assess the resulting models, and select the best and most consistent ones. Two QSAR datasets are applied as case studies for the comparison of model performance parameters and model selection methods. We demonstrate the capabilities of sum of ranking differences (SRD) in model selection and ranking, and identify the best performance indicators and models. While the exchange of the original training and (external) test sets does not affect the ranking of performance parameters, it provides improved models in certain cases (despite the lower number of molecules in the training set). Performance parameters for external validation are substantially separated from the other merits in SRD analyses, highlighting their value in data fusion.

Strong Showing for AGU Journals in 2009 Impact Factors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cook, Bill

2010-06-01

AGU publishes great science, which is recognized in several ways. One of the most widely recognized is from Thomson Reuters, which provides the Journal Citation Report (JCR) each year as a component of the Web of Science®. JCR reports on several measures of journal usage, including a journal's Eigenfactor score, its Article Influence score, its Impact Factor, and its rank within a cohort of similar journals. According to the 2009 statistics released last week, AGU again has outperformed its larger competitors. For the twelfth time, two different AGU titles hold the top rank in their categories, and AGU titles hold the second spot in two other categories and third in two more.

Importance x dissatisfaction = a formula for managerial action.

PubMed

Carson, Kerry D; Carson, Paula Phillips; Fontenot, Gwen; Toma, Alfred G

2005-01-01

Management should not only survey employees about their satisfaction with an issue but should also inquire about how important that issue is to them. If the issue is very important to employees and they are very dissatisfied, then management action may be urgent. However, if staff members are dissatisfied with an issue that is unimportant to them, then no management action may be required. Rank ordering the items by importance and then subtracting satisfaction from importance to get a performance-gap score is insufficient. The decision maker still may have to use intuition to determine which items have priority. Rather than gap analysis, it is better to multiply the importance score by the dissatisfaction score. This will yield a clear rank order of the issues to which the management must attend. The authors used the multiplicative method with a health care organization. These results are analyzed, and management actions are recommended.

Comparative assessment of absolute cardiovascular disease risk characterization from non-laboratory-based risk assessment in South African populations

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background All rigorous primary cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention guidelines recommend absolute CVD risk scores to identify high- and low-risk patients, but laboratory testing can be impractical in low- and middle-income countries. The purpose of this study was to compare the ranking performance of a simple, non-laboratory-based risk score to laboratory-based scores in various South African populations. Methods We calculated and compared 10-year CVD (or coronary heart disease (CHD)) risk for 14,772 adults from thirteen cross-sectional South African populations (data collected from 1987 to 2009). Risk characterization performance for the non-laboratory-based score was assessed by comparing rankings of risk with six laboratory-based scores (three versions of Framingham risk, SCORE for high- and low-risk countries, and CUORE) using Spearman rank correlation and percent of population equivalently characterized as ‘high’ or ‘low’ risk. Total 10-year non-laboratory-based risk of CVD death was also calculated for a representative cross-section from the 1998 South African Demographic Health Survey (DHS, n = 9,379) to estimate the national burden of CVD mortality risk. Results Spearman correlation coefficients for the non-laboratory-based score with the laboratory-based scores ranged from 0.88 to 0.986. Using conventional thresholds for CVD risk (10% to 20% 10-year CVD risk), 90% to 92% of men and 94% to 97% of women were equivalently characterized as ‘high’ or ‘low’ risk using the non-laboratory-based and Framingham (2008) CVD risk score. These results were robust across the six risk scores evaluated and the thirteen cross-sectional datasets, with few exceptions (lower agreement between the non-laboratory-based and Framingham (1991) CHD risk scores). Approximately 18% of adults in the DHS population were characterized as ‘high CVD risk’ (10-year CVD death risk >20%) using the non-laboratory-based score. Conclusions We found a high level of correlation between a simple, non-laboratory-based CVD risk score and commonly-used laboratory-based risk scores. The burden of CVD mortality risk was high for men and women in South Africa. The policy and clinical implications are that fast, low-cost screening tools can lead to similar risk assessment results compared to time- and resource-intensive approaches. Until setting-specific cohort studies can derive and validate country-specific risk scores, non-laboratory-based CVD risk assessment could be an effective and efficient primary CVD screening approach in South Africa. PMID:23880010

Tag-Based Social Image Search: Toward Relevant and Diverse Results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Kuiyuan; Wang, Meng; Hua, Xian-Sheng; Zhang, Hong-Jiang

Recent years have witnessed a great success of social media websites. Tag-based image search is an important approach to access the image content of interest on these websites. However, the existing ranking methods for tag-based image search frequently return results that are irrelevant or lack of diversity. This chapter presents a diverse relevance ranking scheme which simultaneously takes relevance and diversity into account by exploring the content of images and their associated tags. First, it estimates the relevance scores of images with respect to the query term based on both visual information of images and semantic information of associated tags. Then semantic similarities of social images are estimated based on their tags. Based on the relevance scores and the similarities, the ranking list is generated by a greedy ordering algorithm which optimizes Average Diverse Precision (ADP), a novel measure that is extended from the conventional Average Precision (AP). Comprehensive experiments and user studies demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.

Critical appraisal of emergency medicine education research: the best publications of 2013.

PubMed

Farrell, Susan E; Kuhn, Gloria J; Coates, Wendy C; Shayne, Phillip H; Fisher, Jonathan; Maggio, Lauren A; Lin, Michelle

2014-11-01

The objective was to critically appraise and highlight methodologically superior medical education research articles published in 2013 whose outcomes are pertinent to teaching and education in emergency medicine (EM). A search of the English-language literature in 2013 querying Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), PsychINFO, PubMed, and Scopus identified 251 EM-related studies using hypothesis-testing or observational investigations of educational interventions. Two reviewers independently screened all of the publications and removed articles using established exclusion criteria. Six reviewers then independently scored the remaining 43 publications using either a qualitative a or quantitative scoring system, based on the research methodology of each article. Each scoring system consisted of nine criteria. Selected criteria were based on accepted educational review literature and chosen a priori. Both scoring systems used parallel scoring metrics and have been used previously within this annual review. Forty-three medical education research papers (37 quantitative and six qualitative studies) met the a priori criteria for inclusion and were reviewed. Six quantitative and one qualitative study were scored and ranked most highly by the reviewers as exemplary and are summarized in this article. This annual critical appraisal article aims to promote superior research in EM-related education, by reviewing and highlighting seven of 43 major education research studies, meeting a priori criteria, and published in 2013. Common methodologic pitfalls in the 2013 papers are noted, and current trends in medical education research in EM are discussed. © 2014 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

The Use and Ranking of Different English Language Learning Strategies by English Major Iranian Female University Level Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fazeli, Seyed Hossein

2012-01-01

This study aims to rank types of English language learning strategies that are used by Iranian female university level learners of English language as a university major. The results show that except for the Metacognitive Strategies category, the mean score for each of the five categories fell in the range of medium strategy use.

Oral symptoms and functional outcome related to oral and oropharyngeal cancer.

PubMed

Kamstra, Jolanda I; Jager-Wittenaar, Harriet; Dijkstra, Pieter U; Huisman, Paulien M; van Oort, Rob P; van der Laan, Bernard F A M; Roodenburg, Jan L N

2011-09-01

This study aimed to assess: (1) oral symptoms of patients treated for oral or oropharyngeal cancer; (2) how patients rank the burden of oral symptoms; (3) the impact of the tumor, the treatment, and oral symptoms on functional outcome. Eighty-nine patients treated for oral or oropharyngeal cancer were asked about their oral symptoms related to mouth opening, dental status, oral sensory function, tongue mobility, salivary function, and pain. They were asked to rank these oral symptoms according to the degree of burden experienced. The Mandibular Function Impairment Questionnaire (MFIQ) was used to assess functional outcome. In a multivariate linear regression analyses, variables related to MFIQ scores (p≤0.10) were entered as predictors with MFIQ score as the outcome. Lack of saliva (52%), restricted mouth opening (48%), and restricted tongue mobility (46%) were the most frequently reported oral symptoms. Lack of saliva was most frequently (32%) ranked as the most burdensome oral symptom. For radiated patients, an inability to wear a dental prosthesis, a T3 or T4 stage, and a higher age were predictive of MFIQ scores. For non-radiated patients, a restricted mouth opening, an inability to wear a dental prosthesis, restricted tongue mobility, and surgery of the mandible were predictive of MFIQ scores. Lack of saliva was not only the most frequently reported oral symptom after treatment for oral or oropharyngeal cancer, but also the most burdensome. Functional outcome is strongly influenced by an inability to wear a dental prosthesis in both radiated and non-radiated patients.

Setting health research priorities using the CHNRI method: VI. Quantitative properties of human collective opinion

PubMed Central

Yoshida, Sachiyo; Rudan, Igor; Cousens, Simon

2016-01-01

Introduction Crowdsourcing has become an increasingly important tool to address many problems – from government elections in democracies, stock market prices, to modern online tools such as TripAdvisor or Internet Movie Database (IMDB). The CHNRI method (the acronym for the Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative) for setting health research priorities has crowdsourcing as the major component, which it uses to generate, assess and prioritize between many competing health research ideas. Methods We conducted a series of analyses using data from a group of 91 scorers to explore the quantitative properties of their collective opinion. We were interested in the stability of their collective opinion as the sample size increases from 15 to 90. From a pool of 91 scorers who took part in a previous CHNRI exercise, we used sampling with replacement to generate multiple random samples of different size. First, for each sample generated, we identified the top 20 ranked research ideas, among 205 that were proposed and scored, and calculated the concordance with the ranking generated by the 91 original scorers. Second, we used rank correlation coefficients to compare the ranks assigned to all 205 proposed research ideas when samples of different size are used. We also analysed the original pool of 91 scorers to to look for evidence of scoring variations based on scorers' characteristics. Results The sample sizes investigated ranged from 15 to 90. The concordance for the top 20 scored research ideas increased with sample sizes up to about 55 experts. At this point, the median level of concordance stabilized at 15/20 top ranked questions (75%), with the interquartile range also generally stable (14–16). There was little further increase in overlap when the sample size increased from 55 to 90. When analysing the ranking of all 205 ideas, the rank correlation coefficient increased as the sample size increased, with a median correlation of 0.95 reached at the sample size of 45 experts (median of the rank correlation coefficient = 0.95; IQR 0.94–0.96). Conclusions Our analyses suggest that the collective opinion of an expert group on a large number of research ideas, expressed through categorical variables (Yes/No/Not Sure/Don't know), stabilises relatively quickly in terms of identifying the ideas that have most support. In the exercise we found a high degree of reproducibility of the identified research priorities was achieved with as few as 45–55 experts. PMID:27350874

Setting health research priorities using the CHNRI method: VI. Quantitative properties of human collective opinion.

PubMed

Yoshida, Sachiyo; Rudan, Igor; Cousens, Simon

2016-06-01

Crowdsourcing has become an increasingly important tool to address many problems - from government elections in democracies, stock market prices, to modern online tools such as TripAdvisor or Internet Movie Database (IMDB). The CHNRI method (the acronym for the Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative) for setting health research priorities has crowdsourcing as the major component, which it uses to generate, assess and prioritize between many competing health research ideas. We conducted a series of analyses using data from a group of 91 scorers to explore the quantitative properties of their collective opinion. We were interested in the stability of their collective opinion as the sample size increases from 15 to 90. From a pool of 91 scorers who took part in a previous CHNRI exercise, we used sampling with replacement to generate multiple random samples of different size. First, for each sample generated, we identified the top 20 ranked research ideas, among 205 that were proposed and scored, and calculated the concordance with the ranking generated by the 91 original scorers. Second, we used rank correlation coefficients to compare the ranks assigned to all 205 proposed research ideas when samples of different size are used. We also analysed the original pool of 91 scorers to to look for evidence of scoring variations based on scorers' characteristics. The sample sizes investigated ranged from 15 to 90. The concordance for the top 20 scored research ideas increased with sample sizes up to about 55 experts. At this point, the median level of concordance stabilized at 15/20 top ranked questions (75%), with the interquartile range also generally stable (14-16). There was little further increase in overlap when the sample size increased from 55 to 90. When analysing the ranking of all 205 ideas, the rank correlation coefficient increased as the sample size increased, with a median correlation of 0.95 reached at the sample size of 45 experts (median of the rank correlation coefficient = 0.95; IQR 0.94-0.96). Our analyses suggest that the collective opinion of an expert group on a large number of research ideas, expressed through categorical variables (Yes/No/Not Sure/Don't know), stabilises relatively quickly in terms of identifying the ideas that have most support. In the exercise we found a high degree of reproducibility of the identified research priorities was achieved with as few as 45-55 experts.

Motor skill delays in pre-school children with leukemia one year after treatment: Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation therapy as an important risk factor.

PubMed

Taverna, Livia; Tremolada, Marta; Bonichini, Sabrina; Tosetto, Barbara; Basso, Giuseppe; Messina, Chiara; Pillon, Marta

2017-01-01

CNS-directed therapies for the treatment of leukemia can adversely affect the acquisition of new skills, such as reading/writing and math. Two years after the end of treatments, children show gross and fine motor skill delays that may persist even when patients are considered healed. The goal of the present study was to assess motor skills difficulties in pre-school children with leukemia one year after treatment. Particular attention has been paid to those patients who had undergone Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) and to the relationship between motor delays and age bands. Participants were 60 children (median age of 5; inter quartile range: 3.07-5.76), including 31 females and 29 males, 91.7% of them were affected by acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and 8.3% by acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Five children had undergone HCST. Parents were interviewed by Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS) on children's motor skills and filled in the Italian Temperament Questionnaire (QUIT). VABS's total scores were converted into equivalent mental age scores (EMA). A score difference of at least three months between current age and equivalent mental age was considered a developmental delay. Non-parametric analyses were run to understand if HSCT treatment and a specific age band influence children's motor skills. Significant delays were found in global motor skills (56.7%) as well as in fine and gross motor domains. Mann Whitney U tests showed that children with HSCT were reported to have lower gross motor mean ranks (U = 62; p = 0.004; Mean rank = 15.40) than peers without HSCT (Mean rank = 31.87) and lower mean rank values on motor temperament scale (U = 9; p = 0.003; HSCT Mean rank = 4.75 versus no HSCT Mean rank = 27.81). Kruskal Wallis' tests identified the high risk treatment showing that HSCT experience negatively impacted the motor skills and temperamental motor activity of pre-school children one year after the diagnosis of leukemia.

Classification of occupational activity categories using accelerometry: NHANES 2003-2004.

PubMed

Steeves, Jeremy A; Tudor-Locke, Catrine; Murphy, Rachel A; King, George A; Fitzhugh, Eugene C; Harris, Tamara B

2015-06-30

An individual's occupational activity (OA) may contribute significantly to daily physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB). However, there is little consensus about which occupational categories involve high OA or low OA, and the majority of categories are unclassifiable with current methods. The purpose of this study was to present population estimates of accelerometer-derived PA and SB variables for adults (n = 1112, 20-60 years) working the 40 occupational categories collected during the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). ActiGraph accelerometer-derived total activity counts/day (TAC), activity counts/minute, and proportion of wear time spent in moderate-to-vigorous PA [MVPA], lifestyle, and light PA organized by occupational category were ranked in ascending order and SB was ranked in descending order. Summing the ranks of the six accelerometer-derived variables generated a summary score for each occupational category, which was re-ranked in ascending order. Higher rankings indicated higher levels of OA, lower rankings indicated lower levels of OA. Tertiles of the summary score were used to establish three mutually exclusive accelerometer-determined OA groupings: high OA, intermediate OA, and low OA. According to their summary score, 'farm and nursery workers' were classified as high OA and 'secretaries, stenographers, and typists' were classified as low OA. Consistent with previous research, some low OA occupational categories (e.g., 'engineers, architects, and scientists', 'technicians and related support occupations', 'management related occupations', 'executives, administrators, and managers', 'protective services', and 'writers, artists, entertainers, and athletes') associated with higher education and income had relatively greater amounts of MVPA compared to other low OA occupational categories, likely due to the greater percentage of men in those occupations and/or the influence of higher levels of leisure time PA. Men had more TAC, activity counts/minute and time in MVPA, but similar proportions of SB compared to women in all three OA groupings. Objectively measured PA allowed for a more precise estimate of the amount of PA and SB associated with different occupations and facilitated systematic classification of the 40 different occupational categories into three distinct OA groupings. This information provides new opportunities to explore the relationship between OA and health outcomes.

Motor skill delays in pre-school children with leukemia one year after treatment: Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation therapy as an important risk factor

PubMed Central

Bonichini, Sabrina; Tosetto, Barbara; Basso, Giuseppe; Messina, Chiara; Pillon, Marta

2017-01-01

CNS-directed therapies for the treatment of leukemia can adversely affect the acquisition of new skills, such as reading/writing and math. Two years after the end of treatments, children show gross and fine motor skill delays that may persist even when patients are considered healed. The goal of the present study was to assess motor skills difficulties in pre-school children with leukemia one year after treatment. Particular attention has been paid to those patients who had undergone Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) and to the relationship between motor delays and age bands. Participants were 60 children (median age of 5; inter quartile range: 3.07–5.76), including 31 females and 29 males, 91.7% of them were affected by acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and 8.3% by acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Five children had undergone HCST. Parents were interviewed by Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS) on children’s motor skills and filled in the Italian Temperament Questionnaire (QUIT). VABS’s total scores were converted into equivalent mental age scores (EMA). A score difference of at least three months between current age and equivalent mental age was considered a developmental delay. Non-parametric analyses were run to understand if HSCT treatment and a specific age band influence children’s motor skills. Significant delays were found in global motor skills (56.7%) as well as in fine and gross motor domains. Mann Whitney U tests showed that children with HSCT were reported to have lower gross motor mean ranks (U = 62; p = 0.004; Mean rank = 15.40) than peers without HSCT (Mean rank = 31.87) and lower mean rank values on motor temperament scale (U = 9; p = 0.003; HSCT Mean rank = 4.75 versus no HSCT Mean rank = 27.81). Kruskal Wallis’ tests identified the high risk treatment showing that HSCT experience negatively impacted the motor skills and temperamental motor activity of pre-school children one year after the diagnosis of leukemia. PMID:29065156

Research productivity and gender disparities: a look at academic plastic surgery.

PubMed

Paik, Angie M; Mady, Leila J; Villanueva, Nathaniel L; Goljo, Erden; Svider, Peter F; Ciminello, Frank; Eloy, Jean Anderson

2014-01-01

The h-index has utility in examining the contributions of faculty members by quantifying both the amount and the quality of research output and as such is a metric in approximating academic productivity. The objectives of this study were (1) to evaluate the relationship between h-index and academic rank in plastic surgery and (2) to describe the current gender representation in academic plastic surgery to assess whether there are any gender disparities in academic productivity. The h-index was used to evaluate the research contributions of plastic surgeons from academic departments in the United States. There were 426 (84%) men and 79 (16%) women in our sample. Those in higher academic ranks had higher h-index scores (p < 0.0005). There was a significant difference in overall mean h-index by gender, where the mean scores were 9.0 and 6.0 for men and women, respectively (p = 0.0005). When analyzed by academic rank, there was a significant difference in academic productivity between men and women in assistant and associate professor positions (6.4 vs 5.1, respectively; p = 0.04). The h-index is able to objectively and reliably quantify academic productivity in plastic surgery. We found that h-indices increased with higher academic rank, and men had overall higher scores than their female colleagues. Adoption of this metric as an adjunct to other objective and subjective measures by promotions committees may provide a more reliable measure of research relevance and academic productivity in academic plastic surgery. Copyright © 2014 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Prioritization of Zoonotic Diseases in Kenya, 2015

PubMed Central

Bitek, Austine; Osoro, Eric; Pieracci, Emily G.; Muema, Josephat; Mwatondo, Athman; Kungu, Mathew; Nanyingi, Mark; Gharpure, Radhika; Njenga, Kariuki; Thumbi, Samuel M.

2016-01-01

Introduction Zoonotic diseases have varying public health burden and socio-economic impact across time and geographical settings making their prioritization for prevention and control important at the national level. We conducted systematic prioritization of zoonotic diseases and developed a ranked list of these diseases that would guide allocation of resources to enhance their surveillance, prevention, and control. Methods A group of 36 medical, veterinary, and wildlife experts in zoonoses from government, research institutions and universities in Kenya prioritized 36 diseases using a semi-quantitative One Health Zoonotic Disease Prioritization tool developed by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with slight adaptations. The tool comprises five steps: listing of zoonotic diseases to be prioritized, development of ranking criteria, weighting criteria by pairwise comparison through analytical hierarchical process, scoring each zoonotic disease based on the criteria, and aggregation of scores. Results In order of importance, the participants identified severity of illness in humans, epidemic/pandemic potential in humans, socio-economic burden, prevalence/incidence and availability of interventions (weighted scores assigned to each criteria were 0.23, 0.22, 0.21, 0.17 and 0.17 respectively), as the criteria to define the relative importance of the diseases. The top five priority diseases in descending order of ranking were anthrax, trypanosomiasis, rabies, brucellosis and Rift Valley fever. Conclusion Although less prominently mentioned, neglected zoonotic diseases ranked highly compared to those with epidemic potential suggesting these endemic diseases cause substantial public health burden. The list of priority zoonotic disease is crucial for the targeted allocation of resources and informing disease prevention and control programs for zoonoses in Kenya. PMID:27557120

Occupational stress and cardiovascular risk factors in high-ranking government officials and office workers.

PubMed

Mirmohammadi, Seyyed Jalil; Taheri, Mahmoud; Mehrparvar, Amir Houshang; Heydari, Mohammad; Saadati Kanafi, Ali; Mostaghaci, Mehrdad

2014-08-01

Cardiovascular diseases are among the most important sources of mortality and morbidity, and have a high disease burden. There are some major well-known risk factors, which contribute to the development of these diseases. Occupational stress is caused due to imbalance between job demands and individual's ability, and it has been implicated as an etiology for cardiovascular diseases. This study was conducted to evaluate the cardiovascular risk factors and different dimensions of occupational stress in high-ranking government officials, comparing an age and sex-matched group of office workers with them. We invited 90 high-ranking officials who managed the main governmental offices in a city, and 90 age and sex-matched office workers. The subjects were required to fill the occupational role questionnaire (Osipow) which evaluated their personal and medical history as well as occupational stress. Then, we performed physical examination and laboratory tests to check for cardiovascular risk factors. Finally, the frequency of cardiovascular risk factors and occupational stress of two groups were compared. High-ranking officials in our study had less work experience in their current jobs and smoked fewer pack-years of cigarette, but they had higher waist and hip circumference, higher triglyceride level, more stress from role overload and responsibility, and higher total stress score. Our group of office workers had more occupational stress because of role ambiguity and insufficiency, but their overall job stress was less than officials. The officials have higher scores in some dimensions of occupational stress and higher overall stress score. Some cardiovascular risk factors were also more frequent in managers.

A Ranking Approach on Large-Scale Graph With Multidimensional Heterogeneous Information.

PubMed

Wei, Wei; Gao, Bin; Liu, Tie-Yan; Wang, Taifeng; Li, Guohui; Li, Hang

2016-04-01

Graph-based ranking has been extensively studied and frequently applied in many applications, such as webpage ranking. It aims at mining potentially valuable information from the raw graph-structured data. Recently, with the proliferation of rich heterogeneous information (e.g., node/edge features and prior knowledge) available in many real-world graphs, how to effectively and efficiently leverage all information to improve the ranking performance becomes a new challenging problem. Previous methods only utilize part of such information and attempt to rank graph nodes according to link-based methods, of which the ranking performances are severely affected by several well-known issues, e.g., over-fitting or high computational complexity, especially when the scale of graph is very large. In this paper, we address the large-scale graph-based ranking problem and focus on how to effectively exploit rich heterogeneous information of the graph to improve the ranking performance. Specifically, we propose an innovative and effective semi-supervised PageRank (SSP) approach to parameterize the derived information within a unified semi-supervised learning framework (SSLF-GR), then simultaneously optimize the parameters and the ranking scores of graph nodes. Experiments on the real-world large-scale graphs demonstrate that our method significantly outperforms the algorithms that consider such graph information only partially.

Feature selection using a one dimensional naïve Bayes’ classifier increases the accuracy of support vector machine classification of CDR3 repertoires

PubMed Central

Cinelli, Mattia; Sun, , Yuxin; Best, Katharine; Heather, James M.; Reich-Zeliger, Shlomit; Shifrut, Eric; Friedman, Nir; Shawe-Taylor, John; Chain, Benny

2017-01-01

Abstract Motivation: Somatic DNA recombination, the hallmark of vertebrate adaptive immunity, has the potential to generate a vast diversity of antigen receptor sequences. How this diversity captures antigen specificity remains incompletely understood. In this study we use high throughput sequencing to compare the global changes in T cell receptor β chain complementarity determining region 3 (CDR3β) sequences following immunization with ovalbumin administered with complete Freund’s adjuvant (CFA) or CFA alone. Results: The CDR3β sequences were deconstructed into short stretches of overlapping contiguous amino acids. The motifs were ranked according to a one-dimensional Bayesian classifier score comparing their frequency in the repertoires of the two immunization classes. The top ranking motifs were selected and used to create feature vectors which were used to train a support vector machine. The support vector machine achieved high classification scores in a leave-one-out validation test reaching >90% in some cases. Summary: The study describes a novel two-stage classification strategy combining a one-dimensional Bayesian classifier with a support vector machine. Using this approach we demonstrate that the frequency of a small number of linear motifs three amino acids in length can accurately identify a CD4 T cell response to ovalbumin against a background response to the complex mixture of antigens which characterize Complete Freund’s Adjuvant. Availability and implementation: The sequence data is available at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra/?term¼SRP075893. The Decombinator package is available at github.com/innate2adaptive/Decombinator. The R package e1071 is available at the CRAN repository https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/e1071/index.html. Contact: b.chain@ucl.ac.uk Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. PMID:28073756

MRM-Lasso: A Sparse Multiview Feature Selection Method via Low-Rank Analysis.

PubMed

Yang, Wanqi; Gao, Yang; Shi, Yinghuan; Cao, Longbing

2015-11-01

Learning about multiview data involves many applications, such as video understanding, image classification, and social media. However, when the data dimension increases dramatically, it is important but very challenging to remove redundant features in multiview feature selection. In this paper, we propose a novel feature selection algorithm, multiview rank minimization-based Lasso (MRM-Lasso), which jointly utilizes Lasso for sparse feature selection and rank minimization for learning relevant patterns across views. Instead of simply integrating multiple Lasso from view level, we focus on the performance of sample-level (sample significance) and introduce pattern-specific weights into MRM-Lasso. The weights are utilized to measure the contribution of each sample to the labels in the current view. In addition, the latent correlation across different views is successfully captured by learning a low-rank matrix consisting of pattern-specific weights. The alternating direction method of multipliers is applied to optimize the proposed MRM-Lasso. Experiments on four real-life data sets show that features selected by MRM-Lasso have better multiview classification performance than the baselines. Moreover, pattern-specific weights are demonstrated to be significant for learning about multiview data, compared with view-specific weights.

QRS Score at Presentation Electrocardiogram Is Correlated With Infarct Size and Mortality in ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction Patients Undergoing Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.

PubMed

Shiomi, Hiroki; Kosuge, Masami; Morimoto, Takeshi; Watanabe, Hiroki; Taniguchi, Tomohiko; Nakatsuma, Kenji; Toyota, Toshiaki; Yamamoto, Erika; Shizuta, Satoshi; Tada, Tomohisa; Furukawa, Yutaka; Nakagawa, Yoshihisa; Ando, Kenji; Kadota, Kazushige; Kimura, Kazuo; Kimura, Takeshi

2017-07-25

In ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), QRS score at presentation ECG may reflect the progression of infarction and facilitate prediction of the degree of myocardial salvage achieved by reperfusion therapy.Methods and Results:Admission electrocardiogram (ECG) was studied in 2,607 patients with STEMI undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) within 24 h of symptom onset. Patients were classified into 3 groups according to QRS score: low (0-3, n=1,227), intermediate (4-7, n=810), and high (≥8, n=570). An increase of infarct size estimated by median peak creatine phosphokinase was observed as QRS score increased (low score, 1,836 IU/L; inter-quartile range (IQR), 979-3,190 IU/L; intermediate score, 2,488 IU/L; IQR, 1,126-4,640 IU/L; high score, 3,454 IU/L; IQR, 1,759-5,639 IU/L; P<0.001). Higher QRS score was associated with higher long-term mortality (low, intermediate, and high score, 15.6%, 19.7%, and 23.7% at 5 years, respectively; log-rank P<0.001). The positive relationship of QRS score with mortality was consistently seen when stratified by infarct location. The association of high QRS score with increased mortality was most remarkably seen in patients with early (≤2 h) presentation (low, intermediate, and high score: 16.7%, 16.6%, and 28.1% at 5 years, respectively; log-rank P<0.001). Higher QRS score at presentation ECG was associated with larger infarct size, and higher long-term mortality in patients with STEMI undergoing primary PCI. QRS score appears to be important in the early risk stratification for STEMI.

Pulpal response following photo-biomodulation with a 904-nm diode laser: a double-blind clinical study.

PubMed

Liang, Ryan; George, Roy; Walsh, Laurence J

2016-12-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate pulpal responses in healthy human teeth to photo-biomodulation therapy (PBMT) with 904-nm GaAs diode laser. The study followed a double-blind split mouth design, with a randomly selected maxillary first premolar acting as a sham-irradiated control tooth, and the contralateral tooth receiving active laser treatment. Two coded but otherwise identical laser probes (Irradia™, SpectraMedics Ltd., NC, USA) were used to deliver the sham (placebo) and laser radiation, with both the operator and patient unaware of each probe's identity. The selection of teeth for sham or laser irradiation was randomised for each treatment. Pulpal responses were assessed using electric pulp testing (EPT), 2 min prior to exposure, and immediately after laser irradiation (60 s, 30 mW average power, 25 Hz pulse frequency, 3.6 J/cm 2 ). Treatment effects were analysed using the Wilcoxon-signed rank test. A total of 30 participants provided written informed consent. Majority of the participants (66.7 %) demonstrated an analgesic effect following PBMT (elevated EPT scores); however, nine participants (30 %) reported the lower EPT scores than the control. Both the treatment effects (stimulation and analgesia) were significant compared to the placebo. In most individuals, PBMT of healthy teeth with a 904-nm GaAs diode laser can induce analgesia, as witnessed by elevated EPT scores. A converse effect can occur in a minority of subjects.

Identifying potential selective fluorescent probes for cancer-associated protein carbonic anhydrase IX using a computational approach.

PubMed

Kamstra, Rhiannon L; Floriano, Wely B

2014-11-01

Carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX) is a biomarker for tumor hypoxia. Fluorescent inhibitors of CAIX have been used to study hypoxic tumor cell lines. However, these inhibitor-based fluorescent probes may have a therapeutic effect that is not appropriate for monitoring treatment efficacy. In the search for novel fluorescent probes that are not based on known inhibitors, a database of 20,860 fluorescent compounds was virtually screened against CAIX using hierarchical virtual ligand screening (HierVLS). The screening database contained 14,862 compounds tagged with the ATTO680 fluorophore plus an additional 5998 intrinsically fluorescent compounds. Overall ranking of compounds to identify hit molecular probe candidates utilized a principal component analysis (PCA) approach. Four potential binding sites, including the catalytic site, were identified within the structure of the protein and targeted for virtual screening. Available sequence information for 23 carbonic anhydrase isoforms was used to prioritize the four sites based on the estimated "uniqueness" of each site in CAIX relative to the other isoforms. A database of 32 known inhibitors and 478 decoy compounds was used to validate the methodology. A receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis using the first principal component (PC1) as predictive score for the validation database yielded an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.92. AUC is interpreted as the probability that a binder will have a better score than a non-binder. The use of first component analysis of binding energies for multiple sites is a novel approach for hit selection. The very high prediction power for this approach increases confidence in the outcome from the fluorescent library screening. Ten of the top scoring candidates for isoform-selective putative binding sites are suggested for future testing as fluorescent molecular probe candidates. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Ranking the selectivity of PubChem screening hits by activity-based protein profiling: MMP13 as a case study.

PubMed

Nakai, Ryuichiro; Salisbury, Cleo M; Rosen, Hugh; Cravatt, Benjamin F

2009-02-01

High-throughput screening (HTS) has become an integral part of academic and industrial efforts aimed at developing new chemical probes and drugs. These screens typically generate several 'hits', or lead active compounds, that must be prioritized for follow-up medicinal chemistry studies. Among primary considerations for ranking lead compounds is selectivity for the intended target, especially among mechanistically related proteins. Here, we show how the chemical proteomic technology activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) can serve as a universal assay to rank HTS hits based on their selectivity across many members of an enzyme superfamily. As a case study, four metalloproteinase-13 (MMP13) inhibitors of similar potency originating from a publically supported HTS and reported in PubChem were tested by ABPP for selectivity against a panel of 27 diverse metalloproteases. The inhibitors could be readily separated into two groups: (1) those that were active against several metalloproteases and (2) those that showed high selectivity for MMP13. The latter set of inhibitors was thereby designated as more suitable for future medicinal chemistry optimization. We anticipate that ABPP will find general utility as a platform to rank the selectivity of lead compounds emerging from HTS assays for a wide variety of enzymes.

An approach to holistically assess (dairy) farm eco-efficiency by combining Life Cycle Analysis with Data Envelopment Analysis models and methodologies.

PubMed

Soteriades, A D; Faverdin, P; Moreau, S; Charroin, T; Blanchard, M; Stott, A W

2016-11-01

Eco-efficiency is a useful guide to dairy farm sustainability analysis aimed at increasing output (physical or value added) and minimizing environmental impacts (EIs). Widely used partial eco-efficiency ratios (EIs per some functional unit, e.g. kg milk) can be problematic because (i) substitution possibilities between EIs are ignored, (ii) multiple ratios can complicate decision making and (iii) EIs are not usually associated with just the functional unit in the ratio's denominator. The objective of this study was to demonstrate a 'global' eco-efficiency modelling framework dealing with issues (i) to (iii) by combining Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) data and the multiple-input, multiple-output production efficiency method Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). With DEA each dairy farm's outputs and LCA-derived EIs are aggregated into a single, relative, bounded, dimensionless eco-efficiency score, thus overcoming issues (i) to (iii). A novelty of this study is that a model providing a number of additional desirable properties was employed, known as the Range Adjusted Measure (RAM) of inefficiency. These properties altogether make RAM advantageous over other DEA models and are as follows. First, RAM is able to simultaneously minimize EIs and maximize outputs. Second, it indicates which EIs and/or outputs contribute the most to a farm's eco-inefficiency. Third it can be used to rank farms in terms of eco-efficiency scores. Thus, non-parametric rank tests can be employed to test for significant differences in terms of eco-efficiency score ranks between different farm groups. An additional DEA methodology was employed to 'correct' the farms' eco-efficiency scores for inefficiencies attributed to managerial factors. By removing managerial inefficiencies it was possible to detect differences in eco-efficiency between farms solely attributed to uncontrollable factors such as region. Such analysis is lacking in previous dairy studies combining LCA with DEA. RAM and the 'corrective' methodology were demonstrated with LCA data from French specialized dairy farms grouped by region (West France, Continental France) and feeding strategy (regardless of region). Mean eco-efficiency score ranks were significantly higher for farms with 30% maize in the total forage area before correcting for managerial inefficiencies. Mean eco-efficiency score ranks were higher for West than Continental farms, but significantly higher only after correcting for managerial inefficiencies. These results helped identify the eco-efficiency potential of each region and feeding strategy and could therefore aid advisors and policy makers at farm or region/sector level. The proposed framework helped better measure and understand (dairy) farm eco-efficiency, both within and between different farm groups.

Improved prediction of peptide detectability for targeted proteomics using a rank-based algorithm and organism-specific data.

PubMed

Qeli, Ermir; Omasits, Ulrich; Goetze, Sandra; Stekhoven, Daniel J; Frey, Juerg E; Basler, Konrad; Wollscheid, Bernd; Brunner, Erich; Ahrens, Christian H

2014-08-28

The in silico prediction of the best-observable "proteotypic" peptides in mass spectrometry-based workflows is a challenging problem. Being able to accurately predict such peptides would enable the informed selection of proteotypic peptides for targeted quantification of previously observed and non-observed proteins for any organism, with a significant impact for clinical proteomics and systems biology studies. Current prediction algorithms rely on physicochemical parameters in combination with positive and negative training sets to identify those peptide properties that most profoundly affect their general detectability. Here we present PeptideRank, an approach that uses learning to rank algorithm for peptide detectability prediction from shotgun proteomics data, and that eliminates the need to select a negative dataset for the training step. A large number of different peptide properties are used to train ranking models in order to predict a ranking of the best-observable peptides within a protein. Empirical evaluation with rank accuracy metrics showed that PeptideRank complements existing prediction algorithms. Our results indicate that the best performance is achieved when it is trained on organism-specific shotgun proteomics data, and that PeptideRank is most accurate for short to medium-sized and abundant proteins, without any loss in prediction accuracy for the important class of membrane proteins. Targeted proteomics approaches have been gaining a lot of momentum and hold immense potential for systems biology studies and clinical proteomics. However, since only very few complete proteomes have been reported to date, for a considerable fraction of a proteome there is no experimental proteomics evidence that would allow to guide the selection of the best-suited proteotypic peptides (PTPs), i.e. peptides that are specific to a given proteoform and that are repeatedly observed in a mass spectrometer. We describe a novel, rank-based approach for the prediction of the best-suited PTPs for targeted proteomics applications. By building on methods developed in the field of information retrieval (e.g. web search engines like Google's PageRank), we circumvent the delicate step of selecting positive and negative training sets and at the same time also more closely reflect the experimentalist´s need for selecting e.g. the 5 most promising peptides for targeting a protein of interest. This approach allows to predict PTPs for not yet observed proteins or for organisms without prior experimental proteomics data such as many non-model organisms. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Can we well assess the relative efficacy and tolerability of a new drug versus others at the time of marketing authorization using mixed treatment comparisons? A detailed illustration with escitalopram.

PubMed

Llorca, Pierre-Michel; Lançon, Christophe; Brignone, Mélanie; Painchault, Caroline; Rive, Benoit; Toumi, Mondher; François, Clément

2015-01-01

To assess the variation of relative efficacy and tolerability of an antidepressant versus others based on both pre-marketing (registration studies) and post-marketing studies versus pre-marketing studies only in patients with major depressive disorder. The relative efficacy and tolerability of antidepressants was assessed by mixed treatment comparisons (MTCs) using data acquired over two time periods: before registration of the reference drug escitalopram (1989-2002) and up to 5 years later (1989-2007). Ranking probability outputs were presented for efficacy, using change from baseline to 8 weeks on Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale total score, and tolerability, using withdrawals due to adverse events. The relative efficacy and tolerability of some selected antidepressants, including escitalopram, varied considerably over the two time periods. The improved relative efficacy and tolerability of escitalopram over time, compared with citalopram, was demonstrated by greater separation of ranking probability curves for efficacy and tolerability. In 2002, escitalopram ranked low with 13.9% and 5.1% probability of being in the top four antidepressants' relative efficacy and tolerability, respectively. In 2007, ranking probabilities for relative efficacy and tolerability of escitalopram increased to 52.5% and 82.1%, respectively. Time of marketing authorization may not be the most appropriate time to evaluate the relative efficacy and tolerability of a new antidepressant based on MTC approach due to the asymmetry of information between new and older compounds. However, the first evaluation of relative effect of a new drug for health technology assessment recommendations is commonly done at this time. Re-evaluation of a drug several years after its launch is likely to provide a more accurate indication of its relative efficacy and tolerability.

Traditional medicines used by Q'eqchi' Maya to treat diabetic symptoms and their antiglycation potential.

PubMed

Ferrier, J; Saleem, A; Carter Ramirez, A; Liu, R; Chen, Eric; Pesek, T; Cal, V; Balick, M; Arnason, J T

2018-06-21

Because of the recent increase in type 2 diabetes and the need for complementary treatments in remote communities in many parts of the world, we undertook a study of treatments for diabetic symptoms used by traditional Q'eqchi' Maya healers of Belize. We used quantitative ethnobotany to rank culturally important taxa and subsequent pharmacological and phytochemical studies to assess bioactivity. Antidiabetic plants identified in field interviews with traditional healers were ranked by syndromic importance value (SIV) based on 15 symptoms of diabetes.. Species ranked with high SIV were tested in an assay relevant to many diabetes complications, the advanced glycation endproduct (AGE) inhibition assay. Active principles were identified by phytochemical analysis and bioassay. We collected over 70 plant species having a promising SIV score. The plants represented a broad range of neotropical taxa. Selected Q'eqchi' antidiabetic plants with high SIV were collected in bulk and tested in the advanced glycation endproduct (AGE) inhibition assay. All plant extracts showed AGE inhibition and the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC 50 ) ranged from 40.8 to 733µg/mL, while the most active species was Tynanthus guatemalensis Donn (Bignoniaceae). A linear regression showed a significant relationship between 1/ IC 50 and SIV. Phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of verbascoside, as a major component and active principle of the T guatemalensis which had an IC 50 = 5.1µg/mL, comparable to the positive control quercetin. The results reveal a rich botanical tradition of antidiabetic symptom treatments among the Q'eqchi'. Study of highly ranked plants revealed their activity in AGE inhibition correlated with SIV. T. guatemalensis was identified as a promising species for further evaluation and local use. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Analysis and description of disease-specific quality of life in patients with anal fistula.

PubMed

Ferrer-Márquez, Manuel; Espínola-Cortés, Natalia; Reina-Duarte, Ángel; Granero-Molina, José; Fernández-Sola, Cayetano; Hernández-Padilla, José Manuel

2018-04-01

In patients diagnosed with anal fistula, knowing the quality of life specifically related to the disease can help coloproctology specialists to choose the most appropriate therapeutic strategy for each case. The aim of our study is to analyzse and describe the factors related to the specific quality of life in a consecutive series of patients diagnosed with anal fistula. Observational, cross-sectional study carried out from March 2015 to February 2017. All patients were assessed in the colorectal surgery unit of a hospital in southeast of Spain. After performing an initial anamnesis and a physical examination, patients diagnosed with anal fistula completed the Quality of Life in Ppatients with Anal Fistula Questionnaire (QoLAF-Q). This questionnaire specifically measures quality of life in people with anal fistula and its score range is the following: zero impact = 14 points, limited impact = 15 to 28 points, moderate impact = 29 to 42 points, high impact = 43 to 56 points, and very high impact = 57 to 70 points. A total of 80 patients were included. The median score obtained in the questionnaire for the sample studied was 34.00 (range=14-68). Statistically significant differences between patients with "primary anal fistula" (n=65) and "recurrent anal fistula" (n=15) were observed (mean rank=42.96 vs. mean rank=29.83, p=0.048). Furthermore, an inverse proportion (P=.016) between "time with clinical symptoms" and "impact on quality of life" was found (<6 months: mean rank = 45.55; 6-12 months: mean rank = 44.39; 1-2 years: mean rank = 37.83; 2-5 years: mean rank = 22; >5 years: mean rank = 19.00). There were no statistically significant differences (P=.149) between quality of life amongst patients diagnosed with complex (mean rank = 36.13) and simple fistulae (mean rank = 43.59). Anal fistulae exert moderate-high impact on patients' quality of life. "Shorter time experiencing clinical symptoms" and the "presence of primary fistula" are factors that can be associated with worse quality of life. Copyright © 2018 AEC. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Do patient and practice characteristics confound age-group differences in preferences for general practice care? A quantitative study

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Previous research showed inconsistent results regarding the relationship between the age of patients and preference statements regarding GP care. This study investigates whether elderly patients have different preference scores and ranking orders concerning 58 preference statements for GP care than younger patients. Moreover, this study examines whether patient characteristics and practice location may confound the relationship between age and the categorisation of a preference score as very important. Methods Data of the Consumer Quality Index GP Care were used, which were collected in 32 general practices in the Netherlands. The rank order and preference score were calculated for 58 preference statements for four age groups (0–30, 31–50, 51–74, 75 years and older). Using chi-square tests and logistic regression analyses, it was investigated whether a significant relationship between age and preference score was confounded by patient characteristics and practice location. Results Elderly patients did not have a significant different ranking order for the preference statements than the other three age groups (r = 0.0193; p = 0.41). However, in 53% of the statements significant differences were found in preference score between the four age groups. Elderly patients categorized significantly less preference statements as ‘very important’. In most cases, the significant relationships were not confounded by gender, education, perceived health, the number of GP contacts and location of the GP practice. Conclusion The preferences of elderly patients for GP care concern the same items as younger patients. However, their preferences are less strong, which cannot be ascribed to gender, education, perceived health, the number of GP contacts and practice location. PMID:23800156

Coastal flooding impact evaluation using an INtegrated DisRuption Assessment (INDRA) model for Varna region, Western Black Sea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andreeva, Nataliya; Eftimova, Petya; Valchev, Nikolay; Prodanov, Bogdan

2017-04-01

The study presents evaluation and comparative analysis of storm induced flooding impacts on different coastal receptors at a scale of Varna region using INtegrated DisRuption Assessment (INDRA) model. The model was developed within the FP7 RISC-KIT project, as a part of Coastal Risk Assessment Framework (CRAF) consisting of two phases. CRAF Phase 1 is a screening process that evaluates coastal risk at a regional scale by means of coastal indices approach, which helps to identify potentially vulnerable coastal sectors: hot spots (HS). CRAF Phase 2 has the objective to assess and rank identified hotspots by detailed risk analysis done by jointly performing a hazard assessment and an impact evaluation on different categories (population, businesses, ecosystems, transport and utilities) using INDRA model at a regional level. Basically, the model assess the shock of events by estimating the impact on directly exposed to flooding hazard receptors of different vulnerability, as well as the potential ripple effects during an event in order to assess the "indirect" impacts, which occur outside the hazard area and/or continue after the event for all considered categories. The potential impacts are expressed in terms of uniform "Impact Indicators", which independently score the indirect impacts of these categories assessing disruption and recovery of the receptors. The ultimate hotspot ranking is obtained through the use of a Multi Criteria analysis (MCA) incorporated in the model, considering preferences of stakeholders. The case study area - Varna regional coast - is located on the western Black Sea, Bulgaria. The coastline, with a length of about 70 km, stretches from cape Ekrene to cape St. Atanas and includes Varna Bay. After application of CRAF Phase 1 three hotspots were selected for further analysis: Kabakum beach (HS1), Varna Central beach plus Port wall (HS2) and Artificial Island (HS3). For first two hotspots beaches and associated infrastructure are the assets that attract holiday-makers and tourists in summer season. For HS3 the exposed area is occupied by storage premises for industrial goods and oil/fuel tanks. Flooding hazard was assessed through coupled use of XBeach 1D and LISFLOOD 2D inundation models at the selected hotspots. The "response" approach was adopted as 75 extreme storm events were simulated to obtain storm maxima series of overtopping discharges, flood depth, depth-velocity and berm retreat. The selected return periods within the extreme value analysis were 20, 50 and 100 years. For impact evaluation by INDRA model the categories "Population" and "Business" were considered. Impacts on Population were addressed by 3 impact indicators: "Risk to Life", "Household Displacement Time" and "Household Financial Recovery", while for Business category only by "Business Financial Recovery". Hotspots ranking was done using MCA by weighting of the evaluated indicators: focused on Risk to Life (F1) and on Business Financial Recovery (F2). MCA scoring focused on Household displacement/recovery was not evaluated because modelling results revealed quite a low number of flooded household receptors. Results show that for both F1 and F2 and for all considered return periods HS2 has the highest scores, which makes it a final hotspot.

AGU journals continue to rank highly in Impact Factors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sears, Jon; Warner, Mary

2012-07-01

AGU journals continue to rank highly in the 2011 Journal Citation Reports (JCR), which was released by Thomson Reuters on 28 June. The impact factor of several AGU journals increased significantly, continuing their trend over the previous 5 years, while others remained consistent with the previous year's ranking. Paleoceanography is an outstanding performer in both the Paleontology and Oceanography categories. Since 1995, Paleoceanography has been the top-ranked journal in the Paleontology category (of 49 titles in 2011), with an Impact Factor of 3.357. In the Oceanography group (59 journals total), Paleoceanography ranks third in Impact Factor. Reviews of Geophysics, with an Impact Factor of 12.364 (an increase of 2.826 from the prior year's score of 9.538), ranks second in Geochemistry and Geophysics out of a total of 77 journals in this cohort. Water Resources Research comes in at second place in the Limnology group, with 19 titles, and third place in the Water Resources group, which has a cohort of 78 titles.

Rank score and permutation testing alternatives for regression quantile estimates

USGS Publications Warehouse

Cade, B.S.; Richards, J.D.; Mielke, P.W.

2006-01-01

Performance of quantile rank score tests used for hypothesis testing and constructing confidence intervals for linear quantile regression estimates (0 ≤ τ ≤ 1) were evaluated by simulation for models with p = 2 and 6 predictors, moderate collinearity among predictors, homogeneous and hetero-geneous errors, small to moderate samples (n = 20–300), and central to upper quantiles (0.50–0.99). Test statistics evaluated were the conventional quantile rank score T statistic distributed as χ2 random variable with q degrees of freedom (where q parameters are constrained by H 0:) and an F statistic with its sampling distribution approximated by permutation. The permutation F-test maintained better Type I errors than the T-test for homogeneous error models with smaller n and more extreme quantiles τ. An F distributional approximation of the F statistic provided some improvements in Type I errors over the T-test for models with > 2 parameters, smaller n, and more extreme quantiles but not as much improvement as the permutation approximation. Both rank score tests required weighting to maintain correct Type I errors when heterogeneity under the alternative model increased to 5 standard deviations across the domain of X. A double permutation procedure was developed to provide valid Type I errors for the permutation F-test when null models were forced through the origin. Power was similar for conditions where both T- and F-tests maintained correct Type I errors but the F-test provided some power at smaller n and extreme quantiles when the T-test had no power because of excessively conservative Type I errors. When the double permutation scheme was required for the permutation F-test to maintain valid Type I errors, power was less than for the T-test with decreasing sample size and increasing quantiles. Confidence intervals on parameters and tolerance intervals for future predictions were constructed based on test inversion for an example application relating trout densities to stream channel width:depth.

Study of Behaviour Problems in a Paediatric Outpatient Department.

PubMed

Prakash, J; Sudarsanan, S; Pardal, P K; Chaudhury, S

2006-10-01

Behaviour problems in children still needs precise definition, explicit criterion and assessment on multiple paradigms. Fifty children of the age group 6-14 years, from paediatric outpatient department, selected after randomisation were assessed for behaviour problems with the child behaviour checklist. The data collected was analysed using appropriate statistical tests. 40% children were above cutoff score. Mean child behaviour check list (CBCL) score was 40.6. Total of 72% children were from armed forces background of whom 9% were siblings of officers. 30.6% children from the armed forces background were above the cutoff score. There was no significant difference in the behaviour problems between different age groups and sex. There was no significant difference in behaviour problems between children of officers, other ranks or various income groups. Female children had behaviour problems like "too concerned with neatness or cleanliness", "feels has to be perfect" and "argues a lot" where as male children had behaviour problems like "Does not feel guilty after misbehaving", "argues a lot" and "restless". Behaviour problems in the subjects were externalizing ones. No specific trend was found in children of defence personnel vis-a-vis children of civilian population.

Discovery of binding proteins for a protein target using protein-protein docking-based virtual screening.

PubMed

Zhang, Changsheng; Tang, Bo; Wang, Qian; Lai, Luhua

2014-10-01

Target structure-based virtual screening, which employs protein-small molecule docking to identify potential ligands, has been widely used in small-molecule drug discovery. In the present study, we used a protein-protein docking program to identify proteins that bind to a specific target protein. In the testing phase, an all-to-all protein-protein docking run on a large dataset was performed. The three-dimensional rigid docking program SDOCK was used to examine protein-protein docking on all protein pairs in the dataset. Both the binding affinity and features of the binding energy landscape were considered in the scoring function in order to distinguish positive binding pairs from negative binding pairs. Thus, the lowest docking score, the average Z-score, and convergency of the low-score solutions were incorporated in the analysis. The hybrid scoring function was optimized in the all-to-all docking test. The docking method and the hybrid scoring function were then used to screen for proteins that bind to tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα), which is a well-known therapeutic target for rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. A protein library containing 677 proteins was used for the screen. Proteins with scores among the top 20% were further examined. Sixteen proteins from the top-ranking 67 proteins were selected for experimental study. Two of these proteins showed significant binding to TNFα in an in vitro binding study. The results of the present study demonstrate the power and potential application of protein-protein docking for the discovery of novel binding proteins for specific protein targets. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

SRS: Site ranking system for hazardous chemical and radioactive waste

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

Rechard, R.P.; Chu, M.S.Y.; Brown, S.L.

1988-05-01

This report describes the rationale and presents instructions for a site ranking system (SRS). SRS ranks hazardous chemical and radioactive waste sites by scoring important and readily available factors that influence risk to human health. Using SRS, sites can be ranked for purposes of detailed site investigations. SRS evaluates the relative risk as a combination of potentially exposed population, chemical toxicity, and potential exposure of release from a waste site; hence, SRS uses the same concepts found in a detailed assessment of health risk. Basing SRS on the concepts of risk assessment tends to reduce the distortion of results foundmore » in other ranking schemes. More importantly, a clear logic helps ensure the successful application of the ranking procedure and increases its versatility when modifications are necessary for unique situations. Although one can rank sites using a detailed risk assessment, it is potentially costly because of data and resources required. SRS is an efficient approach to provide an order-of-magnitude ranking, requiring only readily available data (often only descriptive) and hand calculations. Worksheets are included to make the system easier to understand and use. 88 refs., 19 figs., 58 tabs.« less

A Comparison of Nationally Ranked High Schools and Their Music Curricula

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kelly, Steven N.; Heath, Julia D.

2015-01-01

This study compared selected musical, educational, and social characteristics of high schools ranked highest in "Newsweek" and "U.S. News & World Report." Questions addressed were (a) How are the top-ranked schools similar or different in educational, musical, and social characteristics? (b) What music courses are offered…

Dissociation and psychosis in dissociative identity disorder and schizophrenia.

PubMed

Laddis, Andreas; Dell, Paul F

2012-01-01

Dissociative symptoms, first-rank symptoms of schizophrenia, and delusions were assessed in 40 schizophrenia patients and 40 dissociative identity disorder (DID) patients with the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation (MID). Schizophrenia patients were diagnosed with the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV Axis I Disorders; DID patients were diagnosed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders-Revised. DID patients obtained significantly (a) higher dissociation scores; (b) higher passive-influence scores (first-rank symptoms); and (c) higher scores on scales that measure child voices, angry voices, persecutory voices, voices arguing, and voices commenting. Schizophrenia patients obtained significantly higher delusion scores than did DID patients. What is odd is that the dissociation scores of schizophrenia patients were unrelated to their reports of childhood maltreatment. Multiple regression analyses indicated that 81% of the variance in DID patients' dissociation scores was predicted by the MID's Ego-Alien Experiences Scale, whereas 92% of the variance in schizophrenia patients' dissociation scores was predicted by the MID's Voices Scale. We propose that schizophrenia patients' responses to the MID do not index the same pathology as do the responses of DID patients. We argue that neither phenomenological definitions of dissociation nor the current generation of dissociation instruments (which are uniformly phenomenological in nature) can distinguish between the dissociative phenomena of DID and what we suspect are just the dissociation-like phenomena of schizophrenia.

Stakeholders’ perspectives on access-to-medicines policy and research priorities in Latin America and the Caribbean: face-to-face and web-based interviews

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background This study aims to rank policy concerns and policy-related research issues in order to identify policy and research gaps on access to medicines (ATM) in low- and middle-income countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), as perceived by policy makers, researchers, NGO and international organization representatives, as part of a global prioritization exercise. Methods Data collection, conducted between January and May 2011, involved face-to-face interviews in El Salvador, Colombia, Dominican Republic, and Suriname, and an e-mail survey with key-stakeholders. Respondents were asked to choose the five most relevant criteria for research prioritization and to score policy/research items according to the degree to which they represented current policies, desired policies, current research topics, and/or desired research topics. Mean scores and summary rankings were obtained. Linear regressions were performed to contrast rankings concerning current and desired policies (policy gaps), and current and desired research (research gaps). Results Relevance, feasibility, and research utilization were the top ranked criteria for prioritizing research. Technical capacity, research and development for new drugs, and responsiveness, were the main policy gaps. Quality assurance, staff technical capacity, price regulation, out-of-pocket payments, and cost containment policies, were the main research gaps. There was high level of coherence between current and desired policies: coefficients of determination (R2) varied from 0.46 (Health system structure; r = 0.68, P <0.01) to 0.86 (Sustainable financing; r = 0.93, P <0.01). There was also high coherence between current and desired research on Rational selection and use of medicines (r = 0.71, P <0.05, R2 = 0.51), Pricing/affordability (r = 0.82, P <0.01, R2 = 0.67), and Sustainable financing (r = 0.76, P <0.01, R2 = 0.58). Coherence was less for Health system structure (r = 0.61, P <0.01, R2 = 0.38). Conclusions This study combines metrics approaches, contributing to priority setting methodology development, with country and regional level stakeholder participation. Stakeholders received feedback with the results, and we hope to have contributed to the discussion and implementation of ATM research and policy priorities in LAC. PMID:24965383

Score Equating and Nominally Parallel Language Tests.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moy, Raymond

Score equating requires that the forms to be equated are functionally parallel. That is, the two test forms should rank order examinees in a similar fashion. In language proficiency testing situations, this assumption is often put into doubt because of the numerous tests that have been proposed as measures of language proficiency and the…

Machine learning for prediction of all-cause mortality in patients with suspected coronary artery disease: a 5-year multicentre prospective registry analysis

PubMed Central

Motwani, Manish; Dey, Damini; Berman, Daniel S.; Germano, Guido; Achenbach, Stephan; Al-Mallah, Mouaz H.; Andreini, Daniele; Budoff, Matthew J.; Cademartiri, Filippo; Callister, Tracy Q.; Chang, Hyuk-Jae; Chinnaiyan, Kavitha; Chow, Benjamin J.W.; Cury, Ricardo C.; Delago, Augustin; Gomez, Millie; Gransar, Heidi; Hadamitzky, Martin; Hausleiter, Joerg; Hindoyan, Niree; Feuchtner, Gudrun; Kaufmann, Philipp A.; Kim, Yong-Jin; Leipsic, Jonathon; Lin, Fay Y.; Maffei, Erica; Marques, Hugo; Pontone, Gianluca; Raff, Gilbert; Rubinshtein, Ronen; Shaw, Leslee J.; Stehli, Julia; Villines, Todd C.; Dunning, Allison; Min, James K.; Slomka, Piotr J.

2017-01-01

Aims Traditional prognostic risk assessment in patients undergoing non-invasive imaging is based upon a limited selection of clinical and imaging findings. Machine learning (ML) can consider a greater number and complexity of variables. Therefore, we investigated the feasibility and accuracy of ML to predict 5-year all-cause mortality (ACM) in patients undergoing coronary computed tomographic angiography (CCTA), and compared the performance to existing clinical or CCTA metrics. Methods and results The analysis included 10 030 patients with suspected coronary artery disease and 5-year follow-up from the COronary CT Angiography EvaluatioN For Clinical Outcomes: An InteRnational Multicenter registry. All patients underwent CCTA as their standard of care. Twenty-five clinical and 44 CCTA parameters were evaluated, including segment stenosis score (SSS), segment involvement score (SIS), modified Duke index (DI), number of segments with non-calcified, mixed or calcified plaques, age, sex, gender, standard cardiovascular risk factors, and Framingham risk score (FRS). Machine learning involved automated feature selection by information gain ranking, model building with a boosted ensemble algorithm, and 10-fold stratified cross-validation. Seven hundred and forty-five patients died during 5-year follow-up. Machine learning exhibited a higher area-under-curve compared with the FRS or CCTA severity scores alone (SSS, SIS, DI) for predicting all-cause mortality (ML: 0.79 vs. FRS: 0.61, SSS: 0.64, SIS: 0.64, DI: 0.62; P< 0.001). Conclusions Machine learning combining clinical and CCTA data was found to predict 5-year ACM significantly better than existing clinical or CCTA metrics alone. PMID:27252451

Machine learning for prediction of all-cause mortality in patients with suspected coronary artery disease: a 5-year multicentre prospective registry analysis.

PubMed

Motwani, Manish; Dey, Damini; Berman, Daniel S; Germano, Guido; Achenbach, Stephan; Al-Mallah, Mouaz H; Andreini, Daniele; Budoff, Matthew J; Cademartiri, Filippo; Callister, Tracy Q; Chang, Hyuk-Jae; Chinnaiyan, Kavitha; Chow, Benjamin J W; Cury, Ricardo C; Delago, Augustin; Gomez, Millie; Gransar, Heidi; Hadamitzky, Martin; Hausleiter, Joerg; Hindoyan, Niree; Feuchtner, Gudrun; Kaufmann, Philipp A; Kim, Yong-Jin; Leipsic, Jonathon; Lin, Fay Y; Maffei, Erica; Marques, Hugo; Pontone, Gianluca; Raff, Gilbert; Rubinshtein, Ronen; Shaw, Leslee J; Stehli, Julia; Villines, Todd C; Dunning, Allison; Min, James K; Slomka, Piotr J

2017-02-14

Traditional prognostic risk assessment in patients undergoing non-invasive imaging is based upon a limited selection of clinical and imaging findings. Machine learning (ML) can consider a greater number and complexity of variables. Therefore, we investigated the feasibility and accuracy of ML to predict 5-year all-cause mortality (ACM) in patients undergoing coronary computed tomographic angiography (CCTA), and compared the performance to existing clinical or CCTA metrics. The analysis included 10 030 patients with suspected coronary artery disease and 5-year follow-up from the COronary CT Angiography EvaluatioN For Clinical Outcomes: An InteRnational Multicenter registry. All patients underwent CCTA as their standard of care. Twenty-five clinical and 44 CCTA parameters were evaluated, including segment stenosis score (SSS), segment involvement score (SIS), modified Duke index (DI), number of segments with non-calcified, mixed or calcified plaques, age, sex, gender, standard cardiovascular risk factors, and Framingham risk score (FRS). Machine learning involved automated feature selection by information gain ranking, model building with a boosted ensemble algorithm, and 10-fold stratified cross-validation. Seven hundred and forty-five patients died during 5-year follow-up. Machine learning exhibited a higher area-under-curve compared with the FRS or CCTA severity scores alone (SSS, SIS, DI) for predicting all-cause mortality (ML: 0.79 vs. FRS: 0.61, SSS: 0.64, SIS: 0.64, DI: 0.62; P< 0.001). Machine learning combining clinical and CCTA data was found to predict 5-year ACM significantly better than existing clinical or CCTA metrics alone. Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2016. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Does Spending Money on Education Help? A Reaction to the Heritage Foundation and the "Wall Street Journal."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wainer, Howard

In June 1993 the "Wall Street Journal" carried a table of data prepared by the Heritage Foundation that listed the states in order of the average amount they expend on each public school student. The table also contained each state's rank on the average score on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the rank of each state in the average…

Crew Resource Management Use in U.S. Air Force Flight and Family Medicine Clinics

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-06-30

However, it is much less studied in medicine, especially outpatient care. Because of their dual role as physicians and aircrew, flight surgeons might...rank, gender , and major command (MAJCOM) affiliation to see if any of these covariates might explain any variation in individual domain scores...variables. Covariates included group (flight surgeon versus family physician), rank, gender , and MAJCOM. Significant covariate effects were further

Genetic parameters for type classification of Nelore cattle on central performance tests at pasture in Brazil.

PubMed

Lima, Paulo Ricardo Martins; Paiva, Samuel Rezende; Cobuci, Jaime Araujo; Braccini Neto, José; Machado, Carlos Henrique Cavallari; McManus, Concepta

2013-10-01

The objective of this study was to characterize Nelore cattle on central performance tests in pasture, ranked by the visual classification method EPMURAS (structure, precocity, muscle, navel, breed, posture, and sexual characteristics), and to estimate genetic and phenotypic correlations between these parameters, including visual as well as production traits (initial and final weight on test, weight gain, and weight corrected for 550 days). The information used in the study was obtained on 21,032 Nelore bulls which were participants in the central performance test at pasture of the Brazilian Association for Zebu Breeders (ABCZ). Heritabilities obtained were from 0.19 to 0.50. Phenotypic correlations were positive from 0.70 to 0.97 between the weight traits, from 0.65 to 0.74 between visual characteristics, and from 0.29 to 0.47 between visual characteristics and weight traits. The genetic correlations were positive ranging from 0.80 to 0.98 between the characteristics of structure, precocity and musculature, from 0.13 to 0.64 between the growth characteristics, and from 0.41 to 0.97 between visual scores and weight gains. Heritability and genetic correlations indicate that the use of visual scores, along with the selection for growth characteristics, can bring positive results in selection of beef cattle for rearing on pasture.

Expert opinion on landslide susceptibility elicted by probabilistic inversion from scenario rankings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Katy; Dashwood, Claire; Lark, Murray

2016-04-01

For many natural hazards the opinion of experts, with experience in assessing susceptibility under different circumstances, is a valuable source of information on which to base risk assessments. This is particularly important where incomplete process understanding, and limited data, limit the scope to predict susceptibility by mechanistic or statistical modelling. The expert has a tacit model of a system, based on their understanding of processes and their field experience. This model may vary in quality, depending on the experience of the expert. There is considerable interest in how one may elicit expert understanding by a process which is transparent and robust, to provide a basis for decision support. One approach is to provide experts with a set of scenarios, and then to ask them to rank small overlapping subsets of these with respect to susceptibility. Methods of probabilistic inversion have been used to compute susceptibility scores for each scenario, implicit in the expert ranking. It is also possible to model these scores as functions of measurable properties of the scenarios. This approach has been used to assess susceptibility of animal populations to invasive diseases, to assess risk to vulnerable marine environments and to assess the risk in hypothetical novel technologies for food production. We will present the results of a study in which a group of geologists with varying degrees of expertise in assessing landslide hazards were asked to rank sets of hypothetical simplified scenarios with respect to land slide susceptibility. We examine the consistency of their rankings and the importance of different properties of the scenarios in the tacit susceptibility model that their rankings implied. Our results suggest that this is a promising approach to the problem of how experts can communicate their tacit model of uncertain systems to those who want to make use of their expertise.

Status change during adulthood: life-history by-product or kin selection based on reproductive value?

PubMed Central

Combes, S. L.; Altmann, J.

2001-01-01

When dominance status predicts fitness, most adaptive models of dominance relationships among cercopithecine primate females predict lifetime maintenance of status. These models and alternative ones positing rank decline as a non-adaptive by-product have remained largely untested, however, because lifetime status of older adults has been virtually unknown for natural populations. In a 25-year study of adult female savannah baboons (Papio cynocephalus), in each of three social groups, rank losses were common among the 66 females that lived past median adult age. These losses were not accounted for by loss in relative rank from group growth or by loss in absolute rank from reversals in rank between members of different maternal families or between sisters. Rather, females that had mature daughters experienced loss of dominance status to these offspring, a characteristic of all but the top-ranking matriline of each group. Among proposed hypotheses for rank reversals between adults, that of kin selection based on relative reproductive value is most clearly supported by these data. In contrast, observed patterns of rank loss are not consistent with alternative models that postulate that changes during adult lifespan are a product of accumulated risk, physical decline during ageing, or coalitionary support among females within or between matrilines. PMID:11429136

An empirical evaluation of supervised learning approaches in assigning diagnosis codes to electronic medical records

PubMed Central

Kavuluru, Ramakanth; Rios, Anthony; Lu, Yuan

2015-01-01

Background Diagnosis codes are assigned to medical records in healthcare facilities by trained coders by reviewing all physician authored documents associated with a patient's visit. This is a necessary and complex task involving coders adhering to coding guidelines and coding all assignable codes. With the popularity of electronic medical records (EMRs), computational approaches to code assignment have been proposed in the recent years. However, most efforts have focused on single and often short clinical narratives, while realistic scenarios warrant full EMR level analysis for code assignment. Objective We evaluate supervised learning approaches to automatically assign international classification of diseases (ninth revision) - clinical modification (ICD-9-CM) codes to EMRs by experimenting with a large realistic EMR dataset. The overall goal is to identify methods that offer superior performance in this task when considering such datasets. Methods We use a dataset of 71,463 EMRs corresponding to in-patient visits with discharge date falling in a two year period (2011–2012) from the University of Kentucky (UKY) Medical Center. We curate a smaller subset of this dataset and also use a third gold standard dataset of radiology reports. We conduct experiments using different problem transformation approaches with feature and data selection components and employing suitable label calibration and ranking methods with novel features involving code co-occurrence frequencies and latent code associations. Results Over all codes with at least 50 training examples we obtain a micro F-score of 0.48. On the set of codes that occur at least in 1% of the two year dataset, we achieve a micro F-score of 0.54. For the smaller radiology report dataset, the classifier chaining approach yields best results. For the smaller subset of the UKY dataset, feature selection, data selection, and label calibration offer best performance. Conclusions We show that datasets at different scale (size of the EMRs, number of distinct codes) and with different characteristics warrant different learning approaches. For shorter narratives pertaining to a particular medical subdomain (e.g., radiology, pathology), classifier chaining is ideal given the codes are highly related with each other. For realistic in-patient full EMRs, feature and data selection methods offer high performance for smaller datasets. However, for large EMR datasets, we observe that the binary relevance approach with learning-to-rank based code reranking offers the best performance. Regardless of the training dataset size, for general EMRs, label calibration to select the optimal number of labels is an indispensable final step. PMID:26054428

An empirical evaluation of supervised learning approaches in assigning diagnosis codes to electronic medical records.

PubMed

Kavuluru, Ramakanth; Rios, Anthony; Lu, Yuan

2015-10-01

Diagnosis codes are assigned to medical records in healthcare facilities by trained coders by reviewing all physician authored documents associated with a patient's visit. This is a necessary and complex task involving coders adhering to coding guidelines and coding all assignable codes. With the popularity of electronic medical records (EMRs), computational approaches to code assignment have been proposed in the recent years. However, most efforts have focused on single and often short clinical narratives, while realistic scenarios warrant full EMR level analysis for code assignment. We evaluate supervised learning approaches to automatically assign international classification of diseases (ninth revision) - clinical modification (ICD-9-CM) codes to EMRs by experimenting with a large realistic EMR dataset. The overall goal is to identify methods that offer superior performance in this task when considering such datasets. We use a dataset of 71,463 EMRs corresponding to in-patient visits with discharge date falling in a two year period (2011-2012) from the University of Kentucky (UKY) Medical Center. We curate a smaller subset of this dataset and also use a third gold standard dataset of radiology reports. We conduct experiments using different problem transformation approaches with feature and data selection components and employing suitable label calibration and ranking methods with novel features involving code co-occurrence frequencies and latent code associations. Over all codes with at least 50 training examples we obtain a micro F-score of 0.48. On the set of codes that occur at least in 1% of the two year dataset, we achieve a micro F-score of 0.54. For the smaller radiology report dataset, the classifier chaining approach yields best results. For the smaller subset of the UKY dataset, feature selection, data selection, and label calibration offer best performance. We show that datasets at different scale (size of the EMRs, number of distinct codes) and with different characteristics warrant different learning approaches. For shorter narratives pertaining to a particular medical subdomain (e.g., radiology, pathology), classifier chaining is ideal given the codes are highly related with each other. For realistic in-patient full EMRs, feature and data selection methods offer high performance for smaller datasets. However, for large EMR datasets, we observe that the binary relevance approach with learning-to-rank based code reranking offers the best performance. Regardless of the training dataset size, for general EMRs, label calibration to select the optimal number of labels is an indispensable final step. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Blinded evaluation of farnesoid X receptor (FXR) ligands binding using molecular docking and free energy calculations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Selwa, Edithe; Elisée, Eddy; Zavala, Agustin; Iorga, Bogdan I.

2018-01-01

Our participation to the D3R Grand Challenge 2 involved a protocol in two steps, with an initial analysis of the available structural data from the PDB allowing the selection of the most appropriate combination of docking software and scoring function. Subsequent docking calculations showed that the pose prediction can be carried out with a certain precision, but this is dependent on the specific nature of the ligands. The correct ranking of docking poses is still a problem and cannot be successful in the absence of good pose predictions. Our free energy calculations on two different subsets provided contrasted results, which might have the origin in non-optimal force field parameters associated with the sulfonamide chemical moiety.

Reinforce: An Ensemble Approach for Inferring PPI Network from AP-MS Data.

PubMed

Tian, Bo; Duan, Qiong; Zhao, Can; Teng, Ben; He, Zengyou

2017-05-17

Affinity Purification-Mass Spectrometry (AP-MS) is one of the most important technologies for constructing protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks. In this paper, we propose an ensemble method, Reinforce, for inferring PPI network from AP-MS data set. The new algorithm named Reinforce is based on rank aggregation and false discovery rate control. Under the null hypothesis that the interaction scores from different scoring methods are randomly generated, Reinforce follows three steps to integrate multiple ranking results from different algorithms or different data sets. The experimental results show that Reinforce can get more stable and accurate inference results than existing algorithms. The source codes of Reinforce and data sets used in the experiments are available at: https://sourceforge.net/projects/reinforce/.

Blind Pose Prediction, Scoring, and Affinity Ranking of the CSAR 2014 Dataset.

PubMed

Martiny, Virginie Y; Martz, François; Selwa, Edithe; Iorga, Bogdan I

2016-06-27

The 2014 CSAR Benchmark Exercise was focused on three protein targets: coagulation factor Xa, spleen tyrosine kinase, and bacterial tRNA methyltransferase. Our protocol involved a preliminary analysis of the structural information available in the Protein Data Bank for the protein targets, which allowed the identification of the most appropriate docking software and scoring functions to be used for the rescoring of several docking conformations datasets, as well as for pose prediction and affinity ranking. The two key points of this study were (i) the prior evaluation of molecular modeling tools that are most adapted for each target and (ii) the increased search efficiency during the docking process to better explore the conformational space of big and flexible ligands.