Effects of preprocessing Landsat MSS data on derived features

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parris, T. M.; Cicone, R. C.

1983-01-01

Important to the use of multitemporal Landsat MSS data for earth resources monitoring, such as agricultural inventories, is the ability to minimize the effects of varying atmospheric and satellite viewing conditions, while extracting physically meaningful features from the data. In general, the approaches to the preprocessing problem have been derived from either physical or statistical models. This paper compares three proposed algorithms; XSTAR haze correction, Color Normalization, and Multiple Acquisition Mean Level Adjustment. These techniques represent physical, statistical, and hybrid physical-statistical models, respectively. The comparisons are made in the context of three feature extraction techniques; the Tasseled Cap, the Cate Color Cube. and Normalized Difference.

Ruminating on Coursework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Povey, Hilary

2006-01-01

GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) Handling Data coursework should be a golden opportunity to engage students in meaningful "real-life" mathematics. The marking criteria for GCSE handling data coursework puts emphasis on students' ability to plan and carry out a statistical project and to make meaningful analysis of the…

Min-By-Min Respiratory Exchange and Oxygen Uptake Kinetics During Steady-State Exercise in Subjects of High and Low Max VO2

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weltman, Arthur; Katch, Victor

1976-01-01

No statistically meaningful differences in steady-state vo2 uptake for high and low max vo2 groups was indicated in this study, but a clear tendency was observed for the high max vo2 group to reach the steady-state at a faster rate. (MB)

TopoToolbox: using sensor topography to calculate psychologically meaningful measures from event-related EEG/MEG.

PubMed

Tian, Xing; Poeppel, David; Huber, David E

2011-01-01

The open-source toolbox "TopoToolbox" is a suite of functions that use sensor topography to calculate psychologically meaningful measures (similarity, magnitude, and timing) from multisensor event-related EEG and MEG data. Using a GUI and data visualization, TopoToolbox can be used to calculate and test the topographic similarity between different conditions (Tian and Huber, 2008). This topographic similarity indicates whether different conditions involve a different distribution of underlying neural sources. Furthermore, this similarity calculation can be applied at different time points to discover when a response pattern emerges (Tian and Poeppel, 2010). Because the topographic patterns are obtained separately for each individual, these patterns are used to produce reliable measures of response magnitude that can be compared across individuals using conventional statistics (Davelaar et al. Submitted and Huber et al., 2008). TopoToolbox can be freely downloaded. It runs under MATLAB (The MathWorks, Inc.) and supports user-defined data structure as well as standard EEG/MEG data import using EEGLAB (Delorme and Makeig, 2004).

Individual behavioral phenotypes: an integrative meta-theoretical framework. Why "behavioral syndromes" are not analogs of "personality".

PubMed

Uher, Jana

2011-09-01

Animal researchers are increasingly interested in individual differences in behavior. Their interpretation as meaningful differences in behavioral strategies stable over time and across contexts, adaptive, heritable, and acted upon by natural selection has triggered new theoretical developments. However, the analytical approaches used to explore behavioral data still address population-level phenomena, and statistical methods suitable to analyze individual behavior are rarely applied. I discuss fundamental investigative principles and analytical approaches to explore whether, in what ways, and under which conditions individual behavioral differences are actually meaningful. I elaborate the meta-theoretical ideas underlying common theoretical concepts and integrate them into an overarching meta-theoretical and methodological framework. This unravels commonalities and differences, and shows that assumptions of analogy to concepts of human personality are not always warranted and that some theoretical developments may be based on methodological artifacts. Yet, my results also highlight possible directions for new theoretical developments in animal behavior research. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Statistical Primer on Biosimilar Clinical Development.

PubMed

Isakov, Leah; Jin, Bo; Jacobs, Ira Allen

A biosimilar is highly similar to a licensed biological product and has no clinically meaningful differences between the biological product and the reference (originator) product in terms of safety, purity, and potency and is approved under specific regulatory approval processes. Because both the originator and the potential biosimilar are large and structurally complex proteins, biosimilars are not generic equivalents of the originator. Thus, the regulatory approach for a small-molecule generic is not appropriate for a potential biosimilar. As a result, different study designs and statistical approaches are used in the assessment of a potential biosimilar. This review covers concepts and terminology used in statistical analyses in the clinical development of biosimilars so that clinicians can understand how similarity is evaluated. This should allow the clinician to understand the statistical considerations in biosimilar clinical trials and make informed prescribing decisions when an approved biosimilar is available.

Statistical testing of baseline differences in sports medicine RCTs: a systematic evaluation.

PubMed

Peterson, Ross L; Tran, Matthew; Koffel, Jonathan; Stovitz, Steven D

2017-01-01

The CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) statement discourages reporting statistical tests of baseline differences between groups in randomised controlled trials (RCTs). However, this practice is still common in many medical fields. Our aim was to determine the prevalence of this practice in leading sports medicine journals. We conducted a comprehensive search in Medline through PubMed to identify RCTs published in the years 2005 and 2015 from 10 high-impact sports medicine journals. Two reviewers independently confirmed the trial design and reached consensus on which articles contained statistical tests of baseline differences. Our search strategy identified a total of 324 RCTs, with 85 from the year 2005 and 239 from the year 2015. Overall, 64.8% of studies (95% CI (59.6, 70.0)) reported statistical tests of baseline differences; broken down by year, this percentage was 67.1% in 2005 (95% CI (57.1, 77.1)) and 64.0% in 2015 (95% CI (57.9, 70.1)). Although discouraged by the CONSORT statement, statistical testing of baseline differences remains highly prevalent in sports medicine RCTs. Statistical testing of baseline differences can mislead authors; for example, by failing to identify meaningful baseline differences in small studies. Journals that ask authors to follow the CONSORT statement guidelines should recognise that many manuscripts are ignoring the recommendation against statistical testing of baseline differences.

40 CFR 798.3260 - Chronic toxicity.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... dose groups and in the controls should be low to permit a meaningful evaluation of the results. For non... meaningful and valid statistical evaluation of chronic effects. (2) Control groups. (i) A concurrent control group is suggested. This group should be an untreated or sham treated control group or, if a vehicle is...

40 CFR 798.3260 - Chronic toxicity.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... dose groups and in the controls should be low to permit a meaningful evaluation of the results. For non... meaningful and valid statistical evaluation of chronic effects. (2) Control groups. (i) A concurrent control group is suggested. This group should be an untreated or sham treated control group or, if a vehicle is...

40 CFR 798.3260 - Chronic toxicity.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... dose groups and in the controls should be low to permit a meaningful evaluation of the results. For non... meaningful and valid statistical evaluation of chronic effects. (2) Control groups. (i) A concurrent control group is suggested. This group should be an untreated or sham treated control group or, if a vehicle is...

40 CFR 798.3260 - Chronic toxicity.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... dose groups and in the controls should be low to permit a meaningful evaluation of the results. For non... meaningful and valid statistical evaluation of chronic effects. (2) Control groups. (i) A concurrent control group is suggested. This group should be an untreated or sham treated control group or, if a vehicle is...

40 CFR 798.3260 - Chronic toxicity.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... dose groups and in the controls should be low to permit a meaningful evaluation of the results. For non... meaningful and valid statistical evaluation of chronic effects. (2) Control groups. (i) A concurrent control group is suggested. This group should be an untreated or sham treated control group or, if a vehicle is...

Explorations in Statistics: the Bootstrap

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curran-Everett, Douglas

2009-01-01

Learning about statistics is a lot like learning about science: the learning is more meaningful if you can actively explore. This fourth installment of Explorations in Statistics explores the bootstrap. The bootstrap gives us an empirical approach to estimate the theoretical variability among possible values of a sample statistic such as the…

Probability distributions of molecular observables computed from Markov models. II. Uncertainties in observables and their time-evolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chodera, John D.; Noé, Frank

2010-09-01

Discrete-state Markov (or master equation) models provide a useful simplified representation for characterizing the long-time statistical evolution of biomolecules in a manner that allows direct comparison with experiments as well as the elucidation of mechanistic pathways for an inherently stochastic process. A vital part of meaningful comparison with experiment is the characterization of the statistical uncertainty in the predicted experimental measurement, which may take the form of an equilibrium measurement of some spectroscopic signal, the time-evolution of this signal following a perturbation, or the observation of some statistic (such as the correlation function) of the equilibrium dynamics of a single molecule. Without meaningful error bars (which arise from both approximation and statistical error), there is no way to determine whether the deviations between model and experiment are statistically meaningful. Previous work has demonstrated that a Bayesian method that enforces microscopic reversibility can be used to characterize the statistical component of correlated uncertainties in state-to-state transition probabilities (and functions thereof) for a model inferred from molecular simulation data. Here, we extend this approach to include the uncertainty in observables that are functions of molecular conformation (such as surrogate spectroscopic signals) characterizing each state, permitting the full statistical uncertainty in computed spectroscopic experiments to be assessed. We test the approach in a simple model system to demonstrate that the computed uncertainties provide a useful indicator of statistical variation, and then apply it to the computation of the fluorescence autocorrelation function measured for a dye-labeled peptide previously studied by both experiment and simulation.

The social construction of "evidence-based'' drug prevention programs: a reanalysis of data from the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program.

PubMed

Gorman, Dennis M; Huber, J Charles

2009-08-01

This study explores the possibility that any drug prevention program might be considered ;;evidence-based'' given the use of data analysis procedures that optimize the chance of producing statistically significant results by reanalyzing data from a Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program evaluation. The analysis produced a number of statistically significant differences between the DARE and control conditions on alcohol and marijuana use measures. Many of these differences occurred at cutoff points on the assessment scales for which post hoc meaningful labels were created. Our results are compared to those from evaluations of programs that appear on evidence-based drug prevention lists.

Explorations in Statistics: Hypothesis Tests and P Values

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curran-Everett, Douglas

2009-01-01

Learning about statistics is a lot like learning about science: the learning is more meaningful if you can actively explore. This second installment of "Explorations in Statistics" delves into test statistics and P values, two concepts fundamental to the test of a scientific null hypothesis. The essence of a test statistic is that it compares what…

Parental Functioning in Families of Children with ADHD: Evidence for Behavioral Parent Training and Importance of Clinically Meaningful Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gerdes, Alyson C.; Haack, Lauren M.; Schneider, Brian W.

2012-01-01

Objective/Method: Statistically significant and clinically meaningful effects of behavioral parent training on parental functioning were examined for 20 children with ADHD and their parents who had successfully completed a psychosocial treatment for ADHD. Results/Conclusion: Findings suggest that behavioral parent training resulted in…

Automatic summarization of changes in biological image sequences using algorithmic information theory.

PubMed

Cohen, Andrew R; Bjornsson, Christopher S; Temple, Sally; Banker, Gary; Roysam, Badrinath

2009-08-01

An algorithmic information-theoretic method is presented for object-level summarization of meaningful changes in image sequences. Object extraction and tracking data are represented as an attributed tracking graph (ATG). Time courses of object states are compared using an adaptive information distance measure, aided by a closed-form multidimensional quantization. The notion of meaningful summarization is captured by using the gap statistic to estimate the randomness deficiency from algorithmic statistics. The summary is the clustering result and feature subset that maximize the gap statistic. This approach was validated on four bioimaging applications: 1) It was applied to a synthetic data set containing two populations of cells differing in the rate of growth, for which it correctly identified the two populations and the single feature out of 23 that separated them; 2) it was applied to 59 movies of three types of neuroprosthetic devices being inserted in the brain tissue at three speeds each, for which it correctly identified insertion speed as the primary factor affecting tissue strain; 3) when applied to movies of cultured neural progenitor cells, it correctly distinguished neurons from progenitors without requiring the use of a fixative stain; and 4) when analyzing intracellular molecular transport in cultured neurons undergoing axon specification, it automatically confirmed the role of kinesins in axon specification.

Purposeful Statistical Investigations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Day, Lorraine

2014-01-01

Lorraine Day provides us with a great range of statistical investigations using various resources such as maths300 and TinkerPlots. Each of the investigations link mathematics to students' lives and provide engaging and meaningful contexts for mathematical inquiry.

The impact of occupational therapy and lifestyle interventions on older persons' health, well-being, and occupational adaptation.

PubMed

Johansson, Ann; Björklund, Anita

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate whether a four-month occupational based health-promoting programme for older persons living in community dwellings could maintain/improve their general health and well-being. Further, the aim was to explore whether the programme facilitated the older persons' occupational adaptation. The study had a quasi-experimental design, with a non-equivalent control group combined with semi-structured interviews. The intervention group comprised 22 participants, and the control group 18. Outcomes were measured using the Short Form 36, Life Satisfaction Index-Z and Meaningful Activity Participation Assessment. Content analysis, based on concepts from the Model of Occupational Adaptation, was used to analyse the interviews. The intervention group showed statistically significant improvements in general health variables such as vitality and mental health, and positive trends for psychological well-being. There were no statistically significant differences between the intervention group and the control group, but the groups were not fully matched. The qualitative analysis based on Occupational Adaptation pointed out social aspects as a compliment to the overall results. Participating in meaningful, challenging activities in different environments stimulates the occupational adaptation process; this is something occupational therapists could use to empower older persons to find their optimal occupational lives.

Introduction of a Journal Excerpt Activity Improves Undergraduate Students' Performance in Statistics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rabin, Laura A.; Nutter-Upham, Katherine E.

2010-01-01

We describe an active learning exercise intended to improve undergraduate students' understanding of statistics by grounding complex concepts within a meaningful, applied context. Students in a journal excerpt activity class read brief excerpts of statistical reporting from published research articles, answered factual and interpretive questions,…

Explorations in Statistics: Power

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curran-Everett, Douglas

2010-01-01

Learning about statistics is a lot like learning about science: the learning is more meaningful if you can actively explore. This fifth installment of "Explorations in Statistics" revisits power, a concept fundamental to the test of a null hypothesis. Power is the probability that we reject the null hypothesis when it is false. Four…

Explorations in Statistics: Confidence Intervals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curran-Everett, Douglas

2009-01-01

Learning about statistics is a lot like learning about science: the learning is more meaningful if you can actively explore. This third installment of "Explorations in Statistics" investigates confidence intervals. A confidence interval is a range that we expect, with some level of confidence, to include the true value of a population parameter…

Explorations in Statistics: The Analysis of Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curran-Everett, Douglas; Williams, Calvin L.

2015-01-01

Learning about statistics is a lot like learning about science: the learning is more meaningful if you can actively explore. This tenth installment of "Explorations in Statistics" explores the analysis of a potential change in some physiological response. As researchers, we often express absolute change as percent change so we can…

Explorations in Statistics: Permutation Methods

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curran-Everett, Douglas

2012-01-01

Learning about statistics is a lot like learning about science: the learning is more meaningful if you can actively explore. This eighth installment of "Explorations in Statistics" explores permutation methods, empiric procedures we can use to assess an experimental result--to test a null hypothesis--when we are reluctant to trust statistical…

TopoToolbox: Using Sensor Topography to Calculate Psychologically Meaningful Measures from Event-Related EEG/MEG

PubMed Central

Tian, Xing; Poeppel, David; Huber, David E.

2011-01-01

The open-source toolbox “TopoToolbox” is a suite of functions that use sensor topography to calculate psychologically meaningful measures (similarity, magnitude, and timing) from multisensor event-related EEG and MEG data. Using a GUI and data visualization, TopoToolbox can be used to calculate and test the topographic similarity between different conditions (Tian and Huber, 2008). This topographic similarity indicates whether different conditions involve a different distribution of underlying neural sources. Furthermore, this similarity calculation can be applied at different time points to discover when a response pattern emerges (Tian and Poeppel, 2010). Because the topographic patterns are obtained separately for each individual, these patterns are used to produce reliable measures of response magnitude that can be compared across individuals using conventional statistics (Davelaar et al. Submitted and Huber et al., 2008). TopoToolbox can be freely downloaded. It runs under MATLAB (The MathWorks, Inc.) and supports user-defined data structure as well as standard EEG/MEG data import using EEGLAB (Delorme and Makeig, 2004). PMID:21577268

Improving the Document Development Process: Integrating Relational Data and Statistical Process Control.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, John

1994-01-01

Presents an approach to document numbering, document titling, and process measurement which, when used with fundamental techniques of statistical process control, reveals meaningful process-element variation as well as nominal productivity models. (SR)

Testing of Hypothesis in Equivalence and Non Inferiority Trials-A Concept.

PubMed

Juneja, Atul; Aggarwal, Abha R; Adhikari, Tulsi; Pandey, Arvind

2016-04-01

Establishing the appropriate hypothesis is one of the important steps for carrying out the statistical tests/analysis. Its understanding is important for interpreting the results of statistical analysis. The current communication attempts to provide the concept of testing of hypothesis in non inferiority and equivalence trials, where the null hypothesis is just reverse of what is set up for conventional superiority trials. It is similarly looked for rejection for establishing the fact the researcher is intending to prove. It is important to mention that equivalence or non inferiority cannot be proved by accepting the null hypothesis of no difference. Hence, establishing the appropriate statistical hypothesis is extremely important to arrive at meaningful conclusion for the set objectives in research.

Integrated Analysis of Pharmacologic, Clinical, and SNP Microarray Data using Projection onto the Most Interesting Statistical Evidence with Adaptive Permutation Testing

PubMed Central

Pounds, Stan; Cao, Xueyuan; Cheng, Cheng; Yang, Jun; Campana, Dario; Evans, William E.; Pui, Ching-Hon; Relling, Mary V.

2010-01-01

Powerful methods for integrated analysis of multiple biological data sets are needed to maximize interpretation capacity and acquire meaningful knowledge. We recently developed Projection Onto the Most Interesting Statistical Evidence (PROMISE). PROMISE is a statistical procedure that incorporates prior knowledge about the biological relationships among endpoint variables into an integrated analysis of microarray gene expression data with multiple biological and clinical endpoints. Here, PROMISE is adapted to the integrated analysis of pharmacologic, clinical, and genome-wide genotype data that incorporating knowledge about the biological relationships among pharmacologic and clinical response data. An efficient permutation-testing algorithm is introduced so that statistical calculations are computationally feasible in this higher-dimension setting. The new method is applied to a pediatric leukemia data set. The results clearly indicate that PROMISE is a powerful statistical tool for identifying genomic features that exhibit a biologically meaningful pattern of association with multiple endpoint variables. PMID:21516175

The Portfolio Guidebook: Implementing Quality in an Age of Standards. Bill Harp Professional Teachers Library.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koch, Richard; Schwartz-Petterson, Jean

This portfolio book provides an actual step-by-step complete system of writing assessment from the ground up and across all grade levels. The book suggests that teachers purposefully gather student portfolios, reflect meaningfully on them, and then validly and reliably rate them with statistical success that will also feed meaningfully back into…

Designing image segmentation studies: Statistical power, sample size and reference standard quality.

PubMed

Gibson, Eli; Hu, Yipeng; Huisman, Henkjan J; Barratt, Dean C

2017-12-01

Segmentation algorithms are typically evaluated by comparison to an accepted reference standard. The cost of generating accurate reference standards for medical image segmentation can be substantial. Since the study cost and the likelihood of detecting a clinically meaningful difference in accuracy both depend on the size and on the quality of the study reference standard, balancing these trade-offs supports the efficient use of research resources. In this work, we derive a statistical power calculation that enables researchers to estimate the appropriate sample size to detect clinically meaningful differences in segmentation accuracy (i.e. the proportion of voxels matching the reference standard) between two algorithms. Furthermore, we derive a formula to relate reference standard errors to their effect on the sample sizes of studies using lower-quality (but potentially more affordable and practically available) reference standards. The accuracy of the derived sample size formula was estimated through Monte Carlo simulation, demonstrating, with 95% confidence, a predicted statistical power within 4% of simulated values across a range of model parameters. This corresponds to sample size errors of less than 4 subjects and errors in the detectable accuracy difference less than 0.6%. The applicability of the formula to real-world data was assessed using bootstrap resampling simulations for pairs of algorithms from the PROMISE12 prostate MR segmentation challenge data set. The model predicted the simulated power for the majority of algorithm pairs within 4% for simulated experiments using a high-quality reference standard and within 6% for simulated experiments using a low-quality reference standard. A case study, also based on the PROMISE12 data, illustrates using the formulae to evaluate whether to use a lower-quality reference standard in a prostate segmentation study. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Comparisons of non-Gaussian statistical models in DNA methylation analysis.

PubMed

Ma, Zhanyu; Teschendorff, Andrew E; Yu, Hong; Taghia, Jalil; Guo, Jun

2014-06-16

As a key regulatory mechanism of gene expression, DNA methylation patterns are widely altered in many complex genetic diseases, including cancer. DNA methylation is naturally quantified by bounded support data; therefore, it is non-Gaussian distributed. In order to capture such properties, we introduce some non-Gaussian statistical models to perform dimension reduction on DNA methylation data. Afterwards, non-Gaussian statistical model-based unsupervised clustering strategies are applied to cluster the data. Comparisons and analysis of different dimension reduction strategies and unsupervised clustering methods are presented. Experimental results show that the non-Gaussian statistical model-based methods are superior to the conventional Gaussian distribution-based method. They are meaningful tools for DNA methylation analysis. Moreover, among several non-Gaussian methods, the one that captures the bounded nature of DNA methylation data reveals the best clustering performance.

Comparisons of Non-Gaussian Statistical Models in DNA Methylation Analysis

PubMed Central

Ma, Zhanyu; Teschendorff, Andrew E.; Yu, Hong; Taghia, Jalil; Guo, Jun

2014-01-01

As a key regulatory mechanism of gene expression, DNA methylation patterns are widely altered in many complex genetic diseases, including cancer. DNA methylation is naturally quantified by bounded support data; therefore, it is non-Gaussian distributed. In order to capture such properties, we introduce some non-Gaussian statistical models to perform dimension reduction on DNA methylation data. Afterwards, non-Gaussian statistical model-based unsupervised clustering strategies are applied to cluster the data. Comparisons and analysis of different dimension reduction strategies and unsupervised clustering methods are presented. Experimental results show that the non-Gaussian statistical model-based methods are superior to the conventional Gaussian distribution-based method. They are meaningful tools for DNA methylation analysis. Moreover, among several non-Gaussian methods, the one that captures the bounded nature of DNA methylation data reveals the best clustering performance. PMID:24937687

Electronic Health Record Systems and Intent to Apply for Meaningful Use Incentives among Office-based Physician ...

MedlinePlus

... on Vital and Health Statistics Annual Reports Health Survey Research Methods Conference Reports from the National Medical Care Utilization and Expenditure Survey Clearinghouse on Health Indexes Statistical Notes for Health ...

Statistical Data Analyses of Trace Chemical, Biochemical, and Physical Analytical Signatures

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

Udey, Ruth Norma

Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry measurement results are most meaningful when interpreted using rigorous statistical treatments of the data. The same data set may provide many dimensions of information depending on the questions asked through the applied statistical methods. Three principal projects illustrated the wealth of information gained through the application of statistical data analyses to diverse problems.

Explorations in Statistics: The Analysis of Ratios and Normalized Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curran-Everett, Douglas

2013-01-01

Learning about statistics is a lot like learning about science: the learning is more meaningful if you can actively explore. This ninth installment of "Explorations in Statistics" explores the analysis of ratios and normalized--or standardized--data. As researchers, we compute a ratio--a numerator divided by a denominator--to compute a…

Effect of Vertical, Horizontal, and Combined Plyometric Training on Explosive, Balance, and Endurance Performance of Young Soccer Players.

PubMed

Ramírez-Campillo, Rodrigo; Gallardo, Francisco; Henriquez-Olguín, Carlos; Meylan, Cesar M P; Martínez, Cristian; Álvarez, Cristian; Caniuqueo, Alexis; Cadore, Eduardo L; Izquierdo, Mikel

2015-07-01

The aim of this study was to compare the effects of 6 weeks of vertical, horizontal, or combined vertical and horizontal plyometric training on muscle explosive, endurance, and balance performance. Forty young soccer players aged between 10 and 14 years were randomly divided into control (CG; n = 10), vertical plyometric group (VG; n = 10), horizontal plyometric group (HG; n = 10), and combined vertical and horizontal plyometric group (VHG; n = 10). Players performance in the vertical and horizontal countermovement jump with arms, 5 multiple bounds test (MB5), 20-cm drop jump reactive strength index (RSI20), maximal kicking velocity (MKV), sprint, change of direction speed (CODS), Yo-Yo intermittent recovery level 1 test (Yo-Yo IR1), and balance was measured. No significant or meaningful changes in the CG, apart from small change in the Yo-Yo IR1, were observed while all training programs resulted in meaningful changes in explosive, endurance, and balance performance. However, only VHG showed a statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05) increase in all performance test and most meaningful training effect difference with the CG across tests. Although no significant differences in performance changes were observed between experimental groups, the VHG program was more effective compared with VG (i.e., jumps, MKV, sprint, CODS, and balance performance) and HG (i.e., sprint, CODS, and balance performance) to small effect. The study demonstrated that vertical, horizontal, and combined vertical and horizontal jumps induced meaningful improvement in explosive actions, balance, and intermittent endurance capacity. However, combining vertical and horizontal drills seems more advantageous to induce greater performance improvements.

Does pop music exist? Hierarchical structure in phonographic markets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buda, Andrzej

2012-11-01

I find a topological arrangement of assets traded in phonographic markets which has associated a meaningful economic taxonomy. I continue using the Minimal Spanning Tree and the correlations between assets, but now outside the stock markets. This is the first attempt to use these methods on phonographic markets where we have artists instead of stocks. The value of an artist is defined by record sales. The graph is obtained starting from the matrix of correlation coefficients computed between the world’s most popular 30 artists by considering the synchronous time evolution of the difference of the logarithm of weekly record sales. This method provides the hierarchical structure of the phonographic market and information on which music genre is meaningful according to customers. Statistical properties (including the Hurst exponent) of weekly record sales in the phonographic market are also discussed.

Identifiability of PBPK Models with Applications to Dimethylarsinic Acid Exposure

EPA Science Inventory

Any statistical model should be identifiable in order for estimates and tests using it to be meaningful. We consider statistical analysis of physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models in which parameters cannot be estimated precisely from available data, and discuss diff...

Explorations in Statistics: Standard Deviations and Standard Errors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curran-Everett, Douglas

2008-01-01

Learning about statistics is a lot like learning about science: the learning is more meaningful if you can actively explore. This series in "Advances in Physiology Education" provides an opportunity to do just that: we will investigate basic concepts in statistics using the free software package R. Because this series uses R solely as a vehicle…

Make measurable what is not so: national monitoring of the status of persons with intellectual disability.

PubMed

Fujiura, Glenn T; Rutkowski-Kmitta, Violet; Owen, Randall

2010-12-01

Statistics are critical in holding governments accountable for the well-being of citizens with disability. International initiatives are underway to improve the quality of disability statistics, but meaningful ID data is exceptionally rare. The status of ID data was evaluated in a review of 12 national statistical systems. Recurring data collection by national ministries was identified and the availability of measures of poverty, exclusion, and disadvantage was assessed. A total of 131 recurring systems coordinated by 50 different ministries were identified. The majority included general disability but less than 25% of the systems screened ID. Of these, few provided policy-relevant data. The scope of ID data was dismal at best, though a significant statistical infrastructure exists for the integration of ID data. Advocacy will be necessary. There is no optimal form of data monitoring, and decisions regarding priorities in purpose, targeted audiences, and the goals for surveillance must be resolved.

Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records by Outpatient Physicians and Readmissions of Medicare Fee-for-Service Beneficiaries.

PubMed

Unruh, Mark A; Jung, Hye-Young; Vest, Joshua R; Casalino, Lawrence P; Kaushal, Rainu

2017-05-01

Nearly one-fifth of hospitalized Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries are readmitted within 30 days. Participation in the Meaningful Use initiative among outpatient physicians may reduce readmissions. To evaluate the impact of outpatient physicians' participation in Meaningful Use on readmissions. The study population included 90,774 Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries from New York State (2010-2012). We compared changes in the adjusted odds of readmission for patients of physicians who participated in Meaningful Use-stage 1, before and after attestation as meaningful users, with concurrent patients of matched control physicians who used paper records or electronic health records without Meaningful Use participation. Three secondary analyses were conducted: (1) limited to patients with 3+ Elixhauser comorbidities; (2) limited to patients with conditions used by Medicare to penalize hospitals with high readmission rates (acute myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, and pneumonia); and (3) using only patients of physicians with electronic health records who were not meaningful users as the controls. Thirty-day readmission. Patients of Meaningful Use physicians had 6% lower odds of readmission compared with patients of physicians who were not meaningful users, but the estimate was not statistically significant (odds ratio: 0.94, 95% confidence interval, 0.88-1.01). Estimated odds ratios from secondary analyses were broadly consistent with our primary analysis. Physician participation in Meaningful Use was not associated with reduced readmissions. Additional studies are warranted to see if readmissions decline in future stages of Meaningful Use where more emphasis is placed on health information exchange and outcomes.

Elaborating Selected Statistical Concepts with Common Experience.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weaver, Kenneth A.

1992-01-01

Presents ways of elaborating statistical concepts so as to make course material more meaningful for students. Describes examples using exclamations, circus and cartoon characters, and falling leaves to illustrate variability, null hypothesis testing, and confidence interval. Concludes that the exercises increase student comprehension of the text…

Statistical Literacy in Action: Should All Graphs Start at Zero?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watson, Jane

2015-01-01

Using statistical literacy skills to determine appropriate scales to be used on graphs is an essential part of numeracy. Using several meaningful contexts, this article explains very clearly when it is appropriate and inappropriate to begin the scale of a graph at zero.

Data Warehousing: How To Make Your Statistics Meaningful.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flaherty, William

2001-01-01

Examines how one school district found a way to turn data collection from a disparate mountain of statistics into more useful information by using their Instructional Decision Support System. System software is explained as is how the district solved some data management challenges. (GR)

Variations in measured performance of CAD schemes due to database composition and scoring protocol

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nishikawa, Robert M.; Yarusso, Laura M.

1998-06-01

There is now a large effort towards developing computer- aided diagnosis (CAD) techniques. It is important to be able to compare performance of different approaches to be able to determine which ones are the most efficacious. There are currently a number of barriers preventing meaningful (statistical) comparisons, two of which are discussed in this paper: database composition and scoring protocol. We have examined how the choice of cases used to test a CAD scheme can affect its performance. We found that our computer scheme varied between a sensitivity of 100% to 77%, at a false-positive rate of 1.0 per image, with only 100% change in the composition of the database. To evaluate the performance of a CAD scheme the output of the computer must be graded. There are a number of different criteria that are being used by different investigators. We have found that for the same set of detection results, the measured sensitivity can be between 40 - 90% depending on the scoring methodology. Clearly consensus must be reached on these two issues in order for the field to make rapid progress. As it stands now, it is not possible to make meaningful comparisons of different techniques.

Use of Statistics from National Data Sources to Inform Rehabilitation Program Planning, Evaluation, and Advocacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bruyere, Susanne M.; Houtenville, Andrew J.

2006-01-01

Data on people with disabilities can be used to confirm service needs and to evaluate the resulting impact of services. Disability statistics from surveys and administrative records can play a meaningful role in such efforts. In this article, the authors describe the array of available data and statistics and their potential uses in rehabilitation…

Pathology of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences based on Weisbord six box model and its relation with mental health

PubMed Central

Karimian, Jahangir; Taheri, Behjat; Sadeghpour, Masoumeh; Sadeghpour, Akram

2015-01-01

Background: The aim of this research was to study the pathology of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences based on Weisbord six box model and to find its relation with mental health. Materials and Methods: The research method followed was a descriptive survey. The statistical society consisted of all staffs of the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences consisting of professors in the year 2012 (personnel of deputy of treatment, deputy of training, cultural-student deputy, supporting deputy, deputy of food and drugs, health deputy, and deputy of research). The number of subjects in the mentioned society was 1647, sample size was 332 Based on Cochrane's formula. They were selected by random sampling method in proportion with the statistical society. The measurement instruments included organizational pathology questionnaire (ODQ) with 35 questions and the questionnaire of mental health standard [General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)] with 28 questions. The validity of the questionnaires obtained from reviews by faculties and experts, and the reliability of the questionnaire assessed through Cronbach's coefficient were 0.86, 0.85, and 0.76, respectively. To analyze data, the statistical methods such as single-variance t-test, regression analysis, correlation coefficient, Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, and Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) were used. Findings: The findings of research demonstrated that the organizational damage based on six box model was seen only in the reward component at the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Mental health of persons in the sample group of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences was in the suitable status. There was a meaningful and positive interrelation between mental health and attitude toward the organizational damages in the dimensions of communications, useful merchandises, and attitude to change. However, no meaningful interrelation was seen between aims, structure, leadership, and reward and mental health. There was no meaningful difference between the averages of staffs’ attitude about their mental health per the demographic properties. Conclusions: The results show that there was a meaningful and positive interrelation between mental health and attitude toward the organizational damages in the dimensions of communications, useful merchandises, and attitude to change. Therefore, managers should focus on all parts of the organization and the pathology strengths and weaknesses in these areas. PMID:27462622

A Mixed-Methods Study of the Recovery Concept, "A Meaningful Day," in Community Mental Health Services for Individuals with Serious Mental Illnesses.

PubMed

Myers, Neely A L; Smith, Kelly; Pope, Alicia; Alolayan, Yazeed; Broussard, Beth; Haynes, Nora; Compton, Michael T

2016-10-01

The recovery concept encompasses overcoming or managing one's illness, being physically and emotionally healthy, and finding meaningful purpose through work, school, or volunteering, which connects one to others in mutually fulfilling ways. Using a mixed-methods approach, we studied the emphasis on "a meaningful day" in the new Opening Doors to Recovery (ODR) program in southeast Georgia. Among 100 participants, we measured the meaningful day construct using three quantitative items at baseline (hospital discharge) and at 4-, 8-, and 12-month follow-up, finding statistically significant linear trends over time for all three measures. Complementary qualitative interviews with 30 individuals (ODR participants, family members, and ODR's Community Navigation Specialists and program leaders) revealed themes pertaining to companionship, productivity, achieving stability, and autonomy, as well as the concern about insufficient resources. The concept of "a meaningful day" can be a focus of clinical attention and measured as a person-centered outcome for clients served by recovery-oriented community mental health services.

Steps to Health employee weight management randomized control trial: short-term follow-up results.

PubMed

Østbye, Truls; Stroo, Marissa; Brouwer, Rebecca J N; Peterson, Bercedis L; Eisenstein, Eric L; Fuemmeler, Bernard F; Joyner, Julie; Gulley, Libby; Dement, John M

2015-02-01

To present the short-term follow-up findings of the Steps to Health study, a randomized trial to evaluate the effectiveness of two employee weight management programs offered within Duke University and the Health System. A total of 550 obese (body mass index, ≥30 kg/m2) employees were randomized 1:1 between January 2011 and June 2012 to the education-based Weight Management (WM) or the WM+ arm, which focused on behavior modification. Employees were contacted to complete a follow-up visit approximately 14 months after baseline. There were no clinically, or statistically, meaningful differences between arms, but there were modest reductions in body mass index, and positive, meaningful changes in diet and physical activity for both arms. The modest positive effects observed in this study may suggest that to achieve weight loss through the workplace more intensive interventions may be required.

Further statistics in dentistry. Part 4: Clinical trials 2.

PubMed

Petrie, A; Bulman, J S; Osborn, J F

2002-11-23

The principles which underlie a well-designed clinical trial were introduced in a previous paper. The trial should be controlled (to ensure that the appropriate comparisons are made), randomised (to avoid allocation bias) and, preferably, blinded (to obviate assessment bias). However, taken in isolation, these concepts will not necessarily ensure that meaningful conclusions can be drawn from the study. It is essential that the sample size is large enough to enable the effects of interest to be estimated precisely, and to detect any real treatment differences.

Monte Carlo Simulation for Perusal and Practice.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brooks, Gordon P.; Barcikowski, Robert S.; Robey, Randall R.

The meaningful investigation of many problems in statistics can be solved through Monte Carlo methods. Monte Carlo studies can help solve problems that are mathematically intractable through the analysis of random samples from populations whose characteristics are known to the researcher. Using Monte Carlo simulation, the values of a statistic are…

Explorations in statistics: the log transformation.

PubMed

Curran-Everett, Douglas

2018-06-01

Learning about statistics is a lot like learning about science: the learning is more meaningful if you can actively explore. This thirteenth installment of Explorations in Statistics explores the log transformation, an established technique that rescales the actual observations from an experiment so that the assumptions of some statistical analysis are better met. A general assumption in statistics is that the variability of some response Y is homogeneous across groups or across some predictor variable X. If the variability-the standard deviation-varies in rough proportion to the mean value of Y, a log transformation can equalize the standard deviations. Moreover, if the actual observations from an experiment conform to a skewed distribution, then a log transformation can make the theoretical distribution of the sample mean more consistent with a normal distribution. This is important: the results of a one-sample t test are meaningful only if the theoretical distribution of the sample mean is roughly normal. If we log-transform our observations, then we want to confirm the transformation was useful. We can do this if we use the Box-Cox method, if we bootstrap the sample mean and the statistic t itself, and if we assess the residual plots from the statistical model of the actual and transformed sample observations.

Evaluating meaningful learning using concept mapping in dental hygiene education: a pilot study.

PubMed

Canasi, Dina M; Amyot, Cynthia; Tira, Daniel

2014-02-01

Concept mapping, as a teaching strategy, has been shown to promote critical thinking and problem solving in educational settings. Dental clinicians must distinguish between critical and irrelevant characteristics in the delivery of care, thus necessitating reasoning skills to do so. One of the aims of the American Dental Education Association Commission on Change and Innovation (ADEA-CCI) is to identify deficiencies in curriculum which were meant to improve critical thinking and problem solving skills necessary in clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to compare 2 teaching strategies, traditional lecture and lecture supported by concept mapping exercises within collaborative working groups, to determine if there is a beneficial effect on meaningful learning. For this pilot study, the study population consisted of students from 2 geographically separated associate level dental hygiene programs in the southeastern U.S. A quasi-experimental control group pre- and post-test design was used. The degree of meaningful learning achieved by both programs was assessed by comparing pre- and post-test results. Both programs experienced a significant degree of meaningful learning from pre- to post-test. However, there was no statistically significant difference between the programs on the post-test. These results were in direct contrast to research in other disciplines on concept mapping and its effect on promoting meaningful learning. Further investigation into the study's outcome was obtained through a follow-up focus group. In spite of careful attention to methodology in the development of this research project, the focus group illuminated methodological failings that potentially impacted the outcome of the study. Recommendations are underscored for future conduct of educational research of this kind.

A sampling plan for conduit-flow karst springs: Minimizing sampling cost and maximizing statistical utility

USGS Publications Warehouse

Currens, J.C.

1999-01-01

Analytical data for nitrate and triazines from 566 samples collected over a 3-year period at Pleasant Grove Spring, Logan County, KY, were statistically analyzed to determine the minimum data set needed to calculate meaningful yearly averages for a conduit-flow karst spring. Results indicate that a biweekly sampling schedule augmented with bihourly samples from high-flow events will provide meaningful suspended-constituent and dissolved-constituent statistics. Unless collected over an extensive period of time, daily samples may not be representative and may also be autocorrelated. All high-flow events resulting in a significant deflection of a constituent from base-line concentrations should be sampled. Either the geometric mean or the flow-weighted average of the suspended constituents should be used. If automatic samplers are used, then they may be programmed to collect storm samples as frequently as every few minutes to provide details on the arrival time of constituents of interest. However, only samples collected bihourly should be used to calculate averages. By adopting a biweekly sampling schedule augmented with high-flow samples, the need to continuously monitor discharge, or to search for and analyze existing data to develop a statistically valid monitoring plan, is lessened.Analytical data for nitrate and triazines from 566 samples collected over a 3-year period at Pleasant Grove Spring, Logan County, KY, were statistically analyzed to determine the minimum data set needed to calculate meaningful yearly averages for a conduit-flow karst spring. Results indicate that a biweekly sampling schedule augmented with bihourly samples from high-flow events will provide meaningful suspended-constituent and dissolved-constituent statistics. Unless collected over an extensive period of time, daily samples may not be representative and may also be autocorrelated. All high-flow events resulting in a significant deflection of a constituent from base-line concentrations should be sampled. Either the geometric mean or the flow-weighted average of the suspended constituents should be used. If automatic samplers are used, then they may be programmed to collect storm samples as frequently as every few minutes to provide details on the arrival time of constituents of interest. However, only samples collected bihourly should be used to calculate averages. By adopting a biweekly sampling schedule augmented with high-flow samples, the need to continuously monitor discharge, or to search for and analyze existing data to develop a statistically valid monitoring plan, is lessened.

Neurosphere and adherent culture conditions are equivalent for malignant glioma stem cell lines.

PubMed

Rahman, Maryam; Reyner, Karina; Deleyrolle, Loic; Millette, Sebastien; Azari, Hassan; Day, Bryan W; Stringer, Brett W; Boyd, Andrew W; Johns, Terrance G; Blot, Vincent; Duggal, Rohit; Reynolds, Brent A

2015-03-01

Certain limitations of the neurosphere assay (NSA) have resulted in a search for alternative culture techniques for brain tumor-initiating cells (TICs). Recently, reports have described growing glioblastoma (GBM) TICs as a monolayer using laminin. We performed a side-by-side analysis of the NSA and laminin (adherent) culture conditions to compare the growth and expansion of GBM TICs. GBM cells were grown using the NSA and adherent culture conditions. Comparisons were made using growth in culture, apoptosis assays, protein expression, limiting dilution clonal frequency assay, genetic affymetrix analysis, and tumorigenicity in vivo. In vitro expansion curves for the NSA and adherent culture conditions were virtually identical (P=0.24) and the clonogenic frequencies (5.2% for NSA vs. 5.0% for laminin, P=0.9) were similar as well. Likewise, markers of differentiation (glial fibrillary acidic protein and beta tubulin III) and proliferation (Ki67 and MCM2) revealed no statistical difference between the sphere and attachment methods. Several different methods were used to determine the numbers of dead or dying cells (trypan blue, DiIC, caspase-3, and annexin V) with none of the assays noting a meaningful variance between the two methods. In addition, genetic expression analysis with microarrays revealed no significant differences between the two groups. Finally, glioma cells derived from both methods of expansion formed large invasive tumors exhibiting GBM features when implanted in immune-compromised animals. A detailed functional, protein and genetic characterization of human GBM cells cultured in serum-free defined conditions demonstrated no statistically meaningful differences when grown using sphere (NSA) or adherent conditions. Hence, both methods are functionally equivalent and remain suitable options for expanding primary high-grade gliomas in tissue culture.

Neurosphere and adherent culture conditions are equivalent for malignant glioma stem cell lines

PubMed Central

Reyner, Karina; Deleyrolle, Loic; Millette, Sebastien; Azari, Hassan; Day, Bryan W.; Stringer, Brett W.; Boyd, Andrew W.; Johns, Terrance G.; Blot, Vincent; Duggal, Rohit; Reynolds, Brent A.

2015-01-01

Certain limitations of the neurosphere assay (NSA) have resulted in a search for alternative culture techniques for brain tumor-initiating cells (TICs). Recently, reports have described growing glioblastoma (GBM) TICs as a monolayer using laminin. We performed a side-by-side analysis of the NSA and laminin (adherent) culture conditions to compare the growth and expansion of GBM TICs. GBM cells were grown using the NSA and adherent culture conditions. Comparisons were made using growth in culture, apoptosis assays, protein expression, limiting dilution clonal frequency assay, genetic affymetrix analysis, and tumorigenicity in vivo. In vitro expansion curves for the NSA and adherent culture conditions were virtually identical (P=0.24) and the clonogenic frequencies (5.2% for NSA vs. 5.0% for laminin, P=0.9) were similar as well. Likewise, markers of differentiation (glial fibrillary acidic protein and beta tubulin III) and proliferation (Ki67 and MCM2) revealed no statistical difference between the sphere and attachment methods. Several different methods were used to determine the numbers of dead or dying cells (trypan blue, DiIC, caspase-3, and annexin V) with none of the assays noting a meaningful variance between the two methods. In addition, genetic expression analysis with microarrays revealed no significant differences between the two groups. Finally, glioma cells derived from both methods of expansion formed large invasive tumors exhibiting GBM features when implanted in immune-compromised animals. A detailed functional, protein and genetic characterization of human GBM cells cultured in serum-free defined conditions demonstrated no statistically meaningful differences when grown using sphere (NSA) or adherent conditions. Hence, both methods are functionally equivalent and remain suitable options for expanding primary high-grade gliomas in tissue culture. PMID:25806119

Can There Ever Be Enough to Impact Water Quality? Evaluating BMPs in Elliot Ditch, Indiana Using the LTHIA-LID Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rahman, M. S.; Hoover, F. A.; Bowling, L. C.

2017-12-01

Elliot Ditch is an urban/urbanizing watershed located in the city of Lafayette, IN, USA. The city continues to struggle with stormwater management and combined sewer overflow (CSO) events. Several best-management practices (BMP) such as rain gardens, green roofs, and bioswales have been implemented in the watershed, but the level of adoption needed to achieve meaningful impact is currently unknown. This study's goal is to determine what level of BMP coverage is needed to impact water quality, whether meaningful impact is determined by achieving water quality targets or statistical significance. A power analysis was performed using water quality data for total suspended solids (TSS), E.coli, total phosphorus (TP) and nitrate (NO3-N) from Elliot Ditch from 2011 to 2015. The minimum detectable difference (MDD) was calculated as the percent reduction in load needed to detect a significant change in the watershed. The water quality targets were proposed by stakeholders as part of a watershed management planning process. The water quality targets and the MDD percentages were then compared to simulated load reductions due to BMP implementation using the Long-term Hydrologic Impact Assessment-Low Impact Development (LTHIA-LID) model. Seven baseline model scenarios were simulated by implementing the maximum number of each of six types of BMPs (rain barrels, permeable patios, green roofs, grassed swale/bioswales, bioretention/rain gardens, and porous pavement), as well as all the practices combined in the watershed. These provide the baseline for targeted implementation scenarios designed to determine if statistically and physically meaningful load reductions can be achieved through BMP implementation alone.

A survey of the relationship between work schedule and its effect on the fatigue of rescue personnel in Isfahan with a standard method of CIS202

PubMed Central

Habibi, Ehsanollah; Soury, Shiva; Vardanjani, Hassan Rajabi; Khodarahmi, Behnam; Dehghan, Habibollah; Hosseini, Mohsen; Esmaeli, Hamid; Khademi, Abolfazl

2015-01-01

Context: Fatigue is a factor that can have negative effects on family life, social relationship and work. Work schedule is one of the affective factors on personnel's fatigue in different jobs. In this study, the work schedule and its effect on rescue personnel in Isfahan are explored. Aims: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between work schedules and fatigue among rescue personnel. Settings and Design: This study is periodical and has been conducted on 72 employees of rescue personnel in Isfahan. Materials and Methods: Random sampling was done and the primary data that was collected through fatigue assessment questionnaire after being conducted as a pilot study on 10% of samples were collected to confirm the validity of this study. Finally, the data was given to SPSS11.5 software and were analyzed by descriptive statistics and linear digression. Results: The results showed that from the statistical point of view some parts of work schedules like work hours satisfaction, resting time and work order on total fatigue are effective in linear and inverse way but the item “predictibility of work conditions” does not have a meaningful relationship with total fatigue. Furthermore, the results showed that there is a meaningful and inverse relationship with work hours, resting time and work order with mental fatigue and also the work schedule has a meaningful, linear and inverse relation with mental fatigue and total fatigue. Conclusions: By increasing the satisfaction of working hours, increasing resting time and also with an increase of work order the total fatigue of rescue personnel will decrease. PMID:27462640

Statistical Physics in the Era of Big Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Dashun

2013-01-01

With the wealth of data provided by a wide range of high-throughout measurement tools and technologies, statistical physics of complex systems is entering a new phase, impacting in a meaningful fashion a wide range of fields, from cell biology to computer science to economics. In this dissertation, by applying tools and techniques developed in…

Medical cost analysis: application to colorectal cancer data from the SEER Medicare database.

PubMed

Bang, Heejung

2005-10-01

Incompleteness is a key feature of most survival data. Numerous well established statistical methodologies and algorithms exist for analyzing life or failure time data. However, induced censorship invalidates the use of those standard analytic tools for some survival-type data such as medical costs. In this paper, some valid methods currently available for analyzing censored medical cost data are reviewed. Some cautionary findings under different assumptions are envisioned through application to medical costs from colorectal cancer patients. Cost analysis should be suitably planned and carefully interpreted under various meaningful scenarios even with judiciously selected statistical methods. This approach would be greatly helpful to policy makers who seek to prioritize health care expenditures and to assess the elements of resource use.

What to use to express the variability of data: Standard deviation or standard error of mean?

PubMed

Barde, Mohini P; Barde, Prajakt J

2012-07-01

Statistics plays a vital role in biomedical research. It helps present data precisely and draws the meaningful conclusions. While presenting data, one should be aware of using adequate statistical measures. In biomedical journals, Standard Error of Mean (SEM) and Standard Deviation (SD) are used interchangeably to express the variability; though they measure different parameters. SEM quantifies uncertainty in estimate of the mean whereas SD indicates dispersion of the data from mean. As readers are generally interested in knowing the variability within sample, descriptive data should be precisely summarized with SD. Use of SEM should be limited to compute CI which measures the precision of population estimate. Journals can avoid such errors by requiring authors to adhere to their guidelines.

Traction–separation relationships for hydrogen induced grain boundary embrittlement in nickel via molecular dynamics simulations

DOE PAGES

Barrows, Wesley; Dingreville, Rémi; Spearot, Douglas

2015-10-19

A statistical approach combined with molecular dynamics simulations is used to study the influence of hydrogen on intergranular decohesion. This methodology is applied to a Ni Σ3(112)[11¯0] symmetric tilt grain boundary. Hydrogenated grain boundaries with different H concentrations are constructed using an energy minimization technique with initial H atom positions guided by Monte Carlo simulation results. Decohesion behavior is assessed through extraction of a traction–separation relationship during steady-state crack propagation in a statistically meaningful approach, building upon prior work employing atomistic cohesive zone volume elements (CZVEs). A sensitivity analysis is performed on the numerical approach used to extract the traction–separationmore » relationships, clarifying the role of CZVE size, threshold parameters necessary to differentiate elastic and decohesion responses, and the numerical averaging technique. Results show that increasing H coverage at the Ni Σ3(112)[11¯0] grain boundary asymmetrically influences the crack tip velocity during propagation, leads to a general decrease in the work of separation required for crack propagation, and provides a reduction in the peak stress in the extracted traction–separation relationship. Furthermore the present framework offers a meaningful vehicle to pass atomistically derived interfacial behavior to higher length scale formulations for intergranular fracture.« less

When meaning matters more: Media preferences across the adult life span.

PubMed

Mares, Marie-Louise; Bartsch, Anne; Bonus, James Alex

2016-08-01

Two studies considered age differences in the roles of emotion and meaningfulness in adults' media preferences. Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST) suggests that with increasing age, positive emotions become more meaningful, and emotional meaningfulness matters more for situation selection. Other developmental descriptions suggest that negative affect may be meaningful and interesting in youth. In Study 1, United States 18-86 year olds read descriptions of TV programs that varied in levels of warmth, funniness, sadness, and fright; in Study 2, United States and German 18-82 year olds watched film trailers that varied in levels of gore and meaningfulness. Participants rated their anticipated emotions, anticipated meaningfulness of the content, and their viewing interest. Consistent with SST, in both studies, anticipated meaningfulness was a stronger predictor of viewing interest for older adults relative to younger adults, and the indirect path (Emotion → Meaning → Interest) was stronger for older relative to younger adults. In Study 1, warmth (but not funniness) was more predictive of meaningfulness for older relative to younger adults; sadness and fear were not more predictive of meaningfulness for younger adults. In Study 2, there were age differences in the effects of fright on interest, in part via effects on anticipated fun and suspense (but not arousal). Overall, the results provide limited evidence that positive or negative emotions are more meaningful or interesting at different ages. However, they support the argument that emotional meaningfulness matters more to older than to younger adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Towards developing drought impact functions to advance drought monitoring and early warning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bachmair, Sophie; Stahl, Kerstin; Hannaford, Jamie; Svoboda, Mark

2015-04-01

In natural hazard analysis, damage functions (also referred to as vulnerability or susceptibility functions) relate hazard intensity to the negative effects of the hazard event, often expressed as damage ratio or monetary loss. While damage functions for floods and seismic hazards have gained considerable attention, there is little knowledge on how drought intensity translates into ecological and socioeconomic impacts. One reason for this is the multifaceted nature of drought affecting different domains of the hydrological cycle and different sectors of human activity (for example, recognizing meteorological - agricultural - hydrological - socioeconomic drought) leading to a wide range of drought impacts. Moreover, drought impacts are often non-structural and hard to quantify or monetarize (e.g. impaired navigability of streams, bans on domestic water use, increased mortality of aquatic species). Knowledge on the relationship between drought intensity and drought impacts, i.e. negative environmental, economic or social effects experienced under drought conditions, however, is vital to identify critical thresholds for drought impact occurrence. Such information may help to improve drought monitoring and early warning (M&EW), one goal of the international DrIVER project (Drought Impacts: Vulnerability thresholds in monitoring and Early-warning Research). The aim of this study is to test the feasibility of designing "drought impact functions" for case study areas in Europe (Germany and UK) and the United States to derive thresholds meaningful for drought impact occurrence; to account for the multidimensionality of drought impacts, we use the broader term "drought impact function" over "damage function". First steps towards developing empirical drought impact functions are (1) to identify meaningful indicators characterizing the hazard intensity (e.g. indicators expressing a precipitation or streamflow deficit), (2) to identify suitable variables representing impacts, damage, or loss due to drought, and (3) to test different statistical models to link drought intensity with drought impact information to derive meaningful thresholds. While the focus regarding drought impact variables lies on text-based impact reports from the European Drought Impact report Inventory (EDII) and the US Drought Impact Reporter (DIR), the information gain through exploiting other variables such as agricultural yield statistics and remotely sensed vegetation indices is explored. First results reveal interesting insights into the complex relationship between drought indicators and impacts and highlight differences among drought impact variables and geographies. Although a simple intensity threshold evoking specific drought impacts cannot be identified, developing drought impact functions helps to elucidate how drought conditions relate to ecological or socioeconomic impacts. Such knowledge may provide guidance for inferring meaningful triggers for drought M&EW and could have potential for a wide range of drought management applications (for example, building drought scenarios for testing the resilience of drought plans or water supply systems).

Do Contemporary Randomized Controlled Trials Meet ESMO Thresholds for Meaningful Clinical Benefit?

PubMed

Del Paggio, J C; Azariah, B; Sullivan, R; Hopman, W M; James, F V; Roshni, S; Tannock, I F; Booth, C M

2017-01-01

The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) recently released a magnitude of clinical benefit scale (ESMO-MCBS) for systemic therapies for solid cancers. Here, we evaluate contemporary randomized controlled trials (RCTs) against the proposed ESMO thresholds for meaningful clinical benefit. RCTs evaluating systemic therapy for breast cancer, nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC), colorectal cancer (CRC), and pancreatic cancer published 2011-2015 were reviewed. Data were abstracted regarding trial characteristics and outcomes, and these were applied to the ESMO-MCBS. We also determined whether RCTs were designed to detect an effect that would meet clinical benefit as defined by the ESMO-MCBS. About 277 eligible RCTs were included (40% breast, 31% NSCLC, 22% CRC, 6% pancreas). Median sample size was 532 and 83% were funded by industry. Among all 277 RCTs, the experimental therapy was statistically superior to the control arm in 138 (50%) trials: results of only 31% (43/138) of these trials met the ESMO-MCBS clinical benefit threshold. RCTs with curative intent were more likely to meet clinically meaningful thresholds than those with palliative intent [61% (19/31) versus 22% (24/107), P < 0.001]. Among the 226 RCTs for which the ESMO-MCBS could be applied, 31% (70/226) were designed to detect an effect size that could meet ESMO-MCBS thresholds. Less than one-third of contemporary RCTs with statistically significant results meet ESMO thresholds for meaningful clinical benefit, and this represents only 15% of all published trials. Investigators, funding agencies, regulatory agencies, and industry should adopt more stringent thresholds for meaningful benefit in the design of future RCTs. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society for Medical Oncology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Assessing clinically meaningful treatment effects in controlled trials: chronic migraine as an example.

PubMed

Dodick, David W; Turkel, Catherine C; DeGryse, Ronald E; Diener, Hans-Christoph; Lipton, Richard B; Aurora, Sheena K; Nolan, Marissa E; Silberstein, Stephen D

2015-02-01

In addition to headache, persons with chronic migraine (CM) experience multiple symptoms, both ictal and interictal, that may contribute to their suffering. Translating clinical trial results into practice requires assessment of the results' clinical meaningfulness. When examining treatment benefit in this disabled patient population, multiple headache-symptom measures should be considered to fully reflect clinical relevance. Currently, only onabotulinumtoxinA is approved specifically for headache prophylaxis in adults with CM. Topiramate is the only other therapeutic agent with double-blind, placebo-controlled evidence in this population. Herein we evaluate the clinical meaningfulness of onabotulinumtoxinA and topiramate as headache prophylaxis in CM by comparing primary endpoints from the placebo-controlled, double-blind phase of the Phase 3 REsearch Evaluating Migraine Prophylaxis Therapy (PREEMPT) clinical program and the topiramate clinical trial (frequency of headache days [primary endpoint in PREEMPT; secondary in topiramate trial] and migraine/migrainous days [primary in topiramate trial, or "migraine/probable-migraine days"; secondary in PREEMPT]). Additionally, outcome measures such as responder rates, health-related quality of life, discontinuation rates, safety, and tolerability profiles are important clinical considerations. The clinical data indicate that statistically significant, clinically relevant treatment benefits exist for both onabotulinumtoxinA and topiramate. These data support these treatments as meaningful headache prophylaxis in adults with CM. CM is a chronic pain condition. We sought to determine the clinical relevance of recent trials in this disabled population. Clinical data indicate that statistically significant, clinically relevant treatment benefits exist for both onabotulinumtoxinA and topiramate, and support use of these treatments as meaningful headache prophylaxis in CM. Copyright © 2015 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Statistical methods for thermonuclear reaction rates and nucleosynthesis simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iliadis, Christian; Longland, Richard; Coc, Alain; Timmes, F. X.; Champagne, Art E.

2015-03-01

Rigorous statistical methods for estimating thermonuclear reaction rates and nucleosynthesis are becoming increasingly established in nuclear astrophysics. The main challenge being faced is that experimental reaction rates are highly complex quantities derived from a multitude of different measured nuclear parameters (e.g., astrophysical S-factors, resonance energies and strengths, particle and γ-ray partial widths). We discuss the application of the Monte Carlo method to two distinct, but related, questions. First, given a set of measured nuclear parameters, how can one best estimate the resulting thermonuclear reaction rates and associated uncertainties? Second, given a set of appropriate reaction rates, how can one best estimate the abundances from nucleosynthesis (i.e., reaction network) calculations? The techniques described here provide probability density functions that can be used to derive statistically meaningful reaction rates and final abundances for any desired coverage probability. Examples are given for applications to s-process neutron sources, core-collapse supernovae, classical novae, and Big Bang nucleosynthesis.

The Alba ray tracing code: ART

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nicolas, Josep; Barla, Alessandro; Juanhuix, Jordi

2013-09-01

The Alba ray tracing code (ART) is a suite of Matlab functions and tools for the ray tracing simulation of x-ray beamlines. The code is structured in different layers, which allow its usage as part of optimization routines as well as an easy control from a graphical user interface. Additional tools for slope error handling and for grating efficiency calculations are also included. Generic characteristics of ART include the accumulation of rays to improve statistics without memory limitations, and still providing normalized values of flux and resolution in physically meaningful units.

Thirty-Second Walk Test: Expansion of Normative Data.

PubMed

Lieberstein, Michael; Weingarten, Goldie; Vialu, Carlo; Itzkowitz, Adina; Doyle, Maura; Covino, Frank; Kaplan, Sandra L

2018-01-01

To collect 30-second walk test (30sWT) normative data on a large, diverse sample of school children developing typically, ages 5 to 13 years, and describe the influences of gender, body mass index, and path shape on distance walked. Five physical therapists administered the 30sWT on 1223 children developing typically (boys = 517, girls = 706) from 20 urban schools. Average distances (standard deviation) ranged from 139.1 (20.3) to 163.0 (18.6) ft; children aged 10 years walked the farthest and those aged 5 years the shortest. Distance steadily increased from ages 5 to 10 years, steadily decreased from ages 11 to 13 years; children aged 8, 9, and 10 years had statistical but not functionally meaningful gender differences. Body mass index and path shape had no meaningful effects. Distance and velocities are similar to prior studies. This study updated 30sWT normative values with a large, ethnically diverse, urban sample developing typically. Norms may be useful as part of a comprehensive examination.

Full kinetic chain manual and manipulative therapy plus exercise compared with targeted manual and manipulative therapy plus exercise for symptomatic osteoarthritis of the hip: a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Brantingham, James W; Parkin-Smith, Gregory; Cassa, Tammy Kay; Globe, Gary A; Globe, Denise; Pollard, Henry; deLuca, Katie; Jensen, Muffit; Mayer, Stephan; Korporaal, Charmaine

2012-02-01

To determine the short-term effectiveness of full kinematic chain manual and manipulative therapy (MMT) plus exercise compared with targeted hip MMT plus exercise for symptomatic mild to moderate hip osteoarthritis (OA). Parallel-group randomized trial with 3-month follow-up. Two chiropractic outpatient teaching clinics. Convenience sample of eligible participants (N=111) with symptomatic hip OA were consented and randomly allocated to receive either the experimental or comparison treatment, respectively. Participants in the experimental group received full kinematic chain MMT plus exercise while those in the comparison group received targeted hip MMT plus exercise. Participants in both groups received 9 treatments over a 5-week period. Western Ontario and McMasters Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), Harris hip score (HHS), and Overall Therapy Effectiveness, alongside estimation of clinically meaningful outcomes. Total dropout was 9% (n=10) with 7% of total data missing, replaced using a multiple imputation method. No statistically significant differences were found between the 2 groups for any of the outcome measures (analysis of covariance, P=.45 and P=.79 for the WOMAC and HHS, respectively). There were no statistically significant differences in the primary or secondary outcome scores when comparing full kinematic chain MMT plus exercise with targeted hip MMT plus exercise for mild to moderate symptomatic hip OA. Consequently, the nonsignificant findings suggest that there would also be no clinically meaningful difference between the 2 groups. The results of this study provides guidance to musculoskeletal practitioners who regularly use MMT that the full kinematic chain approach does not appear to have any benefit over targeted treatment. Copyright © 2012 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

New Statistics for Testing Differential Expression of Pathways from Microarray Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siu, Hoicheong; Dong, Hua; Jin, Li; Xiong, Momiao

Exploring biological meaning from microarray data is very important but remains a great challenge. Here, we developed three new statistics: linear combination test, quadratic test and de-correlation test to identify differentially expressed pathways from gene expression profile. We apply our statistics to two rheumatoid arthritis datasets. Notably, our results reveal three significant pathways and 275 genes in common in two datasets. The pathways we found are meaningful to uncover the disease mechanisms of rheumatoid arthritis, which implies that our statistics are a powerful tool in functional analysis of gene expression data.

Defining a clinically meaningful effect for the design and interpretation of randomized controlled trials.

PubMed

Keefe, Richard S E; Kraemer, Helena C; Epstein, Robert S; Frank, Ellen; Haynes, Ginger; Laughren, Thomas P; McNulty, James; Reed, Shelby D; Sanchez, Juan; Leon, Andrew C

2013-05-01

This article captures the proceedings of a meeting aimed at defining clinically meaningful effects for use in randomized controlled trials for psychopharmacological agents. Experts from a variety of disciplines defined clinically meaningful effects from their perspectives along with viewpoints about how to design and interpret randomized controlled trials. The article offers relevant, practical, and sometimes anecdotal information about clinically meaningful effects and how to interpret them. The concept for this session was the work of co-chairs Richard Keefe and the late Andy Leon. Faculty included Richard Keefe, PhD; James McNulty, AbScB; Robert S. Epstein, MD, MS; Shelby D. Reed, PhD; Juan Sanchez, MD; Ginger Haynes, PhD; Andrew C. Leon, PhD; Helena Chmura Kraemer, PhD; Ellen Frank, PhD, and Kenneth L. Davis, MD. The term clinically meaningful effect is an important aspect of designing and interpreting randomized controlled trials but can be particularly difficult in the setting of psychopharmacology where effect size may be modest, particularly over the short term, because of a strong response to placebo. Payers, regulators, patients, and clinicians have different concerns about clinically meaningful effects and may describe these terms differently. The use of moderators in success rate differences may help better delineate clinically meaningful effects. There is no clear consensus on a single definition for clinically meaningful differences in randomized controlled trials, and investigators must be sensitive to specific concerns of stakeholders in psychopharmacology in order to design and execute appropriate clinical trials.

The attitudes of emergency department nurses towards patient safety.

PubMed

Durgun, Hanife; Kaya, Hülya

2017-11-23

This research was planned to identify the attitudes of emergency department nurses towards patient safety. The study was performed as descriptive. The universe of the research the universe comprised hospitals defined as 3rd level according to Turkish health care classification, which provides service to all health disciplines in Istanbul. The sample consisted of emergency department (ED) nurses who work in those hospitals. The data was collected by using tools such as the "Information Questionnaire" and the "Patient Safety Attitudes Scale". In this study, the attitudes of ED nurses towards patient safety were found to be average and was not related to age, gender, education level, nursing experience, ED experience, ED certification, patient safety training, nurse's self sufficiency perception of patient safety, hospital's quality certification or ED quality certification. The attitudes of nurses towards patient safety were compared by age, gender, marital status, education level, ED experience and there was no meaningful difference. However, a meaningful difference was found between the age groups and the "defining stress" sub-dimension of the Patient Safety Attitudes Scale. ED nurses' status of certification for emergency care, patient safety training, training of quality, hospitals' or ED's quality certification status had no significant statistical difference. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Minimal Clinically Important Difference for the Mayo-Portland Adaptability Inventory.

PubMed

Malec, James F; Kean, Jacob; Monahan, Patrick O

To determine the Minimal Clinically Important Difference (MCID) and Robust Clinically Important Difference (RCID) of the Mayo-Portland Adaptability Inventory-4 (MPAI-4) as measures of response to intervention. Retrospective analysis of existing data. Both distribution- and anchor-based methods were used to triangulate on the MCID and to identify a moderate, that is, more robust, level of change (RCID) for the MPAI-4. These were further evaluated with respect to clinical provider ratings. Data for individuals with acquired brain injury in rehabilitation programs throughout the United States in the OutcomeInfo Database (n = 3087) with 2 MPAI-4 ratings. MPAI-4, Supervision Rating Scale, Clinician Rating of Global Clinical Improvement. Initial analyses suggested 5 T-score points (5T) as the MCID and 9T as the RCID. Eighty-one percent to 87% of clinical raters considered a 5T change and 99% considered a 9T change to indicate meaningful improvement. 5T represents the MCID for the MPAI-4 and 9T, the RCID. Both values are notably less than the Reliable Change Index (RCI). While the RCI indicates change with a high level of statistical confidence, it may be insensitive to change that is considered meaningful by providers and participants as indicated by the MCID.

GIS Tools For Improving Pedestrian & Bicycle Safety

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2000-07-01

Geographic Information System (GIS) software turns statistical data, such as accidents, and geographic data, such as roads and crash locations, into meaningful information for spatial analysis and mapping. In this project, GIS-based analytical techni...

Measuring Circulation Desk Activities Using a Random Alarm Mechanism.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mosborg, Stella Frank

1980-01-01

Reports a job analysis methodology to gather meaningful data related to circulation desk activity. The technique is designed to give librarians statistical data on actual time expenditures for complex and varying activities. (Author/RAA)

The skeletal maturation status estimated by statistical shape analysis: axial images of Japanese cervical vertebra.

PubMed

Shin, S M; Kim, Y-I; Choi, Y-S; Yamaguchi, T; Maki, K; Cho, B-H; Park, S-B

2015-01-01

To evaluate axial cervical vertebral (ACV) shape quantitatively and to build a prediction model for skeletal maturation level using statistical shape analysis for Japanese individuals. The sample included 24 female and 19 male patients with hand-wrist radiographs and CBCT images. Through generalized Procrustes analysis and principal components (PCs) analysis, the meaningful PCs were extracted from each ACV shape and analysed for the estimation regression model. Each ACV shape had meaningful PCs, except for the second axial cervical vertebra. Based on these models, the smallest prediction intervals (PIs) were from the combination of the shape space PCs, age and gender. Overall, the PIs of the male group were smaller than those of the female group. There was no significant correlation between centroid size as a size factor and skeletal maturation level. Our findings suggest that the ACV maturation method, which was applied by statistical shape analysis, could confirm information about skeletal maturation in Japanese individuals as an available quantifier of skeletal maturation and could be as useful a quantitative method as the skeletal maturation index.

The skeletal maturation status estimated by statistical shape analysis: axial images of Japanese cervical vertebra

PubMed Central

Shin, S M; Choi, Y-S; Yamaguchi, T; Maki, K; Cho, B-H; Park, S-B

2015-01-01

Objectives: To evaluate axial cervical vertebral (ACV) shape quantitatively and to build a prediction model for skeletal maturation level using statistical shape analysis for Japanese individuals. Methods: The sample included 24 female and 19 male patients with hand–wrist radiographs and CBCT images. Through generalized Procrustes analysis and principal components (PCs) analysis, the meaningful PCs were extracted from each ACV shape and analysed for the estimation regression model. Results: Each ACV shape had meaningful PCs, except for the second axial cervical vertebra. Based on these models, the smallest prediction intervals (PIs) were from the combination of the shape space PCs, age and gender. Overall, the PIs of the male group were smaller than those of the female group. There was no significant correlation between centroid size as a size factor and skeletal maturation level. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the ACV maturation method, which was applied by statistical shape analysis, could confirm information about skeletal maturation in Japanese individuals as an available quantifier of skeletal maturation and could be as useful a quantitative method as the skeletal maturation index. PMID:25411713

Defining a Clinically Meaningful Effect for the Design and Interpretation of Randomized Controlled Trials

PubMed Central

Kraemer, Helena C.; Epstein, Robert S.; Frank, Ellen; Haynes, Ginger; Laughren, Thomas P.; Mcnulty, James; Reed, Shelby D.; Sanchez, Juan; Leon, Andrew C.

2013-01-01

Objective: This article captures the proceedings of a meeting aimed at defining clinically meaningful effects for use in randomized controlled trials for psychopharmacological agents. Design: Experts from a variety of disciplines defined clinically meaningful effects from their perspectives along with viewpoints about how to design and interpret randomized controlled trials. Setting: The article offers relevant, practical, and sometimes anecdotal information about clinically meaningful effects and how to interpret them. Participants: The concept for this session was the work of co-chairs Richard Keefe and the late Andy Leon. Faculty included Richard Keefe, PhD; James McNulty, AbScB; Robert S. Epstein, MD, MS; Shelby D. Reed, PhD; Juan Sanchez, MD; Ginger Haynes, PhD; Andrew C. Leon, PhD; Helena Chmura Kraemer, PhD; Ellen Frank, PhD, and Kenneth L. Davis, MD. Results: The term clinically meaningful effect is an important aspect of designing and interpreting randomized controlled trials but can be particularly difficult in the setting of psychopharmacology where effect size may be modest, particularly over the short term, because of a strong response to placebo. Payers, regulators, patients, and clinicians have different concerns about clinically meaningful effects and may describe these terms differently. The use of moderators in success rate differences may help better delineate clinically meaningful effects. Conclusion: There is no clear consensus on a single definition for clinically meaningful differences in randomized controlled trials, and investigators must be sensitive to specific concerns of stakeholders in psychopharmacology in order to design and execute appropriate clinical trials. PMID:23882433

The trajectory of scientific discovery: concept co-occurrence and converging semantic distance.

PubMed

Cohen, Trevor; Schvaneveldt, Roger W

2010-01-01

The paradigm of literature-based knowledge discovery originated by Swanson involves finding meaningful associations between terms or concepts that have not occurred together in any previously published document. While several automated approaches have been applied to this problem, these generally evaluate the literature at a point in time, and do not evaluate the role of change over time in distributional statistics as an indicator of meaningful implicit associations. To address this issue, we develop and evaluate Symmetric Random Indexing (SRI), a novel variant of the Random Indexing (RI) approach that is able to measure implicit association over time. SRI is found to compare favorably to existing RI variants in the prediction of future direct co-occurrence. Summary statistics over several experiments suggest a trend of converging semantic distance prior to the co-occurrence of key terms for two seminal historical literature-based discoveries.

Evidence, temperature, and the laws of thermodynamics.

PubMed

Vieland, Veronica J

2014-01-01

A primary purpose of statistical analysis in genetics is the measurement of the strength of evidence for or against hypotheses. As with any type of measurement, a properly calibrated measurement scale is necessary if we want to be able to meaningfully compare degrees of evidence across genetic data sets, across different types of genetic studies and/or across distinct experimental modalities. In previous papers in this journal and elsewhere, my colleagues and I have argued that geneticists ought to care about the scale on which statistical evidence is measured, and we have proposed the Kelvin temperature scale as a template for a context-independent measurement scale for statistical evidence. Moreover, we have claimed that, mathematically speaking, evidence and temperature may be one and the same thing. On first blush, this might seem absurd. Temperature is a property of systems following certain laws of nature (in particular, the 1st and 2nd Law of Thermodynamics) involving very physical quantities (e.g., energy) and processes (e.g., mechanical work). But what do the laws of thermodynamics have to do with statistical systems? Here I address that question. © 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Who and what is a "population"? Historical debates, current controversies, and implications for understanding "population health" and rectifying health inequities.

PubMed

Krieger, Nancy

2012-12-01

The idea of "population" is core to the population sciences but is rarely defined except in statistical terms. Yet who and what defines and makes a population has everything to do with whether population means are meaningful or meaningless, with profound implications for work on population health and health inequities. In this article, I review the current conventional definitions of, and historical debates over, the meaning(s) of "population," trace back the contemporary emphasis on populations as statistical rather than substantive entities to Adolphe Quetelet's powerful astronomical metaphor, conceived in the 1830s, of l'homme moyen (the average man), and argue for an alternative definition of populations as relational beings. As informed by the ecosocial theory of disease distribution, I then analyze several case examples to explore the utility of critical population-informed thinking for research, knowledge, and policy involving population health and health inequities. Four propositions emerge: (1) the meaningfulness of means depends on how meaningfully the populations are defined in relation to the inherent intrinsic and extrinsic dynamic generative relationships by which they are constituted; (2) structured chance drives population distributions of health and entails conceptualizing health and disease, including biomarkers, as embodied phenotype and health inequities as historically contingent; (3) persons included in population health research are study participants, and the casual equation of this term with "study population" should be avoided; and (4) the conventional cleavage of "internal validity" and "generalizability" is misleading, since a meaningful choice of study participants must be in relation to the range of exposures experienced (or not) in the real-world societies, that is, meaningful populations, of which they are a part. To improve conceptual clarity, causal inference, and action to promote health equity, population sciences need to expand and deepen their theorizing about who and what makes populations and their means. © 2012 Milbank Memorial Fund.

Who and What Is a “Population”? Historical Debates, Current Controversies, and Implications for Understanding “Population Health” and Rectifying Health Inequities

PubMed Central

Krieger, Nancy

2012-01-01

Context The idea of “population” is core to the population sciences but is rarely defined except in statistical terms. Yet who and what defines and makes a population has everything to do with whether population means are meaningful or meaningless, with profound implications for work on population health and health inequities. Methods In this article, I review the current conventional definitions of, and historical debates over, the meaning(s) of “population,” trace back the contemporary emphasis on populations as statistical rather than substantive entities to Adolphe Quetelet's powerful astronomical metaphor, conceived in the 1830s, of l’homme moyen (the average man), and argue for an alternative definition of populations as relational beings. As informed by the ecosocial theory of disease distribution, I then analyze several case examples to explore the utility of critical population-informed thinking for research, knowledge, and policy involving population health and health inequities. Findings Four propositions emerge: (1) the meaningfulness of means depends on how meaningfully the populations are defined in relation to the inherent intrinsic and extrinsic dynamic generative relationships by which they are constituted; (2) structured chance drives population distributions of health and entails conceptualizing health and disease, including biomarkers, as embodied phenotype and health inequities as historically contingent; (3) persons included in population health research are study participants, and the casual equation of this term with “study population” should be avoided; and (4) the conventional cleavage of “internal validity” and “generalizability” is misleading, since a meaningful choice of study participants must be in relation to the range of exposures experienced (or not) in the real-world societies, that is, meaningful populations, of which they are a part. Conclusions To improve conceptual clarity, causal inference, and action to promote health equity, population sciences need to expand and deepen their theorizing about who and what makes populations and their means. PMID:23216426

Statistical Model Selection for TID Hardness Assurance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ladbury, R.; Gorelick, J. L.; McClure, S.

2010-01-01

Radiation Hardness Assurance (RHA) methodologies against Total Ionizing Dose (TID) degradation impose rigorous statistical treatments for data from a part's Radiation Lot Acceptance Test (RLAT) and/or its historical performance. However, no similar methods exist for using "similarity" data - that is, data for similar parts fabricated in the same process as the part under qualification. This is despite the greater difficulty and potential risk in interpreting of similarity data. In this work, we develop methods to disentangle part-to-part, lot-to-lot and part-type-to-part-type variation. The methods we develop apply not just for qualification decisions, but also for quality control and detection of process changes and other "out-of-family" behavior. We begin by discussing the data used in ·the study and the challenges of developing a statistic providing a meaningful measure of degradation across multiple part types, each with its own performance specifications. We then develop analysis techniques and apply them to the different data sets.

Studies in interactive communication. I - The effects of four communication modes on the behavior of teams during cooperative problem-solving.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chapanis, A.; Ochsman, R. B.; Parrish, R. N.; Weeks, G. D.

1972-01-01

Two-man teams solved credible, 'real-world' problems for which computer assistance has been or could be useful. Conversations were carried on in one of four modes of communication: (1) typewriting, (2) handwriting, (3) voice, and (4) natural, unrestricted communication. Two groups of subjects (experienced and inexperienced typists) were tested in the typewriting mode. Performance was assessed on three classes of dependent measures: time to solution, behavioral measures of activity, and linguistic measures. Significant and meaningful differences among the communication modes were found in each of the three classes of dependent variable. This paper is concerned mainly with the results of the activity analyses. Behavior was recorded in 15 different categories. The analyses of variance yielded 34 statistically significant terms of which 27 were judged to be practically significant as well. When the data were transformed to eliminate heterogeneity, the analyses of variance yielded 35 statistically significant terms of which 26 were judged to be practically significant.

Flood type specific construction of synthetic design hydrographs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brunner, Manuela I.; Viviroli, Daniel; Sikorska, Anna E.; Vannier, Olivier; Favre, Anne-Catherine; Seibert, Jan

2017-02-01

Accurate estimates of flood peaks, corresponding volumes, and hydrographs are required to design safe and cost-effective hydraulic structures. In this paper, we propose a statistical approach for the estimation of the design variables peak and volume by constructing synthetic design hydrographs for different flood types such as flash-floods, short-rain floods, long-rain floods, and rain-on-snow floods. Our approach relies on the fitting of probability density functions to observed flood hydrographs of a certain flood type and accounts for the dependence between peak discharge and flood volume. It makes use of the statistical information contained in the data and retains the process information of the flood type. The method was tested based on data from 39 mesoscale catchments in Switzerland and provides catchment specific and flood type specific synthetic design hydrographs for all of these catchments. We demonstrate that flood type specific synthetic design hydrographs are meaningful in flood-risk management when combined with knowledge on the seasonality and the frequency of different flood types.

Impact of feature saliency on visual category learning.

PubMed

Hammer, Rubi

2015-01-01

People have to sort numerous objects into a large number of meaningful categories while operating in varying contexts. This requires identifying the visual features that best predict the 'essence' of objects (e.g., edibility), rather than categorizing objects based on the most salient features in a given context. To gain this capacity, visual category learning (VCL) relies on multiple cognitive processes. These may include unsupervised statistical learning, that requires observing multiple objects for learning the statistics of their features. Other learning processes enable incorporating different sources of supervisory information, alongside the visual features of the categorized objects, from which the categorical relations between few objects can be deduced. These deductions enable inferring that objects from the same category may differ from one another in some high-saliency feature dimensions, whereas lower-saliency feature dimensions can best differentiate objects from distinct categories. Here I illustrate how feature saliency affects VCL, by also discussing kinds of supervisory information enabling reflective categorization. Arguably, principles debated here are often being ignored in categorization studies.

Impact of feature saliency on visual category learning

PubMed Central

Hammer, Rubi

2015-01-01

People have to sort numerous objects into a large number of meaningful categories while operating in varying contexts. This requires identifying the visual features that best predict the ‘essence’ of objects (e.g., edibility), rather than categorizing objects based on the most salient features in a given context. To gain this capacity, visual category learning (VCL) relies on multiple cognitive processes. These may include unsupervised statistical learning, that requires observing multiple objects for learning the statistics of their features. Other learning processes enable incorporating different sources of supervisory information, alongside the visual features of the categorized objects, from which the categorical relations between few objects can be deduced. These deductions enable inferring that objects from the same category may differ from one another in some high-saliency feature dimensions, whereas lower-saliency feature dimensions can best differentiate objects from distinct categories. Here I illustrate how feature saliency affects VCL, by also discussing kinds of supervisory information enabling reflective categorization. Arguably, principles debated here are often being ignored in categorization studies. PMID:25954220

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Team-Based Learning Versus Lectures with Break-Out Groups on Knowledge Retention.

PubMed

Thrall, Grace C; Coverdale, John H; Benjamin, Sophiya; Wiggins, Anna; Lane, Christianne Joy; Pato, Michele T

2016-10-01

This goal of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of team-based learning (TBL) on knowledge retention compared to traditional lectures with small break-out group discussion (teaching as usual (TAU)) using a randomized controlled trial. This randomized controlled trial was conducted during a daylong conference for psychiatric educators on attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and the research literacy topic of efficacy versus effectiveness trials. Learners (n = 115) were randomized with concealed allocation to either TBL or TAU. Knowledge was measured prior to the intervention, immediately afterward, and 2 months later via multiple-choice tests. Participants were necessarily unblinded. Data enterers, data analysts, and investigators were blinded to group assignment in data analysis. Per-protocol analyses of test scores were performed using change in knowledge from baseline. The primary endpoint was test scores at 2 months. At baseline, there were no statistically significant differences between groups in pre-test knowledge. At immediate post-test, both TBL and TAU groups showed improved knowledge scores compared with their baseline scores. The TBL group performed better statistically on the immediate post-test than the TAU group (Cohen's d = 0.73; p < 0.001), although the differences in knowledge scores were not educationally meaningful, averaging just one additional test question correct (out of 15). On the 2-month remote post-test, there were no group differences in knowledge retention among the 42 % of participants who returned the 2-month test. Both TBL and TAU learners acquired new knowledge at the end of the intervention and retained knowledge over 2 months. At the end of the intervention day and after 2 months, knowledge test scores were not meaningfully different between TBL and TAU completers. In conclusion, this study failed to demonstrate the superiority of TBL over TAU on the primary outcome of knowledge retention at 2 months post-intervention.

Relationship between perceptual learning in speech and statistical learning in younger and older adults

PubMed Central

Neger, Thordis M.; Rietveld, Toni; Janse, Esther

2014-01-01

Within a few sentences, listeners learn to understand severely degraded speech such as noise-vocoded speech. However, individuals vary in the amount of such perceptual learning and it is unclear what underlies these differences. The present study investigates whether perceptual learning in speech relates to statistical learning, as sensitivity to probabilistic information may aid identification of relevant cues in novel speech input. If statistical learning and perceptual learning (partly) draw on the same general mechanisms, then statistical learning in a non-auditory modality using non-linguistic sequences should predict adaptation to degraded speech. In the present study, 73 older adults (aged over 60 years) and 60 younger adults (aged between 18 and 30 years) performed a visual artificial grammar learning task and were presented with 60 meaningful noise-vocoded sentences in an auditory recall task. Within age groups, sentence recognition performance over exposure was analyzed as a function of statistical learning performance, and other variables that may predict learning (i.e., hearing, vocabulary, attention switching control, working memory, and processing speed). Younger and older adults showed similar amounts of perceptual learning, but only younger adults showed significant statistical learning. In older adults, improvement in understanding noise-vocoded speech was constrained by age. In younger adults, amount of adaptation was associated with lexical knowledge and with statistical learning ability. Thus, individual differences in general cognitive abilities explain listeners' variability in adapting to noise-vocoded speech. Results suggest that perceptual and statistical learning share mechanisms of implicit regularity detection, but that the ability to detect statistical regularities is impaired in older adults if visual sequences are presented quickly. PMID:25225475

Relationship between perceptual learning in speech and statistical learning in younger and older adults.

PubMed

Neger, Thordis M; Rietveld, Toni; Janse, Esther

2014-01-01

Within a few sentences, listeners learn to understand severely degraded speech such as noise-vocoded speech. However, individuals vary in the amount of such perceptual learning and it is unclear what underlies these differences. The present study investigates whether perceptual learning in speech relates to statistical learning, as sensitivity to probabilistic information may aid identification of relevant cues in novel speech input. If statistical learning and perceptual learning (partly) draw on the same general mechanisms, then statistical learning in a non-auditory modality using non-linguistic sequences should predict adaptation to degraded speech. In the present study, 73 older adults (aged over 60 years) and 60 younger adults (aged between 18 and 30 years) performed a visual artificial grammar learning task and were presented with 60 meaningful noise-vocoded sentences in an auditory recall task. Within age groups, sentence recognition performance over exposure was analyzed as a function of statistical learning performance, and other variables that may predict learning (i.e., hearing, vocabulary, attention switching control, working memory, and processing speed). Younger and older adults showed similar amounts of perceptual learning, but only younger adults showed significant statistical learning. In older adults, improvement in understanding noise-vocoded speech was constrained by age. In younger adults, amount of adaptation was associated with lexical knowledge and with statistical learning ability. Thus, individual differences in general cognitive abilities explain listeners' variability in adapting to noise-vocoded speech. Results suggest that perceptual and statistical learning share mechanisms of implicit regularity detection, but that the ability to detect statistical regularities is impaired in older adults if visual sequences are presented quickly.

AIR POLLUTION AND EXERCISE-INDUCED BRONCHOCONSTRICTION

EPA Science Inventory

If ambient PM is toxic, a statistical relationship might be expected between personal exposure to ambient PM and health effects due to ambient PM. However, some exposure analysts seem to believe that there cannot be a meaningful relationship between ambient concentrations of PM ...

Development of Learning Models Based on Problem Solving and Meaningful Learning Standards by Expert Validity for Animal Development Course

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lufri, L.; Fitri, R.; Yogica, R.

2018-04-01

The purpose of this study is to produce a learning model based on problem solving and meaningful learning standards by expert assessment or validation for the course of Animal Development. This research is a development research that produce the product in the form of learning model, which consist of sub product, namely: the syntax of learning model and student worksheets. All of these products are standardized through expert validation. The research data is the level of validity of all sub products obtained using questionnaire, filled by validators from various field of expertise (field of study, learning strategy, Bahasa). Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The result of the research shows that the problem solving and meaningful learning model has been produced. Sub products declared appropriate by expert include the syntax of learning model and student worksheet.

Myasthenia Gravis Impairment Index: Responsiveness, meaningful change, and relative efficiency.

PubMed

Barnett, Carolina; Bril, Vera; Kapral, Moira; Kulkarni, Abhaya V; Davis, Aileen M

2017-12-05

To study responsiveness and meaningful change of the Myasthenia Gravis Impairment Index (MGII) and its relative efficiency compared to other measures. We enrolled 95 patients receiving prednisone, IV immunoglobulin (IVIg), or plasma exchange (PLEX) and 54 controls. Patients were assessed with the MGII and other measures-including the Quantitative Myasthenia Gravis Score, Myasthenia Gravis Composite, and Myasthenia Gravis Activities of Daily Living-at baseline and 3-4 weeks after treatment. Statistical markers of responsiveness included between-groups and within-group differences, and we estimated the relative efficiency of the MGII compared to other measures. Patient-meaningful change was assessed with an anchor-based method, using the patient's impression of change. We determined the minimal detectable change (MDC) and the minimal important difference (MID) at the group and individual level. Treated patients had a higher change in MGII scores than controls (analysis of covariance p < 0.001). The ocular domain changed more with prednisone than with IVIg/PLEX (effect size 0.67 and 0.13, analysis of covariance p = 0.001). The generalized domain changed more with IVIg/PLEX than with prednisone (effect size 0.50 and 0.22, analysis of covariance p = 0.07). For the total MGII score, the individual MDC95 was 9.1 and the MID was 5.5 for individuals and 8.1 for groups. Relative efficiency ratios were >1 favoring the MGII. The MGII demonstrated responsiveness to prednisone, IVIg, and PLEX in patients with myasthenia. There is a differential response in ocular and generalized symptoms to type of therapy. The MGII has higher relative efficiency than comparison measures and is viable for use in clinical trials. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of the American Academy of Neurology.

Comparing the effect of group-based and compact disk-based training on midwives' knowledge and attitude toward domestic violence in women of reproductive age.

PubMed

Vakily, Masoomeh; Noroozi, Mahnaz; Yamani, Nikoo

2017-01-01

Training the health personnel about domestic violence would cause them to investigate and evaluate this issue more than before. Considering the new educational approaches for transferring knowledge, the goal of this research was to compare the effect of group-based and compact disk (CD)-based training on midwives' knowledge and attitude toward domestic violence. In this clinical experiment, seventy midwives working at health centers and hospitals of Isfahan were randomly allocated into two classes of group-based and CD-based trainings and were trained in the fields of recognition, prevention, and management of domestic violence. Data were collected by questionnaires which were completed by the midwives for evaluation of their knowledge and attitude. The mean score of midwives' knowledge and attitude toward domestic violence had a meaningful increase after the training (16.1, 46.9) compared to the score of before the training (12.1, 39.1) in both of the classes (group-based training: 17.7, 45.4) (CD-based training: 11.7, 38.6). No meaningful difference was observed between the two groups regarding midwives' attitude toward domestic violence after the intervention; however, regarding their knowledge level, the difference was statistically meaningful ( P = 0.001), and this knowledge increase was more in the CD-based training group. In spite of the effectiveness of both of the training methods in promoting midwives' knowledge and attitude about domestic violence, training with CD was more effective in increasing their knowledge; as a result, considering the benefits of CD-based training such as cost-effectiveness and possibility of use at any time, it is advised to be used in training programs for the health personnel.

Evaluation of the advantageous anesthetic properties of dexmedetomidine used as hypotensive agent compared with nitroglycerin in orthognathic surgery.

PubMed

Rummasak, Duangdee; Apipan, Benjamas

2014-12-01

To evaluate the advantageous anesthetic properties, such as the decrease of intraoperative analgesic requirement, time to extubation and recovery, and early postoperative pain, of dexmedetomidine used as hypotensive agent compared with nitroglycerin in orthognathic surgery. The authors implemented a prospective, single-blinded, randomized clinical trial. The sample was composed of healthy patients who were admitted for bimaxillary osteotomies and were assigned to 1 of 2 groups by a computer-generated random number and blinded to the group. Dexmedetomidine or nitroglycerin was used as the hypotensive drug for each group. All patients underwent hypotensive anesthesia and surgery according to standard protocol. Intraoperative amount of fentanyl, time to eye opening, time to follow basic verbal commands, time to extubation, early postoperative pain scores, and analgesics were recorded. Compared means were analyzed using the unpaired Student t test. A 2-sided statistical test was used. A P value less than .05 was considered significant. The sample was composed of 40 participants. The intraoperative fentanyl requirement was significantly lower in the dexmedetomidine group than in the nitroglycerin group (168.75±56.29 and 222.50±96.12 μg, respectively; P=.037). Times to eye opening and following commands were considerably longer in the dexmedetomidine group, but the time to extubation showed no meaningful difference. Early postoperative pain after 30 and 60 minutes and the requirement for meperidine were not meaningfully different between the 2 groups. Dexmedetomidine, used as a hypotensive drug, has anesthetic benefits compared with nitroglycerin. Dexmedetomidine decreases the intraoperative fentanyl requirement and does not meaningfully change the time to extubation, early postoperative pain, and analgesic drug requirement. Copyright © 2014 American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Comparing the effect of group-based and compact disk-based training on midwives’ knowledge and attitude toward domestic violence in women of reproductive age

PubMed Central

Vakily, Masoomeh; Noroozi, Mahnaz; Yamani, Nikoo

2017-01-01

BACKGROUND: Training the health personnel about domestic violence would cause them to investigate and evaluate this issue more than before. Considering the new educational approaches for transferring knowledge, the goal of this research was to compare the effect of group-based and compact disk (CD)-based training on midwives’ knowledge and attitude toward domestic violence. METHODS: In this clinical experiment, seventy midwives working at health centers and hospitals of Isfahan were randomly allocated into two classes of group-based and CD-based trainings and were trained in the fields of recognition, prevention, and management of domestic violence. Data were collected by questionnaires which were completed by the midwives for evaluation of their knowledge and attitude. RESULTS: The mean score of midwives’ knowledge and attitude toward domestic violence had a meaningful increase after the training (16.1, 46.9) compared to the score of before the training (12.1, 39.1) in both of the classes (group-based training: 17.7, 45.4) (CD-based training: 11.7, 38.6). No meaningful difference was observed between the two groups regarding midwives’ attitude toward domestic violence after the intervention; however, regarding their knowledge level, the difference was statistically meaningful (P = 0.001), and this knowledge increase was more in the CD-based training group. CONCLUSIONS: In spite of the effectiveness of both of the training methods in promoting midwives’ knowledge and attitude about domestic violence, training with CD was more effective in increasing their knowledge; as a result, considering the benefits of CD-based training such as cost-effectiveness and possibility of use at any time, it is advised to be used in training programs for the health personnel. PMID:28852660

Relationship between measurement invariance and age-related differences in the prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder.

PubMed

Hobbs, Megan J; Anderson, Tracy M; Slade, Tim; Andrews, Gavin

2014-01-01

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) peaks in prevalence in middle age and declines in prevalence into old age. Some commentators have suggested that this is not a meaningful epidemiological trend rather a methodological artifact. This study tested this hypothesis by matching respondents of different ages based on their severity and examining whether age influences the probability of endorsing GAD criteria and the prevalence of GAD. Self-reported worriers from a nationally representative survey of non-institutionalized adults were selected for investigation (n=1738). All respondents were interviewed using the World Mental Health version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Age-related differences in the prevalence and invariance of the GAD criteria were examined between 16 and 29 years, 30 and 44 years, 45 and 59 years and 60 years+ age groups. Effect sizes were used to assess the impact of statistically significant criterion level non-invariance on the prevalence of GAD. Respondents aged 60 years or more were less likely than younger adults to endorse most of the GAD criteria. Significant non-invariance was identified in each of the age group analyses. Nonetheless these differences had no impact on the prevalence of GAD in three group comparisons. In the other three group comparisons, the impact was minimal (d ≤ 0.3). Our results support age-related differences in the prevalence of GAD but we are limited to the extent to which we can say why these differences occur. Age-related prevalence differences in GAD are meaningful epidemiological trends. © 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Meaningful improvement in gait speed in hip fracture recovery.

PubMed

Alley, Dawn E; Hicks, Gregory E; Shardell, Michelle; Hawkes, William; Miller, Ram; Craik, Rebecca L; Mangione, Kathleen K; Orwig, Denise; Hochberg, Marc; Resnick, Barbara; Magaziner, Jay

2011-09-01

To estimate meaningful improvements in gait speed observed during recovery from hip fracture and to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of gait speed changes in detecting change in self-reported mobility. Secondary longitudinal data analysis from two randomized controlled trials Twelve hospitals in the Baltimore, Maryland, area. Two hundred seventeen women admitted with hip fracture. Usual gait speed and self-reported mobility (ability to walk 1 block and climb 1 flight of stairs) measured 2 and 12 months after fracture. Effect size-based estimates of meaningful differences were 0.03 for small differences and 0.09 for substantial differences. Depending on the anchor (stairs vs walking) and method (mean difference vs regression), anchor-based estimates ranged from 0.10 to 0.17 m/s for small meaningful improvements and 0.17 to 0.26 m/s for substantial meaningful improvement. Optimal gait speed cutpoints yielded low sensitivity (0.39-0.62) and specificity (0.57-0.76) for improvements in self-reported mobility. Results from this sample of women recovering from hip fracture provide only limited support for the 0.10-m/s cut point for substantial meaningful change previously identified in community-dwelling older adults experiencing declines in walking abilities. Anchor-based estimates and cut points derived from receiver operating characteristic curve analysis suggest that greater improvements in gait speed may be required for substantial perceived mobility improvement in female hip fracture patients. Furthermore, gait speed change performed poorly in discriminating change in self-reported mobility. Estimates of meaningful change in gait speed may differ based on the direction of change (improvement vs decline) or between patient populations. © 2011, Copyright the Authors. Journal compilation © 2011, The American Geriatrics Society.

Meaningful Improvement in Gait Speed in Hip Fracture Recovery

PubMed Central

Alley, Dawn E.; Hicks, Gregory E.; Shardell, Michelle; Hawkes, William; Miller, Ram; Craik, Rebecca L.; Mangione, Kathleen K.; Orwig, Denise; Hochberg, Marc; Resnick, Barbara; Magaziner, Jay

2011-01-01

OBJECTIVES To estimate meaningful improvements in gait speed observed during recovery from hip fracture and to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of gait speed changes in detecting change in self-reported mobility. DESIGN Secondary longitudinal data analysis from two randomized controlled trials SETTING Twelve hospitals in the Baltimore, Maryland, area. PARTICIPANTS Two hundred seventeen women admitted with hip fracture. MEASUREMENTS Usual gait speed and self-reported mobility (ability to walk 1 block and climb 1 flight of stairs) measured 2 and 12 months after fracture. RESULTS Effect size–based estimates of meaningful differences were 0.03 for small differences and 0.09 for substantial differences. Depending on the anchor (stairs vs walking) and method (mean difference vs regression), anchor-based estimates ranged from 0.10 to 0.17 m/s for small meaningful improvements and 0.17 to 0.26 m/s for substantial meaningful improvement. Optimal gait speed cut-points yielded low sensitivity (0.39–0.62) and specificity (0.57–0.76) for improvements in self-reported mobility. CONCLUSION Results from this sample of women recovering from hip fracture provide only limited support for the 0.10-m/s cut point for substantial meaningful change previously identified in community-dwelling older adults experiencing declines in walking abilities. Anchor-based estimates and cut points derived from receiver operating characteristic curve analysis suggest that greater improvements in gait speed may be required for substantial perceived mobility improvement in female hip fracture patients. Furthermore, gait speed change performed poorly in discriminating change in self-reported mobility. Estimates of meaningful change in gait speed may differ based on the direction of change (improvement vs decline) or between patient populations. PMID:21883109

What big size you have! Using effect sizes to determine the impact of public health nursing interventions.

PubMed

Johnson, K E; McMorris, B J; Raynor, L A; Monsen, K A

2013-01-01

The Omaha System is a standardized interface terminology that is used extensively by public health nurses in community settings to document interventions and client outcomes. Researchers using Omaha System data to analyze the effectiveness of interventions have typically calculated p-values to determine whether significant client changes occurred between admission and discharge. However, p-values are highly dependent on sample size, making it difficult to distinguish statistically significant changes from clinically meaningful changes. Effect sizes can help identify practical differences but have not yet been applied to Omaha System data. We compared p-values and effect sizes (Cohen's d) for mean differences between admission and discharge for 13 client problems documented in the electronic health records of 1,016 young low-income parents. Client problems were documented anywhere from 6 (Health Care Supervision) to 906 (Caretaking/parenting) times. On a scale from 1 to 5, the mean change needed to yield a large effect size (Cohen's d ≥ 0.80) was approximately 0.60 (range = 0.50 - 1.03) regardless of p-value or sample size (i.e., the number of times a client problem was documented in the electronic health record). Researchers using the Omaha System should report effect sizes to help readers determine which differences are practical and meaningful. Such disclosures will allow for increased recognition of effective interventions.

Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy a clinical trial to increase self-efficacy in abused the primary school children.

PubMed

Farina, Vahid; Salemi, Safora; Tatari, Faezeh; Abdoli, Nasrin; Jouybari, Touraj Ahmadi; Alikhani, Mostafa; Basanj, Behrad; Zakiei, Ali

2018-01-01

Child abuse and violence toward children has become a complex phenomenon in nowadays societies leaving hurt children with numerous complications such as lowered self-efficacy. Hence, this study was conducted to assess the effect of trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) in physically abused children self-efficacy. This study was a randomized clinical trial. From this statistical population of all abused children aged 9-12 in Kermanshah in 2016-2017, 40 were divided into intervention and control groups randomly. Tools used in this study were Maurice self-efficacy questionnaire and child abuse questionnaire. Data analysis was done using Chi-square test, paired t -test, and independent t -test. It was revealed that the mean difference between two groups was not meaningful before intervention. After TF-CBT in intervention group, self-efficacy mean scores of social (17.95 vs. 24.20) and emotional (15.05 vs. 19.05) domains showed meaningful differences, whereas academic self-efficacy mean score did not change significantly (14.10 vs. 14.65) ( P < 0.086). In control group, social (16.20 vs. 15.55), emotional (13.90 vs. 14.35), and academic (13.40 vs. 13.90) mean self-efficacy scores were not of significant difference ( P > 0.001). TF-CBT can be used as an appropriate therapy intervention to improve social and emotional self-efficacy in abused children.

DEVELOPING MEANINGFUL COHORTS FOR HUMAN EXPOSURE MODELS

EPA Science Inventory

This paper summarizes numerous statistical analyses focused on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Consolidated Human Activity Database (CHAD), used by many exposure modelers as the basis for data on what people do and where they spend their time. In doing so, modelers ...

Knee Contact Force Asymmetries in Patients Who Failed Return-to-Sport Readiness Criteria 6 Months After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction

PubMed Central

Gardinier, Emily S.; Di Stasi, Stephanie; Manal, Kurt; Buchanan, Thomas S.; Snyder-Mackler, Lynn

2015-01-01

Background After anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, contact forces are decreased in the injured knee when compared with the uninjured knee. The persistence of contact force asymmetries after ACL reconstruction may increase the risk of reinjury and may play an important role in the development of knee osteoarthritis in these patients. Functional performance may also be useful in identifying patients who demonstrate potentially harmful joint contact force asymmetries after ACL reconstruction. Hypothesis Knee joint contact force asymmetries would be present during gait after ACL reconstruction, and performance on a specific set of validated return-to-sport (RTS) readiness criteria would discriminate between those who demonstrated contact force asymmetries and those who did not. Study Design Descriptive laboratory study. Methods A total of 29 patients with ACL ruptures participated in gait analysis and RTS readiness testing 6 months after reconstruction. Muscle and joint contact forces were estimated using an electromyography (EMG)–driven musculoskeletal model of the knee. The magnitude of typical limb asymmetry in uninjured controls was used to define limits of meaningful limb asymmetry in patients after ACL reconstruction. The RTS testing included isometric quadriceps strength testing, 4 unilateral hop tests, and 2 self-report questionnaires. Paired t tests were used to assess limb symmetry for peak medial and tibiofemoral contact forces in all patients, and a mixed-design analysis of variance was used to analyze the effect of passing or failing RTS testing on contact force asymmetry. Results Among all patients, neither statistically significant nor meaningful contact force asymmetries were identified. However, patients who failed RTS testing exhibited meaningful contact force asymmetries, with tibiofemoral contact force being significantly lower for the involved knee. Conversely, patients who passed RTS testing exhibited neither significant nor meaningful contact force asymmetries. Conclusion Joint contact force asymmetries during gait are present in some patients 6 months after ACL reconstruction. Patients who demonstrated poor functional performance on RTS readiness testing exhibited significant and meaningful contact force asymmetries. Clinical Relevance When assessing all patients together, variability in the functional status obscured significant and meaningful differences in contact force asymmetry in patients 6 months after ACL reconstruction. These specific RTS readiness criteria appear to differentiate between those who demonstrate joint contact force symmetry after ACL reconstruction and those who do not. PMID:25318940

Is the diagnostic threshold for bulimia nervosa clinically meaningful?

PubMed

Chapa, Danielle A N; Bohrer, Brittany K; Forbush, Kelsie T

2018-01-01

The DSM-5 differentiates full- and sub-threshold bulimia nervosa (BN) according to average weekly frequencies of binge eating and inappropriate compensatory behaviors. This study was the first to evaluate the modified frequency criterion for BN published in the DSM-5. The purpose of this study was to test whether community-recruited adults (N=125; 83.2% women) with current full-threshold (n=77) or sub-threshold BN (n=48) differed in comorbid psychopathology and eating disorder (ED) illness duration, symptom severity, and clinical impairment. Participants completed the Clinical Impairment Assessment and participated in semi-structured clinical interviews of ED- and non-ED psychopathology. Differences between the sub- and full-threshold BN groups were assessed using MANOVA and Chi-square analyses. ED illness duration, age-of-onset, body mass index (BMI), alcohol and drug misuse, and the presence of current and lifetime mood or anxiety disorders did not differ between participants with sub- and full-threshold BN. Participants with full-threshold BN had higher levels of clinical impairment and weight concern than those with sub-threshold BN. However, minimal clinically important difference analyses suggested that statistically significant differences between participants with sub- and full-threshold BN on clinical impairment and weight concern were not clinically significant. In conclusion, sub-threshold BN did not differ from full-threshold BN in clinically meaningful ways. Future studies are needed to identify an improved frequency criterion for BN that better distinguishes individuals in ways that will more validly inform prognosis and effective treatment planning for BN. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Relation of intelligence to ego functioning in an adult psychiatric population.

PubMed

Allen, J G; Coyne, L; David, E

1986-01-01

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) IQs and clinical ratings of 10 ego functions in a diagnostically heterogeneous sample of 60 adult psychiatric inpatients were correlated. With severity of pathology statistically controlled, higher intelligence was associated with more adequate ego functioning in several spheres: primary autonomous functions, thought processes, object relations, and mastery-competence. There were also some clinically meaningful differences between the Verbal and Performance IQs in the pattern of correlations. Extending Hartmann's original views, the authors employ an ethological framework to conceptualize intelligence in relation to the ego's role in adaptation, emphasizing that intelligence is an important-albeit neglected-aspect of ego functioning.

Hemispheric Differences in Processing Dichotic Meaningful and Non-Meaningful Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yasin, Ifat

2007-01-01

Classic dichotic-listening paradigms reveal a right-ear advantage (REA) for speech sounds as compared to non-speech sounds. This REA is assumed to be associated with a left-hemisphere dominance for meaningful speech processing. This study objectively probed the relationship between ear advantage and hemispheric dominance in a dichotic-listening…

The effect of system nonlinearities on system noise statistics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Robinson, L. H., Jr.

1971-01-01

The effects are studied of nonlinearities in a baseline communications system on the system noise amplitude statistics. So that a meaningful identification of system nonlinearities can be made, the baseline system is assumed to transmit a single biphase-modulated signal through a relay satellite to the receiving equipment. The significant nonlinearities thus identified include square-law or product devices (e.g., in the carrier reference recovery loops in the receivers), bandpass limiters, and traveling wave tube amplifiers.

An investigation of meaningful understanding and effectiveness of the implementation of Piagetian and Ausubelian theories in physics instruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, Karen Ann

One section of college students (N = 25) enrolled in an algebra-based physics course was selected for a Piagetian-based learning cycle (LC) treatment while a second section (N = 25) studied in an Ausubelian-based meaningful verbal reception learning treatment (MVRL). This study examined the students' overall (concept + problem solving + mental model) meaningful understanding of force, density/Archimedes Principle, and heat. Also examined were students' meaningful understanding as measured by conceptual questions, problems, and mental models. In addition, students' learning orientations were examined. There were no significant posttest differences between the LC and MVRL groups for students' meaningful understanding or learning orientation. Piagetian and Ausubelian theories explain meaningful understanding for each treatment. Students from each treatment increased their meaningful understanding. However, neither group altered their learning orientation. The results of meaningful understanding as measured by conceptual questions, problem solving, and mental models were mixed. Differences were attributed to the weaknesses and strengths of each treatment. This research also examined four variables (treatment, reasoning ability, learning orientation, and prior knowledge) to find which best predicted students' overall meaningful understanding of physics concepts. None of these variables were significant predictors at the.05 level. However, when the same variables were used to predict students' specific understanding (i.e. concept, problem solving, or mental model understanding), the results were mixed. For forces and density/Archimedes Principle, prior knowledge and reasoning ability significantly predicted students' conceptual understanding. For heat, however, reasoning ability was the only significant predictor of concept understanding. Reasoning ability and treatment were significant predictors of students' problem solving for heat and forces. For density/Archimedes Principle, treatment was the only significant predictor of students' problem solving. None of the variables were significant predictors of mental model understanding. This research suggested that Piaget and Ausubel used different terminology to describe learning yet these theories are similar. Further research is needed to validate this premise and validate the blending of the two theories.

Sex differences in moral reasoning: response to Walker's (1984) conclusion that there are none.

PubMed

Baumrind, D

1986-04-01

Data from the Family Socialization and Developmental Competence Project are used to probe Walker's conclusion that there are no sex differences in moral reasoning. Ordinal and nominal nonparametric statistics result in a complex but theoretically meaningful network of relationships among sex, educational level, and Kohlberg stage score level, with the presence and direction of sex differences in stage score level dependent on educational level. The effects on stage score level of educational level and working status are also shown to differ for men and women. Reasons are considered for not accepting Walker's dismissal of studies that use (a) a pre-1983 scoring manual, or (b) fail to control for education. The problems presented to Kohlberg's theory by the significant relationship between educational and stage score levels in the general population are discussed, particularly as these apply to the postconventional level of moral reasoning.

Identifiability of PBPK Models with Applications to ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Any statistical model should be identifiable in order for estimates and tests using it to be meaningful. We consider statistical analysis of physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models in which parameters cannot be estimated precisely from available data, and discuss different types of identifiability that occur in PBPK models and give reasons why they occur. We particularly focus on how the mathematical structure of a PBPK model and lack of appropriate data can lead to statistical models in which it is impossible to estimate at least some parameters precisely. Methods are reviewed which can determine whether a purely linear PBPK model is globally identifiable. We propose a theorem which determines when identifiability at a set of finite and specific values of the mathematical PBPK model (global discrete identifiability) implies identifiability of the statistical model. However, we are unable to establish conditions that imply global discrete identifiability, and conclude that the only safe approach to analysis of PBPK models involves Bayesian analysis with truncated priors. Finally, computational issues regarding posterior simulations of PBPK models are discussed. The methodology is very general and can be applied to numerous PBPK models which can be expressed as linear time-invariant systems. A real data set of a PBPK model for exposure to dimethyl arsinic acid (DMA(V)) is presented to illustrate the proposed methodology. We consider statistical analy

LSD Now: 1973

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chunko, John A.

1973-01-01

LSD NOW is a nationwide, statistical survey and analysis of hallucinogenic drug use by individuals presently in formal educational surroundings. Analysis, concentrating on the extent and rationale related to the use of such drugs, now offers a deeper and more meaningful understanding of a particular facet of the drug culture. This understanding…

75 FR 8355 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Announcement of Board Approval Under Delegated...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-02-24

...: Federal Reserve Board Clearance Officer--Michelle Shore--Division of Research and Statistics, Board of... delinquency and nonaccrual status of trading securities is not particularly meaningful given that these... proposed disclosure requirements regarding the delinquency and nonaccrual status of trading securities. The...

Quantifying discrimination of Framingham risk functions with different survival C statistics.

PubMed

Pencina, Michael J; D'Agostino, Ralph B; Song, Linye

2012-07-10

Cardiovascular risk prediction functions offer an important diagnostic tool for clinicians and patients themselves. They are usually constructed with the use of parametric or semi-parametric survival regression models. It is essential to be able to evaluate the performance of these models, preferably with summaries that offer natural and intuitive interpretations. The concept of discrimination, popular in the logistic regression context, has been extended to survival analysis. However, the extension is not unique. In this paper, we define discrimination in survival analysis as the model's ability to separate those with longer event-free survival from those with shorter event-free survival within some time horizon of interest. This definition remains consistent with that used in logistic regression, in the sense that it assesses how well the model-based predictions match the observed data. Practical and conceptual examples and numerical simulations are employed to examine four C statistics proposed in the literature to evaluate the performance of survival models. We observe that they differ in the numerical values and aspects of discrimination that they capture. We conclude that the index proposed by Harrell is the most appropriate to capture discrimination described by the above definition. We suggest researchers report which C statistic they are using, provide a rationale for their selection, and be aware that comparing different indices across studies may not be meaningful. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Subjective comparison and evaluation of speech enhancement algorithms

PubMed Central

Hu, Yi; Loizou, Philipos C.

2007-01-01

Making meaningful comparisons between the performance of the various speech enhancement algorithms proposed over the years, has been elusive due to lack of a common speech database, differences in the types of noise used and differences in the testing methodology. To facilitate such comparisons, we report on the development of a noisy speech corpus suitable for evaluation of speech enhancement algorithms. This corpus is subsequently used for the subjective evaluation of 13 speech enhancement methods encompassing four classes of algorithms: spectral subtractive, subspace, statistical-model based and Wiener-type algorithms. The subjective evaluation was performed by Dynastat, Inc. using the ITU-T P.835 methodology designed to evaluate the speech quality along three dimensions: signal distortion, noise distortion and overall quality. This paper reports the results of the subjective tests. PMID:18046463

Comparing three toothpastes in controlling plaque and gingivitis: A 6-month clinical study.

PubMed

Triratana, Terdphong; Kraivaphan, Petcharat; Amornchat, Cholticha; Mateo, Luis R; Morrison, Boyce M; Dibart, Serge; Zhang, Yun-Po

2015-04-01

To investigate the clinical efficacy of three toothpastes in controlling established gingivitis and plaque over 6 months. 135 subjects were enrolled in a single-center, double-blind, parallel group, randomized clinical study. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: triclosan/copolymer/fluoride dentifrice containing 0.3% triclosan, 2.0% copolymer and 1,450 ppm F as sodium fluoride in a silica base; herbal/bicarbonate dentifrice containing herbal extract and 1,400 ppm F as sodium fluoride in a sodium bicarbonate base; or fluoride dentifrice containing 450 ppm F as sodium fluoride, and 1,000 ppm F as sodium monofluorophosphate. Subjects were instructed to brush their teeth twice daily for 1 minute for 6 months. After 6 months, subjects assigned to the triclosan/copolymer/fluoride group exhibited statistically significant reductions in gingival index scores and plaque index scores as compared to subjects assigned to the herbal/bicarbonate group by 35.4% and 48.9%, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in gingival index and plaque index between subjects in the herbal/ bicarbonate group and those in the fluoride group. The triclosan/copolymer/fluoride dentifrice was statistically significantly more effective in reducing gingivitis and dental plaque than the herbal/bicarbonate dentifrice, and this difference in efficacy was clinically meaningful.

DSM-5 ASD moves forward into the past.

PubMed

Tsai, Luke Y; Ghaziuddin, Mohammad

2014-02-01

The fifth edition of the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5) (APA in diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, Author, Washington, 2013) has decided to merge the subtypes of pervasive developmental disorders into a single category of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) on the assumption that they cannot be reliably differentiated from one another. The purpose of this review is to analyze the basis of this assumption by examining the comparative studies between Asperger's disorder (AsD) and autistic disorder (AD), and between pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDDNOS) and AD. In all, 125 studies compared AsD with AD. Of these, 30 studies concluded that AsD and AD were similar conditions while 95 studies found quantitative and qualitative differences between them. Likewise, 37 studies compared PDDNOS with AD. Nine of these concluded that PDDNOS did not differ significantly from AD while 28 reported quantitative and qualitative differences between them. Taken together, these findings do not support the conceptualization of AD, AsD and PDDNOS as a single category of ASD. Irrespective of the changes proposed by the DSM-5, future research and clinical practice will continue to find ways to meaningfully subtype the ASD.

Non-Earth-centric life detection

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Conrad, P. G.; Nealson, K. H.

2000-01-01

Our hope is that life will, bit by bit, reveal the clues that will allow us to piece together enough evidence to recognize it whenever and however it presents itself. Indisputable evidence is measurable, statistically meaningful and independent of the nature of the life it defines. That the evidence for life be measurable is a fundamental requirement of the scientific method, as is the requirement for statistical significance, and this quantitation is what enables us to differentiate the measurable criteria of candidate biosignatures from a background (host environment).

Predictive value and efficiency of laboratory testing.

PubMed

Galen, R S

1980-11-01

Literature on determining reference values and reference intervals on "normal" or "healthy" individuals is abundant. It is impossible, however, to evaluate a data set of reference values and select a suitable reference interval that will be meaningful for the practice of medicine. The reference interval, no matter how derived statistically, tells us nothing about disease. This is the main reason the concepts of "normal values" have failed us and why "reference values" will prove similarly disappointing. By studying these same constituents in a variety of disease states as well, it will be possible to select "referent values" that will make the test procedure meaningful for diagnostic purposes. In order to obtain meaningful referent values for predicting disease, it is necessary to study not only the "healthy" reference population, but patients with the disease in question, and patients who are free of the disease in question but who have other diseases. Studies of this type are not frequently found for laboratory tests that are in common use today.

Computers and Cognitive Development at Work

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roth, Wolff-Michael; Lee, Yew-Jin

2006-01-01

Data-logging exercises in science classrooms assume that with the proper scaffolding and provision of contexts by instructors, pupils are able to meaningfully comprehend the experimental variables under investigation. From a case study of knowing and learning in a fish hatchery using real-time computer statistical software, we show that…

Chance and Probability: What Do They Mean to University Engineering Students?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barragues, J. I.; Guisasola, J.; Morais, A.

2006-01-01

The great interest aroused by the incorporation of Statistics and Probability into curricular projects has been accompanied by considerable evidence of significant difficulties in the meaningful learning and application of the concepts. These difficulties have been the subject of many studies, mostly concerning secondary school students. This…

From Acceptance to Rejection: Food Contamination in the Classroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rajecki, D. W.

1989-01-01

Describes a classroom exercise to explain design and measurement principles in methodology and statistics courses. This demonstration which involves measurement of a shift from food acceptance to food rejection produces meaningful data sets. The realism of the exercise gives students a view of problems that emerge in research. (KO)

Active Learning? Not with My Syllabus!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ernst, Michael D.

2012-01-01

We describe an approach to teaching probability that minimizes the amount of class time spent on the topic while also providing a meaningful (dice-rolling) activity to get students engaged. The activity, which has a surprising outcome, illustrates the basic ideas of informal probability and how probability is used in statistical inference.…

The Science of the Individual

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rose, L. Todd; Rouhani, Parisa; Fischer, Kurt W.

2013-01-01

Our goal is to establish a science of the individual, grounded in dynamic systems, and focused on the analysis of individual variability. Our argument is that individuals behave, learn, and develop in distinctive ways, showing patterns of variability that are not captured by models based on statistical averages. As such, any meaningful attempt to…

Critical temperature: A quantitative method of assessing cold tolerance

Treesearch

D.H. DeHayes; M.W., Jr. Williams

1989-01-01

Critical temperature (Tc), defined as the highest temperature at which freezing injury to plant tissues can be detected, provides a biologically meaningful and statistically defined assessment of the relative cold tolerance of plant tissues. A method is described for calculating critical temperatures in laboratory freezing studies that use...

From Mere Coincidences to Meaningful Discoveries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griffiths, Thomas L.; Tenenbaum, Joshua B.

2007-01-01

People's reactions to coincidences are often cited as an illustration of the irrationality of human reasoning about chance. We argue that coincidences may be better understood in terms of rational statistical inference, based on their functional role in processes of causal discovery and theory revision. We present a formal definition of…

Efficacy and safety of topical diclofenac/menthol gel for ankle sprain: A randomized, double-blind, placebo- and active-controlled trial

PubMed Central

Collaku, Agron; Reed, Kenneth

2017-01-01

Purpose This study was performed to evaluate topical 1% diclofenac/3% menthol gel in treating ankle sprain. Design In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, adolescents and adults with acute ankle sprain (N = 385) applied 4 g of gel containing 1% diclofenac/3% menthol (n = 117), 1% diclofenac (n = 112), 3% menthol (n = 77), or placebo (n = 75) four times daily. The primary outcome was the area under the curve of pain intensity (PI) on movement [0 (no pain) to 10 (extreme pain)] from 24 to 72 hours post-application (AUC1–3 days). Secondary outcomes included pain relief (PR); PI; time to onset of PR, meaningful PR, cooling, and complete recovery; PI difference; sum of PI difference; total PR; reduction in ankle swelling; and the patient’s global assessment of response to treatment. Results There were no statistically significant differences in AUC1–3 between 1% diclofenac/3% menthol and placebo, diclofenac, or menthol gels and no meaningful advantages of 1% diclofenac/3% menthol for any secondary outcome. There was a higher incidence of skin and application-site events with 1% diclofenac/3% menthol than with placebo or 1% diclofenac. Conclusion No significant improvement was observed with topical 1% diclofenac/3% menthol gel compared with placebo, 1% diclofenac, or 3% menthol gel in treating pain from ankle sprain. ClinicalTrials.Gov Identifier: NCT02100670 PMID:28345425

Evaluation of the Effect of Different Laser Activated Bleaching Methods on Enamel Susceptibility to Caries; An In Vitro Mode.

PubMed

Ashnagar, Sajjad; Monzavi, Abbas; Abbasi, Mehdi; Aghajani, Mahdi; Chiniforush, Nasim

2017-01-01

Introduction: Today, bleaching is a routine noninvasive alternative for treatment of discolored teeth. The aim of this study was to determine whether conventional or laser activated bleaching predispose teeth to develop caries or not. Methods: Sixty human molars were mounted on acrylic cylinders and their Knoop microhardness (KHN) as well as DIAGNOdent (DD) values were recorded. They were divided into 4 experimental groups; G1) conventional bleaching with 40% hydrogen peroxide gel, G2) Diode laser assisted bleaching with same gel, G3) Nd:YAG laser assisted bleaching with the same gel, G4) control group. After bleaching, all samples were subjected to a three day pH cycling regimen and then, KHN and DD values were measured. Results: All groups had significant reduction in KHN values. It seems that there is no statistically meaningful difference between changes in enamel microhardness of the sample groups and all groups have changed in a similar amount. Reduction of DD scores were significant in Diode laser and conventional groups, however changes in Nd:YAG laser and control groups were not significant. Changes in DD values have followed a similar pattern among groups, except in G1- G4 and G2-G4 couples. Conventional and diode laser groups had a meaningful difference in reduction of DD values in comparison with the control group. Conclusion: It can be concluded that bleaching whether conventional or laser activated, does not make teeth vulnerable to develop carious lesions.

[Job demands, meaningful work, and turnover intention among nurses].

PubMed

Cortese, C G; Gatti, Paola; Ghislieri, Chiara

2014-01-01

The shortage of nurses is a worldwide issue. Since turnover intention (TI) is considered one of the major determinants of turnover behaviour, it is essential to look deeper into the way it operates. This study uses the job demands-resources model to investigate the TI of nurses, on the one hand looking at the relationship that some demands (workload, emotional dissonance and abusive supervision) have on TI and on the other, investigating the role of a specific resource (meaningful work - MW) in terms of its effect on TI and as a potential moderator of the relationship between each demand and TI. The research project was carried out in a large hospital in Northern Italy by administering a self-report questionnaire to all nurses; 630 questionnaires were distributed, 423 (67.14%) of which were completed. The statistical analyses were performed with PASW 18. The results highlight a positive relationship between demands and TI and a negative relationship between meaningful work and TI. Moreover, a significant moderating effect of meaningful work on the relationship between emotional dissonance and TI also emerged. No significant moderating effects were found for the relationship between the other two demands and TI. This research allowed us to verify the importance of constructs such as abusive supervision and meaningful work that have not yet been extensively studied, within the context of nursing staff in Italy; it also offered a range of suggestions for organizational developments and for further investigations in this field.

Meaningful task-specific training (MTST) for stroke rehabilitation: a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Arya, Kamal Narayan; Verma, Rajesh; Garg, R K; Sharma, V P; Agarwal, Monika; Aggarwal, G G

2012-01-01

The upper extremity motor deficit is one of the functional challenges in post stroke patients. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the meaningful task-specific training (MTST) on the upper extremity motor recovery during the subacute phase after a stroke. This was a randomized, controlled, double-blinded trial in the neurology department of a university hospital and occupational therapy unit of a rehabilitation institute. A convenience sample of 103 people, 4 to 24 weeks (mean, 12.15 weeks) after the stroke, was randomized into 2 groups (MTST, 51; standard training group, 52). Subjects in the Brunnstrom stage of arm recovery of 2 to 5 were included in the study. Ninety-five participants completed the 8-week follow-up. Participants were assigned to receive either the MTST or dose-matched standard training program based on the Brunnstrom stage and Bobath neurodevelopmental technique, 4 to 5 days a week for 4 weeks. Fugl-Meyer assessment (FMA), Action Research Arm Test (ARAT), Graded Wolf Motor Function Test (GWMFT), and Motor Activity Log (MAL) were outcome measures The MTST group showed a positive improvement in the mean scores on the outcome measures at post and follow-up assessments in comparison to the control group. Further, statistically significant differences were observed in changes between the groups at post and follow-up assessment for FMA, ARAT, GWMFT, and MAL. The MTST produced statistically significant and clinically relevant improvements in the upper extremity motor recovery of the patients who had a subacute stroke.

Interchangeability and reliability of macular perfusion parameter measurements using optical coherence tomography angiography

PubMed Central

Dong, Jing; Jia, Ya-ding; Wu, Qiang; Zhang, Suhua; Jia, Yali; Huang, David; Wang, Xiaogang

2018-01-01

Aim The aim of the study was to investigate the interchangeability and reliability of macular perfusion measurements using optical coherence tomography angiography. Methods A prospective cross-sectional observational study. Healthy adult Chinese subjects were recruited. Macular perfusion parameters were automatically analysed by software included in a spectral-domain optical coherence tomography system. The vessel density (VD) of the whole, parafovea, superior-hemi, inferior-hemi, fovea, temporal, superior, nasal and inferior quadrants as well as the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) and choroidal capillary VD (CCVD) were quantified. Results A total of 51 eyes in 27 subjects were included (8 men and 19 women, mean age 24±4 years). Significant differences in VD of all quadrants (all p<0.001) was detected between the 3×3 mm and 6×6 mm macular scan size. The biggest difference of VD between the two scan size was 5.14±4.03, which was not clinically meaningful. No statistically significant differences were found in FAZ or CCVD between the two different scan sizes. The mean intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) between two measurements from the inter-rater of 20 eyes was from 0.560 to 0.893 for VD and 0.845 for FAZ. The mean ICC between two measurements from the intrarater of 20 eyes was from 0.497 to 0.870 for VD and 0.780 for FAZ. Conclusions FAZ and CCVD are interchangeable between the 3×3 mm and 6×6 mm macular scan sizes. The VD differences between the two different scan sizes are not clinically meaningful. The macular perfusion parameters presented good but not perfect reliability, which should be acknowledged in clinical practice. PMID:28336674

A Comparative Study on the Visual Perceptions of Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahmetoglu, Emine; Aral, Neriman; Butun Ayhan, Aynur

This study was conducted in order to (a) compare the visual perceptions of seven-year-old children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder with those of normally developing children of the same age and development level and (b) determine whether the visual perceptions of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder vary with respect to gender, having received preschool education and parents` educational level. A total of 60 children, 30 with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and 30 with normal development, were assigned to the study. Data about children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and their families was collected by using a General Information Form and the visual perception of children was examined through the Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception. The Mann-Whitney U-test and Kruskal-Wallis variance analysis was used to determine whether there was a difference of between the visual perceptions of children with normal development and those diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and to discover whether the variables of gender, preschool education and parents` educational status affected the visual perceptions of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The results showed that there was a statistically meaningful difference between the visual perceptions of the two groups and that the visual perceptions of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were affected meaningfully by gender, preschool education and parents` educational status.

Dynamic pathways for viral capsid assembly

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

Hagan, Michael F.; Chandler, David

2006-02-09

We develop a class of models with which we simulate the assembly of particles into T1 capsid-like objects using Newtonian dynamics. By simulating assembly for many different values of system parameters, we vary the forces that drive assembly. For some ranges of parameters, assembly is facile, while for others, assembly is dynamically frustrated by kinetic traps corresponding to malformed or incompletely formed capsids. Our simulations sample many independent trajectories at various capsomer concentrations, allowing for statistically meaningful conclusions. Depending on subunit (i.e., capsomer) geometries, successful assembly proceeds by several mechanisms involving binding of intermediates of various sizes. We discuss themore » relationship between these mechanisms and experimental evaluations of capsid assembly processes.« less

Novelty or knowledge? A study of using a student response system in non-major biology courses at a community college

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thames, Tasha Herrington

The advancement in technology integration is laying the groundwork of a paradigm shift in the higher education system (Noonoo, 2011). The National Dropout Prevention Center (n.d.) claims that technology offers some of the best opportunities for presenting instruction to engage students in meaningful education, addressing multiple intelligences, and adjusting to students' various learning styles. The purpose of this study was to investigate if implementing clicker technology would have a statistically significant difference on student retention and student achievement, while controlling for learning styles, for students in non-major biology courses who were and were not subjected to the technology. This study also sought to identify if students perceived the use of clickers as beneficial to their learning. A quantitative quasi-experimental research design was utilized to determine the significance of differences in pre/posttest achievement scores between students who participated during the fall semester in 2014. Overall, 118 students (n = 118) voluntarily enrolled in the researcher's fall non-major Biology course at a southern community college. A total of 71 students were assigned to the experimental group who participated in instruction incorporating the ConcepTest Process with clicker technology along with traditional lecture. The remaining 51 students were assigned to the control group who participated in a traditional lecture format with peer instruction embedded. Statistical analysis revealed the experimental clicker courses did have higher posttest scores than the non-clicker control courses, but this was not significant (p >.05). Results also implied that clickers did not statistically help retain students to complete the course. Lastly, the results indicated that there were no significant statistical difference in student's clicker perception scores between the different learning style preferences.

Effect of Weight Losing on the Improving Clinical Statement of Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis.

PubMed

Sadeghi, Alireza; Rad, Zahra Abbaspour; Sajedi, Behnam; Heydari, Amir Hossein; Akbarieh, Samira; Jafari, Behzad

2017-11-01

Osteoarthritis causes severe pain and disability in joints, one of the most prevalent involved joints is the knee joint. There are several therapeutics ways to control pain and disability, but almost none of them are definite treatment. In this article, we tried to reveal the effect of weight loss on improving symptoms of knee osteoarthritis as an effective and permanent therapeutic approach. We chose 62 patients with grade 1-2 (mild to moderate) knee osteoarthritis and divided them equally into case and control groups. Patients should not had used NSAIDs at least for 6 months before study initiation. Symptoms severity was measured by WOMAC and VAS questionnaires before and after 3 months follow up. Weight and BMI were recorded too. Case group was suggested to have weight loss diet of less fat and carbohydrates and control group did not have any limitation. Comparison of variables' average of case and control groups was not logistically meaningful at the initiation and after the end of the study. But there was a meaningful correlation between variables' changes and lifestyle change in both groups, especially in WOMAC and VAS scores. All variables in case group had statistically meaningful differences between their amounts at the beginning and after the end of the study, on the contrary of the control group. In the comparison of our study with similar studies in the world. We deduced that weight loss can improve symptoms of knee osteoarthritis even in short time weight loss diet (3 months). ZUMS.REC.1394.94. Copyright © 2017. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U.

Effective self-regulated science learning through multimedia-enriched skeleton concept maps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marée, Ton J.; van Bruggen, Jan M.; Jochems, Wim M. G.

2013-04-01

Background: This study combines work on concept mapping with scripted collaborative learning. Purpose: The objective was to examine the effects of self-regulated science learning through scripting students' argumentative interactions during collaborative 'multimedia-enriched skeleton concept mapping' on meaningful science learning and retention. Programme description: Each concept in the enriched skeleton concept map (ESCoM) contained annotated multimedia-rich content (pictures, text, animations or video clips) that elaborated the concept, and an embedded collaboration script to guide students' interactions. Sample: The study was performed in a Biomolecules course on the Bachelor of Applied Science program in the Netherlands. All first-year students (N=93, 31 women, 62 men, aged 17-33 years) took part in this study. Design and methods: The design used a control group who received the regular course and an experimental group working together in dyads on an ESCoM under the guidance of collaboration scripts. In order to investigate meaningful understanding and retention, a retention test was administered a month after the final exam. Results: Analysis of covariance demonstrated a significant experimental effect on the Biomolecules exam scores between the experimental group and the control, and the difference between the groups on the retention test also reached statistical significance. Conclusions: Scripted collaborative multimedia ESCoM mapping resulted in meaningful understanding and retention of the conceptual structure of the domain, the concepts, and their relations. Not only was scripted collaborative multimedia ESCoM mapping more effective than the traditional teaching approach, it was also more efficient in requiring far less teacher guidance.

Variations in the Intragene Methylation Profiles Hallmark Induced Pluripotency

PubMed Central

Druzhkov, Pavel; Zolotykh, Nikolay; Meyerov, Iosif; Alsaedi, Ahmed; Shutova, Maria; Ivanchenko, Mikhail; Zaikin, Alexey

2015-01-01

We demonstrate the potential of differentiating embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells by the regularized linear and decision tree machine learning classification algorithms, based on a number of intragene methylation measures. The resulting average accuracy of classification has been proven to be above 95%, which overcomes the earlier achievements. We propose a constructive and transparent method of feature selection based on classifier accuracy. Enrichment analysis reveals statistically meaningful presence of stemness group and cancer discriminating genes among the selected best classifying features. These findings stimulate the further research on the functional consequences of these differences in methylation patterns. The presented approach can be broadly used to discriminate the cells of different phenotype or in different state by their methylation profiles, identify groups of genes constituting multifeature classifiers, and assess enrichment of these groups by the sets of genes with a functionality of interest. PMID:26618180

Diagnostic index of 3D osteoarthritic changes in TMJ condylar morphology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gomes, Liliane R.; Gomes, Marcelo; Jung, Bryan; Paniagua, Beatriz; Ruellas, Antonio C.; Gonçalves, João. Roberto; Styner, Martin A.; Wolford, Larry; Cevidanes, Lucia

2015-03-01

The aim of this study was to investigate imaging statistical approaches for classifying 3D osteoarthritic morphological variations among 169 Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) condyles. Cone beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) scans were acquired from 69 patients with long-term TMJ Osteoarthritis (OA) (39.1 ± 15.7 years), 15 patients at initial diagnosis of OA (44.9 ± 14.8 years) and 7 healthy controls (43 ± 12.4 years). 3D surface models of the condyles were constructed and Shape Correspondence was used to establish correspondent points on each model. The statistical framework included a multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and Direction-Projection- Permutation (DiProPerm) for testing statistical significance of the differences between healthy control and the OA group determined by clinical and radiographic diagnoses. Unsupervised classification using hierarchical agglomerative clustering (HAC) was then conducted. Condylar morphology in OA and healthy subjects varied widely. Compared with healthy controls, OA average condyle was statistically significantly smaller in all dimensions except its anterior surface. Significant flattening of the lateral pole was noticed at initial diagnosis (p < 0.05). It was observed areas of 3.88 mm bone resorption at the superior surface and 3.10 mm bone apposition at the anterior aspect of the long-term OA average model. 1000 permutation statistics of DiProPerm supported a significant difference between the healthy control group and OA group (t = 6.7, empirical p-value = 0.001). Clinically meaningful unsupervised classification of TMJ condylar morphology determined a preliminary diagnostic index of 3D osteoarthritic changes, which may be the first step towards a more targeted diagnosis of this condition.

Comparison of short-term response to two spinal manipulation techniques for patients with low back pain in a military beneficiary population.

PubMed

Sutlive, Thomas G; Mabry, Lance M; Easterling, Emmanuel J; Durbin, Jose D; Hanson, Stephen L; Wainner, Robert S; Childs, John D

2009-07-01

To determine whether military health care beneficiaries with low back pain (LBP) who are likely to respond successfully to spinal manipulation experience a difference in short-term clinical outcomes based on the manipulation technique that is used. Sixty patients with LBP identified as likely responders to manipulation underwent a standardized clinical examination and were randomized to receive a lumbopelvic (LP) or lumbar neutral gap (NG) manipulation technique. Outcome measures were a numeric pain rating scale and the modified Oswestry Disability Questionnaire. Both the LP and NG groups experienced statistically significant reductions in pain and disability at 48 hours postmanipulation. The improvements seen in each group were small because of the short follow-up. There were no statistically significant or clinically meaningful differences in pain or disability between the two groups. The two manipulation techniques used in this study were equally effective at reducing pain and disability when compared at 48 hours posttreatment. Clinicians may employ either technique for the treatment of LBP and can expect similar outcomes in those who satisfy the clinical prediction rule (CPR). Further research is required to determine whether differences exist at longer-term follow-up periods, after multiple treatment sessions, or in different clinical populations.

Assessment of the knowledge and attitudes of intern doctors to medication prescribing errors in a Nigeria tertiary hospital

PubMed Central

Ajemigbitse, Adetutu A.; Omole, Moses Kayode; Ezike, Nnamdi Chika; Erhun, Wilson O.

2013-01-01

Context: Junior doctors are reported to make most of the prescribing errors in the hospital setting. Aims: The aim of the following study is to determine the knowledge intern doctors have about prescribing errors and circumstances contributing to making them. Settings and Design: A structured questionnaire was distributed to intern doctors in National Hospital Abuja Nigeria. Subjects and Methods: Respondents gave information about their experience with prescribing medicines, the extent to which they agreed with the definition of a clinically meaningful prescribing error and events that constituted such. Their experience with prescribing certain categories of medicines was also sought. Statistical Analysis Used: Data was analyzed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 17 (SPSS Inc Chicago, Ill, USA). Chi-squared analysis contrasted differences in proportions; P < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: The response rate was 90.9% and 27 (90%) had <1 year of prescribing experience. 17 (56.7%) respondents totally agreed with the definition of a clinically meaningful prescribing error. Most common reasons for prescribing mistakes were a failure to check prescriptions with a reference source (14, 25.5%) and failure to check for adverse drug interactions (14, 25.5%). Omitting some essential information such as duration of therapy (13, 20%), patient age (14, 21.5%) and dosage errors (14, 21.5%) were the most common types of prescribing errors made. Respondents considered workload (23, 76.7%), multitasking (19, 63.3%), rushing (18, 60.0%) and tiredness/stress (16, 53.3%) as important factors contributing to prescribing errors. Interns were least confident prescribing antibiotics (12, 25.5%), opioid analgesics (12, 25.5%) cytotoxics (10, 21.3%) and antipsychotics (9, 19.1%) unsupervised. Conclusions: Respondents seemed to have a low awareness of making prescribing errors. Principles of rational prescribing and events that constitute prescribing errors should be taught in the practice setting. PMID:24808682

RAId_aPS: MS/MS Analysis with Multiple Scoring Functions and Spectrum-Specific Statistics

PubMed Central

Alves, Gelio; Ogurtsov, Aleksey Y.; Yu, Yi-Kuo

2010-01-01

Statistically meaningful comparison/combination of peptide identification results from various search methods is impeded by the lack of a universal statistical standard. Providing an -value calibration protocol, we demonstrated earlier the feasibility of translating either the score or heuristic -value reported by any method into the textbook-defined -value, which may serve as the universal statistical standard. This protocol, although robust, may lose spectrum-specific statistics and might require a new calibration when changes in experimental setup occur. To mitigate these issues, we developed a new MS/MS search tool, RAId_aPS, that is able to provide spectrum-specific -values for additive scoring functions. Given a selection of scoring functions out of RAId score, K-score, Hyperscore and XCorr, RAId_aPS generates the corresponding score histograms of all possible peptides using dynamic programming. Using these score histograms to assign -values enables a calibration-free protocol for accurate significance assignment for each scoring function. RAId_aPS features four different modes: (i) compute the total number of possible peptides for a given molecular mass range, (ii) generate the score histogram given a MS/MS spectrum and a scoring function, (iii) reassign -values for a list of candidate peptides given a MS/MS spectrum and the scoring functions chosen, and (iv) perform database searches using selected scoring functions. In modes (iii) and (iv), RAId_aPS is also capable of combining results from different scoring functions using spectrum-specific statistics. The web link is http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/CBBresearch/Yu/raid_aps/index.html. Relevant binaries for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X are available from the same page. PMID:21103371

Age differences in memory for meaningful and arbitrary associations: A memory retrieval account.

PubMed

Amer, Tarek; Giovanello, Kelly S; Grady, Cheryl L; Hasher, Lynn

2018-02-01

Older adults typically show poor associative memory performance relative to younger adults. This age-related effect, however, is mediated by the meaningfulness of the materials used, such that age differences are minimized with the use of information that is consistent with prior knowledge. While this effect has been interpreted as facilitative learning through schematic support, the role of memory retrieval on this effect has yet to be explored. Using an associative memory paradigm that varied the extent of controlled retrieval for previously studied meaningful or arbitrary associations, older and younger adults in the present study retrieved realistic and unrealistic grocery item prices in a speeded, or in a slow, more control-based retrieval condition. There were no age differences in memory for realistic (meaningful) prices in either condition; however, younger adults showed better memory than older adults for unrealistic prices in the controlled retrieval condition only. These results suggest that age differences in memory for arbitrary associations can, at least partly, be accounted for by age reductions in strategic, controlled retrieval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

When does biodiversity matter? Assessing ecosystem services across broad regions using forest inventory and analysis data

Treesearch

Kevin M. Potter; Christopher W. Woodall; Christopher M. Oswalt; Basil V. III Iannone; Songlin Fei

2015-01-01

Biodiversity is expected to convey numerous functional benefits to forested ecosystems, including increased productivity and resilience. When assessing biodiversity, however, statistics that account for evolutionary relationships among species may be more ecologically meaningful than traditional measures such as species richness. In three broad-scale studies, we...

The Heat Is On! Using a Stylised Graph to Engender Understanding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fitzallen, Noleine; Watson, Jane; Wright, Suzie

2017-01-01

When working within a meaningful context quite young students are capable of working with sophisticated data. Year 3 students investigate thermal insulation and the transfer of heat in a STEM inquiry, developing skills in measuring temperature by conducting a statistical investigation, and using a stylised graph to interpret their data.

Psychotherapeutic Techniques for Victims of Destructive Cults: A Suggested Guide for Therapists.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Solomon, Anita O.

There are no meaningful statistics on the number of people who leave destructive cults and no salient picture emerges regarding the frequency of maladaptive conditions following cult involvement. Nonetheless, of the total number of individuals coming out of cults, a seemingly significant subgroup evidences severely neurotic or psychotic-like…

Technology, Togetherness, and Adolescents: Creating a Meaningful Adolescent Learning Community in the Digital Age

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moudry, Ben

2016-01-01

Ben Moudry has written a comprehensive overview of the current challenges facing parents, schools, administrators, and students regarding what he calls "handheld computers," commonly known as smart phones. His annotated statistics and description of American society in 2015 are frightening in their clarity, while the percentages and…

Counting Priests, Paladins, and Pets

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McClintock, Scott

2011-01-01

The use of data is critical to the teaching of probability and statistics. At the very least, data should be provided within a meaningful context rather than presented as a generic, meaningless collection of numbers. Students often respond better, however, when working with data that they have gathered themselves. Having students collect data is a…

Estimating Standardized Linear Contrasts of Means with Desired Precision

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bonett, Douglas G.

2009-01-01

L. Wilkinson and the Task Force on Statistical Inference (1999) recommended reporting confidence intervals for measures of effect sizes. If the sample size is too small, the confidence interval may be too wide to provide meaningful information. Recently, K. Kelley and J. R. Rausch (2006) used an iterative approach to computer-generate tables of…

Fundamentals of Research Data and Variables: The Devil Is in the Details.

PubMed

Vetter, Thomas R

2017-10-01

Designing, conducting, analyzing, reporting, and interpreting the findings of a research study require an understanding of the types and characteristics of data and variables. Descriptive statistics are typically used simply to calculate, describe, and summarize the collected research data in a logical, meaningful, and efficient way. Inferential statistics allow researchers to make a valid estimate of the association between an intervention and the treatment effect in a specific population, based upon their randomly collected, representative sample data. Categorical data can be either dichotomous or polytomous. Dichotomous data have only 2 categories, and thus are considered binary. Polytomous data have more than 2 categories. Unlike dichotomous and polytomous data, ordinal data are rank ordered, typically based on a numerical scale that is comprised of a small set of discrete classes or integers. Continuous data are measured on a continuum and can have any numeric value over this continuous range. Continuous data can be meaningfully divided into smaller and smaller or finer and finer increments, depending upon the precision of the measurement instrument. Interval data are a form of continuous data in which equal intervals represent equal differences in the property being measured. Ratio data are another form of continuous data, which have the same properties as interval data, plus a true definition of an absolute zero point, and the ratios of the values on the measurement scale make sense. The normal (Gaussian) distribution ("bell-shaped curve") is of the most common statistical distributions. Many applied inferential statistical tests are predicated on the assumption that the analyzed data follow a normal distribution. The histogram and the Q-Q plot are 2 graphical methods to assess if a set of data have a normal distribution (display "normality"). The Shapiro-Wilk test and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test are 2 well-known and historically widely applied quantitative methods to assess for data normality. Parametric statistical tests make certain assumptions about the characteristics and/or parameters of the underlying population distribution upon which the test is based, whereas nonparametric tests make fewer or less rigorous assumptions. If the normality test concludes that the study data deviate significantly from a Gaussian distribution, rather than applying a less robust nonparametric test, the problem can potentially be remedied by judiciously and openly: (1) performing a data transformation of all the data values; or (2) eliminating any obvious data outlier(s).

Significant Work Is About Self-Realization and Broader Purpose: Defining the Key Dimensions of Meaningful Work.

PubMed

Martela, Frank; Pessi, Anne B

2018-01-01

Research on meaningful work has proliferated in recent years, with an increasing understanding of the centrality of meaningfulness for work-related motivation, commitment, and well-being. However, ambiguity around the main construct, "meaningful work," has hindered this progress as various researchers have used partly overlapping, partly differing conceptualizations. To bring clarity to this issue, we examine a broad range of various definitions of meaningful work and come to argue that meaningfulness in the broadest sense is about work significance as an overall evaluation of work as regards whether it is intrinsically valuable and worth doing. Furthermore, we argue that there are two key sub-dimensions to this work significance: Broader purpose as work serving some greater good or prosocial goals (the intrinsic value of work beyond the person in question). And self-realization as a sense of autonomy, authenticity and self-expression at work (the intrinsic value of work for the person in question). Previous definitions of meaningful work feature typically one or two of these elements-significance, broader purpose, self-realization -, but in the future it would be beneficial to clearly acknowledge all three elements in both definitions and operationalizations of meaningful work.

Significant Work Is About Self-Realization and Broader Purpose: Defining the Key Dimensions of Meaningful Work

PubMed Central

Martela, Frank; Pessi, Anne B.

2018-01-01

Research on meaningful work has proliferated in recent years, with an increasing understanding of the centrality of meaningfulness for work-related motivation, commitment, and well-being. However, ambiguity around the main construct, “meaningful work,” has hindered this progress as various researchers have used partly overlapping, partly differing conceptualizations. To bring clarity to this issue, we examine a broad range of various definitions of meaningful work and come to argue that meaningfulness in the broadest sense is about work significance as an overall evaluation of work as regards whether it is intrinsically valuable and worth doing. Furthermore, we argue that there are two key sub-dimensions to this work significance: Broader purpose as work serving some greater good or prosocial goals (the intrinsic value of work beyond the person in question). And self-realization as a sense of autonomy, authenticity and self-expression at work (the intrinsic value of work for the person in question). Previous definitions of meaningful work feature typically one or two of these elements—significance, broader purpose, self-realization –, but in the future it would be beneficial to clearly acknowledge all three elements in both definitions and operationalizations of meaningful work. PMID:29632502

Patients' and Caregivers' Attributes in a Meaningful Care Encounter: Similarities and Notable Differences

PubMed Central

Snellman, Ingrid; Gustafsson, Christine; Gustafsson, Lena-Karin

2012-01-01

In today's healthcare system, there is an imbalance between what patients expect of caregivers' care and their perception of the care they get. How is it possible to reduce this imbalance? The aim of this paper was to describe attributes associated with meaningful encounters in the Swedish healthcare system based on patients' and caregivers' written narratives and to note the differences and similarities between the attributes identified by the two groups. This paper is a qualitative descriptive study. The analysis was guided by qualitative content analyses. Based on patients' narratives, attributes associated with a meaningful encounter fell into four categories: the kind-hearted caregiver, the thoughtful caregiver, the mutually oriented caregiver, and the helpful caregiver. Based on caregivers' narratives, the attributes were categorized as being humane, caring through physical contact, caring by nurturing communication, joy and laughter in care, and a sense of mutuality. The results show that there are both similarities and differences in patients' and caregivers' opinions about the attributes of a meaningful encounter. Knowing more about the attributes associated with meaningful encounters makes it possible for caregivers to individualize care for patients and makes it easier to help and support patients in what they most need support with. PMID:22701802

Statistical methodology: II. Reliability and validity assessment in study design, Part B.

PubMed

Karras, D J

1997-02-01

Validity measures the correspondence between a test and other purported measures of the same or similar qualities. When a reference standard exists, a criterion-based validity coefficient can be calculated. If no such standard is available, the concepts of content and construct validity may be used, but quantitative analysis may not be possible. The Pearson and Spearman tests of correlation are often used to assess the correspondence between tests, but do not account for measurement biases and may yield misleading results. Techniques that measure interest differences may be more meaningful in validity assessment, and the kappa statistic is useful for analyzing categorical variables. Questionnaires often can be designed to allow quantitative assessment of reliability and validity, although this may be difficult. Inclusion of homogeneous questions is necessary to assess reliability. Analysis is enhanced by using Likert scales or similar techniques that yield ordinal data. Validity assessment of questionnaires requires careful definition of the scope of the test and comparison with previously validated tools.

Multiresolution multiscale active mask segmentation of fluorescence microscope images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Srinivasa, Gowri; Fickus, Matthew; Kovačević, Jelena

2009-08-01

We propose an active mask segmentation framework that combines the advantages of statistical modeling, smoothing, speed and flexibility offered by the traditional methods of region-growing, multiscale, multiresolution and active contours respectively. At the crux of this framework is a paradigm shift from evolving contours in the continuous domain to evolving multiple masks in the discrete domain. Thus, the active mask framework is particularly suited to segment digital images. We demonstrate the use of the framework in practice through the segmentation of punctate patterns in fluorescence microscope images. Experiments reveal that statistical modeling helps the multiple masks converge from a random initial configuration to a meaningful one. This obviates the need for an involved initialization procedure germane to most of the traditional methods used to segment fluorescence microscope images. While we provide the mathematical details of the functions used to segment fluorescence microscope images, this is only an instantiation of the active mask framework. We suggest some other instantiations of the framework to segment different types of images.

Meaningfulness of Sex Differences in Selected Interest-Values Test Scores.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Plant, Walter T.; Southern, Mara L.

This research paper examines the meaningfulness of sex differences in the Allport, Vernon and Lindzey (AVL) Study of Values Scale and in selected scales of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII), using somewhat diverse groups of men and women. By comparing men's and women's scores on the two measures, it was found that little accuracy in…

Representing and Practising Meaningful Differences in a Well-Structured but Complex Art Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cunliffe, Leslie

2010-01-01

This paper conceptualizes the secondary art curriculum as a well-structured but complex knowledge-domain, with the aim of emphasizing meaningful differences in the way creative grammar operates in the following gatherings of art practices: Pre-historic and non-European cultures; Ancient and European cultures before c. 1800; Romantic and Modern…

Statistics of Statisticians: Critical Mass of Statistics and Operational Research Groups

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kenna, Ralph; Berche, Bertrand

Using a recently developed model, inspired by mean field theory in statistical physics, and data from the UK's Research Assessment Exercise, we analyse the relationship between the qualities of statistics and operational research groups and the quantities of researchers in them. Similar to other academic disciplines, we provide evidence for a linear dependency of quality on quantity up to an upper critical mass, which is interpreted as the average maximum number of colleagues with whom a researcher can communicate meaningfully within a research group. The model also predicts a lower critical mass, which research groups should strive to achieve to avoid extinction. For statistics and operational research, the lower critical mass is estimated to be 9 ± 3. The upper critical mass, beyond which research quality does not significantly depend on group size, is 17 ± 6.

Interpretation of correlations in clinical research.

PubMed

Hung, Man; Bounsanga, Jerry; Voss, Maren Wright

2017-11-01

Critically analyzing research is a key skill in evidence-based practice and requires knowledge of research methods, results interpretation, and applications, all of which rely on a foundation based in statistics. Evidence-based practice makes high demands on trained medical professionals to interpret an ever-expanding array of research evidence. As clinical training emphasizes medical care rather than statistics, it is useful to review the basics of statistical methods and what they mean for interpreting clinical studies. We reviewed the basic concepts of correlational associations, violations of normality, unobserved variable bias, sample size, and alpha inflation. The foundations of causal inference were discussed and sound statistical analyses were examined. We discuss four ways in which correlational analysis is misused, including causal inference overreach, over-reliance on significance, alpha inflation, and sample size bias. Recent published studies in the medical field provide evidence of causal assertion overreach drawn from correlational findings. The findings present a primer on the assumptions and nature of correlational methods of analysis and urge clinicians to exercise appropriate caution as they critically analyze the evidence before them and evaluate evidence that supports practice. Critically analyzing new evidence requires statistical knowledge in addition to clinical knowledge. Studies can overstate relationships, expressing causal assertions when only correlational evidence is available. Failure to account for the effect of sample size in the analyses tends to overstate the importance of predictive variables. It is important not to overemphasize the statistical significance without consideration of effect size and whether differences could be considered clinically meaningful.

Explorations in statistics: hypothesis tests and P values.

PubMed

Curran-Everett, Douglas

2009-06-01

Learning about statistics is a lot like learning about science: the learning is more meaningful if you can actively explore. This second installment of Explorations in Statistics delves into test statistics and P values, two concepts fundamental to the test of a scientific null hypothesis. The essence of a test statistic is that it compares what we observe in the experiment to what we expect to see if the null hypothesis is true. The P value associated with the magnitude of that test statistic answers this question: if the null hypothesis is true, what proportion of possible values of the test statistic are at least as extreme as the one I got? Although statisticians continue to stress the limitations of hypothesis tests, there are two realities we must acknowledge: hypothesis tests are ingrained within science, and the simple test of a null hypothesis can be useful. As a result, it behooves us to explore the notions of hypothesis tests, test statistics, and P values.

Stimulus Set Meaningfulness and Neurophysiological Differentiation: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

PubMed Central

Boly, Melanie; Sasai, Shuntaro; Gosseries, Olivia; Oizumi, Masafumi; Casali, Adenauer; Massimini, Marcello; Tononi, Giulio

2015-01-01

A meaningful set of stimuli, such as a sequence of frames from a movie, triggers a set of different experiences. By contrast, a meaningless set of stimuli, such as a sequence of ‘TV noise’ frames, triggers always the same experience—of seeing ‘TV noise’—even though the stimuli themselves are as different from each other as the movie frames. We reasoned that the differentiation of cortical responses underlying the subject’s experiences, as measured by Lempel-Ziv complexity (incompressibility) of functional MRI images, should reflect the overall meaningfulness of a set of stimuli for the subject, rather than differences among the stimuli. We tested this hypothesis by quantifying the differentiation of brain activity patterns in response to a movie sequence, to the same movie scrambled in time, and to ‘TV noise’, where the pixels from each movie frame were scrambled in space. While overall cortical activation was strong and widespread in all conditions, the differentiation (Lempel-Ziv complexity) of brain activation patterns was correlated with the meaningfulness of the stimulus set, being highest in the movie condition, intermediate in the scrambled movie condition, and minimal for ‘TV noise’. Stimulus set meaningfulness was also associated with higher information integration among cortical regions. These results suggest that the differentiation of neural responses can be used to assess the meaningfulness of a given set of stimuli for a given subject, without the need to identify the features and categories that are relevant to the subject, nor the precise location of selective neural responses. PMID:25970444

Feature selection from a facial image for distinction of sasang constitution.

PubMed

Koo, Imhoi; Kim, Jong Yeol; Kim, Myoung Geun; Kim, Keun Ho

2009-09-01

Recently, oriental medicine has received attention for providing personalized medicine through consideration of the unique nature and constitution of individual patients. With the eventual goal of globalization, the current trend in oriental medicine research is the standardization by adopting western scientific methods, which could represent a scientific revolution. The purpose of this study is to establish methods for finding statistically significant features in a facial image with respect to distinguishing constitution and to show the meaning of those features. From facial photo images, facial elements are analyzed in terms of the distance, angle and the distance ratios, for which there are 1225, 61 250 and 749 700 features, respectively. Due to the very large number of facial features, it is quite difficult to determine truly meaningful features. We suggest a process for the efficient analysis of facial features including the removal of outliers, control for missing data to guarantee data confidence and calculation of statistical significance by applying ANOVA. We show the statistical properties of selected features according to different constitutions using the nine distances, 10 angles and 10 rates of distance features that are finally established. Additionally, the Sasang constitutional meaning of the selected features is shown here.

Feature Selection from a Facial Image for Distinction of Sasang Constitution

PubMed Central

Koo, Imhoi; Kim, Jong Yeol; Kim, Myoung Geun

2009-01-01

Recently, oriental medicine has received attention for providing personalized medicine through consideration of the unique nature and constitution of individual patients. With the eventual goal of globalization, the current trend in oriental medicine research is the standardization by adopting western scientific methods, which could represent a scientific revolution. The purpose of this study is to establish methods for finding statistically significant features in a facial image with respect to distinguishing constitution and to show the meaning of those features. From facial photo images, facial elements are analyzed in terms of the distance, angle and the distance ratios, for which there are 1225, 61 250 and 749 700 features, respectively. Due to the very large number of facial features, it is quite difficult to determine truly meaningful features. We suggest a process for the efficient analysis of facial features including the removal of outliers, control for missing data to guarantee data confidence and calculation of statistical significance by applying ANOVA. We show the statistical properties of selected features according to different constitutions using the nine distances, 10 angles and 10 rates of distance features that are finally established. Additionally, the Sasang constitutional meaning of the selected features is shown here. PMID:19745013

"Going to town": Large-scale norming and statistical analysis of 870 American English idioms.

PubMed

Bulkes, Nyssa Z; Tanner, Darren

2017-04-01

An idiom is classically defined as a formulaic sequence whose meaning is comprised of more than the sum of its parts. For this reason, idioms pose a unique problem for models of sentence processing, as researchers must take into account how idioms vary and along what dimensions, as these factors can modulate the ease with which an idiomatic interpretation can be activated. In order to help ensure external validity and comparability across studies, idiom research benefits from the availability of publicly available resources reporting ratings from a large number of native speakers. Resources such as the one outlined in the current paper facilitate opportunities for consensus across studies on idiom processing and help to further our goals as a research community. To this end, descriptive norms were obtained for 870 American English idioms from 2,100 participants along five dimensions: familiarity, meaningfulness, literal plausibility, global decomposability, and predictability. Idiom familiarity and meaningfulness strongly correlated with one another, whereas familiarity and meaningfulness were positively correlated with both global decomposability and predictability. Correlations with previous norming studies are also discussed.

Big Data and Neuroimaging.

PubMed

Webb-Vargas, Yenny; Chen, Shaojie; Fisher, Aaron; Mejia, Amanda; Xu, Yuting; Crainiceanu, Ciprian; Caffo, Brian; Lindquist, Martin A

2017-12-01

Big Data are of increasing importance in a variety of areas, especially in the biosciences. There is an emerging critical need for Big Data tools and methods, because of the potential impact of advancements in these areas. Importantly, statisticians and statistical thinking have a major role to play in creating meaningful progress in this arena. We would like to emphasize this point in this special issue, as it highlights both the dramatic need for statistical input for Big Data analysis and for a greater number of statisticians working on Big Data problems. We use the field of statistical neuroimaging to demonstrate these points. As such, this paper covers several applications and novel methodological developments of Big Data tools applied to neuroimaging data.

Partnering to Prepare Teachers for Urban Indigenous Communities: St. Kateri Center of Chicago Partnering with Teaching, Learning, & Leading with Schools & Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lees, Anna; Heineke, Amy J.; Ryan, Ann Marie; Roy, Georgina

2016-01-01

Improving the quality of education for Indigenous students in the United States (U.S.) requires meaningful and purposeful collaboration between stakeholders in schools, communities, and universities (Clare & Sampsel, 2013; National Center for Educational Statistics, NCES, 2012b). However, scant literature addresses collaboration between…

The High School Biology Textbook: A Changing Mosaic of Gender, Science, and Purpose.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bianchini, Julie

How can science be made more meaningful to all students? This paper approaches this question through an analysis of gender. It begins with a brief exploration of the fundamental mismatch between women and science as described by statistics on the success, interest, and participation of women in science; feminist critiques of science; and studies…

Autotelic vs instrumental motivation of doctors and their medical specialty choice in relation to sense of coherence.

PubMed

Jabłoński, Marcin J; Szot-Parda, Magdalena; Grzegorek, Tomasz; Prusak, Jacek; Jach, Robert; Posadzka, Ewa

2016-01-01

Analysis and comparison of two types of motivation (autotelic and non-autotelic) which are behind the choice of medical specialisation by doctors in relation to their sense of coherence. Questionnaire method was used in the study. The study included a group of 86 graduates of the Faculty of Medicine of the Jagiellonian University, who have completed postgraduate internships at the Department of Haematology and Oncology, Department of Gynaecology of the Jagiellonian University and the L. Rydygier hospital in Krakow in 2010-2012. Statistical analyses were performed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 21. The level of significance was alpha = 0.05. It has been shown that doctors are more frequently characterised by the autotelic type of motivation. It has also been proven that there is a relationship between the male sex of the surveyed doctors and their autotelic type of motivation. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that there is a correlation between the comprehensibility component of the sense of coherence and the male sex. It has been also demonstrated that there is a correlation between meaningfulness component of the sense of coherence and the choice of surgical specialisation. Autotelic motivation prevails when choosing a medical specialty and this tendency is more noticeable in men than in women. The meaningfulness component of SoC plays a regulatory role in making career decisions related to the greater physical and mental pressure put on doctors. The observed differences in the types of motivation and the size of the components of the sense of coherence in groups of surveyed doctors - men and women - encourage further observations of these relationships on a larger population.

Quality indicators and their regular use in clinical practice: results from a survey among users of two cardiovascular National Registries in Sweden.

PubMed

Algurén, Beatrix; Andersson-Gäre, Boel; Thor, Johan; Andersson, Ann-Christine

2018-05-14

To examine the regular use of quality indicators from Swedish cardiovascular National Quality Registries (NQRs) by clinical staff; particularly differences in use between the two NQRs and between nurses and physicians. Cross-sectional online survey study. Two Swedish cardiovascular NQRs: (a) Swedish Heart Failure Registry and (b) Swedeheart. Clinicians (n =185; 70% nurses, 26% physicians) via the NQRs' email networks. Frequency of NQR use for (a) producing healthcare activity statistics; (b) comparing results between similar departments; (c) sharing results with colleagues; (d) identifying areas for quality improvement (QI); (e) surveilling the impact of QI efforts; (f) monitoring effects of implementation of new treatment methods; (g) doing research and (h) educating and informing healthcare professionals and patients. Median use of NQRs was 10 times a year (25th and 75th percentiles range: 3-23 times/year). Quality indicators from the NQRs were used mainly for producing healthcare activity statistics. Median use of Swedeheart was six times greater than Swedish Heart Failure Registry (SwedeHF; P < 0.000). Physicians used the NQRs more than twice as often as nurses (18 vs. 7.5 times/year; P < 0.000) and perceived NQR work more often as meaningful. Around twice as many Swedeheart users had the role to participate in data analysis and in QI efforts compared to SwedeHF users. Most respondents used quality indicators from the two cardiovascular NQRs infrequently (<3 times/year). The results indicate that linking registration of quality indicators to using them for QI activities increases their routine use and makes them meaningful tools for professionals.

Detection of Alzheimer's disease using group lasso SVM-based region selection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Zhuo; Fan, Yong; Lelieveldt, Boudewijn P. F.; van de Giessen, Martijn

2015-03-01

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most frequent forms of dementia and an increasing challenging public health problem. In the last two decades, structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has shown potential in distinguishing patients with Alzheimer's disease and elderly controls (CN). To obtain AD-specific biomarkers, previous research used either statistical testing to find statistically significant different regions between the two clinical groups, or l1 sparse learning to select isolated features in the image domain. In this paper, we propose a new framework that uses structural MRI to simultaneously distinguish the two clinical groups and find the bio-markers of AD, using a group lasso support vector machine (SVM). The group lasso term (mixed l1- l2 norm) introduces anatomical information from the image domain into the feature domain, such that the resulting set of selected voxels are more meaningful than the l1 sparse SVM. Because of large inter-structure size variation, we introduce a group specific normalization factor to deal with the structure size bias. Experiments have been performed on a well-designed AD vs. CN dataset1 to validate our method. Comparing to the l1 sparse SVM approach, our method achieved better classification performance and a more meaningful biomarker selection. When we vary the training set, the selected regions by our method were more stable than the l1 sparse SVM. Classification experiments showed that our group normalization lead to higher classification accuracy with fewer selected regions than the non-normalized method. Comparing to the state-of-art AD vs. CN classification methods, our approach not only obtains a high accuracy with the same dataset, but more importantly, we simultaneously find the brain anatomies that are closely related to the disease.

A Simple and Practical Index to Measure Dementia-Related Quality of Life.

PubMed

Arons, Alexander M M; Schölzel-Dorenbos, Carla J M; Olde Rikkert, Marcel G M; Krabbe, Paul F M

2016-01-01

Research on new treatments for dementia is gaining pace worldwide in an effort to alleviate this growing health care problem. The optimal evaluation of such interventions, however, calls for a practical and credible patient-reported outcome measure. To describe the refinement of the Dementia Quality-of-life Instrument (DQI) and present its revised version. A prototype of the DQI was adapted to cover a broader range of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and to improve consistency in the descriptions of its domains. A valuation study was then conducted to assign meaningful numbers to all DQI health states. Pairs of DQI states were presented to a sample of professionals working with people with dementia and a representative sample of the Dutch population. They had to repeatedly select the best DQI state, and their responses were statistically modeled to obtain values for each health state. In total, 207 professionals working with people with dementia and 631 members of the general population completed the paired comparison tasks. Statistically significant differences between the two samples were found for the domains of social functioning, mood, and memory. Severe problems with physical health and severe memory problems were deemed most important by the general population. In contrast, severe mood problems were considered most important by professionals working with people with dementia. The DQI is a simple and feasible measurement instrument that expresses the overall HRQOL of people suffering from dementia in a single meaningful number. Current results suggest that revisiting the discussion of using values from the general population might be warranted in the dementia context. Copyright © 2016 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Inclusive jet cross sections in proton-proton collisions at 7.0 TeV center-of-mass energy with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park-Martinez, Jayne Irene

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of node-link mapping on students' meaningful learning and conceptual change in a 1-semester introductory life-science course. This study used node-link mapping to integrate and apply the National Research Council's (NRC, 2005) three principles of human learning: engaging students' prior knowledge, fostering their metacognition, and supporting their formulation of a scientific conceptual framework. The study was a quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest, control group design. The sample consisted of 68 primarily freshmen non-science majors enrolled in two intact sections of the targeted course. Both groups received the same teacher-centered instruction and student-centered activities designed to promote meaningful learning and conceptual change; however, the activity format differed. Control group activities were written; treatment group activities were node-link mapped. Prior to instruction, both groups demonstrated equivalent knowledge and misconceptions associated with genetics and evolution (GE), and ecology and environmental science (EE). Mean differences, pre-to-post instruction, on the GE and EE meaningful learning exam scores and the EE conceptual change inventory scores between the writing group (control) and the node-link mapping group (treatment) were analyzed using repeated measures MANOVAs. There were no significant mean pre-to-post differences between groups with respect to meaningful learning in the GE or EE units, or conceptual change in the EE unit. However, independent of group membership, the overall mean pre-to-post increases in meaningful learning and conceptual change were significant. These findings suggest that both node-link mapping and writing, when used in conjunction with the National Research Council's (NRC, 2005) three principles of human learning, can promote meaningful learning and conceptual change. The only significant interaction found with respect to meaningful learning, conceptual change, and learning styles (Kolb, 2005) was a positive effect of node-link mapping on converger's meaningful learning. However, that result was probably an artifact of small sample size rather than a true treatment effect. No other significant interactions were found. These results suggest that all students, regardless of their learning style, can benefit from either node-link mapping or writing to promote meaningful learning and conceptual change in general life-science courses.

Safety and efficacy of Intraurethral Mitomycin C Hydrogel for prevention of post-traumatic anterior urethral stricture recurrence after internal urethrotomy.

PubMed

Moradi, Mahmoudreza; Derakhshandeh, Katayoun; Karimian, Babak; Fasihi, Mahtab

2016-07-01

Evaluation of the safety and efficacy of intraurethral Mitomycin C (MMC) hydrogel for prevention of post-traumatic anterior urethral stricture recurrence after internal urethrotomy. A thermoresponsive hydrogel base consisting of 0.8 mg MMC with 1cc water and propylene glycol to PF-127 poloxamer was used in theater. 40 male patients with short, non-obliterated, urethral stricture were randomized into 2 groups: control and MMC. After internal urethrotomy, the MMC group patients received the MMC-Hydrogel while the others were just catheterized. Both groups had their catheters for at least 1 week. After surgery, they were followed up by means of medical history and physical examination, monitoring voiding patterns and retrograde urethrogram at 1 month, 6 months and 1 year after surgery. 40 male patients between 14 to 89 years old (Mean = 54.15) underwent internal urethrotomy. The average age for the control and MMC group was 54.55±21.25 and 53.75±24.75 respectively. In a comparison of age between the two groups, they were matched (P=0.574). Stricture length was 10.7±5.9 and 9.55±4.15 mm for the control and MMC group respectively. There were no statistically meaningful differences between the two groups (P=0.485). Fifteen patients had a history of one previous internal urethrotomy which in a comparison between the two groups meant there was no meaningful difference (P=0.327). During postoperative follow up, total urethral stricture recurrence happened in 12 patients: 10 patients (50%) in control group and 2 patients (10%) in MMC group. The difference was statistically significant (P=0.001). There were no significant complications associated with the MMC injection in our patients. Based on our results, MMC Hydrogel may have an anti-fibrotic action preventing post-traumatic anterior urethral stricture recurrence with no side effects on pre-urethral tissue. Due to our study limitations, our follow up time and the small number of patients, our results were not conclusive and further studies will be needed with a longer follow up time. © 2016 KUMS, All rights reserved.

[Effect sizes, statistical power and sample sizes in "the Japanese Journal of Psychology"].

PubMed

Suzukawa, Yumi; Toyoda, Hideki

2012-04-01

This study analyzed the statistical power of research studies published in the "Japanese Journal of Psychology" in 2008 and 2009. Sample effect sizes and sample statistical powers were calculated for each statistical test and analyzed with respect to the analytical methods and the fields of the studies. The results show that in the fields like perception, cognition or learning, the effect sizes were relatively large, although the sample sizes were small. At the same time, because of the small sample sizes, some meaningful effects could not be detected. In the other fields, because of the large sample sizes, meaningless effects could be detected. This implies that researchers who could not get large enough effect sizes would use larger samples to obtain significant results.

Modification of Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for DNA content data analysis through distribution alignment.

PubMed

Huang, Shuguang; Yeo, Adeline A; Li, Shuyu Dan

2007-10-01

The Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test is a statistical method often used for comparing two distributions. In high-throughput screening (HTS) studies, such distributions usually arise from the phenotype of independent cell populations. However, the K-S test has been criticized for being overly sensitive in applications, and it often detects a statistically significant difference that is not biologically meaningful. One major reason is that there is a common phenomenon in HTS studies that systematic drifting exists among the distributions due to reasons such as instrument variation, plate edge effect, accidental difference in sample handling, etc. In particular, in high-content cellular imaging experiments, the location shift could be dramatic since some compounds themselves are fluorescent. This oversensitivity of the K-S test is particularly overpowered in cellular assays where the sample sizes are very big (usually several thousands). In this paper, a modified K-S test is proposed to deal with the nonspecific location-shift problem in HTS studies. Specifically, we propose that the distributions are "normalized" by density curve alignment before the K-S test is conducted. In applications to simulation data and real experimental data, the results show that the proposed method has improved specificity.

[A development and evaluation of nursing KMS using QFD in outpatient departments].

PubMed

Lee, Han Na; Yun, Eun Kyoung

2014-02-01

This study was done to develop and implement the Nursing KMS (knowledge management system) in order to improve knowledge sharing and creation among clinical nurses in outpatient departments. This study was a methodological research using the 'System Development Life Cycle': consisting of planning, analyzing, design, implementation, and evaluation. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) was applied to establish nurse requirements and to identify important design requirements. Participants were 32 nurses and for evaluation data were collected pre and post intervention at K Hospital in Seoul, a tertiary hospital with over 1,000 beds. The Nursing KMS was built using a Linux-based operating system, Oracle DBMS, and Java 1.6 web programming tools. The system was implemented as a sub-system of the hospital information system. There was statistically significant differences in the sharing of knowledge but creating of knowledge was no statistically meaningful difference observed. In terms of satisfaction with the system, system efficiency ranked first followed by system convenience, information suitability and information usefulness. The results indicate that the use of Nursing KMS increases nurses' knowledge sharing and can contribute to increased quality of nursing knowledge and provide more opportunities for nurses to gain expertise from knowledge shared among nurses.

Hierarchical statistical modeling of xylem vulnerability to cavitation.

PubMed

Ogle, Kiona; Barber, Jarrett J; Willson, Cynthia; Thompson, Brenda

2009-01-01

Cavitation of xylem elements diminishes the water transport capacity of plants, and quantifying xylem vulnerability to cavitation is important to understanding plant function. Current approaches to analyzing hydraulic conductivity (K) data to infer vulnerability to cavitation suffer from problems such as the use of potentially unrealistic vulnerability curves, difficulty interpreting parameters in these curves, a statistical framework that ignores sampling design, and an overly simplistic view of uncertainty. This study illustrates how two common curves (exponential-sigmoid and Weibull) can be reparameterized in terms of meaningful parameters: maximum conductivity (k(sat)), water potential (-P) at which percentage loss of conductivity (PLC) =X% (P(X)), and the slope of the PLC curve at P(X) (S(X)), a 'sensitivity' index. We provide a hierarchical Bayesian method for fitting the reparameterized curves to K(H) data. We illustrate the method using data for roots and stems of two populations of Juniperus scopulorum and test for differences in k(sat), P(X), and S(X) between different groups. Two important results emerge from this study. First, the Weibull model is preferred because it produces biologically realistic estimates of PLC near P = 0 MPa. Second, stochastic embolisms contribute an important source of uncertainty that should be included in such analyses.

Limit order book and its modeling in terms of Gibbs Grand-Canonical Ensemble

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bicci, Alberto

2016-12-01

In the domain of so called Econophysics some attempts have been already made for applying the theory of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics to economics and financial markets. In this paper a similar approach is made from a different perspective, trying to model the limit order book and price formation process of a given stock by the Grand-Canonical Gibbs Ensemble for the bid and ask orders. The application of the Bose-Einstein statistics to this ensemble allows then to derive the distribution of the sell and buy orders as a function of price. As a consequence we can define in a meaningful way expressions for the temperatures of the ensembles of bid orders and of ask orders, which are a function of minimum bid, maximum ask and closure prices of the stock as well as of the exchanged volume of shares. It is demonstrated that the difference between the ask and bid orders temperatures can be related to the VAO (Volume Accumulation Oscillator), an indicator empirically defined in Technical Analysis of stock markets. Furthermore the derived distributions for aggregate bid and ask orders can be subject to well defined validations against real data, giving a falsifiable character to the model.

Small Aircraft RF Interference Path Loss Measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nguyen, Truong X.; Koppen, Sandra V.; Ely, Jay J.; Szatkowski, George N.; Mielnik, John J.; Salud, Maria Theresa P.

2007-01-01

Interference to aircraft radio receivers is an increasing concern as more portable electronic devices are allowed onboard. Interference signals are attenuated as they propagate from inside the cabin to aircraft radio antennas mounted on the outside of the aircraft. The attenuation level is referred to as the interference path loss (IPL) value. Significant published IPL data exists for transport and regional category airplanes. This report fills a void by providing data for small business/corporate and general aviation aircraft. In this effort, IPL measurements are performed on ten small aircraft of different designs and manufacturers. Multiple radio systems are addressed. Along with the typical worst-case coupling values, statistical distributions are also reported that could lead to more meaningful interference risk assessment.

A note on sample size calculation for mean comparisons based on noncentral t-statistics.

PubMed

Chow, Shein-Chung; Shao, Jun; Wang, Hansheng

2002-11-01

One-sample and two-sample t-tests are commonly used in analyzing data from clinical trials in comparing mean responses from two drug products. During the planning stage of a clinical study, a crucial step is the sample size calculation, i.e., the determination of the number of subjects (patients) needed to achieve a desired power (e.g., 80%) for detecting a clinically meaningful difference in the mean drug responses. Based on noncentral t-distributions, we derive some sample size calculation formulas for testing equality, testing therapeutic noninferiority/superiority, and testing therapeutic equivalence, under the popular one-sample design, two-sample parallel design, and two-sample crossover design. Useful tables are constructed and some examples are given for illustration.

Category-contingent face adaptation for novel colour categories: Contingent effects are seen only after social or meaningful labelling.

PubMed

Little, Anthony C; DeBruine, Lisa M; Jones, Benedict C

2011-01-01

A face appears normal when it approximates the average of a population. Consequently, exposure to faces biases perceptions of subsequently viewed faces such that faces similar to those recently seen are perceived as more normal. Simultaneously inducing such aftereffects in opposite directions for two groups of faces indicates somewhat discrete representations for those groups. Here we examine how labelling influences the perception of category in faces differing in colour. We show category-contingent aftereffects following exposure to faces differing in eye spacing (wide versus narrow) for blue versus red faces when such groups are consistently labelled with socially meaningful labels (Extravert versus Introvert; Soldier versus Builder). Category-contingent aftereffects were not seen using identical methodology when labels were not meaningful or were absent. These data suggest that human representations of faces can be rapidly tuned to code for meaningful social categories and that such tuning requires both a label and an associated visual difference. Results highlight the flexibility of the cognitive visual system to discriminate categories even in adulthood. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

You Don’t See What I See: Individual Differences in the Perception of Meaning from Visual Stimuli

PubMed Central

Partos, Timea R.; Cropper, Simon J.; Rawlings, David

2016-01-01

Everyone has their own unique version of the visual world and there has been growing interest in understanding the way that personality shapes one’s perception. Here, we investigated meaningful visual experiences in relation to the personality dimension of schizotypy. In a novel approach to this issue, a non-clinical sample of subjects (total n = 197) were presented with calibrated images of scenes, cartoons and faces of varying visibility embedded in noise; the spatial properties of the images were constructed to mimic the natural statistics of the environment. In two experiments, subjects were required to indicate what they saw in a large number of unique images, both with and without actual meaningful structure. The first experiment employed an open-ended response paradigm and used a variety of different images in noise; the second experiment only presented a series of faces embedded in noise, and required a forced-choice response from the subjects. The results in all conditions indicated that a high positive schizotypy score was associated with an increased tendency to perceive complex meaning in images comprised purely of random visual noise. Individuals high in positive schizotypy seemed to be employing a looser criterion (response bias) to determine what constituted a ‘meaningful’ image, while also being significantly less sensitive at the task than those low in positive schizotypy. Our results suggest that differences in perceptual performance for individuals high in positive schizotypy are not related to increased suggestibility or susceptibility to instruction, as had previously been suggested. Instead, the observed reductions in sensitivity along with increased response bias toward seeing something that is not there, indirectly implicated subtle neurophysiological differences associated with the personality dimension of schizotypy, that are theoretically pertinent to the continuum of schizophrenia and hallucination-proneness. PMID:26954696

Body mass index is not a clinically meaningful predictor of patient reported outcomes of primary hip replacement surgery: prospective cohort study.

PubMed

Judge, A; Batra, R N; Thomas, G E; Beard, D; Javaid, M K; Murray, D W; Dieppe, P A; Dreinhoefer, K E; Peter-Guenther, K; Field, R; Cooper, C; Arden, N K

2014-03-01

To describe whether body mass index (BMI) is a clinically meaningful predictor of patient reported outcomes following primary total hip replacement (THR) surgery. Combined data from prospective cohort studies. We obtained information from four cohorts of patients receiving primary THR for osteoarthritis: Exeter Primary Outcomes Study (EPOS) (n = 1431); EUROHIP (n = 1327); Elective Orthopaedic Centre (n = 2832); and St. Helier (n = 787). The exposure of interest was pre-operative BMI. Confounding variables included: age, sex, SF-36 mental health, comorbidities, fixed flexion, analgesic use, college education, OA in other joints, expectation of less pain, radiographic K&L grade, ASA grade, years of hip pain. The primary outcome was the Oxford Hip Score (OHS). Regression models describe the association of BMI on outcome adjusting for all confounders. For a 5-unit increase in BMI, the attained 12-month OHS decreases by 0.78 points 95%CI (0.27-1.28), P-value 0.001. Compared to people of normal BMI (20-25), those in the obese class II (BMI 35-40) would have a 12-month OHS that is 2.34 points lower. Although statistically significant this effect is small and not clinically meaningful in contrast to the substantial change in OHS seen across all BMI groupings. In obese class II patients achieved a 22.2 point change in OHS following surgery. Patients achieved substantial change in OHS after THR across all BMI categories, which greatly outweighs the small difference in attained post-operative score. The findings suggest BMI should not present a barrier to access THR in terms of PROMs. Copyright © 2014 Osteoarthritis Research Society International. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A novel summary report of colonoscopy: timeline visualization providing meaningful colonoscopy video information.

PubMed

Cho, Minwoo; Kim, Jee Hyun; Kong, Hyoun Joong; Hong, Kyoung Sup; Kim, Sungwan

2018-05-01

The colonoscopy adenoma detection rate depends largely on physician experience and skill, and overlooked colorectal adenomas could develop into cancer. This study assessed a system that detects polyps and summarizes meaningful information from colonoscopy videos. One hundred thirteen consecutive patients had colonoscopy videos prospectively recorded at the Seoul National University Hospital. Informative video frames were extracted using a MATLAB support vector machine (SVM) model and classified as bleeding, polypectomy, tool, residue, thin wrinkle, folded wrinkle, or common. Thin wrinkle, folded wrinkle, and common frames were reanalyzed using SVM for polyp detection. The SVM model was applied hierarchically for effective classification and optimization of the SVM. The mean classification accuracy according to type was over 93%; sensitivity was over 87%. The mean sensitivity for polyp detection was 82.1%, and the positive predicted value (PPV) was 39.3%. Polyps detected using the system were larger (6.3 ± 6.4 vs. 4.9 ± 2.5 mm; P = 0.003) with a more pedunculated morphology (Yamada type III, 10.2 vs. 0%; P < 0.001; Yamada type IV, 2.8 vs. 0%; P < 0.001) than polyps missed by the system. There were no statistically significant differences in polyp distribution or histology between the groups. Informative frames and suspected polyps were presented on a timeline. This summary was evaluated using the system usability scale questionnaire; 89.3% of participants expressed positive opinions. We developed and verified a system to extract meaningful information from colonoscopy videos. Although further improvement and validation of the system is needed, the proposed system is useful for physicians and patients.

Body mass index is not a clinically meaningful predictor of patient reported outcomes of primary hip replacement surgery: prospective cohort study

PubMed Central

Judge, Andy; Batra, Rajbir N; Thomas, Geraint; Beard, David; Javaid, M Kassim; Murray, David; Dieppe, Paul A; Dreinhoefer, Karsten; Peter-Guenther, Klaus; Field, Richard; Cooper, Cyrus; Arden, Nigel K

2014-01-01

Objectives To describe whether body mass index (BMI) is a clinically meaningful predictor of patient reported outcomes following primary total hip replacement (THR) surgery Design Combined data from prospective cohort studies. We obtained information from four cohorts of patients receiving primary THR for osteoarthritis: Exeter Primary Outcomes Study (n=1431); EUROHIP (n=1327); Elective Orthopaedic Centre (n=2832); and St. Helier (n=787). The exposure of interest was pre-operative BMI. Confounding variables included: age, sex, SF-36 mental health, comorbidities, fixed flexion, analgesic use, college education, OA in other joints, expectation of less pain, radiographic K&L grade, ASA grade, years of hip pain. The primary outcome was the Oxford Hip Score (OHS). Regression models describe the association of BMI on outcome adjusting for all confounders. Results For a 5-unit increase in BMI, the attained 12-month OHS decreases by 0.78 points 95%CI (0.27 to 1.28), p-value 0.001. Compared to people of normal BMI (20 to 25), those in the obese class II (BMI 35 to 40) would have a 12-month OHS that is 2.34 points lower. Although statistically significant this effect is small and not clinically meaningful in contrast to the substantial change in OHS seen across all BMI groupings. In obese class II patients achieved a 22.2 point change in OHS following surgery. Conclusions Patients achieved substantial change in OHS after THR across all BMI categories, which greatly outweighs the small difference in attained post-operative score. The findings suggest BMI should not present a barrier to access THR in terms of PROMs. PMID:24418679

Effect of Community-Based Occupational Therapy on Health-Related Quality of Life and Engagement in Meaningful Activities of Women with Breast Cancer.

PubMed

Petruseviciene, Daiva; Surmaitiene, Deive; Baltaduoniene, Daiva; Lendraitiene, Egle

2018-01-01

We aimed to evaluate the short-term effects of community-based occupational therapy on health-related quality of life and engagement in meaningful activities among women with breast cancer. An open label randomized controlled trial study design was applied. The participants were members of various societies of women with cancer. In total, 22 women have participated in the study. Participants of the experimental group ( n = 11) participated in a 6-week community-based occupational therapy program and the usual activities of various societies, whereas the control group ( n = 11) women participated in the usual activities of the societies only. 1 of the participants withdrew during the course; therefore 21 completed the study successfully. Participants of both groups were assessed for health-related quality of life and the participants of the experimental group were assessed for engagement in meaningful activities. The evaluation was carried out during the nonacute period of the disease-at the beginning of the study and after 6 weeks. Women of the experimental group demonstrated statistically significantly better scores in the global quality of life, role functions, physical, emotional, cognitive, and social functions, fatigue, insomnia, financial impact, systemic therapy side effects, and breast symptoms scales compared to the control group participants ( p < 0.05) after the 6 weeks, as measured by the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire and its breast cancer module QLQ-BR23 . Furthermore, women of the experimental group demonstrated significant greater engagement in meaningful activities when applying community-based occupational therapy ( p < 0.05), as measured by using the Engagement in Meaningful Activities Survey (EMAS). The evaluation of the associations between the women's engagement in meaningful activities and changes in health-related quality of life showed that greater engagement in meaningful activities was associated with better emotional functions and a lower level of insomnia ( p < 0.05). Based on the results of our study, we recommend applying occupational therapy in the field of community healthcare in order to maintain or improve breast cancer patients' health-related quality of life and suggest involving women into meaningful activities during community-based occupational therapy after clarifying which activities are important to them.

Functional genomics annotation of a statistical epistasis network associated with bladder cancer susceptibility.

PubMed

Hu, Ting; Pan, Qinxin; Andrew, Angeline S; Langer, Jillian M; Cole, Michael D; Tomlinson, Craig R; Karagas, Margaret R; Moore, Jason H

2014-04-11

Several different genetic and environmental factors have been identified as independent risk factors for bladder cancer in population-based studies. Recent studies have turned to understanding the role of gene-gene and gene-environment interactions in determining risk. We previously developed the bioinformatics framework of statistical epistasis networks (SEN) to characterize the global structure of interacting genetic factors associated with a particular disease or clinical outcome. By applying SEN to a population-based study of bladder cancer among Caucasians in New Hampshire, we were able to identify a set of connected genetic factors with strong and significant interaction effects on bladder cancer susceptibility. To support our statistical findings using networks, in the present study, we performed pathway enrichment analyses on the set of genes identified using SEN, and found that they are associated with the carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene, a component of tobacco smoke. We further carried out an mRNA expression microarray experiment to validate statistical genetic interactions, and to determine if the set of genes identified in the SEN were differentially expressed in a normal bladder cell line and a bladder cancer cell line in the presence or absence of benzo[a]pyrene. Significant nonrandom sets of genes from the SEN were found to be differentially expressed in response to benzo[a]pyrene in both the normal bladder cells and the bladder cancer cells. In addition, the patterns of gene expression were significantly different between these two cell types. The enrichment analyses and the gene expression microarray results support the idea that SEN analysis of bladder in population-based studies is able to identify biologically meaningful statistical patterns. These results bring us a step closer to a systems genetic approach to understanding cancer susceptibility that integrates population and laboratory-based studies.

Is it possible to identify a risk factor condition of hypocalcemia in patients candidates to thyroidectomy for benign disease?

PubMed

Del Rio, Paolo; Iapichino, Gioacchino; De Simone, Belinda; Bezer, Lamia; Arcuri, MariaFrancesca; Sianesi, Mario

2010-01-01

Hypocalcaemia is the most frequent complication after total thyroidectomy. The incidence of postoperative hypocalcaemia is reported with different percentages in literature. We report 227 patients undergoing surgery for benign thyroid disease. After obtaining patient's informed consent, we collected and analyzed prospectively the following data: calcium serum levels pre and postoperative in the first 24 hours after surgery according to sex, age, duration of surgery, number of parathyroids identified by the surgeon, surgical technique (open and minimally invasive video-assisted thyroidectomy, i.e., MIVAT). We have considered cases treated consecutively from the same two experienced endocrine surgeons. Hypocalcaemia is assumed when the value of serum calcium is below 7.5 mg/dL. Pre-and post-operative mean serum calcium, with confidence intervals at 99% divided by sex, revealed a statistically significant difference in the ANOVA test (p < 0.01) in terms of incidence. Female sex has higher incidence of hypocalcemia. The evaluation of the mean serum calcium in pre-and post-operative period, with confidence intervals at 95%, depending on the number of identified parathyroid glands by surgeon, showed that the result is not correlated with values of postoperative serum calcium. Age and pre-and postoperative serum calcium values with confidence intervals at 99% based on sex of patients, didn't show statistically significant differences. We haven't highlighted a significant difference in postoperative hypocalcemia in patients treated with conventional thyroidectomy versus MIVAT. A difference in pre- and postoperative mean serum calcium occurs in all patients surgically treated. The only statistical meaningful risk factor for hypocalcemia has been the female sex.

The longevity in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae: A comparison of two approaches for assessment the lifespan.

PubMed

Molon, Mateusz; Zadrag-Tecza, Renata; Bilinski, Tomasz

2015-05-08

Longevity of the selected "longevity mutants" of yeast was studied using two methods. The standard method was based on counting the number of daughter cells produced. Modification of that method allowed for establishing the length of life expressed in units of time. It appeared that all the studied "deletion longevity mutants" showed a statistically meaningful increase in the number of daughters produced (replicative lifespan), whereas only one of the mutants, previously regarded as "short lived", showed a meaningful increase in the time of life. The analysis of the available data shows that the time of life of most yeast strains is similar irrespective of their genetic background and mutations, which suggests a quasi-programmed nature of yeast death. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Early- versus Late-Onset Dysthymia

PubMed Central

Sansone, Lori A.

2009-01-01

In the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, dysthymic disorder is categorized as either early-onset or late-onset, based upon the emergence of symptoms before or after the age of 21, respectively. Does this diagnostic distinction have any meaningful clinical implications? In this edition of The Interface, we present empirical studies that have, within a single study, compared individuals with early-versus late-onset dysthymia. In this review, we found that, compared to those with late-onset dysthymia, early-onset patients are more likely to harbor psychiatric comorbidity both on Axis I and II, exhibit less psychological resilience, and have more prominent family loadings for mood disorders. These findings suggest that this distinction is meaningful and that the early-onset subtype of dysthymia is more difficult to effectively treat. PMID:20049145

Response to traumatic brain injury neurorehabilitation through an artificial intelligence and statistics hybrid knowledge discovery from databases methodology.

PubMed

Gibert, Karina; García-Rudolph, Alejandro; García-Molina, Alberto; Roig-Rovira, Teresa; Bernabeu, Montse; Tormos, José María

2008-01-01

Develop a classificatory tool to identify different populations of patients with Traumatic Brain Injury based on the characteristics of deficit and response to treatment. A KDD framework where first, descriptive statistics of every variable was done, data cleaning and selection of relevant variables. Then data was mined using a generalization of Clustering based on rules (CIBR), an hybrid AI and Statistics technique which combines inductive learning (AI) and clustering (Statistics). A prior Knowledge Base (KB) is considered to properly bias the clustering; semantic constraints implied by the KB hold in final clusters, guaranteeing interpretability of the resultis. A generalization (Exogenous Clustering based on rules, ECIBR) is presented, allowing to define the KB in terms of variables which will not be considered in the clustering process itself, to get more flexibility. Several tools as Class panel graph are introduced in the methodology to assist final interpretation. A set of 5 classes was recommended by the system and interpretation permitted profiles labeling. From the medical point of view, composition of classes is well corresponding with different patterns of increasing level of response to rehabilitation treatments. All the patients initially assessable conform a single group. Severe impaired patients are subdivided in four profiles which clearly distinct response patterns. Particularly interesting the partial response profile, where patients could not improve executive functions. Meaningful classes were obtained and, from a semantics point of view, the results were sensibly improved regarding classical clustering, according to our opinion that hybrid AI & Stats techniques are more powerful for KDD than pure ones.

Comparison of Internet-based and paper-based questionnaires in Taiwan using multisample invariance approach.

PubMed

Yu, Sen-Chi; Yu, Min-Ning

2007-08-01

This study examines whether the Internet-based questionnaire is psychometrically equivalent to the paper-based questionnaire. A random sample of 2,400 teachers in Taiwan was divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group was invited to complete the electronic form of the Chinese version of Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) placed on the Internet, whereas the control group was invited to complete the paper-based CES-D, which they received by mail. The multisample invariance approach, derived from structural equation modeling (SEM), was applied to analyze the collected data. The analytical results show that the two groups have equivalent factor structures in the CES-D. That is, the items in CES-D function equivalently in the two groups. Then the equality of latent mean test was performed. The latent means of "depressed mood," "positive affect," and "interpersonal problems" in CES-D are not significantly different between these two groups. However, the difference in the "somatic symptoms" latent means between these two groups is statistically significant at alpha = 0.01. But the Cohen's d statistics indicates that such differences in latent means do not apparently lead to a meaningful effect size in practice. Both CES-D questionnaires exhibit equal validity, reliability, and factor structures and exhibit a little difference in latent means. Therefore, the Internet-based questionnaire represents a promising alternative to the paper-based questionnaire.

Discussions in the home about sex: different recollections by parents and children.

PubMed

King, B M; Lorusso, J

1997-01-01

University students and their parents were asked whether they had ever had a meaningful discussion about sex. More than half of the students answered No, yet in 60% of these cases, one or both parents said that there had been meaningful discussions. Students and their parents most frequently disagreed about the topics of sexually transmitted diseases, sexual intercourse, reproduction, birth control, homosexuality, and sexual abuse. Mothers were more likely than fathers to have had discussions that daughters considered to be meaningful, and as likely as fathers in the case of sons. Parents who indicated that they had had meaningful discussions about sex with their parents while growing up were much more likely than other parents to have had discussions that their own children recognized as meaningful. Nevertheless, the results demonstrate that many parents greatly underestimate the extent of factual information that their children wish to learn about sexuality.

Believable Statements of Uncertainty and Believable Science

PubMed Central

Lindstrom, Richard M.

2017-01-01

Nearly fifty years ago, two landmark papers appeared that should have cured the problem of ambiguous uncertainty statements in published data. Eisenhart’s paper in Science called for statistically meaningful numbers, and Currie’s Analytical Chemistry paper revealed the wide range in common definitions of detection limit. Confusion and worse can result when uncertainties are misinterpreted or ignored. The recent stories of cold fusion, variable radioactive decay, and piezonuclear reactions provide cautionary examples in which prior probability has been neglected. We show examples from our laboratory and others to illustrate the fact that uncertainty depends on both statistical and scientific judgment. PMID:28584391

Statistical Approaches to Assess Biosimilarity from Analytical Data.

PubMed

Burdick, Richard; Coffey, Todd; Gutka, Hiten; Gratzl, Gyöngyi; Conlon, Hugh D; Huang, Chi-Ting; Boyne, Michael; Kuehne, Henriette

2017-01-01

Protein therapeutics have unique critical quality attributes (CQAs) that define their purity, potency, and safety. The analytical methods used to assess CQAs must be able to distinguish clinically meaningful differences in comparator products, and the most important CQAs should be evaluated with the most statistical rigor. High-risk CQA measurements assess the most important attributes that directly impact the clinical mechanism of action or have known implications for safety, while the moderate- to low-risk characteristics may have a lower direct impact and thereby may have a broader range to establish similarity. Statistical equivalence testing is applied for high-risk CQA measurements to establish the degree of similarity (e.g., highly similar fingerprint, highly similar, or similar) of selected attributes. Notably, some high-risk CQAs (e.g., primary sequence or disulfide bonding) are qualitative (e.g., the same as the originator or not the same) and therefore not amenable to equivalence testing. For biosimilars, an important step is the acquisition of a sufficient number of unique originator drug product lots to measure the variability in the originator drug manufacturing process and provide sufficient statistical power for the analytical data comparisons. Together, these analytical evaluations, along with PK/PD and safety data (immunogenicity), provide the data necessary to determine if the totality of the evidence warrants a designation of biosimilarity and subsequent licensure for marketing in the USA. In this paper, a case study approach is used to provide examples of analytical similarity exercises and the appropriateness of statistical approaches for the example data.

Meaningful use of health information technology by rural hospitals.

PubMed

McCullough, Jeffrey; Casey, Michelle; Moscovice, Ira; Burlew, Michele

2011-01-01

This study examines the current status of meaningful use of health information technology (IT) in Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), other rural, and urban US hospitals, and it discusses the potential role of Medicare payment incentives and disincentives in encouraging CAHs and other rural hospitals to achieve meaningful use. Data from the American Hospital Association (AHA) Annual Survey IT Supplement were analyzed, using t tests and probit regressions to assess whether implementation rates in CAHs and other rural hospitals are significantly different from rates in urban hospitals. Of the many measures we examined, only 4 have been met by a majority of rural hospitals: electronic recording of patient demographics and electronic access to lab reports, radiology reports, and radiology images. Meaningful use is even less prevalent among CAHs. We also find that rural hospitals lag behind urban institutions in nearly every measure of meaningful use. These differences are particularly large and significant for CAHs. The meaningful use incentive system creates many challenges for CAHs. First, investments are evaluated and subsidies determined after adoption. Thus, CAHs must accept financial risk when adopting health IT; this may be particularly important for large expenditures. Second, the subsidies may be low for relatively small expenditures. Third, since the subsidies are based on observable costs, CAHs will receive no support for their intangible costs (eg, workflow disruption). A variety of policies may be used to address these problems of financial risk, uncertain returns in a rural setting, and limited resources. © 2011 National Rural Health Association.

Method of analysis of local neuronal circuits in the vertebrate central nervous system.

PubMed

Reinis, S; Weiss, D S; McGaraughty, S; Tsoukatos, J

1992-06-01

Although a considerable amount of knowledge has been accumulated about the activity of individual nerve cells in the brain, little is known about their mutual interactions at the local level. The method presented in this paper allows the reconstruction of functional relations within a group of neurons as recorded by a single microelectrode. Data are sampled at 10 or 13 kHz. Prominent spikes produced by one or more single cells are selected and sorted by K-means cluster analysis. The activities of single cells are then related to the background firing of neurons in their vicinity. Auto-correlograms of the leading cells, auto-correlograms of the background cells (mass correlograms) and cross-correlograms between these two levels of firing are computed and evaluated. The statistical probability of mutual interactions is determined, and the statistically significant, most common interspike intervals are stored and attributed to real pairs of spikes in the original record. Selected pairs of spikes, characterized by statistically significant intervals between them, are then assembled into a working model of the system. This method has revealed substantial differences between the information processing in the visual cortex, the inferior colliculus, the rostral ventromedial medulla and the ventrobasal complex of the thalamus. Even short 1-s records of the multiple neuronal activity may provide meaningful and statistically significant results.

Do clinical and translational science graduate students understand linear regression? Development and early validation of the REGRESS quiz.

PubMed

Enders, Felicity

2013-12-01

Although regression is widely used for reading and publishing in the medical literature, no instruments were previously available to assess students' understanding. The goal of this study was to design and assess such an instrument for graduate students in Clinical and Translational Science and Public Health. A 27-item REsearch on Global Regression Expectations in StatisticS (REGRESS) quiz was developed through an iterative process. Consenting students taking a course on linear regression in a Clinical and Translational Science program completed the quiz pre- and postcourse. Student results were compared to practicing statisticians with a master's or doctoral degree in statistics or a closely related field. Fifty-two students responded precourse, 59 postcourse , and 22 practicing statisticians completed the quiz. The mean (SD) score was 9.3 (4.3) for students precourse and 19.0 (3.5) postcourse (P < 0.001). Postcourse students had similar results to practicing statisticians (mean (SD) of 20.1(3.5); P = 0.21). Students also showed significant improvement pre/postcourse in each of six domain areas (P < 0.001). The REGRESS quiz was internally reliable (Cronbach's alpha 0.89). The initial validation is quite promising with statistically significant and meaningful differences across time and study populations. Further work is needed to validate the quiz across multiple institutions. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Hearing the shape of the Ising model with a programmable superconducting-flux annealer.

PubMed

Vinci, Walter; Markström, Klas; Boixo, Sergio; Roy, Aidan; Spedalieri, Federico M; Warburton, Paul A; Severini, Simone

2014-07-16

Two objects can be distinguished if they have different measurable properties. Thus, distinguishability depends on the Physics of the objects. In considering graphs, we revisit the Ising model as a framework to define physically meaningful spectral invariants. In this context, we introduce a family of refinements of the classical spectrum and consider the quantum partition function. We demonstrate that the energy spectrum of the quantum Ising Hamiltonian is a stronger invariant than the classical one without refinements. For the purpose of implementing the related physical systems, we perform experiments on a programmable annealer with superconducting flux technology. Departing from the paradigm of adiabatic computation, we take advantage of a noisy evolution of the device to generate statistics of low energy states. The graphs considered in the experiments have the same classical partition functions, but different quantum spectra. The data obtained from the annealer distinguish non-isomorphic graphs via information contained in the classical refinements of the functions but not via the differences in the quantum spectra.

Cross-Identification of Astronomical Catalogs on Multiple GPUs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, M. A.; Budavári, T.

2013-10-01

One of the most fundamental problems in observational astronomy is the cross-identification of sources. Observations are made in different wavelengths, at different times, and from different locations and instruments, resulting in a large set of independent observations. The scientific outcome is often limited by our ability to quickly perform meaningful associations between detections. The matching, however, is difficult scientifically, statistically, as well as computationally. The former two require detailed physical modeling and advanced probabilistic concepts; the latter is due to the large volumes of data and the problem's combinatorial nature. In order to tackle the computational challenge and to prepare for future surveys, whose measurements will be exponentially increasing in size past the scale of feasible CPU-based solutions, we developed a new implementation which addresses the issue by performing the associations on multiple Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). Our implementation utilizes up to 6 GPUs in combination with the Thrust library to achieve an over 40x speed up verses the previous best implementation running on a multi-CPU SQL Server.

Chondroitin for osteoarthritis

PubMed Central

Singh, Jasvinder A.; Noorbaloochi, Shahrzad; MacDonald, Roderick; Maxwell, Lara J.

2016-01-01

Background Osteoarthritis, a common joint disorder, is one of the leading causes of disability. Chondroitin has emerged as a new treatment. Previous meta-analyses have shown contradictory results on the efficacy of chondroitin. This, in addition to the publication of more trials, necessitates a systematic review. Objectives To evaluate the benefit and harm of oral chondroitin for treating osteoarthritis compared with placebo or a comparator oral medication including, but not limited to, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), analgesics, opioids, and glucosamine or other “herbal” medications. Search methods We searched seven databases up to November 2013, including the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Ovid MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, Science Citation Index (Web of Science) and Current Controlled Trials. We searched the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMEA) websites for adverse effects. Trial registers were not searched. Selection criteria All randomized or quasi-randomized clinical trials lasting longer than two weeks, studying adults with osteoarthritis in any joint, and comparing chondroitin with placebo, an active control such as NSAIDs, or other “herbal” supplements such as glucosamine. Data collection and analysis Two review authors independently performed all title assessments, data extractions, and risk of bias assessments. Main results Forty-three randomized controlled trials including 4,962 participants treated with chondroitin and 4,148 participants given placebo or another control were included. The majority of trials were in knee OA, with few in hip and hand OA. Trial duration varied from 1 month to 3 years. Participants treated with chondroitin achieved statistically significantly and clinically meaningful better pain scores (0–100) in studies less than 6 months than those given placebo with an absolute risk difference of 10% lower (95% confidence interval (CI), 15% to 6% lower; number needed to treat (NNT) = 5 (95% CI, 3 to 8; n = 8 trials) (level of evidence, low; risk of bias, high); but there was high heterogeneity between the trials (T2 = 0.07; I2 = 70%, which was not easily explained by differences in risk of bias or study sample size). In studies longer than 6 months, the absolute risk difference for pain was 9% lower (95% CI 18% lower to 0%); n = 6 trials; T2 = 0.18; I2 = 83% ), again with low level of evidence. For the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index Minimal Clinically Important Improvement (WOMAC MCII Pain subscale) outcome, a reduction in knee pain by 20% was achieved by 53/100 in the chondroitin group versus 47/100 in the placebo group, an absolute risk difference of 6% (95% CI 1% to 11%), (RR 1.12, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.24; T2 = 0.00; I2 = 0%) (n = 2 trials, 1253 participants; level of evidence, high; risk of bias, low). Differences in Lequesne’s index (composite of pain, function and disability) statistically significantly favoured chondroitin as compared with placebo in studies under six months, with an absolute risk difference of 8% lower (95% CI 12% to 5% lower; T2= 0.78; n = 7 trials) (level of evidence, moderate; risk of bias, unclear), also clinically meaningful. Loss of minimum joint space width in the chondroitin group was statistically significantly less than in the placebo group, with a relative risk difference of 4.7% less (95% CI 1.6% to 7.8% less; n = 2 trials) (level of evidence, high; risk of bias, low). Chondroitin was associated with statistically significantly lower odds of serious adverse events compared with placebo with Peto odds ratio of 0.40 (95% CI 0.19 to 0.82; n = 6 trials) (level of evidence, moderate). Chondroitin did not result in statistically significant numbers of adverse events or withdrawals due to adverse events compared with placebo or another drug. Adverse events were reported in a limited fashion, with some studies providing data and others not. Comparisons of chondroitin taken alone or in combination with glucosamine or another supplement showed a statistically significant reduction in pain (0–100) when compared with placebo or an active control, with an absolute risk difference of 10% lower (95% CI 14% to 5% lower); NNT = 4 (95% CI 3 to 6); T2 = 0.33; I2 = 91%; n = 17 trials) (level of evidence, low). For physical function, chondroitin in combination with glucosamine or another supplement showed no statistically significant difference from placebo or an active control, with an absolute risk difference of 1% lower (95% CI 6% lower to 3% higher with T2 = 0.04; n = 5 trials) (level of evidence, moderate). Differences in Lequesne’s index statistically significantly favoured chondroitin as compared with placebo, with an absolute risk difference of 8% lower (95% CI, 12% to 4% lower; T2 = 0.12; n = 10 trials) (level of evidence, moderate). Chondroitin in combination with glucosamine did not result in statistically significant differences in the numbers of adverse events, withdrawals due to adverse events, or in the numbers of serious adverse events compared with placebo or with an active control. The beneficial effects of chondroitin in pain and Lequesne’s index persisted when evidence was limited to studies with adequate blinding or studies that used appropriate intention to treat (ITT) analyses. These beneficial effects were uncertain when we limited data to studies with appropriate allocation concealment or a large study sample (> 200) or to studies without pharmaceutical funding. Authors’ conclusions A review of randomized trials of mostly low quality reveals that chondroitin (alone or in combination with glucosamine) was better than placebo in improving pain in participants with osteoarthritis in short-term studies. The benefit was small to moderate with an 8 point greater improvement in pain (range 0 to 100) and a 2 point greater improvement in Lequesne’s index (range 0 to 24), both likely clinically meaningful. These differences persisted in some sensitivity analyses and not others. Chondroitin had a lower risk of serious adverse events compared with control. More high-quality studies are needed to explore the role of chondroitin in the treatment of osteoarthritis. The combination of some efficacy and low risk associated with chondroitin may explain its popularity among patients as an over-the-counter supplement. PMID:25629804

The Potato Chip Really Does Look Like Elvis! Neural Hallmarks of Conceptual Processing Associated with Finding Novel Shapes Subjectively Meaningful

PubMed Central

Federmeier, Kara D.; Paller, Ken A.

2012-01-01

Clouds and inkblots often compellingly resemble something else—faces, animals, or other identifiable objects. Here, we investigated illusions of meaning produced by novel visual shapes. Individuals found some shapes meaningful and others meaningless, with considerable variability among individuals in these subjective categorizations. Repetition for shapes endorsed as meaningful produced conceptual priming in a priming test along with concurrent activity reductions in cortical regions associated with conceptual processing of real objects. Subjectively meaningless shapes elicited robust activity in the same brain areas, but activity was not influenced by repetition. Thus, all shapes were conceptually evaluated, but stable conceptual representations supported neural priming for meaningful shapes only. During a recognition memory test, performance was associated with increased frontoparietal activity, regardless of meaningfulness. In contrast, neural conceptual priming effects for meaningful shapes occurred during both priming and recognition testing. These different patterns of brain activation as a function of stimulus repetition, type of memory test, and subjective meaningfulness underscore the distinctive neural bases of conceptual fluency versus episodic memory retrieval. Finding meaning in ambiguous stimuli appears to depend on conceptual evaluation and cortical processing events similar to those typically observed for known objects. To the brain, the vaguely Elvis-like potato chip truly can provide a substitute for the King himself. PMID:22079921

Kidney function endpoints in kidney transplant trials: a struggle for power.

PubMed

Ibrahim, A; Garg, A X; Knoll, G A; Akbari, A; White, C A

2013-03-01

Kidney function endpoints are commonly used in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in kidney transplantation (KTx). We conducted this study to estimate the proportion of ongoing RCTs with kidney function endpoints in KTx where the proposed sample size is large enough to detect meaningful differences in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) with adequate statistical power. RCTs were retrieved using the key word "kidney transplantation" from the National Institute of Health online clinical trial registry. Included trials had at least one measure of kidney function tracked for at least 1 month after transplant. We determined the proportion of two-arm parallel trials that had sufficient sample sizes to detect a minimum 5, 7.5 and 10 mL/min difference in GFR between arms. Fifty RCTs met inclusion criteria. Only 7% of the trials were above a sample size of 562, the number needed to detect a minimum 5 mL/min difference between the groups should one exist (assumptions: α = 0.05; power = 80%, 10% loss to follow-up, common standard deviation of 20 mL/min). The result increased modestly to 36% of trials when a minimum 10 mL/min difference was considered. Only a minority of ongoing trials have adequate statistical power to detect between-group differences in kidney function using conventional sample size estimating parameters. For this reason, some potentially effective interventions which ultimately could benefit patients may be abandoned from future assessment. © Copyright 2013 The American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons.

Authentic Leadership and Altruism: The Mediating Role of Meaningfulness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sagnak, Mesut; Kuruöz, Mehmet

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating effects of meaningfulness on the relationship between authentic leadership and altruistic behavior. The participants consisted of 356 teachers randomly selected from 14 primary and secondary schools in Nigde. Three different instruments were used in this study. The scales were translated…

Making a Natural Product Chemistry Course Meaningful with a Mini Project Laboratory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hakim, Aliefman; Liliasari; Kadarohman, Asep; Syah, Yana Maolana

2016-01-01

This paper discusses laboratory activities that can improve the meaningfulness of natural product chemistry course. These laboratory activities can be useful for students from many different disciplines including chemistry, pharmacy, and medicine. Students at the third-year undergraduate level of chemistry education undertake the project to…

Genre Complexes in Popular Music

PubMed Central

Childress, C. Clayton

2016-01-01

Recent work in the sociology of music suggests a declining importance of genre categories. Yet other work in this research stream and in the sociology of classification argues for the continued prevalence of genres as a meaningful tool through which creators, critics and consumers focus their attention in the topology of available works. Building from work in the study of categories and categorization we examine how boundary strength and internal differentiation structure the genre pairings of some 3 million musicians and groups. Using a range of network-based and statistical techniques, we uncover three musical “complexes,” which are collectively constituted by 16 smaller genre communities. Our analysis shows that the musical universe is not monolithically organized but rather composed of multiple worlds that are differently structured—i.e., uncentered, single-centered, and multi-centered. PMID:27203852

Cognitive grammar and aphasic discourse.

PubMed

Manning, Molly; Franklin, Sue

2016-01-01

In cognitive grammar (CG), there is no clear division between language and other cognitive processes; all linguistic form is conceptually meaningful. In this pilot study, a CG approach was applied to investigate whether people with aphasia (PWA) have cognitive linguistic difficulty not predicted from traditional, componential models of aphasia. Narrative samples from 22 PWA (6 fluent, 16 non-fluent) were compared with samples from 10 participants without aphasia. Between-group differences were tested statistically. PWA had significant difficulty with temporal sequencing, suggesting problems that are not uniquely linguistic. For some, these problems were doubly dissociated with naming, used as a general measure of severity, which indicates that cognitive linguistic difficulties are not linked with more widespread brain damage. Further investigation may lead to a richer account of aphasia in line with contemporary linguistics and cognitive science approaches.

Genre Complexes in Popular Music.

PubMed

Silver, Daniel; Lee, Monica; Childress, C Clayton

2016-01-01

Recent work in the sociology of music suggests a declining importance of genre categories. Yet other work in this research stream and in the sociology of classification argues for the continued prevalence of genres as a meaningful tool through which creators, critics and consumers focus their attention in the topology of available works. Building from work in the study of categories and categorization we examine how boundary strength and internal differentiation structure the genre pairings of some 3 million musicians and groups. Using a range of network-based and statistical techniques, we uncover three musical "complexes," which are collectively constituted by 16 smaller genre communities. Our analysis shows that the musical universe is not monolithically organized but rather composed of multiple worlds that are differently structured-i.e., uncentered, single-centered, and multi-centered.

Effectiveness of foot and hand massage in postcesarean pain control in a group of Turkish pregnant women.

PubMed

Degirmen, Nuriye; Ozerdogan, Nebahat; Sayiner, Deniz; Kosgeroglu, Nedime; Ayranci, Unal

2010-08-01

The aim of this study was to determine the efficiency of foot and hand massage on reducing postoperative pain in patients who had cesarean operation. This pretest-posttest design study was planned as a randomized controlled experimental study. In the light of the results, it was reported that the reduction in pain intensity was significantly meaningful in both intervention groups when compared to the control group. It was also noted that vital findings were measured comparatively higher before the massage in the test groups, and they were found to be relatively lower in the measurements conducted right before and after the massage, which was considered to be statistically meaningful. Foot and hand massage proved useful as an effective nursing intervention in controlling postoperative pain. 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Pseudo-Patella Baja after total knee arthroplasty

PubMed Central

Kazemi, Seyyed Morteza; Besheli, Laleh Daftari; Eajazi, Alireza; Sajadi, Mohammad Reza Miniator; Okhovatpoor, Mohammad Ali; Zanganeh, Ramin Farhang; Minaei, Reza

2011-01-01

Summary Background One of the complications of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) which has not yet been directly addressed is pseudo-patella baja (PPB). True patella baja (PB) is present when the length of the patellar tendon becomes shorter. PPB is present when the patella tendon is not shortened, but the level of the joint line is elevated. This study was conducted to assess PPB in TKA. Material/Methods Sixty patients who had had a primary TKA at our center between 1995 and 2005 were included. The average follow-up was 27.5 months. The Knee Society Scoring (KSS), lateral knee x-rays and the Blackburne-Peel index were used for assessments. Results Out of the 60 patients, 43 (72%) demonstrated no joint line elevation or patellar tendon shortening (group A). Fifteen patients (25%) had joint line elevation (group B), and both PB and PPB were present in 2 (3%) patients (group C). KSS was lower in groups B and C compared with group A, but this difference was not statistically significant. The average range of motion (ROM) in group A was significantly higher compared with either group B or C, and patients in groups B and C showed significantly more severe pain compared with group A (P<0.001). Conclusions PPB is not an uncommon finding after TKA and is associated with a statistically significant decrease in ROM and an increase in pain. Furthermore, KSS in the PPB group was less than in patients without PPB, although the difference was not statistically meaningful. PMID:21525812

Micronucleus Assay in Exfoliated Buccal Epithelial Cells Using Liquid Based Cytology Preparations in Building Construction Workers.

PubMed

Arul, P; Smitha, Shetty; Masilamani, Suresh; Akshatha, C

2018-01-01

Cytogenetic damage in exfoliated buccal epithelial cells due to environmental and occupational exposure is often monitored by micronucleus (MN) assay using liquid based cytology (LBC) preparations. This study was performed to evaluate MN in exfoliated buccal epithelial cells of building construction workers using LBC preparations. LBC preparations of exfoliated buccal epithelial cells from 100 subjects [50 building construction workers (cases) and 50 administrative staffs (controls)] was evaluated by May-Grunwald Giemsa, Hematoxylin and Eosin and Papanicolaou stains. Student's t test was used for statistical analysis and a P value of <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. The mean frequencies of MN for cases were significantly higher than controls regardless of staining methods used. There were statistically significant differences between smokers and non-smokers of the controls as well as duration of working exposure (<5 and >5 years) and smokers and non-smokers of cases (P=0.001). However, there were meaningful differences regarding mean frequencies of MN between smokers, non-smokers, those with alcohol consumption or not in cases and controls using various stains (P=0.001). There was an increased risk of cytogenetic damage in building construction workers. However, evaluation of MN of exfoliated buccal epithelial cells in building construction workers serve as a minimally invasive biomarker for cytogenetic damage. LBC preparations can be applied for MN assay as it improves the quality of smears and cell morphology, decreases the confounding factors and reduces false positive results.

Characterization of 81P/Wild 2 Particles C2067,1,111,6.0 and C2067,1,111,8.0

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, T.; Khodja, H.; Raepsaet, C.; Burchell, M. J.; Flynn, G. J.; Herzog, G. F.; Park, J.; Lindsay, F.; Nakamura-Messenger, K.; Keller, L. P.;

Promoting the Development of Preschool Children's Emergent Literacy Skills: A Randomized Evaluation of a Literacy-Focused Curriculum and Two Professional Development Models

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lonigan, Christopher J.; Farver, JoAnn M.; Phillips, Beth M.; Clancy-Menchetti, Jeanine

2011-01-01

To date, there have been few causally interpretable evaluations of the impacts of preschool curricula on the skills of children at-risk for academic difficulties, and even fewer studies have demonstrated statistically significant or educationally meaningful effects. In this cluster-randomized study, we evaluated the impacts of a literacy-focused…

Assessing Pre-Service Teachers' Computer Phobia Levels in Terms of Gender and Experience, Turkish Sample

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ursavas, Omer Faruk; Karal, Hasan

2009-01-01

In this study it is aimed to determine the level of pre-service teachers' computer phobia. Whether or not computer phobia meaningfully varies statistically according to gender and computer experience has been tested in the study. The study was performed on 430 pre-service teachers at the Education Faculty in Rize/Turkey. Data in the study were…

Probabilistic biological network alignment.

PubMed

Todor, Andrei; Dobra, Alin; Kahveci, Tamer

2013-01-01

Interactions between molecules are probabilistic events. An interaction may or may not happen with some probability, depending on a variety of factors such as the size, abundance, or proximity of the interacting molecules. In this paper, we consider the problem of aligning two biological networks. Unlike existing methods, we allow one of the two networks to contain probabilistic interactions. Allowing interaction probabilities makes the alignment more biologically relevant at the expense of explosive growth in the number of alternative topologies that may arise from different subsets of interactions that take place. We develop a novel method that efficiently and precisely characterizes this massive search space. We represent the topological similarity between pairs of aligned molecules (i.e., proteins) with the help of random variables and compute their expected values. We validate our method showing that, without sacrificing the running time performance, it can produce novel alignments. Our results also demonstrate that our method identifies biologically meaningful mappings under a comprehensive set of criteria used in the literature as well as the statistical coherence measure that we developed to analyze the statistical significance of the similarity of the functions of the aligned protein pairs.

Variables in psychology: a critique of quantitative psychology.

PubMed

Toomela, Aaro

2008-09-01

Mind is hidden from direct observation; it can be studied only by observing behavior. Variables encode information about behaviors. There is no one-to-one correspondence between behaviors and mental events underlying the behaviors, however. In order to understand mind it would be necessary to understand exactly what information is represented in variables. This aim cannot be reached after variables are already encoded. Therefore, statistical data analysis can be very misleading in studies aimed at understanding mind that underlies behavior. In this article different kinds of information that can be represented in variables are described. It is shown how informational ambiguity of variables leads to problems of theoretically meaningful interpretation of the results of statistical data analysis procedures in terms of hidden mental processes. Reasons are provided why presence of dependence between variables does not imply causal relationship between events represented by variables and absence of dependence between variables cannot rule out the causal dependence of events represented by variables. It is concluded that variable-psychology has a very limited range of application for the development of a theory of mind-psychology.

Predicting mortality over different time horizons: which data elements are needed?

PubMed

Goldstein, Benjamin A; Pencina, Michael J; Montez-Rath, Maria E; Winkelmayer, Wolfgang C

2017-01-01

Electronic health records (EHRs) are a resource for "big data" analytics, containing a variety of data elements. We investigate how different categories of information contribute to prediction of mortality over different time horizons among patients undergoing hemodialysis treatment. We derived prediction models for mortality over 7 time horizons using EHR data on older patients from a national chain of dialysis clinics linked with administrative data using LASSO (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator) regression. We assessed how different categories of information relate to risk assessment and compared discrete models to time-to-event models. The best predictors used all the available data (c-statistic ranged from 0.72-0.76), with stronger models in the near term. While different variable groups showed different utility, exclusion of any particular group did not lead to a meaningfully different risk assessment. Discrete time models performed better than time-to-event models. Different variable groups were predictive over different time horizons, with vital signs most predictive for near-term mortality and demographic and comorbidities more important in long-term mortality. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

False-positive results in pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacovigilance.

PubMed

Bezin, Julien; Bosco-Levy, Pauline; Pariente, Antoine

2017-09-01

False-positive constitute an important issue in scientific research. In the domain of drug evaluation, it affects all phases of drug development and assessment, from the very early preclinical studies to the late post-marketing evaluations. The core concern associated with this false-positive is the lack of replicability of the results. Aside from fraud or misconducts, false-positive is often envisioned from the statistical angle, which considers them as a price to pay for type I error in statistical testing, and its inflation in the context of multiple testing. If envisioning this problematic in the context of pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacovigilance however, that both evaluate drugs in an observational settings, information brought by statistical testing and the significance of such should only be considered as additional to the estimates provided and their confidence interval, in a context where differences have to be a clinically meaningful upon everything, and the results appear robust to the biases likely to have affected the studies. In the following article, we consequently illustrate these biases and their consequences in generating false-positive results, through studies and associations between drug use and health outcomes that have been widely disputed. Copyright © 2017 Société française de pharmacologie et de thérapeutique. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Detecting and modelling structures on the micro and the macro scales: Assessing their effects on solute transport behaviour

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haslauer, C. P.; Bárdossy, A.; Sudicky, E. A.

2017-09-01

This paper demonstrates quantitative reasoning to separate the dataset of spatially distributed variables into different entities and subsequently characterize their geostatistical properties, properly. The main contribution of the paper is a statistical based algorithm that matches the manual distinction results. This algorithm is based on measured data and is generally applicable. In this paper, it is successfully applied at two datasets of saturated hydraulic conductivity (K) measured at the Borden (Canada) and the Lauswiesen (Germany) aquifers. The boundary layer was successfully delineated at Borden despite its only mild heterogeneity and only small statistical differences between the divided units. The methods are verified with the more heterogeneous Lauswiesen aquifer K data-set, where a boundary layer has previously been delineated. The effects of the macro- and the microstructure on solute transport behaviour are evaluated using numerical solute tracer experiments. Within the microscale structure, both Gaussian and non-Gaussian models of spatial dependence of K are evaluated. The effects of heterogeneity both on the macro- and the microscale are analysed using numerical tracer experiments based on four scenarios: including or not including the macroscale structures and optimally fitting a Gaussian or a non-Gaussian model for the spatial dependence in the micro-structure. The paper shows that both micro- and macro-scale structures are important, as in each of the four possible geostatistical scenarios solute transport behaviour differs meaningfully.

Waste reduction through consumer education. Final report

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

Harrison, E.Z.

The Waste Reduction through Consumer Education research project was conducted to determine how environmental educational strategies influence purchasing behavior in the supermarket. The objectives were to develop, demonstrate, and evaluate consumer education strategies for waste reduction. The amount of waste generated by packaging size and form, with an adjustment for local recyclability of waste, was determined for 14 product categories identified as having more waste generating and less waste generating product choices (a total of 484 products). Using supermarket scan data and shopper identification numbers, the research tracked the purchases of shoppers in groups receiving different education treatments for 9more » months. Statistical tests applied to the purchase data assessed patterns of change between the groups by treatment period. Analysis of the data revealed few meaningful statistical differences between study groups or changes in behavior over time. Findings suggest that broad brush consumer education about waste reduction is not effective in changing purchasing behaviors in the short term. However, it may help create a general awareness of the issues surrounding excess packaging and consumer responsibility. The study concludes that the answer to waste reduction in the future may be a combination of voluntary initiatives by manufacturers and retailers, governmental intervention, and better-informed consumers.« less

Diagnostic index of three-dimensional osteoarthritic changes in temporomandibular joint condylar morphology

PubMed Central

Gomes, Liliane R.; Gomes, Marcelo; Jung, Bryan; Paniagua, Beatriz; Ruellas, Antonio C.; Gonçalves, João Roberto; Styner, Martin A.; Wolford, Larry; Cevidanes, Lucia

2015-01-01

Abstract. This study aimed to investigate imaging statistical approaches for classifying three-dimensional (3-D) osteoarthritic morphological variations among 169 temporomandibular joint (TMJ) condyles. Cone-beam computed tomography scans were acquired from 69 subjects with long-term TMJ osteoarthritis (OA), 15 subjects at initial diagnosis of OA, and 7 healthy controls. Three-dimensional surface models of the condyles were constructed and SPHARM-PDM established correspondent points on each model. Multivariate analysis of covariance and direction-projection-permutation (DiProPerm) were used for testing statistical significance of the differences between the groups determined by clinical and radiographic diagnoses. Unsupervised classification using hierarchical agglomerative clustering was then conducted. Compared with healthy controls, OA average condyle was significantly smaller in all dimensions except its anterior surface. Significant flattening of the lateral pole was noticed at initial diagnosis. We observed areas of 3.88-mm bone resorption at the superior surface and 3.10-mm bone apposition at the anterior aspect of the long-term OA average model. DiProPerm supported a significant difference between the healthy control and OA group (p-value=0.001). Clinically meaningful unsupervised classification of TMJ condylar morphology determined a preliminary diagnostic index of 3-D osteoarthritic changes, which may be the first step towards a more targeted diagnosis of this condition. PMID:26158119

How to compare cross-lagged associations in a multilevel autoregressive model.

PubMed

Schuurman, Noémi K; Ferrer, Emilio; de Boer-Sonnenschein, Mieke; Hamaker, Ellen L

2016-06-01

By modeling variables over time it is possible to investigate the Granger-causal cross-lagged associations between variables. By comparing the standardized cross-lagged coefficients, the relative strength of these associations can be evaluated in order to determine important driving forces in the dynamic system. The aim of this study was twofold: first, to illustrate the added value of a multilevel multivariate autoregressive modeling approach for investigating these associations over more traditional techniques; and second, to discuss how the coefficients of the multilevel autoregressive model should be standardized for comparing the strength of the cross-lagged associations. The hierarchical structure of multilevel multivariate autoregressive models complicates standardization, because subject-based statistics or group-based statistics can be used to standardize the coefficients, and each method may result in different conclusions. We argue that in order to make a meaningful comparison of the strength of the cross-lagged associations, the coefficients should be standardized within persons. We further illustrate the bivariate multilevel autoregressive model and the standardization of the coefficients, and we show that disregarding individual differences in dynamics can prove misleading, by means of an empirical example on experienced competence and exhaustion in persons diagnosed with burnout. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Does Constructivist Approach Applicable through Concept Maps to Achieve Meaningful Learning in Science?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jena, Ananta Kumar

2012-01-01

This study deals with the application of constructivist approach through individual and cooperative modes of spider and hierarchical concept maps to achieve meaningful learning on science concepts (e.g. acids, bases & salts, physical and chemical changes). The main research questions were: Q (1): is there any difference in individual and…

Topology-aware illumination design for volume rendering.

PubMed

Zhou, Jianlong; Wang, Xiuying; Cui, Hui; Gong, Peng; Miao, Xianglin; Miao, Yalin; Xiao, Chun; Chen, Fang; Feng, Dagan

2016-08-19

Direct volume rendering is one of flexible and effective approaches to inspect large volumetric data such as medical and biological images. In conventional volume rendering, it is often time consuming to set up a meaningful illumination environment. Moreover, conventional illumination approaches usually assign same values of variables of an illumination model to different structures manually and thus neglect the important illumination variations due to structure differences. We introduce a novel illumination design paradigm for volume rendering on the basis of topology to automate illumination parameter definitions meaningfully. The topological features are extracted from the contour tree of an input volumetric data. The automation of illumination design is achieved based on four aspects of attenuation, distance, saliency, and contrast perception. To better distinguish structures and maximize illuminance perception differences of structures, a two-phase topology-aware illuminance perception contrast model is proposed based on the psychological concept of Just-Noticeable-Difference. The proposed approach allows meaningful and efficient automatic generations of illumination in volume rendering. Our results showed that our approach is more effective in depth and shape depiction, as well as providing higher perceptual differences between structures.

Sequence-similar, structure-dissimilar protein pairs in the PDB.

PubMed

Kosloff, Mickey; Kolodny, Rachel

2008-05-01

It is often assumed that in the Protein Data Bank (PDB), two proteins with similar sequences will also have similar structures. Accordingly, it has proved useful to develop subsets of the PDB from which "redundant" structures have been removed, based on a sequence-based criterion for similarity. Similarly, when predicting protein structure using homology modeling, if a template structure for modeling a target sequence is selected by sequence alone, this implicitly assumes that all sequence-similar templates are equivalent. Here, we show that this assumption is often not correct and that standard approaches to create subsets of the PDB can lead to the loss of structurally and functionally important information. We have carried out sequence-based structural superpositions and geometry-based structural alignments of a large number of protein pairs to determine the extent to which sequence similarity ensures structural similarity. We find many examples where two proteins that are similar in sequence have structures that differ significantly from one another. The source of the structural differences usually has a functional basis. The number of such proteins pairs that are identified and the magnitude of the dissimilarity depend on the approach that is used to calculate the differences; in particular sequence-based structure superpositioning will identify a larger number of structurally dissimilar pairs than geometry-based structural alignments. When two sequences can be aligned in a statistically meaningful way, sequence-based structural superpositioning provides a meaningful measure of structural differences. This approach and geometry-based structure alignments reveal somewhat different information and one or the other might be preferable in a given application. Our results suggest that in some cases, notably homology modeling, the common use of nonredundant datasets, culled from the PDB based on sequence, may mask important structural and functional information. We have established a data base of sequence-similar, structurally dissimilar protein pairs that will help address this problem (http://luna.bioc.columbia.edu/rachel/seqsimstrdiff.htm).

Case mix adjustment of health outcomes, resource use and process indicators in childbirth care: a register-based study.

PubMed

Mesterton, Johan; Lindgren, Peter; Ekenberg Abreu, Anna; Ladfors, Lars; Lilja, Monica; Saltvedt, Sissel; Amer-Wåhlin, Isis

2016-05-31

Unwarranted variation in care practice and outcomes has gained attention and inter-hospital comparisons are increasingly being used to highlight and understand differences between hospitals. Adjustment for case mix is a prerequisite for meaningful comparisons between hospitals with different patient populations. The objective of this study was to identify and quantify maternal characteristics that impact a set of important indicators of health outcomes, resource use and care process and which could be used for case mix adjustment of comparisons between hospitals. In this register-based study, 139 756 deliveries in 2011 and 2012 were identified in regional administrative systems from seven Swedish regions, which together cover 67 % of all deliveries in Sweden. Data were linked to the Medical birth register and Statistics Sweden's population data. A number of important indicators in childbirth care were studied: Caesarean section (CS), induction of labour, length of stay, perineal tears, haemorrhage > 1000 ml and post-partum infections. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics deemed relevant for case mix adjustment of outcomes and resource use were identified based on previous literature and based on clinical expertise. Adjustment using logistic and ordinary least squares regression analysis was performed to quantify the impact of these characteristics on the studied indicators. Almost all case mix factors analysed had an impact on CS rate, induction rate and length of stay and the effect was highly statistically significant for most factors. Maternal age, parity, fetal presentation and multiple birth were strong predictors of all these indicators but a number of additional factors such as born outside the EU, body mass index (BMI) and several complications during pregnancy were also important risk factors. A number of maternal characteristics had a noticeable impact on risk of perineal tears, while the impact of case mix factors was less pronounced for risk of haemorrhage > 1000 ml and post-partum infections. Maternal characteristics have a large impact on care process, resource use and outcomes in childbirth care. For meaningful comparisons between hospitals and benchmarking, a broad spectrum of sociodemographic and clinical maternal characteristics should be accounted for.

Accepting Lower Salaries for Meaningful Work

PubMed Central

Hu, Jing; Hirsh, Jacob B.

2017-01-01

A growing literature indicates that people are increasingly motivated to experience a sense of meaning in their work lives. Little is known, however, about how perceptions of work meaningfulness influence job choice decisions. Although much of the research on job choice has focused on the importance of financial compensation, the subjective meanings attached to a job should also play a role. The current set of studies explored the hypothesis that people are willing to accept lower salaries for more meaningful work. In Study 1, participants reported lower minimum acceptable salaries when comparing jobs that they considered to be personally meaningful with those that they considered to be meaningless. In Study 2, an experimental enhancement of a job’s apparent meaningfulness lowered the minimum acceptable salary that participants required for the position. In two large-scale cross-national samples of full-time employees in 2005 and 2015, Study 3 found that participants who experienced more meaningful work lives were more likely to turn down higher-paying job offers elsewhere. The strength of this effect also increased significantly over this time period. Study 4 replicated these findings in an online sample, such that participants who reported having more meaningful work were less willing to leave their current jobs and organizations for higher paying opportunities. These patterns of results remained significant when controlling for demographic factors and differences in job characteristics. PMID:29085310

The Effectiveness of Neurofeedback on Enhancing Cognitive Process Involved in Entrepreneurship Abilities among Primary School Students in District No. 3 Tehran.

PubMed

Rahmati, Narges; Rostami, Reza; Zali, Mohammad Reza; Nowicki, Stephen; Zarei, Jamilah

2014-10-01

The aim of this study is to investigate the entrepreneurial traits of school children in the city of Tehran. For this purpose, 48 students were selected with an average IQ between 90 and 119. Ranging from 7th to 12th grades, all the subjects were assessed using Nowicki-Strickland's Locus of Control Scale (N-SLCS), Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), and Hyperkinetic Syndrome Assessment Method (HKSD). The obtained results were then organized and categorized into three groups. One of the groups was randomly chosen as experimental and the other as the control group and the last play group. In this empirical study, the students received Sensory Motor Rhythm (SMR) and Beta neurofeedback for 20 sessions. The play group was assigned to play mind games for 20 sessions. At the same time, the control group received no experiments. After the end of the experiments, all the students in three groups were reassessed by Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, Hyperkinetic Syndrome Assessment Method, and Nowicki-Strickland's Locus of Control Scale. The results from MANOVA showed that the neurofeedback group had demonstrated a meaningful change in creativity and locus of control while the adaptability of risk-taking was on a meaningful level for the experimental group. The results also indicate an improvement in creativity for the neurofeedback group in comparison with the play group on a 0.02 meaningful level. Similarly, the results suggest an improvement in creativity for the neurofeedback group on a 0.000 meaningful level in comparison with the control group. This is while the play group and the control group do not show any meaningful difference. The results also show an improvement in the internal locus of control for the neurofeedback group in comparison with the play group on a 0.032 meaningful level; while, it is meaningful on a 0.01 level for the neurofeedback group in comparison with the control group. The findings for the play group and control group do not show any meaningful difference. The paper concludes that neurofeedback training can be used for increasing the level of entrepreneurial traits in students.

Musical Tasks and Energetic Arousal.

PubMed

Lim, Hayoung A; Watson, Angela L

2018-03-08

Music is widely recognized as a motivating stimulus. Investigators have examined the use of music to improve a variety of motivation-related outcomes; however, these studies have focused primarily on passive music listening rather than active participation in musical activities. To examine the influence of participation in musical tasks and unique participant characteristics on energetic arousal. We used a one-way Welch's ANOVA to examine the influence of musical participation (i.e., a non-musical control and four different musical task conditions) upon energetic arousal. In addition, ancillary analyses of participant characteristics including personality, age, gender, sleep, musical training, caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol revealed their possible influence upon pretest and posttest energetic arousal scores. Musical participation yielded a significant relationship with energetic arousal, F(4, 55.62) = 44.38, p = .000, estimated ω2 = 0.60. Games-Howell post hoc pairwise comparisons revealed statistically significant differences between five conditions. Descriptive statistics revealed expected differences between introverts' and extraverts' energetic arousal scores at the pretest, F(1, 115) = 6.80, p = .010, partial η2= .06; however, mean differences failed to reach significance at the posttest following musical task participation. No other measured participant characteristics yielded meaningful results. Passive tasks (i.e., listening to a story or song) were related to decreased energetic arousal, while active musical tasks (i.e., singing, rhythm tapping, and keyboard playing) were related to increased energetic arousal. Musical task participation appeared to have a differential effect for individuals with certain personality traits (i.e., extroverts and introverts).

The Impact of Activity Based Working (ABW) on Workplace Activity, Eating Behaviours, Productivity, and Satisfaction.

PubMed

Arundell, Lauren; Sudholz, Bronwyn; Teychenne, Megan; Salmon, Jo; Hayward, Brooke; Healy, Genevieve N; Timperio, Anna

2018-05-17

The redesign of the physical workplace according to activity-based working (ABW) principles has potential to influence employee health and workplace outcomes. This natural experiment examined changes in accelerometer-derived workplace activity, self-reported eating behaviours, productivity, workplace satisfaction before (March to November 2014) and six to nine months after moving to an ABW workplace compared to a comparison workplace ( n = 146 at baseline (56% ABW, aged 40.1 ± 8.5 years, 72% female). Interviews were also conducted with 21 ABW participants. Between- and within-group differences were examined and mixed model analysis examined intervention effects over time. Effect sizes were calculated on change scores (Cohen's d ). Although not statistically significant, ABW participants had meaningful improvements in workday sedentary time, light-, and moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity, job satisfaction and relationship with co-workers ( d = 0.379⁻0.577), and small declines in productivity ( d = 0.278). There were significant, meaningful, and beneficial intervention effects on perceived organisational support for being active in the workplace, frequency of eating lunch with colleagues, and satisfaction with the physical environment in ABW compared to comparison participants ( d = 0.501⁻0.839). Qualitative data suggested that ABW employees associated ABW with greater opportunities for movement and collaboration, but had mixed views on the impact on productivity. Future research with larger samples and over longer follow-up periods is warranted.

The Impact of Activity Based Working (ABW) on Workplace Activity, Eating Behaviours, Productivity, and Satisfaction

PubMed Central

Sudholz, Bronwyn; Teychenne, Megan; Salmon, Jo; Hayward, Brooke; Timperio, Anna

2018-01-01

The redesign of the physical workplace according to activity-based working (ABW) principles has potential to influence employee health and workplace outcomes. This natural experiment examined changes in accelerometer-derived workplace activity, self-reported eating behaviours, productivity, workplace satisfaction before (March to November 2014) and six to nine months after moving to an ABW workplace compared to a comparison workplace (n = 146 at baseline (56% ABW, aged 40.1 ± 8.5 years, 72% female). Interviews were also conducted with 21 ABW participants. Between- and within-group differences were examined and mixed model analysis examined intervention effects over time. Effect sizes were calculated on change scores (Cohen’s d). Although not statistically significant, ABW participants had meaningful improvements in workday sedentary time, light-, and moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity, job satisfaction and relationship with co-workers (d = 0.379–0.577), and small declines in productivity (d = 0.278). There were significant, meaningful, and beneficial intervention effects on perceived organisational support for being active in the workplace, frequency of eating lunch with colleagues, and satisfaction with the physical environment in ABW compared to comparison participants (d = 0.501–0.839). Qualitative data suggested that ABW employees associated ABW with greater opportunities for movement and collaboration, but had mixed views on the impact on productivity. Future research with larger samples and over longer follow-up periods is warranted. PMID:29772803

Gene Expression Analysis Of Circulating Hormone Refractory Prostate Cancer Micrometastases

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-02-01

of prostate cancer. We hypothesized that the copy number changes could be prognostic and aid in future chemotherapy regimen selection. After...Task 1 will be analyzed over the next year to elicit statistically meaningful prognostic DNA based biomarkers. Two of the patients (#8 and #13) had...HRPC), and to determine whether CECs can be used to predict survival in these patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS Several prognostic models that

Proposal for Development of EBM-CDSS (Evidence-Based Clinical Decision Support System) to Aid Prognostication in Terminally Ill Patients

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-10-01

inconsistency in the representation of the dataset. RST provides a mathematical tool for representing and reasoning about vagueness and inconsistency. Its...use of various mathematical , statistical and soft computing methodologies with the objective of identifying meaningful relationships between condition...Evidence-based Medicine and Health Outcomes Research, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 2Department of Mathematics , Indiana University Northwest, Gary

Making Each Other’s Daily Life: Nurse Assistants’ Experiences and Knowledge on Developing a Meaningful Daily Life in Nursing Homes

PubMed Central

James, Inger; Fredriksson, Carin; Wahlström, Catrin; Kihlgren, Annica; Blomberg, Karin

2014-01-01

Background: In a larger action research project, guidelines were generated for how a meaningful daily life could be developed for older persons. In this study, we focused on the nurse assistants’ (NAs) perspectives, as their knowledge is essential for a well-functioning team and quality of care. The aim was to learn from NAs’ experiences and knowledge about how to develop a meaningful daily life for older persons in nursing homes and the meaning NAs ascribe to their work. Methods: The project is based on Participatory and Appreciative Action and Reflection. Data were generated through interviews, participating observations and informal conversations with 27 NAs working in nursing homes in Sweden, and a thematic analysis was used. Result: NAs developed a meaningful daily life by sensing and finding the “right” way of being (Theme 1). They sense and read the older person in order to judge how the person was feeling (Theme 2). They adapt to the older person (Theme 3) and share their daily life (Theme 4). NAs use emotional involvement to develop a meaningful daily life for the older person and meaning in their own work (Theme 5), ultimately making each other’s daily lives meaningful. Conclusion: It was obvious that NAs based the development of a meaningful daily life on different forms of knowledge: the oreticaland practical knowledge, and practical wisdom, all of which are intertwined. These results could be used within the team to constitute a meaningful daily life for older persons in nursing homes. PMID:25246997

The Long-Term Impacts of Medicaid Exposure in Early Childhood: Evidence from the Program's Origin*

PubMed Central

Boudreaux, Michel H.; Golberstein, Ezra; McAlpine, Donna D.

2016-01-01

This paper examines the long-term impact of exposure to Medicaid in early childhood on adult health and economic status. The staggered timing of Medicaid's adoption across the states created meaningful variation in cumulative exposure to Medicaid for birth cohorts that are now in adulthood. Analyses of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics suggest exposure to Medicaid in early childhood (age 0-5) is associated with statistically significant and meaningful improvements in adult health (age 25-54), and this effect is only seen in subgroups targeted by the program. Results for economic outcomes are imprecise and we are unable to come to definitive conclusions. Using separate data we find evidence of two mechanisms that could plausibly link Medicaid's introduction to long-term outcomes: contemporaneous increases in health services utilization for children and reductions in family medical debt. PMID:26763123

Accessing National Water Model Output for Research and Application: An R package

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johnson, M.; Coll, J.

2017-12-01

With the National Water Model becoming operational in August of 2016, the need for a open source way to translate a huge amount of data into actionable intelligence and innovative research is apparent. The first step in doing this is to provide a package for accessing, managing, and writing data in a way that is both interpretable, portable, and useful to the end user in both the R environment, and other applications. This can be as simple as subsetting the outputs and writing to a CSV, but can also include converting discharge output to more meaningful statistics and measurements, and methods to visualize data in ways that are meaningful to a wider audience. The NWM R package presented here aims to serve this need through a suite of functions fit for researchers, first responders, and average citizens. A vignette of how this package can be applied to real-time flood mapping will be demonstrated.

The Jensen and The Hunt and Sternberg Comments: From Penetrating to Absurd

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Templer, Donald I.; Arikawa, Hiroko

2006-01-01

We praised the comments of Jensen and regard most of the contentions of Hunt and Sternberg as absurd. It is ridiculous to question the validity of the skin color map and its application since meaningful group differences and meaningful correlations between temperature and skin color were found. It was inappropriate for Hunt and Sternberg to…

Sources of Meaningfulness in the Workplace: A Study in the US Hospitality Sector

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dimitrov, Danielle

2012-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the sources of meaningfulness at the workplace, according to the perceptions of hospitality employees from different national cultures in one US-based hotel, based on Dimitrov's empirical study about the features of the humane organization. Design/methodology/approach: This was an exploratory…

Meaningful Learning with Mobile Devices: Pre-Service Class Teachers' Experiences of Mobile Learning in the Outdoors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kärki, Tomi; Keinänen, Heli; Tuominen, Anu; Hoikkala, Marianna; Matikainen, Eila; Maijala, Hanna

2018-01-01

The authors consider the use of mobile learning environment ActionTrack in teacher education. Pre-service class teachers' (N = 277) experiences of the mobile learning environment were measured with a 7-point Likert-scale questionnaire based on seven attributes of meaningful learning. Students' ratings for different attributes were analysed…

Perioperative Arnica montana for Reduction of Ecchymosis in Rhinoplasty Surgery.

PubMed

Chaiet, Scott R; Marcus, Benjamin C

2016-05-01

Studies of homeopathic therapies to decrease postrhinoplasty ecchymosis have previously used subjective measurements, limiting their clinical significance. Recently, Arnica montana was shown to decrease postoperative ecchymosis after rhytidectomy, using an objective measuring tool. We believe that oral A. montana, given perioperatively, can be objectively shown to reduce extent and intensity of postoperative ecchymosis in rhinoplasty surgery. Subjects scheduled for rhinoplasty surgery with nasal bone osteotomies by a single surgeon were prospectively randomized to receive either oral perioperative A. montana (Alpine Pharmaceuticals, San Rafael, Calif) or placebo in a double-blinded fashion. Ecchymosis was measured in digital "three-quarter"-view photographs at 3 postoperative time points. Each bruise was outlined with Adobe Photoshop (Adobe Systems Incorporated, San Jose, Calif), and the extent was scaled to a standardized reference card. Cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and luminosity were analyzed in the bruised and control areas to calculate change in intensity. P value of <0.1 was set as a meaningful difference with statistical significance. Compared with 13 subjects receiving placebo, 9 taking A. montana had 16.2%, 32.9%, and 20.4% less extent on postoperative days 2/3, 7, and 9/10, a statistically significant difference on day 7 (P = 0.097). Color change initially showed 13.1% increase in intensity with A. montana but 10.9% and 36.3% decreases on days 7 and 9/10, a statistically significant difference on day 9/10 (P = 0.074). One subject experienced mild itching and rash with the study drug that resolved during the study period. Arnica montana seems to accelerate postoperative healing, with quicker resolution of the extent and the intensity of ecchymosis after osteotomies in rhinoplasty surgery, which may dramatically affect patient satisfaction.

Effect of Motivational Interviewing on a Weight Loss Program Based on the Protection Motivation Theory.

PubMed

Mirkarimi, Kamal; Mostafavi, Firoozeh; Eshghinia, Samira; Vakili, Mohammad Ali; Ozouni-Davaji, Rahman Berdi; Aryaie, Mohammad

2015-06-01

The prevalence of overweight and obesity is on the increase the world over, which imposes an ever-increasing burden on societies and health care systems. This study sought to investigate the effect of motivational interviewing (MI) on a weight-loss program based on the protection motivation theory (PMT). This randomized clinical trial study, comprising pretest-posttest with a control group, was conducted on 150 overweight and obese women attending a private nutrition clinic for the first time. Samples were randomly selected using the clinic's records and then allocated to three groups (50 women in each group) receiving: 1) a standard weight-control program; 2) motivational interviewing; and 3) MI plus intention intervention. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire through in-person interviews and were analyzed using SPSS (version 11) and statistical tests, including the Kruskal-Wallis test, one-way analysis of variance, paired t-test, and linear regression model. In the two intervention groups, the PMT construct scores, namely susceptibility (P = 0.001), severity (P = 0.001), rewards (P =0.004), self-efficacy (P = 0.001), response efficacy (P = 0.001), and costs (P = 0.014), were significantly increased compared to those in the control group. The anthropometric status was statistically significant in the MI group (P = 0.001) and the MI plus intention-intervention group (P = 0.001) at 2 months' follow-up, while in the control group, weight was meaningfully different after the intervention (P = 0.027). Weight was different between the groups after the intervention, with the Tukey test demonstrating that the differences were statistically significant between the control group and the MI group. Our results demonstrated that MI, combined with the implementation of intention intervention, increased weight loss and PMT construct scores in our study population.

Approaches for estimating minimal clinically important differences in systemic lupus erythematosus.

PubMed

Rai, Sharan K; Yazdany, Jinoos; Fortin, Paul R; Aviña-Zubieta, J Antonio

2015-06-03

A minimal clinically important difference (MCID) is an important concept used to determine whether a medical intervention improves perceived outcomes in patients. Prior to the introduction of the concept in 1989, studies focused primarily on statistical significance. As most recent clinical trials in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have failed to show significant effects, determining a clinically relevant threshold for outcome scores (that is, the MCID) of existing instruments may be critical for conducting and interpreting meaningful clinical trials as well as for facilitating the establishment of treatment recommendations for patients. To that effect, methods to determine the MCID can be divided into two well-defined categories: distribution-based and anchor-based approaches. Distribution-based approaches are based on statistical characteristics of the obtained samples. There are various methods within the distribution-based approach, including the standard error of measurement, the standard deviation, the effect size, the minimal detectable change, the reliable change index, and the standardized response mean. Anchor-based approaches compare the change in a patient-reported outcome to a second, external measure of change (that is, one that is more clearly understood, such as a global assessment), which serves as the anchor. Finally, the Delphi technique can be applied as an adjunct to defining a clinically important difference. Despite an abundance of methods reported in the literature, little work in MCID estimation has been done in the context of SLE. As the MCID can help determine the effect of a given therapy on a patient and add meaning to statistical inferences made in clinical research, we believe there ought to be renewed focus on this area. Here, we provide an update on the use of MCIDs in clinical research, review some of the work done in this area in SLE, and propose an agenda for future research.

Surgical factors in pediatric cochlear implantation and their early effects on electrode activation and functional outcomes.

PubMed

Francis, Howard W; Buchman, Craig A; Visaya, Jiovani M; Wang, Nae-Yuh; Zwolan, Teresa A; Fink, Nancy E; Niparko, John K

2008-06-01

To assess the impact of surgical factors on electrode status and early communication outcomes in young children in the first 2 years of cochlear implantation. Prospective multicenter cohort study. Six tertiary referral centers. Children 5 years or younger before implantation with normal nonverbal intelligence. Cochlear implant operations in 209 ears of 188 children. Percent active channels, auditory behavior as measured by the Infant Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale/Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale and Reynell receptive language scores. Stable insertion of the full electrode array was accomplished in 96.2% of ears. At least 75% of electrode channels were active in 88% of ears. Electrode deactivation had a significant negative effect on Infant Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale/Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale scores at 24 months but no effect on receptive language scores. Significantly fewer active electrodes were associated with a history of meningitis. Surgical complications requiring additional hospitalization and/or revision surgery occurred in 6.7% of patients but had no measurable effect on the development of auditory behavior within the first 2 years. Negative, although insignificant, associations were observed between the need for perioperative revision of the device and 1) the percent of active electrodes and 2) the receptive language level at 2-year follow-up. Activation of the entire electrode array is associated with better early auditory outcomes. Decrements in the number of active electrodes and lower gains of receptive language after manipulation of the newly implanted device were not statistically significant but may be clinically relevant, underscoring the importance of surgical technique and the effective placement of the electrode array.

Sending memorable messages to the old: age differences in preferences and memory for advertisements.

PubMed

Fung, Helene H; Carstensen, Laura L

2003-07-01

Socioemotional selectivity theory holds that people of different ages prioritize different types of goals. As people age and increasingly perceive time as finite, they attach greater importance to goals that are emotionally meaningful. Because the goals that people pursue so centrally influence cognition, the authors hypothesize that persuasive messages, specifically advertisements, would be preferred and better remembered by older adults when they promise to help realize emotionally meaningful goals, whereas younger adults would not show this bias. The authors also predict that modifying time perspective would reduce age differences. Findings provide qualified support for each of these predictions.

What is the effect of surgery on the quality of life of the adolescent with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis? A review and statistical analysis of the literature.

PubMed

Rushton, Paul R P; Grevitt, Michael P

2013-04-20

Review and statistical analysis of studies evaluating the effect of surgery on the health-related quality of life of adolescents with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, using Scoliosis Research Society (SRS) outcomes. Apply published minimum clinical important differences (MCID) values for the SRS22r questionnaire to the literature to identify what areas of health-related quality of life are consistently affected by surgery and whether changes are clinically meaningful. The interpretation of published studies using the SRS outcomes has been limited by the lack of MCID values for the questionnaire domains. The recent publication of these data allows the clinical importance of any changes in these studies to be examined for the first time. A literature search was undertaken to locate suitable studies that were then analyzed. Statistically significant differences from baseline to 2 years postoperatively were ascertained by narratively reporting the analyses within included studies. When possible, clinically significant changes were assessed using 95% confidence intervals for the change in mean domain score. If the lower bound of the confidence intervals for the change exceeded the MCID for that domain, the change was considered clinically significant. The numbers of cohorts available for the different analyses varied (5-16). Eighty-one percent and 94% of included cohorts experienced statistically significant improvements in pain and self-image domains. In terms of clinical significance, it was only self-image that regularly improved by more than MCID, doing so in 4 of 5 included cohorts (80%) compared with 1 of 12 cohorts (8%) for pain. No clinically relevant changes occurred in mental health or activity domains. Evidence suggests that surgery can lead to clinically important improvement in patient self-image. Surgeons and patients should be aware of the limited evidence for improvements in domains other than self-image after surgery. Surgical decision-making will also be influenced by the natural history of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.

Different types of exercise in Multiple Sclerosis: Aerobic exercise or Pilates, a single-blind clinical study.

PubMed

Kara, Bilge; Küçük, Fadime; Poyraz, Esra Coşkuner; Tomruk, Melda Soysal; İdıman, Egemen

2017-01-01

The aim of our study is to examine effects of aerobic and Pilates exercises on disability, cognition, physical performance, balance, depression and fatigue in relapsing-remitting Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients as compared to healthy controls. The subjects were divided as aerobic exercise (n = 26), Pilates (n = 9), and the healthy control group (n = 21). We used MSFC, physical performance, Berg balance scale, Beck depression scale, fatigue impact scale. All evaluations were performed before and after exercise training. There are statistically meaningful differences between Nine hole testing, PASAT 3, physical performance and fatique impact scale before and after aerobic exercise. Also we found significant difference for physical performance in the Pilates group. There are no significant differences in measures of fatique impact scale and depression between aerobic exercise group and the healthy controls after exercise. We found significant differences between Pilates and control group's after measurements except depression. There were significant differences between the Pilates and aerobic group for cognitive tests in favor of the Pilates group. Aerobic exercise and clinical Pilates exercises revealed moderate changes in levels of cognitive, physical performance, balance, depression, fatigue in MS patients.

The art and science of choosing efficacy endpoints for rare disease clinical trials.

PubMed

Cox, Gerald F

2018-04-01

An important challenge in rare disease clinical trials is to demonstrate a clinically meaningful and statistically significant response to treatment. Selecting the most appropriate and sensitive efficacy endpoints for a treatment trial is part art and part science. The types of endpoints should align with the stage of development (e.g., proof of concept vs. confirmation of clinical efficacy). The patient characteristics and disease stage should reflect the treatment goal of improving disease manifestations or preventing disease progression. For rare diseases, regulatory approval requires demonstration of clinical benefit, defined as how a patient, feels, functions, or survives, in at least one adequate and well-controlled pivotal study conducted according to Good Clinical Practice. In some cases, full regulatory approval can occur using a validated surrogate biomarker, while accelerated, or provisional, approval can occur using a biomarker that is likely to predict clinical benefit. Rare disease studies are small by necessity and require the use of endpoints with large effect sizes to demonstrate statistical significance. Understanding the quantitative factors that determine effect size and its impact on powering the study with an adequate sample size is key to the successful choice of endpoints. Interpreting the clinical meaningfulness of an observed change in an efficacy endpoint can be justified by statistical methods, regulatory precedence, and clinical context. Heterogeneous diseases that affect multiple organ systems may be better accommodated by endpoints that assess mean change across multiple endpoints within the same patient rather than mean change in an individual endpoint across all patients. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

INfORM: Inference of NetwOrk Response Modules.

PubMed

Marwah, Veer Singh; Kinaret, Pia Anneli Sofia; Serra, Angela; Scala, Giovanni; Lauerma, Antti; Fortino, Vittorio; Greco, Dario

2018-06-15

Detecting and interpreting responsive modules from gene expression data by using network-based approaches is a common but laborious task. It often requires the application of several computational methods implemented in different software packages, forcing biologists to compile complex analytical pipelines. Here we introduce INfORM (Inference of NetwOrk Response Modules), an R shiny application that enables non-expert users to detect, evaluate and select gene modules with high statistical and biological significance. INfORM is a comprehensive tool for the identification of biologically meaningful response modules from consensus gene networks inferred by using multiple algorithms. It is accessible through an intuitive graphical user interface allowing for a level of abstraction from the computational steps. INfORM is freely available for academic use at https://github.com/Greco-Lab/INfORM. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Principal variance component analysis of crop composition data: a case study on herbicide-tolerant cotton.

PubMed

Harrison, Jay M; Howard, Delia; Malven, Marianne; Halls, Steven C; Culler, Angela H; Harrigan, George G; Wolfinger, Russell D

2013-07-03

Compositional studies on genetically modified (GM) and non-GM crops have consistently demonstrated that their respective levels of key nutrients and antinutrients are remarkably similar and that other factors such as germplasm and environment contribute more to compositional variability than transgenic breeding. We propose that graphical and statistical approaches that can provide meaningful evaluations of the relative impact of different factors to compositional variability may offer advantages over traditional frequentist testing. A case study on the novel application of principal variance component analysis (PVCA) in a compositional assessment of herbicide-tolerant GM cotton is presented. Results of the traditional analysis of variance approach confirmed the compositional equivalence of the GM and non-GM cotton. The multivariate approach of PVCA provided further information on the impact of location and germplasm on compositional variability relative to GM.

A simple approach to polymer mixture miscibility.

PubMed

Higgins, Julia S; Lipson, Jane E G; White, Ronald P

2010-03-13

Polymeric mixtures are important materials, but the control and understanding of mixing behaviour poses problems. The original Flory-Huggins theoretical approach, using a lattice model to compute the statistical thermodynamics, provides the basic understanding of the thermodynamic processes involved but is deficient in describing most real systems, and has little or no predictive capability. We have developed an approach using a lattice integral equation theory, and in this paper we demonstrate that this not only describes well the literature data on polymer mixtures but allows new insights into the behaviour of polymers and their mixtures. The characteristic parameters obtained by fitting the data have been successfully shown to be transferable from one dataset to another, to be able to correctly predict behaviour outside the experimental range of the original data and to allow meaningful comparisons to be made between different polymer mixtures.

[Qualitative and quantitative study of Taenia solium posoncospheres in the muscular tissue of pigs with and without cysticercosis].

PubMed

Jiménez Rodríguez, J A; Arteaga, I D; Rojas Wastavino, G; Salazar Schettino, P M

1995-01-01

It was determined the presence of posoncospheres in muscular tissues in 20 natural cysticercotic pigs and in 20 pigs apparently free of Taenia solium metacestodes. Ten differents anatomical regions were dissected, giving 400 samples in total. The animals were slaughtered in Ecatepec, Mexico State, Mexico. The samples were kept in bottles with saline and were processed in the Laboratorio de Biología de Parásitos, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM); cysticercus were counted and later on the resulting muscular mass was grinded and observations were made in the sediment, for posoncospheres search. Mann-Whitney statistical method revealed meaningful differences between postoncospheres in cysticercotic pigs and not apparently cysticercotic pigs. The Linear Correlation Analysis showed no relation between cysticercus quantity and postoncospheres quantity in the same samples. Postoncospheres were found in cysticercotic animals and in those apparently free of cysticercus, in the last group the quantity was bigger.

Surveying immigrants without sampling frames - evaluating the success of alternative field methods.

PubMed

Reichel, David; Morales, Laura

2017-01-01

This paper evaluates the sampling methods of an international survey, the Immigrant Citizens Survey, which aimed at surveying immigrants from outside the European Union (EU) in 15 cities in seven EU countries. In five countries, no sample frame was available for the target population. Consequently, alternative ways to obtain a representative sample had to be found. In three countries 'location sampling' was employed, while in two countries traditional methods were used with adaptations to reach the target population. The paper assesses the main methodological challenges of carrying out a survey among a group of immigrants for whom no sampling frame exists. The samples of the survey in these five countries are compared to results of official statistics in order to assess the accuracy of the samples obtained through the different sampling methods. It can be shown that alternative sampling methods can provide meaningful results in terms of core demographic characteristics although some estimates differ to some extent from the census results.

Evaluation of strategies for increasing response rates to postal questionnaires in quality control of nasal septal surgery.

PubMed

Egeland, Merete T; Tarangen, Magnus; Shiryaeva, Olga; Gay, Caryl; Døsen, Liv K; Haye, Rolf

2017-06-02

Postal questionnaires are often used to assess the results of nasal septoplasty, but response rates vary widely. This study assesses strategies designed to increase the response rate. Postoperative questionnaires using visual analogue scales (VAS) for nasal obstruction were mailed to 160 consecutive patients alternately allocated to one of two groups. Group A received the questionnaire in the usual manner and group B received a modified cover letter with hand-written name and signature and a hand-stamped return envelope. Of the 80 patients in each group, 47 (58.8%) in group A and 54 (67.5%) in group B returned the questionnaire (p = 0.25). There were no age or gender differences between the groups, nor did the pre- and postoperative VAS scores differ between the groups. The strategies used in this study increased the response rate to postal questionnaires by 8.7% points, but this was not a statistically significant or clinically meaningful improvement.

Big Data: More than Just Big and More than Just Data.

PubMed

Spencer, Gregory A

2017-01-01

According to an report, 90 percent of the data in the world today were created in the past two years. This statistic is not surprising given the explosion of mobile phones and other devices that generate data, the Internet of Things (e.g., smart refrigerators), and metadata (data about data). While it might be a stretch to figure out how a healthcare organization can use data generated from an ice maker, data from a plethora of rich and useful sources, when combined with an organization's own data, can produce improved results. How can healthcare organizations leverage these rich and diverse data sources to improve patients' health and make their businesses more competitive? The authors of the two feature articles in this issue of Frontiers provide tangible examples of how their organizations are using big data to meaningfully improve healthcare. Sentara Healthcare and Carolinas HealthCare System both use big data in creative ways that differ because of different business situations, yet are also similar in certain respects.

Meaningful participation for children in the Dutch child protection system: A critical analysis of relevant provisions in policy documents.

PubMed

Bouma, Helen; López López, Mónica; Knorth, Erik J; Grietens, Hans

2018-05-01

Policymakers are increasingly focusing on the participation of children in the child protection system (CPS). However, research shows that actual practice still needs to be improved. Embedding children's participation in legislation and policy documents is one important prerequisite for achieving meaningful participation in child protection practice. In this study, the participation of children in the Dutch CPS under the new Youth Act 2015 is critically analyzed. National legislation and policy documents were studied using a model of "meaningful participation" based on article 12 of the UNCRC. Results show that the idea of children's participation is deeply embedded in the current Dutch CPS. However, Dutch policy documents do not fully cover the three dimensions of what is considered to be meaningful participation for children: informing, hearing, and involving. Furthermore, children's participation differs among the organizations included in the child protection chain. A clear overall policy concerning the participation of children in the Dutch CPS is lacking. The conclusions of this critical analysis of policy documents and the framework of meaningful participation presented may provide a basis for the embedding of meaningful participation for children in child protection systems of other countries. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Knowledge representation and management: transforming textual information into useful knowledge.

PubMed

Rassinoux, A-M

2010-01-01

To summarize current outstanding research in the field of knowledge representation and management. Synopsis of the articles selected for the IMIA Yearbook 2010. Four interesting papers, dealing with structured knowledge, have been selected for the section knowledge representation and management. Combining the newest techniques in computational linguistics and natural language processing with the latest methods in statistical data analysis, machine learning and text mining has proved to be efficient for turning unstructured textual information into meaningful knowledge. Three of the four selected papers for the section knowledge representation and management corroborate this approach and depict various experiments conducted to .extract meaningful knowledge from unstructured free texts such as extracting cancer disease characteristics from pathology reports, or extracting protein-protein interactions from biomedical papers, as well as extracting knowledge for the support of hypothesis generation in molecular biology from the Medline literature. Finally, the last paper addresses the level of formally representing and structuring information within clinical terminologies in order to render such information easily available and shareable among the health informatics community. Delivering common powerful tools able to automatically extract meaningful information from the huge amount of electronically unstructured free texts is an essential step towards promoting sharing and reusability across applications, domains, and institutions thus contributing to building capacities worldwide.

Reflective Random Indexing and indirect inference: a scalable method for discovery of implicit connections.

PubMed

Cohen, Trevor; Schvaneveldt, Roger; Widdows, Dominic

2010-04-01

The discovery of implicit connections between terms that do not occur together in any scientific document underlies the model of literature-based knowledge discovery first proposed by Swanson. Corpus-derived statistical models of semantic distance such as Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) have been evaluated previously as methods for the discovery of such implicit connections. However, LSA in particular is dependent on a computationally demanding method of dimension reduction as a means to obtain meaningful indirect inference, limiting its ability to scale to large text corpora. In this paper, we evaluate the ability of Random Indexing (RI), a scalable distributional model of word associations, to draw meaningful implicit relationships between terms in general and biomedical language. Proponents of this method have achieved comparable performance to LSA on several cognitive tasks while using a simpler and less computationally demanding method of dimension reduction than LSA employs. In this paper, we demonstrate that the original implementation of RI is ineffective at inferring meaningful indirect connections, and evaluate Reflective Random Indexing (RRI), an iterative variant of the method that is better able to perform indirect inference. RRI is shown to lead to more clearly related indirect connections and to outperform existing RI implementations in the prediction of future direct co-occurrence in the MEDLINE corpus. 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Assessment of the knowledge and attitudes of intern doctors to medication prescribing errors in a Nigeria tertiary hospital.

PubMed

Ajemigbitse, Adetutu A; Omole, Moses Kayode; Ezike, Nnamdi Chika; Erhun, Wilson O

2013-12-01

Junior doctors are reported to make most of the prescribing errors in the hospital setting. The aim of the following study is to determine the knowledge intern doctors have about prescribing errors and circumstances contributing to making them. A structured questionnaire was distributed to intern doctors in National Hospital Abuja Nigeria. Respondents gave information about their experience with prescribing medicines, the extent to which they agreed with the definition of a clinically meaningful prescribing error and events that constituted such. Their experience with prescribing certain categories of medicines was also sought. Data was analyzed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 17 (SPSS Inc Chicago, Ill, USA). Chi-squared analysis contrasted differences in proportions; P < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. The response rate was 90.9% and 27 (90%) had <1 year of prescribing experience. 17 (56.7%) respondents totally agreed with the definition of a clinically meaningful prescribing error. Most common reasons for prescribing mistakes were a failure to check prescriptions with a reference source (14, 25.5%) and failure to check for adverse drug interactions (14, 25.5%). Omitting some essential information such as duration of therapy (13, 20%), patient age (14, 21.5%) and dosage errors (14, 21.5%) were the most common types of prescribing errors made. Respondents considered workload (23, 76.7%), multitasking (19, 63.3%), rushing (18, 60.0%) and tiredness/stress (16, 53.3%) as important factors contributing to prescribing errors. Interns were least confident prescribing antibiotics (12, 25.5%), opioid analgesics (12, 25.5%) cytotoxics (10, 21.3%) and antipsychotics (9, 19.1%) unsupervised. Respondents seemed to have a low awareness of making prescribing errors. Principles of rational prescribing and events that constitute prescribing errors should be taught in the practice setting.

How do general dentists and orthodontists determine where to refer patients requiring oral and maxillofacial surgical procedures?

PubMed

Schlieve, Thomas; Funderburk, Joseph; Flick, William; Miloro, Michael; Kolokythas, Antonia

2015-03-01

This study investigated the influence of specific criteria on referral selection among general dentists and orthodontists in deciding referrals to oral and maxillofacial surgeons. A cross-sectional study was designed to examine the importance of criteria used by 2 groups of practitioners, general dentists and orthodontists, for deciding on referrals to oral and maxillofacial surgeons. Data were collected by 2 multiple-choice surveys. The surveys were e-mailed to general dentists and orthodontists practicing in the state of Illinois and to graduates from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Dentistry and the UIC Department of Orthodontics. Participants were asked to rate referral criteria from most important to least important. Analysis of variance was used to examine the data for any differences in the importance of the criteria for each question and linear regression analysis was used to determine whether any 1 criterion was statistically meaningful within each group of practitioners. In total, 235 general dental practitioners and 357 orthodontists completed the survey, with a 100% completion rate. The most important criterion for referral to oral and maxillofacial surgeons in the general dentist group was the personal and professional relationship of the referring doctor to the specialist. In the orthodontist group, no single criterion was statistically meaningful. General dentists tend to develop long-term relationships with their patients, and when deciding the appropriate referrals it appears that personal and professional relationships that promote trust and open communication are key elements. General dentists favor these relationships when making referral decisions across a wide spectrum of procedures. Orthodontists do not place a substantial value on a specific criterion for referral and therefore may not develop the same relationships between patient and doctor and between doctors as general dentists. Copyright © 2015 American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Chatting in the face of the eyewitness: The impact of extraneous cell-phone conversation on memory for a perpetrator.

PubMed

Marsh, John E; Patel, Krupali; Labonté, Katherine; Threadgold, Emma; Skelton, Faye C; Fodarella, Cristina; Thorley, Rachel; Battersby, Kirsty L; Frowd, Charlie D; Ball, Linden J; Vachon, François

2017-09-01

Cell-phone conversation is ubiquitous within public spaces. The current study investigates whether ignored cell-phone conversation impairs eyewitness memory for a perpetrator. Participants viewed a video of a staged crime in the presence of 1 side of a comprehensible cell-phone conversation (meaningful halfalogue), 2 sides of a comprehensible cell-phone conversation (meaningful dialogue), 1 side of an incomprehensible cell-phone conversation (meaningless halfalogue), or quiet. Between 24 and 28 hr later, participants freely described the perpetrator's face, constructed a single composite image of the perpetrator from memory, and attempted to identify the perpetrator from a sequential lineup. Further, participants rated the likeness of the composites to the perpetrator. Face recall and lineup identification were impaired when participants witnessed the staged crime in the presence of a meaningful halfalogue compared to a meaningless halfalogue, meaningful dialogue, or quiet. Moreover, likeness ratings showed that the composites constructed after ignoring the meaningful halfalogue resembled the perpetrator less than did those constructed after experiencing quiet or ignoring a meaningless halfalogue or a meaningful dialogue. The unpredictability of the meaningful content of the halfalogue, rather than its acoustic unexpectedness, produces distraction. The results are novel in that they suggest that an everyday distraction, even when presented in a different modality to target information, can impair the long-term memory of an eyewitness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Therapeutic Magnets Do Not Affect Tissue Temperatures

PubMed Central

Sweeney, Kathleen B.; Ingersoll, Christopher D.; Swez, John A.

2001-01-01

Objective: Manufacturers of commercially available “therapeutic” magnets claim that these magnets cause physiologic thermal effects that promote tissue healing. We conducted this study to determine if skin or intramuscular temperatures differed among magnet, sham, and control treatments during 60 minutes of application to the quadriceps muscle. Design and Setting: A 3 × 3 mixed-model, factorial design with repeated measures on both independent variables was used. The first independent variable, application duration, had 3 random levels (20, 40, and 60 minutes). The second independent variable, treatment, had 3 fixed levels (magnet, sham, and control). The dependent variable was tissue temperature (°C). Measurement depth served as a control variable, with 2 levels: skin and 1 cm below the fat layer. Data were collected in a thermoneutral laboratory setting and analyzed using a repeated-measures analysis of variance. Subjects: The study included 13 healthy student volunteers (8 men, 5 women; age, 20.5 ± 0.9 years; height, 176.8 ± 10.4 cm; weight, 73.8 ± 11.8 kg; anterior thigh skinfold thickness, 16.9 ± 6.5 mm). Measurements: Temperatures were measured at 30-second intervals using surface and implantable thermocouples. Temperature data at 20, 40, and 60 minutes were used for analysis. Each subject received all 3 treatments on different days. Results: Neither skin nor intramuscular temperatures were different across the 3 treatments at any time. For both skin and intramuscular temperatures, a statistically significant but not clinically meaningful temperature increase (less than 1°C), was observed over time within treatments, but this increase was similar in all treatment groups. Conclusions: No meaningful thermal effect was observed with any treatment over time, and treatments did not differ from each other. We conclude that flexible therapeutic magnets were not effective for increasing skin or deep temperatures, contradicting one of the fundamental claims made by magnet distributors. PMID:12937511

Advanced microwave soil moisture studies. [Big Sioux River Basin, Iowa

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dalsted, K. J.; Harlan, J. C.

1983-01-01

Comparisons of low level L-band brightness temperature (TB) and thermal infrared (TIR) data as well as the following data sets: soil map and land cover data; direct soil moisture measurement; and a computer generated contour map were statistically evaluated using regression analysis and linear discriminant analysis. Regression analysis of footprint data shows that statistical groupings of ground variables (soil features and land cover) hold promise for qualitative assessment of soil moisture and for reducing variance within the sampling space. Dry conditions appear to be more conductive to producing meaningful statistics than wet conditions. Regression analysis using field averaged TB and TIR data did not approach the higher sq R values obtained using within-field variations. The linear discriminant analysis indicates some capacity to distinguish categories with the results being somewhat better on a field basis than a footprint basis.

Mediation analysis in nursing research: a methodological review.

PubMed

Liu, Jianghong; Ulrich, Connie

2016-12-01

Mediation statistical models help clarify the relationship between independent predictor variables and dependent outcomes of interest by assessing the impact of third variables. This type of statistical analysis is applicable for many clinical nursing research questions, yet its use within nursing remains low. Indeed, mediational analyses may help nurse researchers develop more effective and accurate prevention and treatment programs as well as help bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and clinical practice. In addition, this statistical approach allows nurse researchers to ask - and answer - more meaningful and nuanced questions that extend beyond merely determining whether an outcome occurs. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to provide a brief tutorial on the use of mediational analyses in clinical nursing research by briefly introducing the technique and, through selected empirical examples from the nursing literature, demonstrating its applicability in advancing nursing science.

Detection of reflecting surfaces by a statistical model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Qiang; Chu, Chee-Hung H.

2009-02-01

Remote sensing is widely used assess the destruction from natural disasters and to plan relief and recovery operations. How to automatically extract useful features and segment interesting objects from digital images, including remote sensing imagery, becomes a critical task for image understanding. Unfortunately, current research on automated feature extraction is ignorant of contextual information. As a result, the fidelity of populating attributes corresponding to interesting features and objects cannot be satisfied. In this paper, we present an exploration on meaningful object extraction integrating reflecting surfaces. Detection of specular reflecting surfaces can be useful in target identification and then can be applied to environmental monitoring, disaster prediction and analysis, military, and counter-terrorism. Our method is based on a statistical model to capture the statistical properties of specular reflecting surfaces. And then the reflecting surfaces are detected through cluster analysis.

Making Meaningful Decisions about Time, Workload and Pedagogy in the Digital Age: The Course Resource Appraisal Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kennedy, Eileen; Laurillard, Diana; Horan, Bernard; Charlton, Patricia

2015-01-01

This article reports on a design-based research project to create a modelling tool to analyse the costs and learning benefits involved in different modes of study. The Course Resource Appraisal Model (CRAM) provides accurate cost-benefit information so that institutions are able to make more meaningful decisions about which kind of…

Arsenic contamination of drinking water in Ireland: A spatial analysis of occurrence and potential risk.

PubMed

McGrory, Ellen R; Brown, Colin; Bargary, Norma; Williams, Natalya Hunter; Mannix, Anthony; Zhang, Chaosheng; Henry, Tiernan; Daly, Eve; Nicholas, Sarah; Petrunic, Barbara M; Lee, Monica; Morrison, Liam

2017-02-01

The presence of arsenic in groundwater has become a global concern due to the health risks from drinking water with elevated concentrations. The Water Framework Directive (WFD) of the European Union calls for drinking water risk assessment for member states. The present study amalgamates readily available national and sub-national scale datasets on arsenic in groundwater in the Republic of Ireland. However, due to the presence of high levels of left censoring (i.e. arsenic values below an analytical detection limit) and changes in detection limits over time, the application of conventional statistical methods would inhibit the generation of meaningful results. In order to handle these issues several arsenic databases were integrated and the data modelled using statistical methods appropriate for non-detect data. In addition, geostatistical methods were used to assess principal risk components of elevated arsenic related to lithology, aquifer type and groundwater vulnerability. Geographic statistical methods were used to overcome some of the geographical limitations of the Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sample database. Nearest-neighbour inverse distance weighting (IDW) and local indicator of spatial association (LISA) methods were used to estimate risk in non-sampled areas. Significant differences were also noted between different aquifer lithologies, indicating that Rhyolite, Sandstone and Shale (Greywackes), and Impure Limestone potentially presented a greater risk of elevated arsenic in groundwaters. Significant differences also occurred among aquifer types with poorly productive aquifers, locally important fractured bedrock aquifers and regionally important fissured bedrock aquifers presenting the highest potential risk of elevated arsenic. No significant differences were detected among different groundwater vulnerability groups as defined by the Geological Survey of Ireland. This research will assist management and future policy directions of groundwater resources at EU level and guide future research focused on understanding arsenic mobilisation processes to facilitate in guiding future development, testing and treatment requirements of groundwater resources. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Biologically plausible particulate air pollution mortality concentration-response functions.

PubMed Central

Roberts, Steven

2004-01-01

In this article I introduce an alternative method for estimating particulate air pollution mortality concentration-response functions. This method constrains the particulate air pollution mortality concentration-response function to be biologically plausible--that is, a non-decreasing function of the particulate air pollution concentration. Using time-series data from Cook County, Illinois, the proposed method yields more meaningful particulate air pollution mortality concentration-response function estimates with an increase in statistical accuracy. PMID:14998745

Assessment of the efficacy and safety profiles of aspirin and acetaminophen with codeine: results from 2 randomized, controlled trials in individuals with tension-type headache and postoperative dental pain.

PubMed

Gatoulis, Sergio C; Voelker, Michael; Fisher, Matt

2012-01-01

Aspirin is a widely used NSAID that has been extensively studied in numerous conditions. Nonprescription analgesics, such as aspirin, are frequently used for a wide variety of common ailments, including conditions such as dental pain and tension-type headache. We sought to compare the efficacy and safety profiles of aspirin, acetaminophen with codeine, and placebo in the treatment of post-operative dental pain and tension-type headache. These were 2 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, single-dose clinical trials that assigned participants (2:2:1) to receive either aspirin (1000 mg), acetaminophen (300 mg) with codeine (30 mg), or placebo. The primary efficacy end point was the sum of pain intensity differences from baseline (SPID) over 6 hours for the dental pain study and over 4 hours for the tension-type headache study. Other common analgesic measures, in addition to safety, were also evaluated. The results of the dental pain study for aspirin and acetaminophen with codeine suggest statistically significant efficacy for all measures compared with placebo at all time points. Aspirin provided statistically significant efficacy compared with acetaminophen with codeine for SPID(0-4) (P = 0.028). In the tension-type headache study, aspirin and acetaminophen with codeine provided statistically significant efficacy compared with placebo for SPID(0-4) and SPID(0-6) (P < 0.001) and for total pain relief (P < 0.001). There were no significant differences between aspirin and acetaminophen with codeine at any evaluation of SPID (P ≥ 0.070), complete relief (P ≥ 0.179), or time to meaningful relief (P ≥ 0.245). Regarding safety, there were no statistically significant differences between treatment groups in the incidence of adverse events in the dental pain and tension-type headache studies. These 2 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies demonstrate that treatment with aspirin (1000 mg) provides statistically significant analgesic efficacy compared with placebo use and comparable efficacy with acetaminophen (300 mg) with codeine (30 mg) therapy after impacted third molar extraction and in tension- type headache. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier HS Journals, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Role of Diffusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Differential Diagnosis of Simple and Hydatid Cysts of the Liver.

PubMed

Aksoy, S; Erdil, I; Hocaoglu, E; Inci, E; Adas, G T; Kemik, O; Turkay, R

2018-02-01

The present study indicates that simple and hydatid cysts in liver are a common health problem in Turkey. The aim of the study is to differentiate different types of hydatid cysts from simple cysts by using diffusion-weighted images. In total, 37 hydatid cysts and 36 simple cysts in the liver were diagnosed. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of the patients who had both ultrasonography and magnetic resonance imaging. We measured apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of all the cysts and then compared the findings. There was no statistically meaningful difference between the ADC values of simple cysts and type 1 hydatid cysts. However, for the other types of hydatid cysts, it is possible to differentiate hydatid cysts from simple cysts using the ADC values. Although in our study we cannot differentiate between type I hydatid cysts and simple cysts in the liver, diffusion-weighted images are very useful to differentiate different types of hydatid cysts from simple cysts using the ADC values.

Nano-XRF Analysis of Metal Impurities Distribution at PL Active Grain Boundaries During mc-Silicon Solar Cell Processing

DOE PAGES

Bernardini, Simone; Johnston, Steve; West, Bradley; ...

2016-11-14

Metal impurities are known to hinder the performance of commercial Si-based solar cells by inducing bulk recombination, increasing leakage current, and causing direct shunting. Recently, a set of photoluminescence (PL) images of neighboring multicrystalline silicon wafers taken from a cell production line at different processing stages has been acquired. Both band-to-band PL and sub-bandgap PL (subPL) images showed various regions with different PL signal intensity. Interestingly, in several of these regions a reversal of the subPL intensity was observed right after the deposition of the antireflective coating. In this paper, we present the results of the synchrotron-based nano-X-ray fluorescence imagingmore » performed in areas characterized by the subPL reversal to evaluate the possible role of metal decoration in this uncommon behavior. Furthermore, the acquisition of a statistically meaningful set of data for samples taken at different stages of the solar cell manufacturing allows us to shine a light on the precipitation and rediffusion mechanisms of metal impurities at these grain boundaries.« less

Biostatistics Series Module 2: Overview of Hypothesis Testing.

PubMed

Hazra, Avijit; Gogtay, Nithya

2016-01-01

Hypothesis testing (or statistical inference) is one of the major applications of biostatistics. Much of medical research begins with a research question that can be framed as a hypothesis. Inferential statistics begins with a null hypothesis that reflects the conservative position of no change or no difference in comparison to baseline or between groups. Usually, the researcher has reason to believe that there is some effect or some difference which is the alternative hypothesis. The researcher therefore proceeds to study samples and measure outcomes in the hope of generating evidence strong enough for the statistician to be able to reject the null hypothesis. The concept of the P value is almost universally used in hypothesis testing. It denotes the probability of obtaining by chance a result at least as extreme as that observed, even when the null hypothesis is true and no real difference exists. Usually, if P is < 0.05 the null hypothesis is rejected and sample results are deemed statistically significant. With the increasing availability of computers and access to specialized statistical software, the drudgery involved in statistical calculations is now a thing of the past, once the learning curve of the software has been traversed. The life sciences researcher is therefore free to devote oneself to optimally designing the study, carefully selecting the hypothesis tests to be applied, and taking care in conducting the study well. Unfortunately, selecting the right test seems difficult initially. Thinking of the research hypothesis as addressing one of five generic research questions helps in selection of the right hypothesis test. In addition, it is important to be clear about the nature of the variables (e.g., numerical vs. categorical; parametric vs. nonparametric) and the number of groups or data sets being compared (e.g., two or more than two) at a time. The same research question may be explored by more than one type of hypothesis test. While this may be of utility in highlighting different aspects of the problem, merely reapplying different tests to the same issue in the hope of finding a P < 0.05 is a wrong use of statistics. Finally, it is becoming the norm that an estimate of the size of any effect, expressed with its 95% confidence interval, is required for meaningful interpretation of results. A large study is likely to have a small (and therefore "statistically significant") P value, but a "real" estimate of the effect would be provided by the 95% confidence interval. If the intervals overlap between two interventions, then the difference between them is not so clear-cut even if P < 0.05. The two approaches are now considered complementary to one another.

Biostatistics Series Module 2: Overview of Hypothesis Testing

PubMed Central

Hazra, Avijit; Gogtay, Nithya

2016-01-01

Hypothesis testing (or statistical inference) is one of the major applications of biostatistics. Much of medical research begins with a research question that can be framed as a hypothesis. Inferential statistics begins with a null hypothesis that reflects the conservative position of no change or no difference in comparison to baseline or between groups. Usually, the researcher has reason to believe that there is some effect or some difference which is the alternative hypothesis. The researcher therefore proceeds to study samples and measure outcomes in the hope of generating evidence strong enough for the statistician to be able to reject the null hypothesis. The concept of the P value is almost universally used in hypothesis testing. It denotes the probability of obtaining by chance a result at least as extreme as that observed, even when the null hypothesis is true and no real difference exists. Usually, if P is < 0.05 the null hypothesis is rejected and sample results are deemed statistically significant. With the increasing availability of computers and access to specialized statistical software, the drudgery involved in statistical calculations is now a thing of the past, once the learning curve of the software has been traversed. The life sciences researcher is therefore free to devote oneself to optimally designing the study, carefully selecting the hypothesis tests to be applied, and taking care in conducting the study well. Unfortunately, selecting the right test seems difficult initially. Thinking of the research hypothesis as addressing one of five generic research questions helps in selection of the right hypothesis test. In addition, it is important to be clear about the nature of the variables (e.g., numerical vs. categorical; parametric vs. nonparametric) and the number of groups or data sets being compared (e.g., two or more than two) at a time. The same research question may be explored by more than one type of hypothesis test. While this may be of utility in highlighting different aspects of the problem, merely reapplying different tests to the same issue in the hope of finding a P < 0.05 is a wrong use of statistics. Finally, it is becoming the norm that an estimate of the size of any effect, expressed with its 95% confidence interval, is required for meaningful interpretation of results. A large study is likely to have a small (and therefore “statistically significant”) P value, but a “real” estimate of the effect would be provided by the 95% confidence interval. If the intervals overlap between two interventions, then the difference between them is not so clear-cut even if P < 0.05. The two approaches are now considered complementary to one another. PMID:27057011

The Effectiveness of Neurofeedback on Enhancing Cognitive Process Involved in Entrepreneurship Abilities among Primary School Students in District No. 3 Tehran

PubMed Central

Rahmati, Narges; Rostami, Reza; Zali, Mohammad Reza; Nowicki, Stephen; Zarei, Jamilah

2014-01-01

Introduction: The aim of this study is to investigate the entrepreneurial traits of school children in the city of Tehran. Methods: For this purpose, 48 students were selected with an average IQ between 90 and 119. Ranging from 7th to 12th grades, all the subjects were assessed using Nowicki-Strickland’s Locus of Control Scale (N-SLCS), Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), and Hyperkinetic Syndrome Assessment Method (HKSD). The obtained results were then organized and categorized into three groups. One of the groups was randomly chosen as experimental and the other as the control group and the last play group. In this empirical study, the students received Sensory Motor Rhythm (SMR) and Beta neurofeedback for 20 sessions. The play group was assigned to play mind games for 20 sessions. At the same time, the control group received no experiments. After the end of the experiments, all the students in three groups were reassessed by Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, Hyperkinetic Syndrome Assessment Method, and Nowicki-Strickland’s Locus of Control Scale. Results: The results from MANOVA showed that the neurofeedback group had demonstrated a meaningful change in creativity and locus of control while the adaptability of risk-taking was on a meaningful level for the experimental group. The results also indicate an improvement in creativity for the neurofeedback group in comparison with the play group on a 0.02 meaningful level. Similarly, the results suggest an improvement in creativity for the neurofeedback group on a 0.000 meaningful level in comparison with the control group. This is while the play group and the control group do not show any meaningful difference. The results also show an improvement in the internal locus of control for the neurofeedback group in comparison with the play group on a 0.032 meaningful level; while, it is meaningful on a 0.01 level for the neurofeedback group in comparison with the control group. Discussion: The findings for the play group and control group do not show any meaningful difference. The paper concludes that neurofeedback training can be used for increasing the level of entrepreneurial traits in students. PMID:27284392

Reliability and relationship of the fear-avoidance beliefs questionnaire with the shoulder pain and disability index and numeric pain rating scale in patients with shoulder pain.

PubMed

Riley, Sean P; Tafuto, Vincent; Cote, Mark; Brismée, Jean-Michel; Wright, Alexis; Cook, Chad

2018-03-20

The purpose of this study was to determine: 1) the test-retest reliability of Fear-Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire (FABQ) Work (FABQW) subscale, FABQ Physical Activity (FABQPA) subscale, Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI) Pain subscale, SPADI Disability subscale, and Numeric Pain Rating scale (NPRS); and 2) the relationship between the FABQPA, FABQW, SPADI pain, SPADI disability, and NPRS after 4 weeks of pragmatically applied physical therapy (PT) in patients with shoulder pain. Prospective, single-group observational design. Data were collected at initial evaluation, the first follow-up visit prior to the initiation of treatment, and after 4 weeks of treatment. Statistically significant Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC 2,1 ) values were reported for the FABQPA, FABQW, SPADI Pain, SPADI Disability, and NPRS. A statistically significant moderate relationship between the FABQPA subscale, SPADI subscale, and NPRS could not be established prior to and after 4 weeks of pragmatically applied PT. Statistically significant differences were observed between the initial evaluation and four-week follow-up for the FABQPA, SPADI Pain, SPADI Disability, and NPRS (p < 0.01). Since a meaningful relationship between the FABQ, SPADI, and NPRS did not exist, it suggests that the FABQPA may be measuring a metric other than pain. This study suggests that the FABQW may not be sensitive to change over time.

Multi-level emulation of complex climate model responses to boundary forcing data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tran, Giang T.; Oliver, Kevin I. C.; Holden, Philip B.; Edwards, Neil R.; Sóbester, András; Challenor, Peter

2018-04-01

Climate model components involve both high-dimensional input and output fields. It is desirable to efficiently generate spatio-temporal outputs of these models for applications in integrated assessment modelling or to assess the statistical relationship between such sets of inputs and outputs, for example, uncertainty analysis. However, the need for efficiency often compromises the fidelity of output through the use of low complexity models. Here, we develop a technique which combines statistical emulation with a dimensionality reduction technique to emulate a wide range of outputs from an atmospheric general circulation model, PLASIM, as functions of the boundary forcing prescribed by the ocean component of a lower complexity climate model, GENIE-1. Although accurate and detailed spatial information on atmospheric variables such as precipitation and wind speed is well beyond the capability of GENIE-1's energy-moisture balance model of the atmosphere, this study demonstrates that the output of this model is useful in predicting PLASIM's spatio-temporal fields through multi-level emulation. Meaningful information from the fast model, GENIE-1 was extracted by utilising the correlation between variables of the same type in the two models and between variables of different types in PLASIM. We present here the construction and validation of several PLASIM variable emulators and discuss their potential use in developing a hybrid model with statistical components.

Price corrected domestic technology assumption--a method to assess pollution embodied in trade using primary official statistics only. With a case on CO2 emissions embodied in imports to Europe.

PubMed

Tukker, Arnold; de Koning, Arjan; Wood, Richard; Moll, Stephan; Bouwmeester, Maaike C

2013-02-19

Environmentally extended input output (EE IO) analysis is increasingly used to assess the carbon footprint of final consumption. Official EE IO data are, however, at best available for single countries or regions such as the EU27. This causes problems in assessing pollution embodied in imported products. The popular "domestic technology assumption (DTA)" leads to errors. Improved approaches based on Life Cycle Inventory data, Multiregional EE IO tables, etc. rely on unofficial research data and modeling, making them difficult to implement by statistical offices. The DTA can lead to errors for three main reasons: exporting countries can have higher impact intensities; may use more intermediate inputs for the same output; or may sell the imported products for lower/other prices than those produced domestically. The last factor is relevant for sustainable consumption policies of importing countries, whereas the first factors are mainly a matter of making production in exporting countries more eco-efficient. We elaborated a simple correction for price differences in imports and domestic production using monetary and physical data from official import and export statistics. A case study for the EU27 shows that this "price-adjusted DTA" gives a partial but meaningful adjustment of pollution embodied in trade compared to multiregional EE IO studies.

Random matrix theory analysis of cross-correlations in the US stock market: Evidence from Pearson’s correlation coefficient and detrended cross-correlation coefficient

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Gang-Jin; Xie, Chi; Chen, Shou; Yang, Jiao-Jiao; Yang, Ming-Yan

2013-09-01

In this study, we first build two empirical cross-correlation matrices in the US stock market by two different methods, namely the Pearson’s correlation coefficient and the detrended cross-correlation coefficient (DCCA coefficient). Then, combining the two matrices with the method of random matrix theory (RMT), we mainly investigate the statistical properties of cross-correlations in the US stock market. We choose the daily closing prices of 462 constituent stocks of S&P 500 index as the research objects and select the sample data from January 3, 2005 to August 31, 2012. In the empirical analysis, we examine the statistical properties of cross-correlation coefficients, the distribution of eigenvalues, the distribution of eigenvector components, and the inverse participation ratio. From the two methods, we find some new results of the cross-correlations in the US stock market in our study, which are different from the conclusions reached by previous studies. The empirical cross-correlation matrices constructed by the DCCA coefficient show several interesting properties at different time scales in the US stock market, which are useful to the risk management and optimal portfolio selection, especially to the diversity of the asset portfolio. It will be an interesting and meaningful work to find the theoretical eigenvalue distribution of a completely random matrix R for the DCCA coefficient because it does not obey the Marčenko-Pastur distribution.

Study of High Sensitive C-Reactive Protein (HS-CRP) After Cardiac Rehabilitation Program in Patients Undergoing Isolated CABG.

PubMed

Johari Moghadam, Adel; Azizinejad, Saied

2016-12-01

Although cardiac rehabilitation is known as a tool to reduce the overall risk of cardiovascular complications, its specific role in the reduction of hs-CRP as a marker of inflammation and a proven marker of cardiovascular risk needs further investigation. The present study aims at elucidating the effects of a full course of conventional cardiac rehabilitation program for the period of eight weeks, on the levels of hs-CRP in patients who underwent isolated coronary artery bypass surgery. In this case study, 30 consecutive patients who underwent isolated coronary artery bypass surgery (isolated CABGS), and a full 8-week cardiac rehabilitation program in Tehran Heart Center, were investigated. A group of 30 similar patients, who enrolled in the same period of rehabilitation program but did not participate in practice, was considered as a control group. Serum levels of hs-CRP in both groups were measured retrospectively and in similar days before the start of rehabilitation program and at the end of it (or 8 weeks after initial registration for the control group). Levels of hs-CRP in the rehabilitation group and control group were 5.9 7.7 and 6.3 6.9 respectively before start of the program which was not statistically meaningful ( P -Value = 0.833). However, after the program, level of hs-CRP in the two tested groups changed to 2.3 5.1 and 5.7 6.1 respectively which showed a meaningful correlation ( P -Value = 0.023). These results also showed that decrease in hs-CRP level in the rehabilitated group but not in the control group was statistically meaningful (with P -Value of 0.037 and 0.0723 respectively). In patients undergoing coronary bypass surgery, participating in a full course of cardiac rehabilitation for 8 weeks has resulted in a significant reduction in hs-CRP levels as a marker of cardiovascular risk.

Derivation of Failure Rates and Probability of Failures for the International Space Station Probabilistic Risk Assessment Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vitali, Roberto; Lutomski, Michael G.

2004-01-01

National Aeronautics and Space Administration s (NASA) International Space Station (ISS) Program uses Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) as part of its Continuous Risk Management Process. It is used as a decision and management support tool to not only quantify risk for specific conditions, but more importantly comparing different operational and management options to determine the lowest risk option and provide rationale for management decisions. This paper presents the derivation of the probability distributions used to quantify the failure rates and the probability of failures of the basic events employed in the PRA model of the ISS. The paper will show how a Bayesian approach was used with different sources of data including the actual ISS on orbit failures to enhance the confidence in results of the PRA. As time progresses and more meaningful data is gathered from on orbit failures, an increasingly accurate failure rate probability distribution for the basic events of the ISS PRA model can be obtained. The ISS PRA has been developed by mapping the ISS critical systems such as propulsion, thermal control, or power generation into event sequences diagrams and fault trees. The lowest level of indenture of the fault trees was the orbital replacement units (ORU). The ORU level was chosen consistently with the level of statistically meaningful data that could be obtained from the aerospace industry and from the experts in the field. For example, data was gathered for the solenoid valves present in the propulsion system of the ISS. However valves themselves are composed of parts and the individual failure of these parts was not accounted for in the PRA model. In other words the failure of a spring within a valve was considered a failure of the valve itself.

Functional Connectivity’s Degenerate View of Brain Computation

PubMed Central

Giron, Alain; Rudrauf, David

2016-01-01

Brain computation relies on effective interactions between ensembles of neurons. In neuroimaging, measures of functional connectivity (FC) aim at statistically quantifying such interactions, often to study normal or pathological cognition. Their capacity to reflect a meaningful variety of patterns as expected from neural computation in relation to cognitive processes remains debated. The relative weights of time-varying local neurophysiological dynamics versus static structural connectivity (SC) in the generation of FC as measured remains unsettled. Empirical evidence features mixed results: from little to significant FC variability and correlation with cognitive functions, within and between participants. We used a unified approach combining multivariate analysis, bootstrap and computational modeling to characterize the potential variety of patterns of FC and SC both qualitatively and quantitatively. Empirical data and simulations from generative models with different dynamical behaviors demonstrated, largely irrespective of FC metrics, that a linear subspace with dimension one or two could explain much of the variability across patterns of FC. On the contrary, the variability across BOLD time-courses could not be reduced to such a small subspace. FC appeared to strongly reflect SC and to be partly governed by a Gaussian process. The main differences between simulated and empirical data related to limitations of DWI-based SC estimation (and SC itself could then be estimated from FC). Above and beyond the limited dynamical range of the BOLD signal itself, measures of FC may offer a degenerate representation of brain interactions, with limited access to the underlying complexity. They feature an invariant common core, reflecting the channel capacity of the network as conditioned by SC, with a limited, though perhaps meaningful residual variability. PMID:27736900

Commentary on "Patient-reported outcomes after 3-dimensional conformal, intensity-modulated, or proton beam radiotherapy for localized prostate cancer." Gray PJ, Paly JJ, Yeap BY, Sanda MG, Sandler HM, Michalski JM, Talcott JA, Coen JJ, Hamstra DA, Shipley WU, Hahn SM, Zietman AL, Bekelman JE, Efstathiou JA. Harvard Radiation Oncology Program, Boston, MA.: Cancer 2013;119(9):1729-35. doi: 10.1002/cncr.27956. [Epub 2013 Feb 22].

PubMed

Gottschalk, Alexander

2014-04-01

Recent studies have suggested differing toxicity patterns for patients with prostate cancer who receive treatment with 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT), intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), or proton beam therapy (PBT). The authors reviewed patient-reported outcomes data collected prospectively using validated instruments that assessed bowel and urinary quality of life (QOL) for patients with localized prostate cancer who received 3DCRT (n = 123), IMRT (n = 153) or PBT (n = 95). Clinically meaningful differences in mean QOL scores were defined as those exceeding half the standard deviation of the baseline mean value. Changes from baseline were compared within groups at the first post-treatment follow-up (2-3 months from the start of treatment) and at 12 months and 24 months. At the first post-treatment follow-up, patients who received 3DCRT and IMRT, but not those who received PBT, reported a clinically meaningful decrement in bowel QOL. At 12 months and 24 months, all 3 cohorts reported clinically meaningful decrements in bowel QOL. Patients who received IMRT reported clinically meaningful decrements in the domains of urinary irritation/obstruction and incontinence at the first post-treatment follow-up. At 12 months, patients who received PBT, but not those who received IMRT or 3DCRT, reported a clinically meaningful decrement in the urinary irritation/obstruction domain. At 24 months, none of the 3 cohorts reported clinically meaningful changes in urinary QOL. Patients who received 3DCRT, IMRT, or PBT reported distinct patterns of treatment-related QOL. Although the timing of toxicity varied between the cohorts, patients reported similar modest QOL decrements in the bowel domain and minimal QOL decrements in the urinary domains at 24 months. Prospective randomized trials are needed to further examine these differences. © 2013 Published by Elsevier Inc.

Macroecological patterns of phytoplankton in the northwestern North Atlantic Ocean.

PubMed

Li, W K W

2002-09-12

Many issues in biological oceanography are regional or global in scope; however, there are not many data sets of extensive areal coverage for marine plankton. In microbial ecology, a fruitful approach to large-scale questions is comparative analysis wherein statistical data patterns are sought from different ecosystems, frequently assembled from unrelated studies. A more recent approach termed macroecology characterizes phenomena emerging from large numbers of biological units by emphasizing the shapes and boundaries of statistical distributions, because these reflect the constraints on variation. Here, I use a set of flow cytometric measurements to provide macroecological perspectives on North Atlantic phytoplankton communities. Distinct trends of abundance in picophytoplankton and both small and large nanophytoplankton underlaid two patterns. First, total abundance of the three groups was related to assemblage mean-cell size according to the 3/4 power law of allometric scaling in biology. Second, cytometric diversity (an ataxonomic measure of assemblage entropy) was maximal at intermediate levels of water column stratification. Here, intermediate disturbance shapes diversity through an equitable distribution of cells in size classes, from which arises a high overall biomass. By subsuming local fluctuations, macroecology reveals meaningful patterns of phytoplankton at large scales.

Machines that go "ping" may improve balance but may not improve mobility or reduce risk of falls: a systematic review.

PubMed

Dennett, Amy M; Taylor, Nicholas F

2015-01-01

To determine the effectiveness of computer-based electronic devices that provide feedback in improving mobility and balance and reducing falls. Randomized controlled trials were searched from the earliest available date to August 2013. Standardized mean differences were used to complete meta-analyses, with statistical heterogeneity being described with the I-squared statistic. The GRADE approach was used to summarize the level of evidence for each completed meta-analysis. Risk of bias for individual trials was assessed with the (Physiotherapy Evidence Database) PEDro scale. Thirty trials were included. There was high-quality evidence that computerized devices can improve dynamic balance in people with a neurological condition compared with no therapy. There was low-to-moderate-quality evidence that computerized devices have no significant effect on mobility, falls efficacy and falls risk in community-dwelling older adults, and people with a neurological condition compared with physiotherapy. There is high-quality evidence that computerized devices that provide feedback may be useful in improving balance in people with neurological conditions compared with no therapy, but there is a lack of evidence supporting more meaningful changes in mobility and falls risk.

SD-MSAEs: Promoter recognition in human genome based on deep feature extraction.

PubMed

Xu, Wenxuan; Zhang, Li; Lu, Yaping

2016-06-01

The prediction and recognition of promoter in human genome play an important role in DNA sequence analysis. Entropy, in Shannon sense, of information theory is a multiple utility in bioinformatic details analysis. The relative entropy estimator methods based on statistical divergence (SD) are used to extract meaningful features to distinguish different regions of DNA sequences. In this paper, we choose context feature and use a set of methods of SD to select the most effective n-mers distinguishing promoter regions from other DNA regions in human genome. Extracted from the total possible combinations of n-mers, we can get four sparse distributions based on promoter and non-promoters training samples. The informative n-mers are selected by optimizing the differentiating extents of these distributions. Specially, we combine the advantage of statistical divergence and multiple sparse auto-encoders (MSAEs) in deep learning to extract deep feature for promoter recognition. And then we apply multiple SVMs and a decision model to construct a human promoter recognition method called SD-MSAEs. Framework is flexible that it can integrate new feature extraction or new classification models freely. Experimental results show that our method has high sensitivity and specificity. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Love of Large Numbers: A Popularity Bias in Consumer Choice.

PubMed

Powell, Derek; Yu, Jingqi; DeWolf, Melissa; Holyoak, Keith J

2017-10-01

Social learning-the ability to learn from observing the decisions of other people and the outcomes of those decisions-is fundamental to human evolutionary and cultural success. The Internet now provides social evidence on an unprecedented scale. However, properly utilizing this evidence requires a capacity for statistical inference. We examined how people's interpretation of online review scores is influenced by the numbers of reviews-a potential indicator both of an item's popularity and of the precision of the average review score. Our task was designed to pit statistical information against social information. We modeled the behavior of an "intuitive statistician" using empirical prior information from millions of reviews posted on Amazon.com and then compared the model's predictions with the behavior of experimental participants. Under certain conditions, people preferred a product with more reviews to one with fewer reviews even though the statistical model indicated that the latter was likely to be of higher quality than the former. Overall, participants' judgments suggested that they failed to make meaningful statistical inferences.

Organizational downsizing and age discrimination litigation: the influence of personnel practices and statistical evidence on litigation outcomes.

PubMed

Wingate, Peter H; Thornton, George C; McIntyre, Kelly S; Frame, Jennifer H

2003-02-01

The present study examined relationships between reduction-in-force (RIF) personnel practices, presentation of statistical evidence, and litigation outcomes. Policy capturing methods were utilized to analyze the components of 115 federal district court opinions involving age discrimination disparate treatment allegations and organizational downsizing. Univariate analyses revealed meaningful links between RIF personnel practices, use of statistical evidence, and judicial verdict. The defendant organization was awarded summary judgment in 73% of the claims included in the study. Judicial decisions in favor of the defendant organization were found to be significantly related to such variables as formal performance appraisal systems, termination decision review within the organization, methods of employee assessment and selection for termination, and the presence of a concrete layoff policy. The use of statistical evidence in ADEA disparate treatment litigation was investigated and found to be a potentially persuasive type of indirect evidence. Legal, personnel, and evidentiary ramifications are reviewed, and a framework of downsizing mechanics emphasizing legal defensibility is presented.

A critical look at prospective surveillance using a scan statistic.

PubMed

Correa, Thais R; Assunção, Renato M; Costa, Marcelo A

2015-03-30

The scan statistic is a very popular surveillance technique for purely spatial, purely temporal, and spatial-temporal disease data. It was extended to the prospective surveillance case, and it has been applied quite extensively in this situation. When the usual signal rules, as those implemented in SaTScan(TM) (Boston, MA, USA) software, are used, we show that the scan statistic method is not appropriate for the prospective case. The reason is that it does not adjust properly for the sequential and repeated tests carried out during the surveillance. We demonstrate that the nominal significance level α is not meaningful and there is no relationship between α and the recurrence interval or the average run length (ARL). In some cases, the ARL may be equal to ∞, which makes the method ineffective. This lack of control of the type-I error probability and of the ARL leads us to strongly oppose the use of the scan statistic with the usual signal rules in the prospective context. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Quantile regression for the statistical analysis of immunological data with many non-detects.

PubMed

Eilers, Paul H C; Röder, Esther; Savelkoul, Huub F J; van Wijk, Roy Gerth

2012-07-07

Immunological parameters are hard to measure. A well-known problem is the occurrence of values below the detection limit, the non-detects. Non-detects are a nuisance, because classical statistical analyses, like ANOVA and regression, cannot be applied. The more advanced statistical techniques currently available for the analysis of datasets with non-detects can only be used if a small percentage of the data are non-detects. Quantile regression, a generalization of percentiles to regression models, models the median or higher percentiles and tolerates very high numbers of non-detects. We present a non-technical introduction and illustrate it with an implementation to real data from a clinical trial. We show that by using quantile regression, groups can be compared and that meaningful linear trends can be computed, even if more than half of the data consists of non-detects. Quantile regression is a valuable addition to the statistical methods that can be used for the analysis of immunological datasets with non-detects.

Identifying irregularly shaped crime hot-spots using a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Xiaolan; Grubesic, Tony H.

2010-12-01

Spatial cluster detection techniques are widely used in criminology, geography, epidemiology, and other fields. In particular, spatial scan statistics are popular and efficient techniques for detecting areas of elevated crime or disease events. The majority of spatial scan approaches attempt to delineate geographic zones by evaluating the significance of clusters using likelihood ratio statistics tested with the Poisson distribution. While this can be effective, many scan statistics give preference to circular clusters, diminishing their ability to identify elongated and/or irregular shaped clusters. Although adjusting the shape of the scan window can mitigate some of these problems, both the significance of irregular clusters and their spatial structure must be accounted for in a meaningful way. This paper utilizes a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm to find clusters with maximum significance while quantitatively tracking their geographic structure. Crime data for the city of Cincinnati are utilized to demonstrate the advantages of the new approach and highlight its benefits versus more traditional scan statistics.

Does patella position influence ligament balancing in total knee arthroplasty?

PubMed

Yoon, Jung-Ro; Oh, Kwang-Jun; Wang, Joon Ho; Yang, Jae-Hyuk

2015-07-01

In vivo comparative gap measurements were performed in three different patella positions (reduced, subluxated and everted) using offset-type-force-controlled-spreader-system. Prospectively, 50 knees were operated by total knee arthroplasty using a navigation-assisted gap-balancing technique. The offset-type-force-controlled-spreader-system was used for gap measurements. This commercially available instrument allows controllable tension in patella-reduced position. The mediolateral gaps of knee extension (0°) and flexion (90°) angle were recorded in three different patella positions; reduced, subluxated and everted. Any gap differences of more than 3 mm were considered as a meaningful difference. Correlation between the difference with the demographic data, preoperative radiologic alignment and intraoperative data was analysed. For statistical analysis, ANOVA and Pearson's correlation test were used. The gaps in patella eversion demonstrated smaller gaps both in knee extension and flexion position compared to the gaps of patella reduction position. The amount of decreased gaps was more definite in knee flexion position. Statistically significant difference was observed for the lateral gap of patella eversion compared to gap of patella reduction in knee flexion position (p < 0.05). There were notable cases of variability in knee flexion position. Significant portion of 12 (24 %) knees of patella subluxation and 33 (66 %) knees of patella evertion demonstrated either increased or decreased gaps in knee flexion position compared to the gaps of patella reduction position. The gaps in patella eversion demonstrated smaller gaps both in knee extension and flexion position compared to the gaps of patella reduction position. The amount of decreased gaps was more definite in knee flexion position. Therefore, the intraoperative patellar positioning has influence on the measurement of the joint gap. Keeping the patella in reduced position is important during gap balancing. I.

Surrogate endpoints in oncology: when are they acceptable for regulatory and clinical decisions, and are they currently overused?

PubMed

Kemp, Robert; Prasad, Vinay

2017-07-21

Surrogate outcomes are not intrinsically beneficial to patients, but are designed to be easier and faster to measure than clinically meaningful outcomes. The use of surrogates as an endpoint in clinical trials and basis for regulatory approval is common, and frequently exceeds the guidance given by regulatory bodies. In this article, we demonstrate that the use of surrogates in oncology is widespread and increasing. At the same time, the strength of association between the surrogates used and clinically meaningful outcomes is often unknown or weak. Attempts to validate surrogates are rarely undertaken. When this is done, validation relies on only a fraction of available data, and often concludes that the surrogate is poor. Post-marketing studies, designed to ensure drugs have meaningful benefits, are often not performed. Alternatively, if a drug fails to improve quality of life or overall survival, market authorization is rarely revoked. We suggest this reliance on surrogates, and the imprecision surrounding their acceptable use, means that numerous drugs are now approved based on small yet statistically significant increases in surrogates of questionable reliability. In turn, this means the benefits of many approved drugs are uncertain. This is an unacceptable situation for patients and professionals, as prior experience has shown that such uncertainty can be associated with significant harm. The use of surrogate outcomes should be limited to situations where a surrogate has demonstrated robust ability to predict meaningful benefits, or where cases are dire, rare or with few treatment options. In both cases, surrogates must be used only when continuing studies examining hard endpoints have been fully recruited.

Changes in weight and weight-related quality of life in a multicentre, randomized trial of aripiprazole versus standard of care.

PubMed

Kolotkin, Ronette L; Corey-Lisle, Patricia K; Crosby, Ross D; Kan, Hong J; McQuade, Robert D

2008-12-01

This is a secondary analysis of clinical trial data collected in 12 European countries. We examined changes in weight and weight-related quality of life among community patients with schizophrenia treated with aripiprazole (ARI) versus standard of care (SOC), consisting of other marketed atypical antipsychotics (olanzapine, quetiapine, and risperidone). Five-hundred and fifty-five patients whose clinical symptoms were not optimally controlled and/or experienced tolerability problems with current medication were randomized to ARI (10-30 mg/day) or SOC. Weight and weight-related quality of life (using the IWQOL-Lite) were assessed at baseline, and weeks 8, 18 and 26. Random regression analysis across all time points using all available data was used to compare groups on changes in weight and IWQOL-Lite. Meaningful change from baseline was also assessed. Participants were 59.7% male, with a mean age of 38.5 years (SD 10.9) and mean baseline body mass index of 27.2 (SD 5.1). ARI participants lost an average of 1.7% of baseline weight in comparison to a gain of 2.1% by SOC participants (p<0.0001) at 26 weeks. ARI participants experienced significantly greater increases in physical function, self-esteem, sexual life, and IWQOL-Lite total score. At 26 weeks, 20.7% of ARI participants experienced meaningful improvements in IWQOL-Lite score, versus 13.5% of SOC participants. A clinically meaningful change in weight was also associated with a meaningful change in quality of life (p<0.001). A potential limitation of this study was its funding by a pharmaceutical company. Compared to standard of care, patients with schizophrenia treated with aripiprazole experienced decreased weight and improved weight-related quality of life over 26 weeks. These changes were both statistically and clinically significant.

Planetary mass function and planetary systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dominik, M.

2011-02-01

With planets orbiting stars, a planetary mass function should not be seen as a low-mass extension of the stellar mass function, but a proper formalism needs to take care of the fact that the statistical properties of planet populations are linked to the properties of their respective host stars. This can be accounted for by describing planet populations by means of a differential planetary mass-radius-orbit function, which together with the fraction of stars with given properties that are orbited by planets and the stellar mass function allows the derivation of all statistics for any considered sample. These fundamental functions provide a framework for comparing statistics that result from different observing techniques and campaigns which all have their very specific selection procedures and detection efficiencies. Moreover, recent results both from gravitational microlensing campaigns and radial-velocity surveys of stars indicate that planets tend to cluster in systems rather than being the lonely child of their respective parent star. While planetary multiplicity in an observed system becomes obvious with the detection of several planets, its quantitative assessment however comes with the challenge to exclude the presence of further planets. Current exoplanet samples begin to give us first hints at the population statistics, whereas pictures of planet parameter space in its full complexity call for samples that are 2-4 orders of magnitude larger. In order to derive meaningful statistics, however, planet detection campaigns need to be designed in such a way that well-defined fully deterministic target selection, monitoring and detection criteria are applied. The probabilistic nature of gravitational microlensing makes this technique an illustrative example of all the encountered challenges and uncertainties.

QUALITY OF LIFE IN CHILDREN WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT: SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS

PubMed Central

Roland, Lauren; Fischer, Caroline; Tran, Kayla; Rachakonda, Tara; Kallogjeri, Dorina; Lieu, Judith

2017-01-01

Objective To determine the impact of pediatric hearing loss on quality of life (QOL). Data Sources A qualified medical librarian conducted a literature search for relevant publications that evaluate QOL in school-aged children with hearing loss (HL). Review Methods Studies were assessed independently by two reviewers for inclusion in the systematic review and meta-analysis. Results From 979 abstracts, 69 were identified as relevant; ultimately 41 articles were included in the systematic review. This review revealed that children with HL generally report a lower QOL than their normal hearing peers, and QOL improves after interventions. The extent of these differences is variable among studies, and depends on the QOL measure. Four studies using the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) had sufficient data for inclusion in a meta-analysis. After pooling studies, statistically and clinically significant differences in PedsQL scores were found between children with normal hearing and those with HL, specifically in the Social and School domains. Statistically significant differences were also noted in in total scores for children with unilateral HL and in the physical domain for children with bilateral HL as compared to normal hearing, however these differences were not clinically meaningful. Conclusions Our analysis reveals that decreased QOL in children with HL is detected in distinct domains of the PedsQL questionnaire. These domains of school functioning and social interactions are especially important for development and learning. Future work should focus on these specific aspects of QOL when assessing HL in the pediatric population. PMID:27118820

Statistical and Machine Learning forecasting methods: Concerns and ways forward

PubMed Central

Makridakis, Spyros; Assimakopoulos, Vassilios

2018-01-01

Machine Learning (ML) methods have been proposed in the academic literature as alternatives to statistical ones for time series forecasting. Yet, scant evidence is available about their relative performance in terms of accuracy and computational requirements. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate such performance across multiple forecasting horizons using a large subset of 1045 monthly time series used in the M3 Competition. After comparing the post-sample accuracy of popular ML methods with that of eight traditional statistical ones, we found that the former are dominated across both accuracy measures used and for all forecasting horizons examined. Moreover, we observed that their computational requirements are considerably greater than those of statistical methods. The paper discusses the results, explains why the accuracy of ML models is below that of statistical ones and proposes some possible ways forward. The empirical results found in our research stress the need for objective and unbiased ways to test the performance of forecasting methods that can be achieved through sizable and open competitions allowing meaningful comparisons and definite conclusions. PMID:29584784

Ethics Reporting in Biospecimen and Genetic Research: Current Practice and Suggestions for Changes

PubMed Central

Chin, William Wei Lim; Wieschowski, Susanne; Prokein, Jana; Illig, Thomas

2016-01-01

Modern approaches for research with human biospecimens employ a variety of substantially different types of ethics approval and informed consent. In most cases, standard ethics reporting such as “consent and approval was obtained” is no longer meaningful. A structured analysis of 120 biospecimen studies recently published in top journals revealed that more than 85% reported on consent and approval, but in more than 90% of cases, this reporting was insufficient and thus potentially misleading. Editorial policies, reporting guidelines, and material transfer agreements should include recommendations for meaningful ethics reporting in biospecimen research. Meaningful ethics reporting is possible without higher word counts and could support public trust as well as networked research. PMID:27483445

Long-time predictions in nonlinear dynamics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Szebehely, V.

1980-01-01

It is known that nonintegrable dynamical systems do not allow precise predictions concerning their behavior for arbitrary long times. The available series solutions are not uniformly convergent according to Poincare's theorem and numerical integrations lose their meaningfulness after the elapse of arbitrary long times. Two approaches are the use of existing global integrals and statistical methods. This paper presents a generalized method along the first approach. As examples long-time predictions in the classical gravitational satellite and planetary problems are treated.

Illness-death model: statistical perspective and differential equations.

PubMed

Brinks, Ralph; Hoyer, Annika

2018-01-27

The aim of this work is to relate the theory of stochastic processes with the differential equations associated with multistate (compartment) models. We show that the Kolmogorov Forward Differential Equations can be used to derive a relation between the prevalence and the transition rates in the illness-death model. Then, we prove mathematical well-definedness and epidemiological meaningfulness of the prevalence of the disease. As an application, we derive the incidence of diabetes from a series of cross-sections.

Hierarchical Bayesian modelling of gene expression time series across irregularly sampled replicates and clusters.

PubMed

Hensman, James; Lawrence, Neil D; Rattray, Magnus

2013-08-20

Time course data from microarrays and high-throughput sequencing experiments require simple, computationally efficient and powerful statistical models to extract meaningful biological signal, and for tasks such as data fusion and clustering. Existing methodologies fail to capture either the temporal or replicated nature of the experiments, and often impose constraints on the data collection process, such as regularly spaced samples, or similar sampling schema across replications. We propose hierarchical Gaussian processes as a general model of gene expression time-series, with application to a variety of problems. In particular, we illustrate the method's capacity for missing data imputation, data fusion and clustering.The method can impute data which is missing both systematically and at random: in a hold-out test on real data, performance is significantly better than commonly used imputation methods. The method's ability to model inter- and intra-cluster variance leads to more biologically meaningful clusters. The approach removes the necessity for evenly spaced samples, an advantage illustrated on a developmental Drosophila dataset with irregular replications. The hierarchical Gaussian process model provides an excellent statistical basis for several gene-expression time-series tasks. It has only a few additional parameters over a regular GP, has negligible additional complexity, is easily implemented and can be integrated into several existing algorithms. Our experiments were implemented in python, and are available from the authors' website: http://staffwww.dcs.shef.ac.uk/people/J.Hensman/.

Do family physicians electronic health records support meaningful use?

PubMed

Peterson, Lars E; Blackburn, Brenna; Ivins, Douglas; Mitchell, Jason; Matson, Christine; Phillips, Robert L

2015-03-01

Spurred by government incentives, the use of electronic health records (EHRs) in the United States has increased; however, whether these EHRs have the functionality necessary to meet meaningful use (MU) criteria remains unknown. Our objective was to characterize family physician access to MU functionality when using a MU-certified EHR. Data were obtained from a convenience survey of family physicians accessing their American Board of Family Medicine online portfolio in 2011. A brief survey queried MU functionality. We used descriptive statistics to characterize the responses and bivariate statistics to test associations between MU and patient communication functions by presence of a MU-certified EHR. Out of 3855 respondents, 60% reported having an EHR that supports MU. Physicians with MU-certified EHRs were more likely than physicians without MU-certified EHRs to report patient registry activities (49.7% vs. 32.3%, p-value<0.01), tracking quality measures (74.1% vs. 56.4%, p-value<0.01), access to labs or consultation notes, and electronic prescribing; but electronic communication abilities were low regardless of EHR capabilities. Family physicians with MU-certified EHRs are more likely to report MU functionality; however, a sizeable minority does not report MU functions. Many family physicians with MU-certified EHRs may not successfully meet the successively stringent MU criteria and may face significant upgrade costs to do so. Cross sectional survey. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Classical test theory and Rasch analysis validation of the Upper Limb Functional Index in subjects with upper limb musculoskeletal disorders.

PubMed

Bravini, Elisabetta; Franchignoni, Franco; Giordano, Andrea; Sartorio, Francesco; Ferriero, Giorgio; Vercelli, Stefano; Foti, Calogero

2015-01-01

To perform a comprehensive analysis of the psychometric properties and dimensionality of the Upper Limb Functional Index (ULFI) using both classical test theory and Rasch analysis (RA). Prospective, single-group observational design. Freestanding rehabilitation center. Convenience sample of Italian-speaking subjects with upper limb musculoskeletal disorders (N=174). Not applicable. The Italian version of the ULFI. Data were analyzed using parallel analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and RA for evaluating dimensionality, functioning of rating scale categories, item fit, hierarchy of item difficulties, and reliability indices. Parallel analysis revealed 2 factors explaining 32.5% and 10.7% of the response variance. RA confirmed the failure of the unidimensionality assumption, and 6 items out of the 25 misfitted the Rasch model. When the analysis was rerun excluding the misfitting items, the scale showed acceptable fit values, loading meaningfully to a single factor. Item separation reliability and person separation reliability were .98 and .89, respectively. Cronbach alpha was .92. RA revealed weakness of the scale concerning dimensionality and internal construct validity. However, a set of 19 ULFI items defined through the statistical process demonstrated a unidimensional structure, good psychometric properties, and clinical meaningfulness. These findings represent a useful starting point for further analyses of the tool (based on modern psychometric approaches and confirmatory factor analysis) in larger samples, including different patient populations and nationalities. Copyright © 2015 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Understanding combat casualty care statistics.

PubMed

Holcomb, John B; Stansbury, Lynn G; Champion, Howard R; Wade, Charles; Bellamy, Ronald F

2006-02-01

Maintaining good hospital records during military conflicts can provide medical personnel and researchers with feedback to rapidly adjust treatment strategies and improve outcomes. But to convert the resulting raw data into meaningful conclusions requires clear terminology and well thought out equations, utilizing consistent numerators and denominators. Our objective was to arrive at terminology and equations that would produce the best insight into the effectiveness of care at different stages of treatment, either pre or post medical treatment facility care. We first clarified three essential terms: 1) the case fatality rate (CFR) as percentage of fatalities among all wounded; 2) killed in action (KIA) as percentage of immediate deaths among all seriously injured (not returning to duty); and 3) died of wounds (DOW) as percentage of deaths following admission to a medical treatment facility among all seriously injured (not returning to duty). These equations were then applied consistently across data from the WWII, Vietnam and the current Global War on Terrorism. Using this clear set of definitions we used the equations to ask two basic questions: What is the overall lethality of the battlefield? How effective is combat casualty care? To answer these questions with current data, the three services have collaboratively created a joint theater trauma registry (JTTR), cataloging all the serious injuries, procedures, and outcomes for the current war. These definitions and equations, consistently applied to the JTTR, will allow meaningful comparisons and help direct future research and appropriate application of personnel.

Lack of a meaningful effect of anacetrapib on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of warfarin in healthy subjects

PubMed Central

Krishna, Rajesh; Stypinski, Daria; Ali, Melissa; Garg, Amit; Cote, Josee; Maes, Andrea; DeGroot, Bruce; Liu, Yang; Li, Susie; Connolly, Sandra M; Wagner, John A; Stoch, S Aubrey

2012-01-01

AIM Anacetrapib is currently being developed for the treatment of dyslipidaemia. Since warfarin, an anticoagulant with a narrow therapeutic index, is expected to be commonly prescribed in this population, a drug interaction study was conducted. METHODS In a randomized, open-label, two-period fixed-sequence design, 12 healthy male subjects received two different treatments (treatment A followed by treatment B). In treatment A, a single oral dose of 30 mg warfarin (3 × 10 mg CoumadinTM) was administered on day 1. After a washout interval, subjects began treatment B, where they were given daily 100 mg doses of anacetrapib (1 × 100 mg) beginning on day −14 and continuing through day 7, with concomitant administration of 30 mg warfarin (3 × 10 mg) on day 1. All anacetrapib and warfarin doses were administered with a standard low fat breakfast. After warfarin concentrations and prothrombin time were measured, standard pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic and statistical (linear mixed effects model) analyses were applied. RESULTS Anacetrapib was generally well tolerated when co-administered with warfarin in the healthy males in this study. The geometric mean ratios (GMRs) for warfarin + anacetrapib : warfarin alone and 90% confidence interval (CIs) for warfarin AUC(0–∞) were 0.94 (0.90, 0.97) for the R(+) warfarin enantiomer and 0.93 (0.87, 0.98) for the S(−) warfarin enantiomer, both being contained in the interval (0.80, 1.25), supporting the primary hypothesis of the study. The GMRs warfarin + anacetrapib : warfarin alone and 90% CIs for the statistical comparison of warfarin Cmax were 1.01 (0.97, 1.05) for both the R(+) warfarin and the S(−) warfarin enantiomers, and were also contained in the interval (0.80, 1.25). The GMR (warfarin + anacetrapib : warfarin alone) and 90% CI for the statistical comparison of INR AUC(0–168 h) was 0.93 (0.89, 0.96). CONCLUSION The single dose pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of orally administered warfarin were not meaningfully affected by multiple dose administration of anacetrapib, indicating that anacetrapib does not affect CYP 2C9 clinically. Thus, no dosage adjustment for warfarin is necessary when co-administered with anacetrapib. PMID:22243494

Statistics Refresher for Molecular Imaging Technologists, Part 2: Accuracy of Interpretation, Significance, and Variance.

PubMed

Farrell, Mary Beth

2018-06-01

This article is the second part of a continuing education series reviewing basic statistics that nuclear medicine and molecular imaging technologists should understand. In this article, the statistics for evaluating interpretation accuracy, significance, and variance are discussed. Throughout the article, actual statistics are pulled from the published literature. We begin by explaining 2 methods for quantifying interpretive accuracy: interreader and intrareader reliability. Agreement among readers can be expressed simply as a percentage. However, the Cohen κ-statistic is a more robust measure of agreement that accounts for chance. The higher the κ-statistic is, the higher is the agreement between readers. When 3 or more readers are being compared, the Fleiss κ-statistic is used. Significance testing determines whether the difference between 2 conditions or interventions is meaningful. Statistical significance is usually expressed using a number called a probability ( P ) value. Calculation of P value is beyond the scope of this review. However, knowing how to interpret P values is important for understanding the scientific literature. Generally, a P value of less than 0.05 is considered significant and indicates that the results of the experiment are due to more than just chance. Variance, standard deviation (SD), confidence interval, and standard error (SE) explain the dispersion of data around a mean of a sample drawn from a population. SD is commonly reported in the literature. A small SD indicates that there is not much variation in the sample data. Many biologic measurements fall into what is referred to as a normal distribution taking the shape of a bell curve. In a normal distribution, 68% of the data will fall within 1 SD, 95% will fall within 2 SDs, and 99.7% will fall within 3 SDs. Confidence interval defines the range of possible values within which the population parameter is likely to lie and gives an idea of the precision of the statistic being measured. A wide confidence interval indicates that if the experiment were repeated multiple times on other samples, the measured statistic would lie within a wide range of possibilities. The confidence interval relies on the SE. © 2018 by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.

The effective factors on library anxiety of students in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.

PubMed

Ashrafi-Rizi, Hasan; Sajad, Maryam Sadat; Rahmani, Sedigheh; Bahrami, Susan; Papi, Ahmad

2014-01-01

The efficient use of libraries can be an important factor in determining the educational quality of Universities. Therefore, investigation and identification of factors affecting library anxiety becomes increasingly necessary. The purpose of this research is to determine the factors effecting library anxiety of students in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. This was an applied survey research using Bostick's Library Anxiety questionnaire as data gathering tool. The statistical population consisted of all students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (15011 students) with the sample size of 375 using stratified random sampling. The validity of data gathering tool was confirmed by experts in the library and information science and its reliability was determined by Cronbach's alpha (r = 0.92). Descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (t-test and ANOVA) were used for data analysis using SPSS 18 software. Findings showed that the mean of library anxiety score was 2.68 and 2.66 for students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and Shiraz University of Medical Sciences respectively which is above average (2.5). Furthermore, age and gender had no meaningful effect on the library anxiety of students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, but gender had a meaningful effect on library anxiety of students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences while age had no such effect. The results showed that the mean of factors effecting library anxiety in students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences is higher than average and therefore not satisfactory and only factors relating to feeling comfortable in the library is lower than average and somewhat satisfactory.

Things we still haven't learned (so far).

PubMed

Ivarsson, Andreas; Andersen, Mark B; Stenling, Andreas; Johnson, Urban; Lindwall, Magnus

2015-08-01

Null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) is like an immortal horse that some researchers have been trying to beat to death for over 50 years but without any success. In this article we discuss the flaws in NHST, the historical background in relation to both Fisher's and Neyman and Pearson's statistical ideas, the common misunderstandings of what p < .05 actually means, and the 2010 APA publication manual's clear, but most often ignored, instructions to report effect sizes and to interpret what they all mean in the real world. In addition, we discuss how Bayesian statistics can be used to overcome some of the problems with NHST. We then analyze quantitative articles published over the past three years (2012-2014) in two top-rated sport and exercise psychology journals to determine whether we have learned what we should have learned decades ago about our use and meaningful interpretations of statistics.

Robust Statistical Detection of Power-Law Cross-Correlation.

PubMed

Blythe, Duncan A J; Nikulin, Vadim V; Müller, Klaus-Robert

2016-06-02

We show that widely used approaches in statistical physics incorrectly indicate the existence of power-law cross-correlations between financial stock market fluctuations measured over several years and the neuronal activity of the human brain lasting for only a few minutes. While such cross-correlations are nonsensical, no current methodology allows them to be reliably discarded, leaving researchers at greater risk when the spurious nature of cross-correlations is not clear from the unrelated origin of the time series and rather requires careful statistical estimation. Here we propose a theory and method (PLCC-test) which allows us to rigorously and robustly test for power-law cross-correlations, correctly detecting genuine and discarding spurious cross-correlations, thus establishing meaningful relationships between processes in complex physical systems. Our method reveals for the first time the presence of power-law cross-correlations between amplitudes of the alpha and beta frequency ranges of the human electroencephalogram.

The use of analysis of variance procedures in biological studies

USGS Publications Warehouse

Williams, B.K.

1987-01-01

The analysis of variance (ANOVA) is widely used in biological studies, yet there remains considerable confusion among researchers about the interpretation of hypotheses being tested. Ambiguities arise when statistical designs are unbalanced, and in particular when not all combinations of design factors are represented in the data. This paper clarifies the relationship among hypothesis testing, statistical modelling and computing procedures in ANOVA for unbalanced data. A simple two-factor fixed effects design is used to illustrate three common parametrizations for ANOVA models, and some associations among these parametrizations are developed. Biologically meaningful hypotheses for main effects and interactions are given in terms of each parametrization, and procedures for testing the hypotheses are described. The standard statistical computing procedures in ANOVA are given along with their corresponding hypotheses. Throughout the development unbalanced designs are assumed and attention is given to problems that arise with missing cells.

Robust Statistical Detection of Power-Law Cross-Correlation

PubMed Central

Blythe, Duncan A. J.; Nikulin, Vadim V.; Müller, Klaus-Robert

2016-01-01

We show that widely used approaches in statistical physics incorrectly indicate the existence of power-law cross-correlations between financial stock market fluctuations measured over several years and the neuronal activity of the human brain lasting for only a few minutes. While such cross-correlations are nonsensical, no current methodology allows them to be reliably discarded, leaving researchers at greater risk when the spurious nature of cross-correlations is not clear from the unrelated origin of the time series and rather requires careful statistical estimation. Here we propose a theory and method (PLCC-test) which allows us to rigorously and robustly test for power-law cross-correlations, correctly detecting genuine and discarding spurious cross-correlations, thus establishing meaningful relationships between processes in complex physical systems. Our method reveals for the first time the presence of power-law cross-correlations between amplitudes of the alpha and beta frequency ranges of the human electroencephalogram. PMID:27250630

Mediation analysis in nursing research: a methodological review

PubMed Central

Liu, Jianghong; Ulrich, Connie

2017-01-01

Mediation statistical models help clarify the relationship between independent predictor variables and dependent outcomes of interest by assessing the impact of third variables. This type of statistical analysis is applicable for many clinical nursing research questions, yet its use within nursing remains low. Indeed, mediational analyses may help nurse researchers develop more effective and accurate prevention and treatment programs as well as help bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and clinical practice. In addition, this statistical approach allows nurse researchers to ask – and answer – more meaningful and nuanced questions that extend beyond merely determining whether an outcome occurs. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to provide a brief tutorial on the use of mediational analyses in clinical nursing research by briefly introducing the technique and, through selected empirical examples from the nursing literature, demonstrating its applicability in advancing nursing science. PMID:26176804

Assessing T cell clonal size distribution: a non-parametric approach.

PubMed

Bolkhovskaya, Olesya V; Zorin, Daniil Yu; Ivanchenko, Mikhail V

2014-01-01

Clonal structure of the human peripheral T-cell repertoire is shaped by a number of homeostatic mechanisms, including antigen presentation, cytokine and cell regulation. Its accurate tuning leads to a remarkable ability to combat pathogens in all their variety, while systemic failures may lead to severe consequences like autoimmune diseases. Here we develop and make use of a non-parametric statistical approach to assess T cell clonal size distributions from recent next generation sequencing data. For 41 healthy individuals and a patient with ankylosing spondylitis, who undergone treatment, we invariably find power law scaling over several decades and for the first time calculate quantitatively meaningful values of decay exponent. It has proved to be much the same among healthy donors, significantly different for an autoimmune patient before the therapy, and converging towards a typical value afterwards. We discuss implications of the findings for theoretical understanding and mathematical modeling of adaptive immunity.

Decreasing Stress and Burnout in Nurses: Efficacy of Blended Learning With Stress Management and Resilience Training Program.

PubMed

Magtibay, Donna L; Chesak, Sherry S; Coughlin, Kevin; Sood, Amit

The study's purpose was to assess efficacy of blended learning to decrease stress and burnout among nurses through use of the Stress Management and Resiliency Training (SMART) program. Job-related stress in nurses leads to high rates of burnout, compromises patient care, and costs US healthcare organizations billions of dollars annually. Many mindfulness and resiliency programs are taught in a format that limits nurses' attendance. Consistent with blended learning, participants chose the format that met their learning styles and goals; Web-based, independent reading, facilitated discussions. The end points of mindfulness, resilience, anxiety, stress, happiness, and burnout were measured at baseline, postintervention, and 3-month follow-up to examine within-group differences. Findings showed statistically significant, clinically meaningful decreases in anxiety, stress, and burnout and increases in resilience, happiness, and mindfulness. Results support blended learning using SMART as a strategy to increase access to resiliency training for nursing staff.

Domestic violence and consanguineous marriages - perspective from Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

PubMed

Shaikh, M Ali; Kayani, A; Shaikh, I Ali

2014-01-09

Domestic violence is globally endemic and adversely impacts the health and economic well-being of women and society. This study used the standardized and validated assessment instrument "Woman Abuse Screening Tool" to study the prevalence of various forms of domestic violence among married women. The relationship between domestic violence and consanguineous marriage was studied using the chi-squared test. Cumulatively, 1010 married women were interviewed. Emotional abuse was the most commonly reported abuse, reported by 721 (71.4%) women as either often or sometimes, followed by sexual abuse and physical abuse, reported by 527 (52.2%) and 511 (50.6%) respectively. Being married to one's cousin did not protect married women from being abused either emotionally or physically by their husbands; thsi was statistically significant. There is a need for better understanding of the magnitude and scale of domestic violence in Pakistan by using standardized assessment tools for meaningful comparisons across different parts of the country over time.

The color-vision approach to emotional space: cortical evoked potential data.

PubMed

Boucsein, W; Schaefer, F; Sokolov, E N; Schröder, C; Furedy, J J

2001-01-01

A framework for accounting for emotional phenomena proposed by Sokolov and Boucsein (2000) employs conceptual dimensions that parallel those of hue, brightness, and saturation in color vision. The approach that employs the concepts of emotional quality. intensity, and saturation has been supported by psychophysical emotional scaling data gathered from a few trained observers. We report cortical evoked potential data obtained during the change between different emotions expressed in schematic faces. Twenty-five subjects (13 male, 12 female) were presented with a positive, a negative, and a neutral computer-generated face with random interstimulus intervals in a within-subjects design, together with four meaningful and four meaningless control stimuli made up from the same elements. Frontal, central, parietal, and temporal ERPs were recorded from each hemisphere. Statistically significant outcomes in the P300 and N200 range support the potential fruitfulness of the proposed color-vision-model-based approach to human emotional space.

Comparison of SAGE II ozone measurements and ozone soundings at Uccle (Belgium) during the period February 1985 to January 1986

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

De Muer, D.; De Backer, H.; Zawodny, J. M.; Veiga, R. E.

1990-01-01

The ozone profiles obtained from 24 balloon soundings at Uccle (50 deg 48 min N, 4 deg 21 min E) made with electrochemical ozonesondes were used as correlative data for SAGE II ozone profiles retrieved within a distance of at most 600 km from Uccle. The agreement between the two data sets is in general quite good, especially for profiles nearly coincident in time and space, and during periods of little dynamic activity over the area considered. The percent difference between the ozone column density of the mean balloon and SAGE profile is 4.4 percent (-3.3) percent in the altitude region between 10 and 26 km. From a statistical analysis it appears that there is a small but meaningful difference between the mean profiles at the level of the ozone maximum and around the 30-km level. An error analysis of both data sets give similar results, leading to the conclusion that these differences are instrumentally induced. However, differences between the mean profiles in the lower stratosphere are probably real and due to the high ozone variability in time and space in that altitude region.

Relationships between students' meaningful learning orientation and their understanding of genetics topics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cavallo, Ann M. Liberatore; Schafer, Larry E.

This study explored factors predicting the extent to which high school students (N = 140) acquired meaningful understanding of the biological topics of meiosis, the Punnett-square method, and the relationships between these topics. This study (a) examined mental modeling as a technique for measuring students' meaningful understanding of the topics, (b) measured students' predisposed, generalized tendency to learn meaningfully (meaningful learning orientation), (c) determined the extent to which students' meaningful learning orientation predicted meaningful understanding beyond that predicted by aptitude and achievement motivation, (d) experimentally tested two instructional treatments (relationships presented to students, relationships generated by students), (e) explored the relationships of meaningful learning orientation, prior knowledge, instructional treatment, and all interactions of these variables in predicting meaningful understanding. The results of correlations and multiple regressions indicated that meaningful learning orientation contributed to students' attainment of meaningful understanding independent of aptitude and achievement motivation. Meaningful learning orientation and prior knowledge interacted in unique ways for each topic to predict students' attainment of meaningful understanding. Instructional treatment had relatively little relationship to students' acquisition of meaningful understanding, except for learners midrange between meaningful and rote. These findings imply that a meaningful learning approach among students may be important, perhaps as much or more than aptitude and achievement motivation, for their acquisition of interrelated, meaningful understandings of science.

Statistical Emulator for Expensive Classification Simulators

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ross, Jerret; Samareh, Jamshid A.

2016-01-01

Expensive simulators prevent any kind of meaningful analysis to be performed on the phenomena they model. To get around this problem the concept of using a statistical emulator as a surrogate representation of the simulator was introduced in the 1980's. Presently, simulators have become more and more complex and as a result running a single example on these simulators is very expensive and can take days to weeks or even months. Many new techniques have been introduced, termed criteria, which sequentially select the next best (most informative to the emulator) point that should be run on the simulator. These criteria methods allow for the creation of an emulator with only a small number of simulator runs. We follow and extend this framework to expensive classification simulators.

A Milestone-Based Evaluation System-The Cure for Grade Inflation?

PubMed

Kuo, Lindsay E; Hoffman, Rebecca L; Morris, Jon B; Williams, Noel N; Malachesky, Mark; Huth, Laura E; Kelz, Rachel R

2015-01-01

Controversy exists over the optimal use of the Milestones in the process of resident evaluation and feedback. We sought to evaluate the performance of a Milestones-based feedback system in comparison to a traditional model. The traditional evaluation system (TES) consisted of a generic 16-item survey using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5, and a free-text comments section. The Milestones-based evaluation system (MBES) was launched in July 2014, ranging from 0 to 4. Individual milestones were mapped to rotations based on resident educational goals by postgraduate year (PGY). The MBES consisted of a survey with a maximum of 7 items, followed by a free-text comment section. Within each evaluation system, an overall composite score was calculated for each categorical general surgical resident. To scale the 2 systems for comparison, TES scores were adjusted downward by 1 point. Descriptive statistics were performed. Univariate analysis was performed with the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. A test for trend across PGY was used for the MBES only. In the traditional system, the median score was 3.66 (range: 3.2-4.0). There was no meaningful difference in the median score by PGY. In the new system, the median score was 2.69 (range: 1.5-3.7, p < 0.01). The median score differed across PGY and increased by PGY of training (p < 0.01). There was an increase in differences between median scores by PGY. On using the milestones to facilitate faculty evaluation of resident knowledge and skill, there was a trend in increasing score by PGY of training. In the MBES, scores could be used to better discriminate resident skill and knowledge levels and resulted in improved differentiation in scoring by PGY. The use of the milestones as a basis for evaluation enabled the program to provide more meaningful feedback to residents and represents an improvement in surgical education. Copyright © 2015 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Manifold learning-based subspace distance for machinery damage assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Chuang; Zhang, Zhousuo; He, Zhengjia; Shen, Zhongjie; Chen, Binqiang

2016-03-01

Damage assessment is very meaningful to keep safety and reliability of machinery components, and vibration analysis is an effective way to carry out the damage assessment. In this paper, a damage index is designed by performing manifold distance analysis on vibration signal. To calculate the index, vibration signal is collected firstly, and feature extraction is carried out to obtain statistical features that can capture signal characteristics comprehensively. Then, manifold learning algorithm is utilized to decompose feature matrix to be a subspace, that is, manifold subspace. The manifold learning algorithm seeks to keep local relationship of the feature matrix, which is more meaningful for damage assessment. Finally, Grassmann distance between manifold subspaces is defined as a damage index. The Grassmann distance reflecting manifold structure is a suitable metric to measure distance between subspaces in the manifold. The defined damage index is applied to damage assessment of a rotor and the bearing, and the result validates its effectiveness for damage assessment of machinery component.

Variation in minimum desired cardiovascular disease-free longevity benefit from statin and antihypertensive medications: a cross-sectional study of patient and primary care physician perspectives.

PubMed

Jaspers, Nicole E M; Visseren, Frank L J; Numans, Mattijs E; Smulders, Yvo M; van Loenen Martinet, Fere A; van der Graaf, Yolanda; Dorresteijn, Jannick A N

2018-05-26

Expressing therapy benefit from a lifetime perspective, instead of only a 10-year perspective, is both more intuitive and of growing importance in doctor-patient communication. In cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention, lifetime estimates are increasingly accessible via online decision tools. However, it is unclear what gain in life expectancy is considered meaningful by those who would use the estimates in clinical practice. We therefore quantified lifetime and 10-year benefit thresholds at which physicians and patients perceive statin and antihypertensive therapy as meaningful, and compared the thresholds with clinically attainable benefit. Cross-sectional study. (1) continuing medical education conference in December 2016 for primary care physicians;(2) information session in April 2017 for patients. 400 primary care physicians and 523 patients in the Netherlands. Months gain of CVD-free life expectancy at which lifelong statin therapy is perceived as meaningful, and months gain at which 10 years of statin and antihypertensive therapy is perceived as meaningful. Physicians were framed as users for lifelong and prescribers for 10-year therapy. Meaningful benefit was reported as median (IQR). Meaningful lifetime statin benefit was 24 months (IQR 23-36) in physicians (as users) and 42 months (IQR 12-42) in patients willing to consider therapy. Meaningful 10-year statin benefit was 12 months (IQR 10-12) for prescribing (physicians) and 14 months (IQR 10-14) for using (patients). Meaningful 10-year antihypertensive benefit was 12 months (IQR 8-12) for prescribing (physicians) and 14 months (IQR 10-14) for using (patients). Women desired greater benefit than men. Age, CVD status and co-medication had minimal effects on outcomes. Both physicians and patients report a large variation in meaningful longevity benefit. Desired benefit differs between physicians and patients and exceeds what is clinically attainable. Clinicians should recognise these discrepancies when prescribing therapy and implement individualised medicine and shared decision-making. Decision tools could provide information on realistic therapy benefit. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Leading Change: Implementation of a New Care Coordination Model.

PubMed

Ireland, Anne M

2016-05-01

Today's healthcare environment is characterized by a multitude of changes: acquisitions and mergers, streamlining of operations, restructuring and leadership shifts, new regulatory requirements with the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, implementation and meaningful use, and advances in technology driven by the employment of electronic health records. The impact of these changes is complex and fraught with challenges in an industry that historically and culturally is cautious and slow to change. 
.

Comparative study of the blinking time between young adult and adult video display terminal users in indoor environment.

PubMed

Schaefer, Tânia Mara Cunha; Schaefer, Arthur Rubens Cunha; Abib, Fernando Cesar; José, Newton Kara

2009-01-01

Investigate the average blinking time in conversation and in Video Display Terminal use of young adults and adults in the presbyopic age group. A transversal analytical study in a readily accessible sample consisting of Volkswagen do Brasil - Curitiba, Paraná employees was performed. The cohort group consisted of 108 subjects divided into two age groups: Group 1, the young adult group (age range 20-39): 77 employees, mean age of 30.09 +/- 5.09; Group 2, the presbyopic adult group, (age range 40-53): 31 employees, mean age of 44.17 +/- 3. Subjects under 18 years of age, with a history of ocular disorders, contact lens wearers and computer non-users were excluded. The subjects had their faces filmed for 10 minutes in conversation and VDT reading. Student's t-test was used and the statistical significance level was 95%. The average time between blinks in Group 1 for conversation and VDT reading was 5.16 +/- 1.83 and 10.42 +/- 7.78 seconds, respectively; in Group 2. 4,9 +/- 1.49 and 10.46 +/- 5.54 seconds. In both age groups, the time between blinks in VDT reading situations was higher (p<0.0001). There was no statistically meaningful difference for conversation and VDT reading situations when the two studied age groups were compared (p>0.05). There was an increase in the blinking time between young adults and the presbyopic group in VDT use situations when compared with reading situations. The difference in the blinking frequency between young adults and the presbyopic group in VDT use and reading situations was not statistically significant.

A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel group study of THC/CBD spray in peripheral neuropathic pain treatment.

PubMed

Serpell, M; Ratcliffe, S; Hovorka, J; Schofield, M; Taylor, L; Lauder, H; Ehler, E

2014-08-01

Peripheral neuropathic pain (PNP) associated with allodynia poses a significant clinical challenge. The efficacy of Δ(9) -tetrahydrocannabinol/cannabidiol (THC/CBD) oromucosal spray, a novel cannabinoid formulation, was investigated in this 15-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled parallel group study. In total, 303 patients with PNP associated with allodynia were screened; 128 were randomized to THC/CBD spray and 118 to placebo, in addition to their current analgesic therapy. The co-primary efficacy endpoints were the 30% responder rate in PNP 0-10 numerical rating scale (NRS) score and the mean change from baseline to the end of treatment in this score. Various key secondary measures of pain and functioning were also investigated. At the 30% responder level, there were statistically significant treatment differences in favour of THC/CBD spray in the full analysis (intention-to-treat) dataset [p = 0.034; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.05-3.70]. There was also a reduction in mean PNP 0-10 NRS scores in both treatment groups that was numerically higher in the THC/CBD spray group, but which failed to reach statistical significance. Secondary measures of sleep quality 0-10 NRS score (p = 0.0072) and Subject Global Impression of Change (SGIC) (p = 0.023) also demonstrated statistically significant treatment differences in favour of THC/CBD spray treatment. These findings demonstrate that, in a meaningful proportion of otherwise treatment-resistant patients, clinically important improvements in pain, sleep quality and SGIC of the severity of their condition are obtained with THC/CBD spray. THC/CBD spray was well tolerated and no new safety concerns were identified. © 2014 European Pain Federation - EFIC®

Biological knee reconstruction for combined malalignment, meniscal deficiency, and articular cartilage disease.

PubMed

Harris, Joshua D; Hussey, Kristen; Wilson, Hillary; Pilz, Kyle; Gupta, Anil K; Gomoll, Andreas; Cole, Brian J

2015-02-01

The aim of this study was to analyze patient-reported outcomes in those undergoing the triad of simultaneous osteotomy, meniscal transplantation, and articular cartilage repair. Patients undergoing simultaneous meniscal transplantation, distal femoral or proximal tibial osteotomy, and articular cartilage surgery by a single surgeon (B.J.C.) were analyzed. Meniscal transplantation was performed using bone-in-slot techniques. Distal femoral and high tibial osteotomies were performed for valgus and varus malalignment, respectively. Microfracture, autologous chondrocyte implantation, and osteochondral autograft or allograft were performed for articular cartilage disease. Validated patient-reported and surgeon-measured outcomes were collected. Preoperative and postoperative outcomes and medial versus lateral disease were compared using Student t tests. Eighteen participants (mean age, 34 ± 7.8 years; symptomatic patients, 7.4 ± 5.6 years; 2.4 ± 1.0 surgical procedures before study enrollment; mean follow-up, 6.5 ± 3.2 years) were analyzed. Two thirds of participants had medial compartment pathologic conditions and one third had lateral compartment pathologic processes. At final follow-up, there were statistically significant clinically meaningful improvements in International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) subjective classification, Lysholm score, and 4 Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) subscores. Postoperative 12-item short form (SF-12) physical and mental component scores were not significantly different from preoperative scores. The Kellgren-Lawrence classification grade was 1.5 ± 1.1 at 2.5 ± 3.0 years after surgery. There was a significantly higher preoperative SF-12 physical composite score (PCS) in participants with lateral compartment pathologic conditions (v medial compartment conditions) (P = .011). Although there were 13 reoperations in 10 patients (55.5% reoperation rate), only one patient was converted to knee arthroplasty (5.6%) and one to revision cartilage surgery and meniscal transplantation (5.6% revision rate). The most common complication was arthrofibrosis (16.7%). Statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in validated patient-reported clinical outcome scores at long-term follow-up were observed in 18 participants undergoing combined meniscal transplantation, osteotomy, and articular cartilage surgery. Although there was a low rate of cartilage or meniscal revision (or both) and total knee arthroplasty, there was a high rate of reoperation. There was no significant difference in outcomes between participants with medial versus lateral pathologic conditions. Level IV, therapeutic case series. Copyright © 2015 Arthroscopy Association of North America. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Statistical Symbolic Execution with Informed Sampling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Filieri, Antonio; Pasareanu, Corina S.; Visser, Willem; Geldenhuys, Jaco

2014-01-01

Symbolic execution techniques have been proposed recently for the probabilistic analysis of programs. These techniques seek to quantify the likelihood of reaching program events of interest, e.g., assert violations. They have many promising applications but have scalability issues due to high computational demand. To address this challenge, we propose a statistical symbolic execution technique that performs Monte Carlo sampling of the symbolic program paths and uses the obtained information for Bayesian estimation and hypothesis testing with respect to the probability of reaching the target events. To speed up the convergence of the statistical analysis, we propose Informed Sampling, an iterative symbolic execution that first explores the paths that have high statistical significance, prunes them from the state space and guides the execution towards less likely paths. The technique combines Bayesian estimation with a partial exact analysis for the pruned paths leading to provably improved convergence of the statistical analysis. We have implemented statistical symbolic execution with in- formed sampling in the Symbolic PathFinder tool. We show experimentally that the informed sampling obtains more precise results and converges faster than a purely statistical analysis and may also be more efficient than an exact symbolic analysis. When the latter does not terminate symbolic execution with informed sampling can give meaningful results under the same time and memory limits.

Assessment of quality outcomes for robotic pancreaticoduodenectomy: identification of the learning curve.

PubMed

Boone, Brian A; Zenati, Mazen; Hogg, Melissa E; Steve, Jennifer; Moser, Arthur James; Bartlett, David L; Zeh, Herbert J; Zureikat, Amer H

2015-05-01

Quality assessment is an important instrument to ensure optimal surgical outcomes, particularly during the adoption of new surgical technology. The use of the robotic platform for complex pancreatic resections, such as the pancreaticoduodenectomy, requires close monitoring of outcomes during its implementation phase to ensure patient safety is maintained and the learning curve identified. To report the results of a quality analysis and learning curve during the implementation of robotic pancreaticoduodenectomy (RPD). A retrospective review of a prospectively maintained database of 200 consecutive patients who underwent RPD in a large academic center from October 3, 2008, through March 1, 2014, was evaluated for important metrics of quality. Patients were analyzed in groups of 20 to minimize demographic differences and optimize the ability to detect statistically meaningful changes in performance. Robotic pancreaticoduodenectomy. Optimization of perioperative outcome parameters. No statistical differences in mortality rates or major morbidity were noted during the study. Statistical improvements in estimated blood loss and conversions to open surgery occurred after 20 cases (600 mL vs 250 mL [P = .002] and 35.0% vs 3.3% [P < .001], respectively), incidence of pancreatic fistula after 40 cases (27.5% vs 14.4%; P = .04), and operative time after 80 cases (581 minutes vs 417 minutes [P < .001]). Complication rates, lengths of stay, and readmission rates showed continuous improvement that did not reach statistical significance. Outcomes for the last 120 cases (representing optimized metrics beyond the learning curve) included a mean operative time of 417 minutes, median estimated blood loss of 250 mL, a conversion rate of 3.3%, 90-day mortality of 3.3%, a clinically significant (grade B/C) pancreatic fistula rate of 6.9%, and a median length of stay of 9 days. Continuous assessment of quality metrics allows for safe implementation of RPD. We identified several inflexion points corresponding to optimization of performance metrics for RPD that can be used as benchmarks for surgeons who are adopting this technology.

Temporal length-scale cascade and expansion rate on planar liquid jet instability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sirignano, William; Zandian, Arash; Hussain, Fazle

2016-11-01

Using the local radius of curvature of the surface and the local transverse dimension of the two-phase (i.e., spray) domain as length scales, we obtained two PDFs over a wide range of length-scales at different times and for different Reynolds and Weber (We) numbers. The PDFs were developed via post-processing of DNS Navier-Stokes results for a 3D planar liquid sheet segment with level-set and Volume-of-Fluid surface tracking, giving better statistical data for the length scales compared to the former methods. The radius PDF shows that, with increasing We , the average radius of curvature decreases, number of small droplets increases, and cascade occurs at a faster rate. In time, the mean of the radius PDF decreases while the rms increases. The other PDF represents the spray expansion in a more realistic and meaningful form, showing that the spray angle is larger at higher We and density-ratios. Both the mean and the rms of the spray-size PDF increase with time. The PDFs also track the transitions between symmetric and anti-symmetric modes.

Rapid Change Detection Algorithm for Disaster Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Michel, U.; Thunig, H.; Ehlers, M.; Reinartz, P.

2012-07-01

This paper focuses on change detection applications in areas where catastrophic events took place which resulted in rapid destruction especially of manmade objects. Standard methods for automated change detection prove not to be sufficient; therefore a new method was developed and tested. The presented method allows a fast detection and visualization of change in areas of crisis or catastrophes. While often new methods of remote sensing are developed without user oriented aspects, organizations and authorities are not able to use these methods because of absence of remote sensing know how. Therefore a semi-automated procedure was developed. Within a transferable framework, the developed algorithm can be implemented for a set of remote sensing data among different investigation areas. Several case studies are the base for the retrieved results. Within a coarse dividing into statistical parts and the segmentation in meaningful objects, the framework is able to deal with different types of change. By means of an elaborated Temporal Change Index (TCI) only panchromatic datasets are used to extract areas which are destroyed, areas which were not affected and in addition areas where rebuilding has already started.

Person-oriented methods in partner violence research: distinct biopsychosocial profiles among battered women.

PubMed

Nurius, Paula S; Macy, Rebecca J

2010-06-01

Violence researchers have called for the use of person-oriented methods to understand differences that have been found in biopsychosocial consequences among those who experience intimate partner violence (IPV). To address this issue, we apply a person-oriented statistical method, latent profile analysis (LPA), to test for meaningful subgroups of a sample of 448 battered women based on participants' appraisals of their vulnerability relative to their violent partner, depressive symptoms, physical injuries, overall physical health functioning, and their positive and negative social relationships with friends and family. The LPA established five significantly distinct subgroups. Using MANOVA, we examined these subgroups and their respective IPV exposure, both concomitant and separate incidents within the past year. Those with the most intensive violence exposure show the greatest level of challenge and impairment. However, the groups with comparable levels of IPV exposure manifest distinctly different configurations of biopsychosocial profiles, indicating a need for adaptive interventions commensurate with these profiles. We discuss the implications these findings have for developing adaptive interventions for battered women, as well as the potential utility of person-oriented tools for violence researchers.

A three generation reproduction study with Sprague-Dawley rats consuming high-amylose transgenic rice.

PubMed

Zhou, Xing Hua; Dong, Ying; Zhao, Yan Sheng; Xiao, Xiang; Wang, Yun; He, Yuan Qing; Liu, Qiao Quan

2014-12-01

The transgenic rice line (TRS) enriched with amylose and resistant starch (RS) was developed by antisense RNA inhibition of starch-branching enzymes. Cereal starch with high amylose has a great benefit on human health through its resistant starch. In order to evaluate the effect of transgenic rice on rats, the rats were fed diets containing 70% TRS rice flour, its near-isogenic rice flour or the standard diet as the control through three generations. In the present study, clinical performance, reproductive capacity and pathological responses including body weight, food consumption, reproductive data, hematological parameters, serum chemistry components, organ relative weights and histopathology were examined. Some statistically significant differences were observed in rats consuming the high amylose rice diet when compared to rats fed the near-isogenic control rice diet or the conventional (non-rice) standard diet. These differences were generally of small magnitude, appeared to be random in nature, and were within normal limits for the strain of rat used, and were therefore not considered to be biologically meaningful or treatment related. Crown Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Influence of the time scale on the construction of financial networks.

PubMed

Emmert-Streib, Frank; Dehmer, Matthias

2010-09-30

In this paper we investigate the definition and formation of financial networks. Specifically, we study the influence of the time scale on their construction. For our analysis we use correlation-based networks obtained from the daily closing prices of stock market data. More precisely, we use the stocks that currently comprise the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and estimate financial networks where nodes correspond to stocks and edges correspond to none vanishing correlation coefficients. That means only if a correlation coefficient is statistically significant different from zero, we include an edge in the network. This construction procedure results in unweighted, undirected networks. By separating the time series of stock prices in non-overlapping intervals, we obtain one network per interval. The length of these intervals corresponds to the time scale of the data, whose influence on the construction of the networks will be studied in this paper. Numerical analysis of four different measures in dependence on the time scale for the construction of networks allows us to gain insights about the intrinsic time scale of the stock market with respect to a meaningful graph-theoretical analysis.

Development of allergic sensitization and its relevance to paediatric asthma.

PubMed

Oksel, Ceyda; Custovic, Adnan

2018-04-01

The purpose of this review is to summarize the recent evidence on the distinct atopic phenotypes and their relationship with childhood asthma. We start by considering definitions and phenotypic classification of atopy and then review evidence on its association with asthma in children. It is now well recognized that both asthma and atopy are complex entities encompassing various different sub-groups that also differ in the way they interconnect. The lack of gold standards for diagnostic markers of atopy and asthma further adds to the existing complexity over diagnostic accuracy and definitions. Although recent statistical phenotyping studies contributed significantly to our understanding of these heterogeneous disorders, translating these findings into meaningful information and effective therapies requires further work on understanding underpinning biological mechanisms. The disaggregation of allergic sensitization may help predict how the allergic disease is likely to progress. One of the important questions is how best to incorporate tests for the assessment of allergic sensitization into diagnostic algorithms for asthma, both in terms of confirming asthma diagnosis, and the assessment of future risk.

Person-Oriented Methods in Partner Violence Research: Distinct Biopsychosocial Profiles Among Battered Women

PubMed Central

Nurius, Paula S.; Macy, Rebecca J.

2014-01-01

Violence researchers have called for the use of person-oriented methods to understand differences that have been found in biopsychosocial consequences among those who experience intimate partner violence (IPV). To address this issue, we apply a person-oriented statistical method, latent profile analysis (LPA), to test for meaningful subgroups of a sample of 448 battered women based on participants’ appraisals of their vulnerability relative to their violent partner, depressive symptoms, physical injuries, overall physical health functioning, and their positive and negative social relationships with friends and family. The LPA established five significantly distinct subgroups. Using MANOVA, we examined these subgroups and their respective IPV exposure, both concomitant and separate incidents within the past year. Those with the most intensive violence exposure show the greatest level of challenge and impairment. However, the groups with comparable levels of IPV exposure manifest distinctly different configurations of biopsychosocial profiles, indicating a need for adaptive interventions commensurate with these profiles. We discuss the implications these findings have for developing adaptive interventions for battered women, as well as the potential utility of person-oriented tools for violence researchers. PMID:19897777

A meta-analysis of math performance in Turner syndrome.

PubMed

Baker, Joseph M; Reiss, Allan L

2016-02-01

Studies investigating the relationship between Turner syndrome and math learning disability have used a wide variation of tasks designed to test various aspects of mathematical competencies. Although these studies have revealed much about the math deficits common to Turner syndrome, their diversity makes comparisons between individual studies difficult. As a result, the consistency of outcomes among these diverse measures remains unknown. The overarching aim of this review is to provide a systematic meta-analysis of the differences in math and number performance between females with Turner syndrome and age-matched neurotypical peers. We provide a meta-analysis of behavioral performance in Turner syndrome relative to age-matched neurotypical populations on assessments of math and number aptitude. In total, 112 comparisons collected across 17 studies were included. Although 54% of all statistical comparisons in our analyses failed to reject the null hypothesis, our results indicate that meaningful group differences exist on all comparisons except those that do not require explicit calculation. Taken together, these results help elucidate our current understanding of math and number weaknesses in Turner syndrome, while highlighting specific topics that require further investigation. © 2015 Mac Keith Press.

Assessing effects of military aircraft noise on residential property values near airbases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fidell, Sanford; Tabachnick, Barbara; Silvati, Laura; Cook, Brenda

The question, 'Does military aircraft noise exposure affect residential property values in the vicinity of Air Force bases?', can be asked and answered with varying degrees of generality and tolerable errors of inference. Definitive answers are difficult to develop because the question itself may not be meaningful in some circumstances: property values are affected by many factors other than aircraft noise which can fluctuate greatly in different areas and during different time periods; credible attribution of causality for changes in property values uniquely to aircraft noise requires many costly study design measures; and prior findings suggest that if a relationship exists, it is not a large or especially strong one. Thus, evidence of a simple geographic association between aircraft noise exposure and residential property values does not provide a conclusive answer to the question. In an effort to develop more compelling evidence, the US Air Force is planning to compare historical records of sale prices of properties in areas of differential aircraft noise exposure during specific time periods with predictions of sale prices derived from a validated statistical model of residential property values.

Distinguishing between statistical significance and practical/clinical meaningfulness using statistical inference.

PubMed

Wilkinson, Michael

2014-03-01

Decisions about support for predictions of theories in light of data are made using statistical inference. The dominant approach in sport and exercise science is the Neyman-Pearson (N-P) significance-testing approach. When applied correctly it provides a reliable procedure for making dichotomous decisions for accepting or rejecting zero-effect null hypotheses with known and controlled long-run error rates. Type I and type II error rates must be specified in advance and the latter controlled by conducting an a priori sample size calculation. The N-P approach does not provide the probability of hypotheses or indicate the strength of support for hypotheses in light of data, yet many scientists believe it does. Outcomes of analyses allow conclusions only about the existence of non-zero effects, and provide no information about the likely size of true effects or their practical/clinical value. Bayesian inference can show how much support data provide for different hypotheses, and how personal convictions should be altered in light of data, but the approach is complicated by formulating probability distributions about prior subjective estimates of population effects. A pragmatic solution is magnitude-based inference, which allows scientists to estimate the true magnitude of population effects and how likely they are to exceed an effect magnitude of practical/clinical importance, thereby integrating elements of subjective Bayesian-style thinking. While this approach is gaining acceptance, progress might be hastened if scientists appreciate the shortcomings of traditional N-P null hypothesis significance testing.

Saccular function in otosclerosis patients: bone conducted-vestibular evoked myogenic potential analysis.

PubMed

Amali, Amin; Mahdi, Parvane; Karimi Yazdi, Alireza; Khorsandi Ashtiyani, Mohammad Taghi; Yazdani, Nasrin; Vakili, Varasteh; Pourbakht, Akram

2014-01-01

Vestibular involvements have long been observed in otosclerotic patients. Among vestibular structures saccule has the closest anatomical proximity to the sclerotic foci, so it is the most prone vestibular structure to be affected during the otosclerosis process. The aim of this study was to investigate the saccular function in patients suffering from otosclerosis, by means of Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential (VEMP). The material consisted of 30 otosclerosis patients and 20 control subjects. All participants underwent audiometric and VEMP testing. Analysis of tests results revealed that the mean values of Air-Conducted Pure Tone Average (AC-PTA) and Bone-Conducted Pure Tone Average (BC-PTA) in patients were 45.28 ± 15.57 and 19.68 ± 10.91, respectively and calculated 4 frequencies Air Bone Gap (ABG) was 25.64 ± 9.95. The VEMP response was absent in 14 (28.57%) otosclerotic ears. A statistically significant increase in latency of the p13 was found in the affected ears (P=0.004), differences in n23 latency did not reach a statistically significant level (P=0.112). Disparities in amplitude of p13-n23 in between two study groups was statistically meaningful (P=0.009), indicating that the patients with otosclerosis had lower amplitudes. This study tends to suggest that due to the direct biotoxic effect of the materials released from the otosclerosis foci on saccular receptors, there might be a possibility of vestibular dysfunction in otosclerotic patients.

Using GEO Optical Observations to Infer Orbit Populations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Matney, Mark; Africano, John

2002-01-01

NASA's Orbital Debris measurements program has a goal to characterize the small debris environment in the geosynchronous Earth-orbit (GEO) region using optical telescopes ("small" refers to objects too small to catalog and track with current systems). Traditionally, observations of GEO and near-GEO objects involve following the object with the telescope long enough to obtain an orbit. When observing very dim objects with small field-of-view telescopes, though, the observations are generally too short to obtain accurate orbital elements. However, it is possible to use such observations to statistically characterize the small object environment. A telescope pointed at a particular spot could potentially see objects in a number of different orbits. Inevitably, when looking at one region for certain types of orbits, there are objects in other types of orbits that cannot be seen. Observation campaigns are designed with these limitations in mind and are set up to span a number of regions of the sky, making it possible to sample all potential orbits under consideration. Each orbit is not seen with the same probability, however, so there are observation biases intrinsic to any observation campaign. Fortunately, it is possible to remove such biases and reconstruct a meaningful estimate of the statistical orbit populations of small objects in GEO. This information, in turn, can be used to investigate the nature of debris sources and to characterize the risk to GEO spacecraft. This paper describes these statistical tools and presents estimates of small object GEO populations.

Making adjustments to event annotations for improved biological event extraction.

PubMed

Baek, Seung-Cheol; Park, Jong C

2016-09-16

Current state-of-the-art approaches to biological event extraction train statistical models in a supervised manner on corpora annotated with event triggers and event-argument relations. Inspecting such corpora, we observe that there is ambiguity in the span of event triggers (e.g., "transcriptional activity" vs. 'transcriptional'), leading to inconsistencies across event trigger annotations. Such inconsistencies make it quite likely that similar phrases are annotated with different spans of event triggers, suggesting the possibility that a statistical learning algorithm misses an opportunity for generalizing from such event triggers. We anticipate that adjustments to the span of event triggers to reduce these inconsistencies would meaningfully improve the present performance of event extraction systems. In this study, we look into this possibility with the corpora provided by the 2009 BioNLP shared task as a proof of concept. We propose an Informed Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm, which trains models using the EM algorithm with a posterior regularization technique, which consults the gold-standard event trigger annotations in a form of constraints. We further propose four constraints on the possible event trigger annotations to be explored by the EM algorithm. The algorithm is shown to outperform the state-of-the-art algorithm on the development corpus in a statistically significant manner and on the test corpus by a narrow margin. The analysis of the annotations generated by the algorithm shows that there are various types of ambiguity in event annotations, even though they could be small in number.

Statistical Analysis of Individual Participant Data Meta-Analyses: A Comparison of Methods and Recommendations for Practice

PubMed Central

Stewart, Gavin B.; Altman, Douglas G.; Askie, Lisa M.; Duley, Lelia; Simmonds, Mark C.; Stewart, Lesley A.

2012-01-01

Background Individual participant data (IPD) meta-analyses that obtain “raw” data from studies rather than summary data typically adopt a “two-stage” approach to analysis whereby IPD within trials generate summary measures, which are combined using standard meta-analytical methods. Recently, a range of “one-stage” approaches which combine all individual participant data in a single meta-analysis have been suggested as providing a more powerful and flexible approach. However, they are more complex to implement and require statistical support. This study uses a dataset to compare “two-stage” and “one-stage” models of varying complexity, to ascertain whether results obtained from the approaches differ in a clinically meaningful way. Methods and Findings We included data from 24 randomised controlled trials, evaluating antiplatelet agents, for the prevention of pre-eclampsia in pregnancy. We performed two-stage and one-stage IPD meta-analyses to estimate overall treatment effect and to explore potential treatment interactions whereby particular types of women and their babies might benefit differentially from receiving antiplatelets. Two-stage and one-stage approaches gave similar results, showing a benefit of using anti-platelets (Relative risk 0.90, 95% CI 0.84 to 0.97). Neither approach suggested that any particular type of women benefited more or less from antiplatelets. There were no material differences in results between different types of one-stage model. Conclusions For these data, two-stage and one-stage approaches to analysis produce similar results. Although one-stage models offer a flexible environment for exploring model structure and are useful where across study patterns relating to types of participant, intervention and outcome mask similar relationships within trials, the additional insights provided by their usage may not outweigh the costs of statistical support for routine application in syntheses of randomised controlled trials. Researchers considering undertaking an IPD meta-analysis should not necessarily be deterred by a perceived need for sophisticated statistical methods when combining information from large randomised trials. PMID:23056232

Comparison of meaningful learning characteristics in simulated nursing practice after traditional versus computer-based simulation method: a qualitative videography study.

PubMed

Poikela, Paula; Ruokamo, Heli; Teräs, Marianne

2015-02-01

Nursing educators must ensure that nursing students acquire the necessary competencies; finding the most purposeful teaching methods and encouraging learning through meaningful learning opportunities is necessary to meet this goal. We investigated student learning in a simulated nursing practice using videography. The purpose of this paper is to examine how two different teaching methods presented students' meaningful learning in a simulated nursing experience. The 6-hour study was divided into three parts: part I, general information; part II, training; and part III, simulated nursing practice. Part II was delivered by two different methods: a computer-based simulation and a lecture. The study was carried out in the simulated nursing practice in two universities of applied sciences, in Northern Finland. The participants in parts II and I were 40 first year nursing students; 12 student volunteers continued to part III. Qualitative analysis method was used. The data were collected using video recordings and analyzed by videography. The students who used a computer-based simulation program were more likely to report meaningful learning themes than those who were first exposed to lecture method. Educators should be encouraged to use computer-based simulation teaching in conjunction with other teaching methods to ensure that nursing students are able to receive the greatest educational benefits. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Using iterative cluster merging with improved gap statistics to perform online phenotype discovery in the context of high-throughput RNAi screens

PubMed Central

Yin, Zheng; Zhou, Xiaobo; Bakal, Chris; Li, Fuhai; Sun, Youxian; Perrimon, Norbert; Wong, Stephen TC

2008-01-01

Background The recent emergence of high-throughput automated image acquisition technologies has forever changed how cell biologists collect and analyze data. Historically, the interpretation of cellular phenotypes in different experimental conditions has been dependent upon the expert opinions of well-trained biologists. Such qualitative analysis is particularly effective in detecting subtle, but important, deviations in phenotypes. However, while the rapid and continuing development of automated microscope-based technologies now facilitates the acquisition of trillions of cells in thousands of diverse experimental conditions, such as in the context of RNA interference (RNAi) or small-molecule screens, the massive size of these datasets precludes human analysis. Thus, the development of automated methods which aim to identify novel and biological relevant phenotypes online is one of the major challenges in high-throughput image-based screening. Ideally, phenotype discovery methods should be designed to utilize prior/existing information and tackle three challenging tasks, i.e. restoring pre-defined biological meaningful phenotypes, differentiating novel phenotypes from known ones and clarifying novel phenotypes from each other. Arbitrarily extracted information causes biased analysis, while combining the complete existing datasets with each new image is intractable in high-throughput screens. Results Here we present the design and implementation of a novel and robust online phenotype discovery method with broad applicability that can be used in diverse experimental contexts, especially high-throughput RNAi screens. This method features phenotype modelling and iterative cluster merging using improved gap statistics. A Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) is employed to estimate the distribution of each existing phenotype, and then used as reference distribution in gap statistics. This method is broadly applicable to a number of different types of image-based datasets derived from a wide spectrum of experimental conditions and is suitable to adaptively process new images which are continuously added to existing datasets. Validations were carried out on different dataset, including published RNAi screening using Drosophila embryos [Additional files 1, 2], dataset for cell cycle phase identification using HeLa cells [Additional files 1, 3, 4] and synthetic dataset using polygons, our methods tackled three aforementioned tasks effectively with an accuracy range of 85%–90%. When our method is implemented in the context of a Drosophila genome-scale RNAi image-based screening of cultured cells aimed to identifying the contribution of individual genes towards the regulation of cell-shape, it efficiently discovers meaningful new phenotypes and provides novel biological insight. We also propose a two-step procedure to modify the novelty detection method based on one-class SVM, so that it can be used to online phenotype discovery. In different conditions, we compared the SVM based method with our method using various datasets and our methods consistently outperformed SVM based method in at least two of three tasks by 2% to 5%. These results demonstrate that our methods can be used to better identify novel phenotypes in image-based datasets from a wide range of conditions and organisms. Conclusion We demonstrate that our method can detect various novel phenotypes effectively in complex datasets. Experiment results also validate that our method performs consistently under different order of image input, variation of starting conditions including the number and composition of existing phenotypes, and dataset from different screens. In our findings, the proposed method is suitable for online phenotype discovery in diverse high-throughput image-based genetic and chemical screens. PMID:18534020

Statistical 3D shape analysis of gender differences in lateral ventricles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Qing; Karpman, Dmitriy; Duan, Ye

2010-03-01

This paper aims at analyzing gender differences in the 3D shapes of lateral ventricles, which will provide reference for the analysis of brain abnormalities related to neurological disorders. Previous studies mostly focused on volume analysis, and the main challenge in shape analysis is the required step of establishing shape correspondence among individual shapes. We developed a simple and efficient method based on anatomical landmarks. 14 females and 10 males with matching ages participated in this study. 3D ventricle models were segmented from MR images by a semiautomatic method. Six anatomically meaningful landmarks were identified by detecting the maximum curvature point in a small neighborhood of a manually clicked point on the 3D model. Thin-plate spline was used to transform a randomly selected template shape to each of the rest shape instances, and the point correspondence was established according to Euclidean distance and surface normal. All shapes were spatially aligned by Generalized Procrustes Analysis. Hotelling T2 twosample metric was used to compare the ventricle shapes between males and females, and False Discovery Rate estimation was used to correct for the multiple comparison. The results revealed significant differences in the anterior horn of the right ventricle.

Evaluation of Facial Appearance among Patients With Repaired Unilateral Cleft Lip and Palate: Comparison of Patient- and Clinician-Ratings of Satisfaction.

PubMed

Thittiwong, Rungkarn; Manosudprasit, Montian; Wangsrimongkol, Tasanee; Kongsomboon, Supaporn; Pitiphat, Waranuch; Chowchuen, Bowornsilp; Uttaravichien, Akasith; Pisek, Poonsak

2015-08-01

The objective of this study was to determine the levels of patient-satisfaction on facial and dental appearance compared with clinician ratings. Participants included 61 patients with repaired unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP), aged 14-25 years. Raters comprised three cleft team clinicians. A Likert scale was used to assess the levels of satisfaction of the patients themselves and the clinicians. The results revealed that the patients were moderately satisfied with their appearance. Nose was the least satisfactory feature, followed by lip appearance. When compared to the clinician ratings, the patients were less satisfied with their own nose and lip, but more satisfied with teeth. Concerning age, self-assessment did not differ between adolescents and young adults. Females were less likely to be satisfied compared to males, but the difference was not statistically significant. In conclusion, patients with repaired UCLP were moderately satisfied with their facial and dental appearance. Clinician- and patient-opinions were different in some aspects. This study highlights the importance of patient satisfaction as a meaningful treatment outcome assessment, which could lead to an improvement in cleft care to meet the patient expectations.

Statistical similarities of pre-earthquake electromagnetic emissions to biological and economic extreme events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Potirakis, Stelios M.; Contoyiannis, Yiannis; Kopanas, John; Kalimeris, Anastasios; Antonopoulos, George; Peratzakis, Athanasios; Eftaxias, Konstantinos; Nomicos, Costantinos

2014-05-01

When one considers a phenomenon that is "complex" refers to a system whose phenomenological laws that describe the global behavior of the system, are not necessarily directly related to the "microscopic" laws that regulate the evolution of its elementary parts. The field of study of complex systems considers that the dynamics of complex systems are founded on universal principles that may be used to describe disparate problems ranging from particle physics to economies of societies. Several authors have suggested that earthquake (EQ) dynamics can be analyzed within similar mathematical frameworks with economy dynamics, and neurodynamics. A central property of the EQ preparation process is the occurrence of coherent large-scale collective behavior with a very rich structure, resulting from repeated nonlinear interactions among the constituents of the system. As a result, nonextensive statistics is an appropriate, physically meaningful, tool for the study of EQ dynamics. Since the fracture induced electromagnetic (EM) precursors are observable manifestations of the underlying EQ preparation process, the analysis of a fracture induced EM precursor observed prior to the occurrence of a large EQ can also be conducted within the nonextensive statistics framework. Within the frame of the investigation for universal principles that may hold for different dynamical systems that are related to the genesis of extreme events, we present here statistical similarities of the pre-earthquake EM emissions related to an EQ, with the pre-ictal electrical brain activity related to an epileptic seizure, and with the pre-crisis economic observables related to the collapse of a share. It is demonstrated the all three dynamical systems' observables can be analyzed in the frame of nonextensive statistical mechanics, while the frequency-size relations of appropriately defined "events" that precede the extreme event related to each one of these different systems present striking quantitative similarities. It is also demonstrated that, for the considered systems, the nonextensive parameter q increases as the extreme event approaches, which indicates that the strength of the long-memory / long-range interactions between the constituents of the system increases characterizing the dynamics of the system.

Assessing Demographic Differences in Patient-Perceived Improvement in Facial Appearance and Quality of Life Following Rhinoplasty

PubMed Central

Schwitzer, Jonathan A.; Albino, Frank P.; Mathis, Ryan K.; Scott, Amie M.; Gamble, Laurie; Baker, Stephen B.

2015-01-01

Background As rhinoplasty patient demographics evolve, surgeons must consider the impact of demographics on patient satisfaction. Objectives The objective of this study was to identify independent demographic predictors of differences in satisfaction with appearance and quality of life following rhinoplasty utilizing the FACE-Q patient-reported outcome instrument. Methods Patients presenting for rhinoplasty completed the following FACE-Q scales: Satisfaction with Facial Appearance, Satisfaction with Nose, Social Function, and Psychological Well-being. Higher FACE-Q scores indicate greater satisfaction with appearance or superior quality of life. Pre- and post-treatment scores were compared in the context of patient demographics. Results The scales were completed by 59 patients. Women demonstrated statistically significant improvements in Satisfaction with Facial Appearance and quality of life while men only experienced significant improvement in Satisfaction with Facial appearance. Caucasians demonstrated statistically significant improvement in Satisfaction with Facial Appearance and quality of life while non-Caucasians did not. Patients younger than 35 years old were more likely to experience enhanced Satisfaction with Facial Appearance and quality of life compared with patients older than 35 years old. Patients with income ≥$100,000 were more likely to experience significant increases in Satisfaction with Facial Appearance and quality of life than patients with incomes <$100,000. Conclusions In an objective study using a validated patient-reported outcome instrument, the authors were able to quantify differences in the clinically meaningful change in perception of appearance and quality of life that rhinoplasty patients gain based on demographic variables. The authors also demonstrated that these variables are potential predictors of differences in satisfaction. Level of Evidence 3 Therapeutic PMID:26063837

Assessing Demographic Differences in Patient-Perceived Improvement in Facial Appearance and Quality of Life Following Rhinoplasty.

PubMed

Schwitzer, Jonathan A; Albino, Frank P; Mathis, Ryan K; Scott, Amie M; Gamble, Laurie; Baker, Stephen B

2015-09-01

As rhinoplasty patient demographics evolve, surgeons must consider the impact of demographics on patient satisfaction. The objective of this study was to identify independent demographic predictors of differences in satisfaction with appearance and quality of life following rhinoplasty utilizing the FACE-Q patient-reported outcome instrument. Patients presenting for rhinoplasty completed the following FACE-Q scales: Satisfaction with Facial Appearance, Satisfaction with Nose, Social Function, and Psychological Well-being. Higher FACE-Q scores indicate greater satisfaction with appearance or superior quality of life. Pre- and post-treatment scores were compared in the context of patient demographics. The scales were completed by 59 patients. Women demonstrated statistically significant improvements in Satisfaction with Facial Appearance and quality of life while men only experienced significant improvement in Satisfaction with Facial appearance. Caucasians demonstrated statistically significant improvement in Satisfaction with Facial Appearance and quality of life while non-Caucasians did not. Patients younger than 35 years old were more likely to experience enhanced Satisfaction with Facial Appearance and quality of life compared with patients older than 35 years old. Patients with income ≥$100,000 were more likely to experience significant increases in Satisfaction with Facial Appearance and quality of life than patients with incomes <$100,000. In an objective study using a validated patient-reported outcome instrument, the authors were able to quantify differences in the clinically meaningful change in perception of appearance and quality of life that rhinoplasty patients gain based on demographic variables. The authors also demonstrated that these variables are potential predictors of differences in satisfaction. © 2015 The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, Inc. Reprints and permission: journals.permissions@oup.com.

A Systematic Review of Outcomes and Complications of Treating Unstable Distal Radius Fractures in the Elderly

PubMed Central

Diaz-Garcia, Rafael J.; Oda, Takashi; Shauver, Melissa J.; Chung, Kevin C.

2011-01-01

Purpose As the population in developed countries continues to age, the incidence of osteoporotic distal radius fractures (DRFs) will increase as well. Treatment of DRF in the elderly population is controversial. We systematically reviewed the existing literature for the management of DRFs in patients 60 and over with five common techniques: volar locking plate system (VLPS), non-bridging external fixation (non-BrEF), bridging external fixation (BrEF), percutaneous Kirschner-wire fixation (PKF), and cast immobilization (CI). Methods Articles retrieved from MEDLINE, Embase and CINAHL Plus that met predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria were reviewed in two literature reviews. Outcomes of interest included wrist arc of motion, grip strength, functional outcome measurements, radiographic parameters, and the number and type of complications. The data were statistically analyzed using weighted means and proportions based on the sample size in each study. Results 2,039 papers were identified, and 21 papers fitting the inclusion criteria were selected in the primary review of articles with mean patient age of 60 and over. Statistically significant differences were detected for wrist arc of motion, grip strength, and DASH score, although these findings may not be clinically meaningful. Volar tilt and ulnar variance revealed significant differences amongst the groups, with CI resulting in the worst radiographic outcomes. The complications were significantly different, with CI having the lowest rate of complications, whereas VLPS had significantly more major complications requiring additional surgical intervention. Conclusions This systematic review suggests that despite worse radiographic outcomes associated with CI, functional outcomes were no different than surgically treated groups for patients 60 and over. Prospective comparative outcomes studies are necessary to evaluate the rate of functional recovery, cost, and outcomes associated with these 5 treatment methods. Level of Evidence Therapeutic, Level III PMID:21527140

Health information technology and physicians' perceptions of healthcare quality.

PubMed

Fang, Hai; Peifer, Karen L; Chen, Jie; Rizzo, John A

2011-03-01

To investigate the relationship between the use of health information technology (HIT) and physician perceptions of providing high-quality care and to determine whether this relationship has changed over time. We used 2 waves of longitudinal data from the Community Tracking Study Physician Surveys, 2000-2001 and 2004-2005. Three measures of HIT were examined: a binary variable measuring the use of at least 1 type of HIT, a continuous variable measuring the total number of HIT types, and a binary variable measuring use of all 5 HIT types related to "meaningful use" of HIT as defined by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Three multivariate models were estimated to study the effect of each HIT measure on physicians' perception of providing high-quality care. Individual fixed-effects estimation also was used to control for individual time-invariant factors. Using at least 1 type of HIT significantly enhanced physicians' perception of providing high-quality care in 2000-2001, but not in 2004-2005. The marginal effect of adding 1 extra HIT type was positive and statistically significant in both periods. The association between using all 5 HIT types related to meaningful use and perceived quality was statistically significant in 2000-2001, but not in 2004-2005. Health information technology has become a multifunctional system and appears to have enhanced physicians' perception of providing high-quality care. Physicians' perceptions of medical care quality improved as the number of HIT types used increased. This study supports more extensive use of HIT in physician practices.

Organism-level models: When mechanisms and statistics fail us

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Phillips, M. H.; Meyer, J.; Smith, W. P.; Rockhill, J. K.

2014-03-01

Purpose: To describe the unique characteristics of models that represent the entire course of radiation therapy at the organism level and to highlight the uses to which such models can be put. Methods: At the level of an organism, traditional model-building runs into severe difficulties. We do not have sufficient knowledge to devise a complete biochemistry-based model. Statistical model-building fails due to the vast number of variables and the inability to control many of them in any meaningful way. Finally, building surrogate models, such as animal-based models, can result in excluding some of the most critical variables. Bayesian probabilistic models (Bayesian networks) provide a useful alternative that have the advantages of being mathematically rigorous, incorporating the knowledge that we do have, and being practical. Results: Bayesian networks representing radiation therapy pathways for prostate cancer and head & neck cancer were used to highlight the important aspects of such models and some techniques of model-building. A more specific model representing the treatment of occult lymph nodes in head & neck cancer were provided as an example of how such a model can inform clinical decisions. A model of the possible role of PET imaging in brain cancer was used to illustrate the means by which clinical trials can be modelled in order to come up with a trial design that will have meaningful outcomes. Conclusions: Probabilistic models are currently the most useful approach to representing the entire therapy outcome process.

SDGs and Geospatial Frameworks: Data Integration in the United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trainor, T.

2016-12-01

Responding to the need to monitor a nation's progress towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) outlined in the 2030 U.N. Agenda requires the integration of earth observations with statistical information. The urban agenda proposed in SDG 11 challenges the global community to find a geospatial approach to monitor and measure inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities and communities. Target 11.7 identifies public safety, accessibility to green and public spaces, and the most vulnerable populations (i.e., women and children, older persons, and persons with disabilities) as the most important priorities of this goal. A challenge for both national statistical organizations and earth observation agencies in addressing SDG 11 is the requirement for detailed statistics at a sufficient spatial resolution to provide the basis for meaningful analysis of the urban population and city environments. Using an example for the city of Pittsburgh, this presentation proposes data and methods to illustrate how earth science and statistical data can be integrated to respond to Target 11.7. Finally, a preliminary series of data initiatives are proposed for extending this method to other global cities.

Flight investigation of a four-dimensional terminal area guidance system for STOL aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Neuman, F.; Hardy, G. H.

1981-01-01

A series of flight tests and fast-time simulations were conducted, using the augmentor wing jet STOL research aircraft and the STOLAND 4D-RNAV system to add to the growing data base of 4D-RNAV system performance capabilities. To obtain statistically meaningful data a limited amount of flight data were supplemented by a statistically significant amount of data obtained from fast-time simulation. The results of these tests are reported. Included are comparisons of the 4D-RNAV estimated winds with actual winds encountered in flight, as well as data on along-track navigation and guidance errors, and time-of-arrival errors at the final approach waypoint. In addition, a slight improvement of the STOLAND 4D-RNAV system is proposed and demonstrated, using the fast-time simulation.

Hospital Characteristics are Associated With Readiness to Attain Stage 2 Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records.

PubMed

Kim, Jungyeon; Ohsfeldt, Robert L; Gamm, Larry D; Radcliff, Tiffany A; Jiang, Luohua

2017-06-01

To examine the difference between rural and urban hospitals as to their overall level of readiness for stage 2 meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) and to identify other key factors that affect their readiness for stage 2 meaningful use. A conceptual framework based on the theory of organizational readiness for change was used in a cross-sectional multivariate analysis using 2,083 samples drawn from the HIMSS Analytics survey conducted with US hospitals in 2013. Rural hospitals were less likely to be ready for stage 2 meaningful use compared to urban hospitals in the United States (OR = 0.49) in our final model. Hospitals' past experience with an information exchange initiative, staff size in the information system department, and the Chief Information Officer (CIO)'s responsibility for health information management were identified as the most critical organizational contextual factors that were associated with hospitals' readiness for stage 2. Rural hospitals lag behind urban hospitals in EHR adoption, which will hinder the interoperability of EHRs among providers across the nation. The identification of critical factors that relate to the adoption of EHR systems provides insights into possible organizational change efforts that can help hospitals to succeed in attaining meaningful use requirements. Rural hospitals have increasingly limited resources, which have resulted in a struggle for these facilities to attain meaningful use. Given increasing closures among rural hospitals, it is all the more important that EHR development focus on advancing rural hospital quality of care and linkages with patients and other organizations supporting the care of their patients. © 2016 National Rural Health Association.

Impact of stone branch number on outcomes of percutaneous nephrolithotomy for treatment of staghorn calculi.

PubMed

Qi, Shiyong; Li, Li; Liu, Ranlu; Qiao, Baomin; Zhang, Zhihong; Xu, Yong

2014-02-01

To determine the impact of staghorn calculi branch number on outcomes of percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PNL). Retrospectively, we evaluated 371 patients (386 renal units) who underwent PNL for staghorn calculi. All calculi were showed with CT three-dimensional reconstruction (3DR) imaging preoperatively. From 3DR images, the number of stone branching into minor renal calices was recorded. According to the number, patients were divided into four groups. Group 1: the branch number 2-4; Group 2: the branch number 5-7; Group 3: the branch number 8-10; Group 4: the branch number >10. The number of percutaneous tract, operative time, staged PNL, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative hospital stay, complications, main stone composition, and stone clearance rate were compared. A significantly higher ratio of multitract (p<0.001) and staged PNL (p<0.001), a longer operative time (p<0.001) and postoperative hospital stay (p=0.043), and a lower rate of stone clearance (p<0.05) were found in PNL for calculi with a stone branch number ≥5. There was no statistical difference in intraoperative blood loss (p=0.101) and main stone composition (p=0.546). There was no statistically meaningful difference among the four groups based on the Clavien complication system (p=0.46). With the stone branch number more than five, the possibility of multitract and staged PNL, lower rate of stone clearance, and a longer postoperative hospital stay increases for staghorn calculi.

Caregivers' health literacy and their young children's oral-health-related expenditures.

PubMed

Vann, W F; Divaris, K; Gizlice, Z; Baker, A D; Lee, J Y

2013-07-01

Caregivers' health literacy has emerged as an important determinant of young children's health care and outcomes. We examined the hypothesis that caregivers' health literacy influences children's oral-health-care-related expenditures. This was a prospective cohort study of 1,132 child/caregiver dyads (children's mean age = 19 months), participating in the Carolina Oral Health Literacy Project. Health literacy was measured by the REALD-30 (word recognition based) and NVS (comprehension based) instruments. Follow-up data included child Medicaid claims for CY2008-10. We quantified expenditures using annualized 2010 fee-adjusted Medicaid-paid dollars for oral-health-related visits involving preventive, restorative, and emergency care. We used descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate statistical methods based on generalized gamma models. Mean oral-health-related annual expenditures totaled $203: preventive--$81, restorative--$99, and emergency care--$22. Among children who received services, mean expenditures were: emergency hospital-based--$1282, preventive--$106, and restorative care--$343. Caregivers' low literacy in the oral health context was associated with a statistically non-significant increase in total expenditures (average annual difference = $40; 95% confidence interval, -32, 111). Nevertheless, with both instruments, emergency dental care expenditures were consistently elevated among children of low-literacy caregivers. These findings provide initial support for health literacy as an important determinant of the meaningful use and cost of oral health care.

Effects of robot-assisted training on upper limb functional recovery during the rehabilitation of poststroke patients.

PubMed

Daunoraviciene, Kristina; Adomaviciene, Ausra; Grigonyte, Agne; Griškevičius, Julius; Juocevicius, Alvydas

2018-05-18

The study aims to determine the effectiveness of robot-assisted training in the recovery of stroke-affected arms using an exoskeleton robot Armeo Spring. To identify the effect of robot training on functional recovery of the arm. A total of 34 stroke patients were divided into either an experimental group (EG; n= 17) or a control group (n= 17). EG was also trained to use the Armeo Spring during occupational therapy. Both groups were clinically assessed before and after treatment. Statistical comparison methods (i.e. one-tailed t-tests for differences between two independent means and the simplest test) were conducted to compare motor recovery using robot-assisted training or conventional therapy. Patients assigned to the EG showed a statistically significant improvement in upper extremity motor function when compared to the CG by FIM (P< 0.05) and ACER (P< 0.05). The calculated treatment effect in the EG and CG was meaningful for shoulder and elbow kinematic parameters. The findings show the benefits of robot therapy in two areas of functional recovery. Task-oriented robotic training in rehabilitation setting facilitates recovery not only of the motor function of the paretic arm but also of the cognitive abilities in stroke patients.

Data preparation techniques for a perinatal psychiatric study based on linked data.

PubMed

Xu, Fenglian; Hilder, Lisa; Austin, Marie-Paule; Sullivan, Elizabeth A

2012-06-08

In recent years there has been an increase in the use of population-based linked data. However, there is little literature that describes the method of linked data preparation. This paper describes the method for merging data, calculating the statistical variable (SV), recoding psychiatric diagnoses and summarizing hospital admissions for a perinatal psychiatric study. The data preparation techniques described in this paper are based on linked birth data from the New South Wales (NSW) Midwives Data Collection (MDC), the Register of Congenital Conditions (RCC), the Admitted Patient Data Collection (APDC) and the Pharmaceutical Drugs of Addiction System (PHDAS). The master dataset is the meaningfully linked data which include all or major study data collections. The master dataset can be used to improve the data quality, calculate the SV and can be tailored for different analyses. To identify hospital admissions in the periods before pregnancy, during pregnancy and after birth, a statistical variable of time interval (SVTI) needs to be calculated. The methods and SPSS syntax for building a master dataset, calculating the SVTI, recoding the principal diagnoses of mental illness and summarizing hospital admissions are described. Linked data preparation, including building the master dataset and calculating the SV, can improve data quality and enhance data function.

Effects of Extended-Release Niacin and Extended-Release Niacin/Laropiprant on the Pharmacokinetics of Simvastatin in Healthy Subjects.

PubMed

Lauring, Brett; Dishy, Victor; De Kam, Pieter-Jan; Crumley, Tami; Wenning, Larissa; Liu, Fang; Sisk, Christine; Wagner, John; Lai, Eseng

2015-01-01

The use of multiple lipid-modifying agents with different mechanisms of action is often required to regulate lipid levels in patients with dyslipidemia. During combination therapy, alterations in the pharmacokinetics of any of the drugs used and their metabolites may occur. Three separate open-label, randomized, crossover studies evaluated the potential for pharmacokinetic interaction between extended-release niacin (with and without concomitant laropiprant) and simvastatin in healthy subjects. Study 1 used single doses of extended-release niacin and simvastatin; study 2 used multiple-dose coadministration of extended-release niacin/laropiprant and simvastatin in healthy subjects; and study 3 used single doses of both extended-release niacin and the coadministration of extended-release niacin/laropiprant and simvastatin in healthy Chinese subjects. During each treatment period, plasma samples were collected predose and at prespecified postdose time points for pharmacokinetic analyses. The safety and tolerability of simvastatin with and without coadministered extended-release niacin (or extended-release niacin/laropiprant) were assessed by clinical evaluation of adverse experiences. In 2 studies in healthy subjects, modest increases in exposure to simvastatin acid (by ∼60%) by extended-release niacin and extended-release niacin/laropiprant were observed. Based on the clinical experience with simvastatin, these effects are not believed to be clinically meaningful. In the third study on healthy Chinese subjects, no statistically meaningful increases in exposure to simvastatin by extended-release niacin and extended-release niacin/laropiprant were observed. In all populations examined in these studies, the coadministration of extended-release niacin and simvastatin was generally well tolerated.

The evolution of microbial species - a view through the genomic lens

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

Varghese, Neha; Mukherjee, Supratim; ivanova, Natalia

2014-03-17

For a long time prokaryotic species definition has been under debate and a constant source of turmoil in microbiology. This has recently prompted the ASM to call for a scalable and reproducible technique, which uses meaningful commonalities to cluster microorganisms into groups corresponding to prokaryotic species. Whole-genome Average Nucleotide Identity (gANI) was previously suggested as a measure of genetic distance that generally agrees with prokaryotic species assignments based on the accepted best practices (DNA-DNA hybridization and 16S rDNA similarity). In this work, we prove that gANI is indeed the meaningful commonality based on which microorganisms can be grouped into themore » aforementioned clusters. By analyzing 1.76 million pairs of genomes we find that identification of the closest relatives of an organism via gANI is precise, scalable, reproducible, and reflects the evolutionary dynamics of microbes. We model the previously unexplored statistical properties of gANI using 6,000 microbial genomes and apply species-specific gANI cutoffs to reveal anomalies in the current taxonomic species definitions for almost 50percent of the species with multiple genome sequences. We also provide evidence of speciation events and genetic continuums in 17.8percent of those species. We consider disagreements between gANI-based groupings and named species and demonstrate that the former have all the desired features to serve as the much-needed natural groups for moving forward with taxonomy. Further, the groupings identified are presented in detail at http://ani.jgi-psf.org to facilitate comprehensive downstream analysis for researchers across different disciplines« less

Technical Note: The Initial Stages of Statistical Data Analysis

PubMed Central

Tandy, Richard D.

1998-01-01

Objective: To provide an overview of several important data-related considerations in the design stage of a research project and to review the levels of measurement and their relationship to the statistical technique chosen for the data analysis. Background: When planning a study, the researcher must clearly define the research problem and narrow it down to specific, testable questions. The next steps are to identify the variables in the study, decide how to group and treat subjects, and determine how to measure, and the underlying level of measurement of, the dependent variables. Then the appropriate statistical technique can be selected for data analysis. Description: The four levels of measurement in increasing complexity are nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio. Nominal data are categorical or “count” data, and the numbers are treated as labels. Ordinal data can be ranked in a meaningful order by magnitude. Interval data possess the characteristics of ordinal data and also have equal distances between levels. Ratio data have a natural zero point. Nominal and ordinal data are analyzed with nonparametric statistical techniques and interval and ratio data with parametric statistical techniques. Advantages: Understanding the four levels of measurement and when it is appropriate to use each is important in determining which statistical technique to use when analyzing data. PMID:16558489

Sex and hemisphere differences when mentally rotating meaningful and meaningless stimuli.

PubMed

Rilea, Stacy L

2008-05-01

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the influence of stimulus type and sex on strategy use and hemispheric processing during the mental rotation task. Participants included 67 right-handed men and women who completed three mental rotation tasks, all presented bilaterally. Participants rotated human stick figures, alphanumeric stimuli, and a two-dimensional (2D) meaningless object. No hemispheric differences were observed when rotating human stick figures, suggesting that men and women may rely on the same strategy. A left hemisphere advantage was observed in women when rotating alphanumeric stimuli, suggesting they may be relying on a verbal strategy, whereas no hemispheric differences were observed for men. Finally, inconsistent with predictions, no hemisphere differences were observed when rotating two-dimensional objects. The findings from the current study suggest that both the meaningfulness and the type of stimulus presented may influence strategy use differently for men and women.

Descriptive Statistics: Reporting the Answers to the 5 Basic Questions of Who, What, Why, When, Where, and a Sixth, So What?

PubMed

Vetter, Thomas R

2017-11-01

Descriptive statistics are specific methods basically used to calculate, describe, and summarize collected research data in a logical, meaningful, and efficient way. Descriptive statistics are reported numerically in the manuscript text and/or in its tables, or graphically in its figures. This basic statistical tutorial discusses a series of fundamental concepts about descriptive statistics and their reporting. The mean, median, and mode are 3 measures of the center or central tendency of a set of data. In addition to a measure of its central tendency (mean, median, or mode), another important characteristic of a research data set is its variability or dispersion (ie, spread). In simplest terms, variability is how much the individual recorded scores or observed values differ from one another. The range, standard deviation, and interquartile range are 3 measures of variability or dispersion. The standard deviation is typically reported for a mean, and the interquartile range for a median. Testing for statistical significance, along with calculating the observed treatment effect (or the strength of the association between an exposure and an outcome), and generating a corresponding confidence interval are 3 tools commonly used by researchers (and their collaborating biostatistician or epidemiologist) to validly make inferences and more generalized conclusions from their collected data and descriptive statistics. A number of journals, including Anesthesia & Analgesia, strongly encourage or require the reporting of pertinent confidence intervals. A confidence interval can be calculated for virtually any variable or outcome measure in an experimental, quasi-experimental, or observational research study design. Generally speaking, in a clinical trial, the confidence interval is the range of values within which the true treatment effect in the population likely resides. In an observational study, the confidence interval is the range of values within which the true strength of the association between the exposure and the outcome (eg, the risk ratio or odds ratio) in the population likely resides. There are many possible ways to graphically display or illustrate different types of data. While there is often latitude as to the choice of format, ultimately, the simplest and most comprehensible format is preferred. Common examples include a histogram, bar chart, line chart or line graph, pie chart, scatterplot, and box-and-whisker plot. Valid and reliable descriptive statistics can answer basic yet important questions about a research data set, namely: "Who, What, Why, When, Where, How, How Much?"

Bayesian inference of physiologically meaningful parameters from body sway measurements.

PubMed

Tietäväinen, A; Gutmann, M U; Keski-Vakkuri, E; Corander, J; Hæggström, E

2017-06-19

The control of the human body sway by the central nervous system, muscles, and conscious brain is of interest since body sway carries information about the physiological status of a person. Several models have been proposed to describe body sway in an upright standing position, however, due to the statistical intractability of the more realistic models, no formal parameter inference has previously been conducted and the expressive power of such models for real human subjects remains unknown. Using the latest advances in Bayesian statistical inference for intractable models, we fitted a nonlinear control model to posturographic measurements, and we showed that it can accurately predict the sway characteristics of both simulated and real subjects. Our method provides a full statistical characterization of the uncertainty related to all model parameters as quantified by posterior probability density functions, which is useful for comparisons across subjects and test settings. The ability to infer intractable control models from sensor data opens new possibilities for monitoring and predicting body status in health applications.

Long-term evolution of a planetesimal swarm in the vicinity of a protoplanet

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kary, David M.; Lissauer, Jack J.

1991-01-01

Many models of planet formation involve scenarios in which one or a few large protoplanets interact with a swarm of much smaller planetesimals. In such scenarios, three-body perturbations by the protoplanet as well as mutual collisions and gravitational interactions between the swarm bodies are important in determining the velocity distribution of the swarm. We are developing a model to examine the effects of these processes on the evolution of a planetesimal swarm. The model consists of a combination of numerical integrations of the gravitational influence of one (or a few) massive protoplanets on swarm bodies together with a statistical treatment of the interactions between the planetesimals. Integrating the planetesimal orbits allows us to take into account effects that are difficult to model analytically or statistically, such as three-body collision cross-sections and resonant perturbations by the protoplanet, while using a statistical treatment for the particle-particle interactions allows us to use a large enough sample to obtain meaningful results.

Growth Of New York Physician Participation In Meaningful Use Of Electronic Health Records Was Variable, 2011-12.

PubMed

Jung, Hye-Young; Unruh, Mark A; Kaushal, Rainu; Vest, Joshua R

2015-06-01

The federal government has invested $30 billion to promote the adoption and use of electronic health records (EHRs) through the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs. However, the associations between the characteristics of physicians, practices, and markets and the patterns of provider participation in ongoing federal meaningful-use incentive programs over time have been largely unexplored. In this article we describe the participation of New York physicians during the first two years of the meaningful-use initiative. We examined longitudinal patterns to identify characteristics associated with nonparticipation, late adoption of EHRs, noncontinuous participation, and switching programs. We found that 8.1 percent of 26,368 New York physicians participated in the Medicare incentive program in 2011, and 6.1 percent participated in the Medicaid program. Physician participation in the programs grew to 23.9 percent and 8.5 percent, respectively, in 2012. Many physicians in the Medicaid incentive program in 2011 did not participate in either program in 2012. Prior EHR use, access to financial resources, and organizational capacity were physician characteristics associated with early and consistent participation in the meaningful-use initiative. Annual participation requirements, coupled with different options to meet meaningful-use criteria under the incentive programs, create disparate groups of physicians, which illustrates the need to monitor participants for continued participation. Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

A Fast Framework for Abrupt Change Detection Based on Binary Search Trees and Kolmogorov Statistic

PubMed Central

Qi, Jin-Peng; Qi, Jie; Zhang, Qing

2016-01-01

Change-Point (CP) detection has attracted considerable attention in the fields of data mining and statistics; it is very meaningful to discuss how to quickly and efficiently detect abrupt change from large-scale bioelectric signals. Currently, most of the existing methods, like Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) statistic and so forth, are time-consuming, especially for large-scale datasets. In this paper, we propose a fast framework for abrupt change detection based on binary search trees (BSTs) and a modified KS statistic, named BSTKS (binary search trees and Kolmogorov statistic). In this method, first, two binary search trees, termed as BSTcA and BSTcD, are constructed by multilevel Haar Wavelet Transform (HWT); second, three search criteria are introduced in terms of the statistic and variance fluctuations in the diagnosed time series; last, an optimal search path is detected from the root to leaf nodes of two BSTs. The studies on both the synthetic time series samples and the real electroencephalograph (EEG) recordings indicate that the proposed BSTKS can detect abrupt change more quickly and efficiently than KS, t-statistic (t), and Singular-Spectrum Analyses (SSA) methods, with the shortest computation time, the highest hit rate, the smallest error, and the highest accuracy out of four methods. This study suggests that the proposed BSTKS is very helpful for useful information inspection on all kinds of bioelectric time series signals. PMID:27413364

Key statistical and analytical issues for evaluating treatment effects in periodontal research.

PubMed

Tu, Yu-Kang; Gilthorpe, Mark S

2012-06-01

Statistics is an indispensible tool for evaluating treatment effects in clinical research. Due to the complexities of periodontal disease progression and data collection, statistical analyses for periodontal research have been a great challenge for both clinicians and statisticians. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of several basic, but important, statistical issues related to the evaluation of treatment effects and to clarify some common statistical misconceptions. Some of these issues are general, concerning many disciplines, and some are unique to periodontal research. We first discuss several statistical concepts that have sometimes been overlooked or misunderstood by periodontal researchers. For instance, decisions about whether to use the t-test or analysis of covariance, or whether to use parametric tests such as the t-test or its non-parametric counterpart, the Mann-Whitney U-test, have perplexed many periodontal researchers. We also describe more advanced methodological issues that have sometimes been overlooked by researchers. For instance, the phenomenon of regression to the mean is a fundamental issue to be considered when evaluating treatment effects, and collinearity amongst covariates is a conundrum that must be resolved when explaining and predicting treatment effects. Quick and easy solutions to these methodological and analytical issues are not always available in the literature, and careful statistical thinking is paramount when conducting useful and meaningful research. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

A Fast Framework for Abrupt Change Detection Based on Binary Search Trees and Kolmogorov Statistic.

PubMed

Qi, Jin-Peng; Qi, Jie; Zhang, Qing

2016-01-01

Change-Point (CP) detection has attracted considerable attention in the fields of data mining and statistics; it is very meaningful to discuss how to quickly and efficiently detect abrupt change from large-scale bioelectric signals. Currently, most of the existing methods, like Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) statistic and so forth, are time-consuming, especially for large-scale datasets. In this paper, we propose a fast framework for abrupt change detection based on binary search trees (BSTs) and a modified KS statistic, named BSTKS (binary search trees and Kolmogorov statistic). In this method, first, two binary search trees, termed as BSTcA and BSTcD, are constructed by multilevel Haar Wavelet Transform (HWT); second, three search criteria are introduced in terms of the statistic and variance fluctuations in the diagnosed time series; last, an optimal search path is detected from the root to leaf nodes of two BSTs. The studies on both the synthetic time series samples and the real electroencephalograph (EEG) recordings indicate that the proposed BSTKS can detect abrupt change more quickly and efficiently than KS, t-statistic (t), and Singular-Spectrum Analyses (SSA) methods, with the shortest computation time, the highest hit rate, the smallest error, and the highest accuracy out of four methods. This study suggests that the proposed BSTKS is very helpful for useful information inspection on all kinds of bioelectric time series signals.

Precision measurements of solar energetic particle elemental composition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Breneman, H.; Stone, E. C.

1985-01-01

Using data from the Cosmic Ray Subsystem (CRS) aboard the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft, solar energetic particle abundances or upper limits for all elements with 3 = Z = 30 from a combined set of 10 solar flares during the 1977 to 1982 time period were determined. Statistically meaningful abundances have been determined for the first time for several rare elements including P, Cl, K, Ti and Mn, while the precision of the mean abundances for the more abundant elements has been improved by typically a factor of approximately 3 over previously reported values.

Solar photospheric and coronal abundances from solar energetic particle measurements. Ph.D. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Breneman, H.

1985-01-01

Observations of solar energetic particles (SEP) from 22 solar flares in the 1977 to 1982 time period are reported. SEP abundances were obtained for all elements with 3 approximately less than Z approximately less than 30 except Li, Be, B, F, Sc, v, Co and Cu for which upper limits were obtained. Statistically meaningful abundances of several rare elements (P, Cl, K, Ti, and Mn) were determined for the first time, and the average abundance of the more abundant elements were determined with improved precision.

Motives for meaningful involvement in rural AIDS service organizations

PubMed Central

Paterson, Barbara L.; Ross, Steven; Gaudet, Ted

2013-01-01

The research described herein was a three-year exploratory descriptive study to examine how meaningful involvement (MIPA) is conceptualized and experienced in rural regions of the Maritime provinces of Canada. The focus of this paper is one aspect of the research; i.e., what motivates the clients of AIDS Service Organizations (ASOs) in rural Canada to become meaningfully involved? We interviewed 34 people who were past or current clients of ASOs in Maritime Canada and who self-reported as engaging in at-risk behaviors for HIV or living with HIV. The interviews explored participants' perspectives about their motives for becoming meaningfully involved in an ASO. Three themes regarding motives for MIPA were revealed: (1) meeting personal needs; (2) making a difference to others; and (3) recognizing a fit between their skills, goals, needs and the opportunities and experiences within the ASO and with other ASO clients. Participants generally cited more than one motive. This research study contributed to the field of knowledge about the motives for MIPA in which it reveals (1) that MIPA was conceptualized by the rural ASO clients as whatever participation provided them personal meaning (i.e., by fulfilling a personal need, by making a difference, and by recognizing a fit) and (2) the important role that ASO staff and volunteers have in fostering and sustaining MIPA. The study also highlighted a trajectory of involvements that support the need for ASOs to entertain a wide range of roles that are assumed as MIPA. PMID:24111835

Event segmentation improves event memory up to one month later.

PubMed

Flores, Shaney; Bailey, Heather R; Eisenberg, Michelle L; Zacks, Jeffrey M

2017-08-01

When people observe everyday activity, they spontaneously parse it into discrete meaningful events. Individuals who segment activity in a more normative fashion show better subsequent memory for the events. If segmenting events effectively leads to better memory, does asking people to attend to segmentation improve subsequent memory? To answer this question, participants viewed movies of naturalistic activity with instructions to remember the activity for a later test, and in some conditions additionally pressed a button to segment the movies into meaningful events or performed a control condition that required button-pressing but not attending to segmentation. In 5 experiments, memory for the movies was assessed at intervals ranging from immediately following viewing to 1 month later. Performing the event segmentation task led to superior memory at delays ranging from 10 min to 1 month. Further, individual differences in segmentation ability predicted individual differences in memory performance for up to a month following encoding. This study provides the first evidence that manipulating event segmentation affects memory over long delays and that individual differences in event segmentation are related to differences in memory over long delays. These effects suggest that attending to how an activity breaks down into meaningful events contributes to memory formation. Instructing people to more effectively segment events may serve as a potential intervention to alleviate everyday memory complaints in aging and clinical populations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Impact of a Pilot Videogame-Based Physical Activity Program on Walking Speed in Adults with Schizophrenia.

PubMed

Leutwyler, H; Hubbard, E; Cooper, B A; Dowling, G

2017-11-10

The purpose of this report is to describe the impact of a videogame-based physical activity program using the Kinect for Xbox 360 game system (Microsoft, Redmond, WA) on walking speed in adults with schizophrenia. In this randomized controlled trial, 28 participants played either an active videogame for 30 min (intervention group) or played a sedentary videogame for 30 min (control group), once a week for 6 weeks. Walking speed was measured objectively with the Short Physical Performance Battery at enrollment and at the end of the 6-week program. The intervention group (n = 13) showed an average improvement in walking speed of 0.08 m/s and the control group (n = 15) showed an average improvement in walking speed of 0.03 m/s. Although the change in walking speed was not statistically significant, the intervention group had between a small and substantial clinically meaningful change. The results suggest a videogame based physical activity program provides clinically meaningful improvement in walking speed, an important indicator of health status.

Bit-Grooming: Shave Your Bits with Razor-sharp Precision

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zender, C. S.; Silver, J.

2017-12-01

Lossless compression can reduce climate data storage by 30-40%. Further reduction requires lossy compression that also reduces precision. Fortunately, geoscientific models and measurements generate false precision (scientifically meaningless data bits) that can be eliminated without sacrificing scientifically meaningful data. We introduce Bit Grooming, a lossy compression algorithm that removes the bloat due to false-precision, those bits and bytes beyond the meaningful precision of the data.Bit Grooming is statistically unbiased, applies to all floating point numbers, and is easy to use. Bit-Grooming reduces geoscience data storage requirements by 40-80%. We compared Bit Grooming to competitors Linear Packing, Layer Packing, and GRIB2/JPEG2000. The other compression methods have the edge in terms of compression, but Bit Grooming is the most accurate and certainly the most usable and portable.Bit Grooming provides flexible and well-balanced solutions to the trade-offs among compression, accuracy, and usability required by lossy compression. Geoscientists could reduce their long term storage costs, and show leadership in the elimination of false precision, by adopting Bit Grooming.

Enhancing the Meaningfulness of Work for Astronauts on Long Duration Space Exploration Missions.

PubMed

Britt, Thomas W; Sytine, Anton; Brady, Ashley; Wilkes, Russ; Pittman, Rebecca; Jennings, Kristen; Goguen, Kandice

2017-08-01

Numerous authors have identified the stressors likely to be encountered on long duration space exploration missions (e.g., to Mars), including the possibility of significant crises, separation from family, boredom/monotony, and interpersonal conflict. Although many authors have noted that meaningful work may be beneficial for astronauts on these missions, none have detailed the sources of meaningful work for astronauts and how these sources may differ between astronauts. The present article identifies how engagement in meaningful work during long duration missions may mitigate the adverse effects of demands and increase the potential for benefits resulting from the missions. Semistructured interviews were conducted with nine NASA personnel, including astronauts, flight directors, and flight surgeons. Questions addressed sources of meaning for astronauts, characteristics of tasks that enhance vs. detract from meaning, and recommendations for enhancing meaning. Personnel mentioned contributing to humanity and the next generation, contributing to the mission, and exploration as the most meaningful aspects of their work. Characteristics of tasks that enhanced meaning included using a variety of skills, feeling personal control over their schedule, autonomy in the execution of tasks, and understanding the importance of the experiments conducted on the mission. Top recommendations to sustain meaning were insuring social needs were met through such activities as the strategic use of social media, giving astronauts autonomy as well as structure, and conducting training during transit. Implications are addressed for tailoring meaning-based interventions for astronauts participating on long duration missions and assessing the effectiveness of these interventions.Britt TW, Sytine A, Brady A, Wilkes R, Pittman R, Jennings K, Goguen K. Enhancing the meaningfulness of work for astronauts on long duration space exploration missions. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2017; 88(8):779-783.

Are there meaningful individual differences in temporal inconsistency in self-reported personality?

PubMed

Soubelet, Andrea; Salthouse, Timothy A; Oishi, Shigehiro

2014-11-01

The current project had three goals. The first was to examine whether it is meaningful to refer to across-time variability in self-reported personality as an individual differences characteristic. The second was to investigate whether negative affect was associated with variability in self-reported personality, while controlling for mean levels, and correcting for measurement errors. The third goal was to examine whether variability in self-reported personality would be larger among young adults than among older adults, and whether the relation of variability with negative affect would be stronger at older ages than at younger ages. Two moderately large samples of participants completed the International Item Pool Personality questionnaire assessing the Big Five personality dimensions either twice or thrice, in addition to several measures of negative affect. Results were consistent with the hypothesis that within-person variability in self-reported personality is a meaningful individual difference characteristic. Some people exhibited greater across-time variability than others after removing measurement error, and people who showed temporal instability in one trait also exhibited temporal instability across the other four traits. However, temporal variability was not related to negative affect, and there was no evidence that either temporal variability or its association with negative affect varied with age.

Penalized likelihood and multi-objective spatial scans for the detection and inference of irregular clusters

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background Irregularly shaped spatial clusters are difficult to delineate. A cluster found by an algorithm often spreads through large portions of the map, impacting its geographical meaning. Penalized likelihood methods for Kulldorff's spatial scan statistics have been used to control the excessive freedom of the shape of clusters. Penalty functions based on cluster geometry and non-connectivity have been proposed recently. Another approach involves the use of a multi-objective algorithm to maximize two objectives: the spatial scan statistics and the geometric penalty function. Results & Discussion We present a novel scan statistic algorithm employing a function based on the graph topology to penalize the presence of under-populated disconnection nodes in candidate clusters, the disconnection nodes cohesion function. A disconnection node is defined as a region within a cluster, such that its removal disconnects the cluster. By applying this function, the most geographically meaningful clusters are sifted through the immense set of possible irregularly shaped candidate cluster solutions. To evaluate the statistical significance of solutions for multi-objective scans, a statistical approach based on the concept of attainment function is used. In this paper we compared different penalized likelihoods employing the geometric and non-connectivity regularity functions and the novel disconnection nodes cohesion function. We also build multi-objective scans using those three functions and compare them with the previous penalized likelihood scans. An application is presented using comprehensive state-wide data for Chagas' disease in puerperal women in Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Conclusions We show that, compared to the other single-objective algorithms, multi-objective scans present better performance, regarding power, sensitivity and positive predicted value. The multi-objective non-connectivity scan is faster and better suited for the detection of moderately irregularly shaped clusters. The multi-objective cohesion scan is most effective for the detection of highly irregularly shaped clusters. PMID:21034451

Advancing Research on Racial–Ethnic Health Disparities: Improving Measurement Equivalence in Studies with Diverse Samples

PubMed Central

Landrine, Hope; Corral, Irma

2014-01-01

To conduct meaningful, epidemiologic research on racial–ethnic health disparities, racial–ethnic samples must be rendered equivalent on other social status and contextual variables via statistical controls of those extraneous factors. The racial–ethnic groups must also be equally familiar with and have similar responses to the methods and measures used to collect health data, must have equal opportunity to participate in the research, and must be equally representative of their respective populations. In the absence of such measurement equivalence, studies of racial–ethnic health disparities are confounded by a plethora of unmeasured, uncontrolled correlates of race–ethnicity. Those correlates render the samples, methods, and measures incomparable across racial–ethnic groups, and diminish the ability to attribute health differences discovered to race–ethnicity vs. to its correlates. This paper reviews the non-equivalent yet normative samples, methodologies and measures used in epidemiologic studies of racial–ethnic health disparities, and provides concrete suggestions for improving sample, method, and scalar measurement equivalence. PMID:25566524

Machine Detection of Enhanced Electromechanical Energy Conversion in PbZr 0.2Ti 0.8O 3 Thin Films

DOE PAGES

Agar, Joshua C.; Cao, Ye; Naul, Brett; ...

2018-05-28

Many energy conversion, sensing, and microelectronic applications based on ferroic materials are determined by the domain structure evolution under applied stimuli. New hyperspectral, multidimensional spectroscopic techniques now probe dynamic responses at relevant length and time scales to provide an understanding of how these nanoscale domain structures impact macroscopic properties. Such approaches, however, remain limited in use because of the difficulties that exist in extracting and visualizing scientific insights from these complex datasets. Using multidimensional band-excitation scanning probe spectroscopy and adapting tools from both computer vision and machine learning, an automated workflow is developed to featurize, detect, and classify signatures ofmore » ferroelectric/ferroelastic switching processes in complex ferroelectric domain structures. This approach enables the identification and nanoscale visualization of varied modes of response and a pathway to statistically meaningful quantification of the differences between those modes. Lastly, among other things, the importance of domain geometry is spatially visualized for enhancing nanoscale electromechanical energy conversion.« less

Identifying Nanoscale Structure-Function Relationships Using Multimodal Atomic Force Microscopy, Dimensionality Reduction, and Regression Techniques.

PubMed

Kong, Jessica; Giridharagopal, Rajiv; Harrison, Jeffrey S; Ginger, David S

2018-05-31

Correlating nanoscale chemical specificity with operational physics is a long-standing goal of functional scanning probe microscopy (SPM). We employ a data analytic approach combining multiple microscopy modes, using compositional information in infrared vibrational excitation maps acquired via photoinduced force microscopy (PiFM) with electrical information from conductive atomic force microscopy. We study a model polymer blend comprising insulating poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and semiconducting poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT). We show that PiFM spectra are different from FTIR spectra, but can still be used to identify local composition. We use principal component analysis to extract statistically significant principal components and principal component regression to predict local current and identify local polymer composition. In doing so, we observe evidence of semiconducting P3HT within PMMA aggregates. These methods are generalizable to correlated SPM data and provide a meaningful technique for extracting complex compositional information that are impossible to measure from any one technique.

The effect of music on 10-km cycle time-trial performance.

PubMed

Hagen, Jana; Foster, Carl; Rodríguez-Marroyo, Jose; de Koning, Jos J; Mikat, Richard P; Hendrix, Charles R; Porcari, John P

2013-01-01

Music is widely used as an ergogenic aid in sport, but there is little evidence of its effectiveness during closed-loop athletic events. In order to determine the effectiveness of music as an ergogenic aid, well-trained and task-habituated cyclists performed 10-km cycle time trials either while listening to self-selected motivational music or with auditory input blocked. There were no statistically significant differences in performance time or physiological or psychological markers related to music (time-trial duration17.75 ± 2.10 vs 17.81 ± 2.06 min, mean power output 222 ± 66 vs 220 ± 65 W, peak heart rate184 ± 9 vs 183 ± 8 beats/min, peak blood lactate12.1 ± 2.6 vs 11.9 ± 2.1 mmol/L, and final rating of perceived exertion 8.4 ± 1.5 vs 8.5 ± 1.6). It is concluded that during exercise at competitive intensity, there is no meaningful effect of music on either performance or physiology.

Machine Detection of Enhanced Electromechanical Energy Conversion in PbZr 0.2Ti 0.8O 3 Thin Films

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

Agar, Joshua C.; Cao, Ye; Naul, Brett

Many energy conversion, sensing, and microelectronic applications based on ferroic materials are determined by the domain structure evolution under applied stimuli. New hyperspectral, multidimensional spectroscopic techniques now probe dynamic responses at relevant length and time scales to provide an understanding of how these nanoscale domain structures impact macroscopic properties. Such approaches, however, remain limited in use because of the difficulties that exist in extracting and visualizing scientific insights from these complex datasets. Using multidimensional band-excitation scanning probe spectroscopy and adapting tools from both computer vision and machine learning, an automated workflow is developed to featurize, detect, and classify signatures ofmore » ferroelectric/ferroelastic switching processes in complex ferroelectric domain structures. This approach enables the identification and nanoscale visualization of varied modes of response and a pathway to statistically meaningful quantification of the differences between those modes. Lastly, among other things, the importance of domain geometry is spatially visualized for enhancing nanoscale electromechanical energy conversion.« less

Skeletonization of gray-scale images by gray weighted distance transform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qian, Kai; Cao, Siqi; Bhattacharya, Prabir

1997-07-01

In pattern recognition, thinning algorithms are often a useful tool to represent a digital pattern by means of a skeletonized image, consisting of a set of one-pixel-width lines that highlight the significant features interest in applying thinning directly to gray-scale images, motivated by the desire of processing images characterized by meaningful information distributed over different levels of gray intensity. In this paper, a new algorithm is presented which can skeletonize both black-white and gray pictures. This algorithm is based on the gray distance transformation and can be used to process any non-well uniformly distributed gray-scale picture and can preserve the topology of original picture. This process includes a preliminary phase of investigation in the 'hollows' in the gray-scale image; these hollows are considered not as topological constrains for the skeleton structure depending on their statistically significant depth. This algorithm can also be executed on a parallel machine as all the operations are executed in local. Some examples are discussed to illustrate the algorithm.

The effective factors on library anxiety of students in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and Shiraz University of Medical Sciences

PubMed Central

Ashrafi-rizi, Hasan; Sajad, Maryam Sadat; Rahmani, Sedigheh; Bahrami, Susan; Papi, Ahmad

2014-01-01

Introduction: The efficient use of libraries can be an important factor in determining the educational quality of Universities. Therefore, investigation and identification of factors affecting library anxiety becomes increasingly necessary. The purpose of this research is to determine the factors effecting library anxiety of students in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. Materials and Methods: This was an applied survey research using Bostick's Library Anxiety questionnaire as data gathering tool. The statistical population consisted of all students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (15011 students) with the sample size of 375 using stratified random sampling. The validity of data gathering tool was confirmed by experts in the library and information science and its reliability was determined by Cronbach's alpha (r = 0.92). Descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (t-test and ANOVA) were used for data analysis using SPSS 18 software. Results: Findings showed that the mean of library anxiety score was 2.68 and 2.66 for students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and Shiraz University of Medical Sciences respectively which is above average (2.5). Furthermore, age and gender had no meaningful effect on the library anxiety of students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, but gender had a meaningful effect on library anxiety of students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences while age had no such effect. Conclusion: The results showed that the mean of factors effecting library anxiety in students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences is higher than average and therefore not satisfactory and only factors relating to feeling comfortable in the library is lower than average and somewhat satisfactory. PMID:25250358

Results of domestic migration on juvenile delinquency in Adana, Turkey.

PubMed

Firat, Sunay; Iltas, Yigit; Gulmen, Mete K

2017-07-01

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of migration on children in the juvenile justice system. The study takes into account whether these children arrived in the city via migration or not, the types of crimes against property and persons committed by the children brought before the Juvenile Courts, and the types, frequency, and durations of punishments and precautionary decisions they received. In addition, the study examines the children's ability to realize the meaning and consequences of their crimes and to lead their future behaviors effectively. Data gathered from children between 3 and 18 years of age who appeared before the 1, 2, and 3 numbered Juvenile Courts of Adana Courthouse after January 2004 on charges of committing a crime, and/or children who were sent to or who applied to the Provincial Directorate for National Education based on the decision of the Court has been evaluated retrospectively. Six hundred and eighty children were studied. Of these, 602 (88.5%) were male and 78 (11.5) were female. The average age of the child at the time of the commitment of the crime was 13 years and 8 months ± 2.18 years. It has been observed that there are statistically meaningful differences for children involved in delinquency between cases whether they come via migration or regardless of migration and types of crimes committed (p = 0.004). When cities faced with migration from other places and types of crime committed by children are compared, it has been observed that there are meaningful differences between the types of crimes committed by non-migrant versus migrant children (p = 0.012). It is important to state the reasons for delinquency and to obtain data to prevent future delinquency and to put forward regional and local recommendations within the scope of the data. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.

[Association between two different types of strangling and intraocular pressure variation in jiu-jitsu athletes].

PubMed

Scarpi, Marinho Jorge; Conte, Marcelo; Rossin, Reginaldo Alexandre; Skubs, Renato; Lenk, Rudolf Eberhard; Brant, Rodrigo

2009-01-01

To verify the association between two different types of strangling with intraocular pressure variation in jiu-jitsu athletes. An observational study was performed on 9 athletes of jiu-jitsu, with at least 6 month of training, male, aged 20 to 30 years, without any physical and eyeball lesions. Associations between intraocular pressure and Cross Choke from the guard strangling (E1), and E2 - Cross Choke from mount strangling were gotten. Intraocular pressure was determined by using Perkins tonometer, at first in the absence of physical exercise over the last 24 hours and after each strangling. Then it was carried out the intraocular pressure measure at each 3 minutes, during 12 minutes of exercise recovery (R1, R2, R3, and R4) keeping the athletes lied down. Statistical analysis was done using ANOVA test and Bonferroni post-test. Meaningful reduction of both eyes intraocular pressure occurred at the E2 situation comparing to the E1 situation at all exercise recovery measures: R1 (OD: 8.22 +/- 1.39 vs.11.33 +/- 2.00 / OE: 8.55 +/- 1.23 vs. 11.88 +/- 1.90), R2 (OD: 8.44 +/- 1.87 vs.10.22 +/- 2.53 / OE: 9.00 +/- 1.80 vs. 10.44 +/- 2.35), R3 (OD: 8.44 +/- 1.74 vs.9.78 +/- 2.54 / OE: 8.55 +/- 1.42 vs. 10.33 +/- 1.93) all with p<0,01 e R4 (OD: 8.88 +/- 2.08 vs.9.55 +/- 2.87 / OE: 9.11 +/- 1.53 vs. 10.44 +/- 2.18) with p<0.05. Meaningful IOP reduction (p<0.05) was observed at the R1 moment of E2 strangling (OD: 10.77 +/- 1.92 vs.8.22 +/- 1.39 / OE: 11.44 +/- 1.94 vs. 8.55 +/- 1.23). There is association between intraocular pressure and jiu-jitsu strangling exercises, with intraocular pressure reduction.

A comparison between the effect of fluorescent lamps and quartz halogen incandescent filament lamps on the treatment of hyperbilirobinemia in newborns with the gestational age of 35 weeks or more.

PubMed

Sadeghnia, Alireza; Ganji, Masoud; Armanian, Amir Mohammad

2014-09-01

Icter is the most prevalent disease in newborns. Although most of the newborns affiliated with this seem healthy in other aspects, there is always a fear for toxic complication of indirect hyperbilirobinemia in the central nervous system. Nowadays phototherapy is the method of decreasing (or avoidance of increase) of total serum bilirobin (TSB) and it is also used widely in neonatal health care centers according to the availably of equipment, but without any defined standard. In this study, two light sources, quarts halogen incandescent filament lamp (QHIFL) and fluorescent lamp (FL) are compared with each other to find out which method is more useful and efficient. This study is a randomized controlled trial done on 25 newborns with gestational age of 35 weeks or more, with newborn's icter in the 1(st) week after birth, at Isfahan Behesti Hospital, February 2012 to March 2013. A group of these newborns was treated with FL and the other with QHIFL and they all were controlled and tested according to their level of TSB at the beginning of phototherapy, at 8(th), 12(th), and 24(th) h of treatment and at discharge. The data from the study was analyzed by IBM SPSS Statistics Version 21. According to the findings, the level of TSB before and 8 h after the intervention had no significant difference among the groups. However, at 16(th) and 24(th) h of treatment, the TSB level was lower in the FL group and this difference was meaningful (P = 0.002 and P = 0.013 respectively). Furthermore the duration of the treatment was significantly shorter in FL group meaningfully (P = 0.047). According to the findings of this study, the technology used in QHIFL cannot show the capabilities of the FLs. However, more studies are needed to confirm the findings of this study are universal.

Power in randomized group comparisons: the value of adding a single intermediate time point to a traditional pretest-posttest design.

PubMed

Venter, Anre; Maxwell, Scott E; Bolig, Erika

2002-06-01

Adding a pretest as a covariate to a randomized posttest-only design increases statistical power, as does the addition of intermediate time points to a randomized pretest-posttest design. Although typically 5 waves of data are required in this instance to produce meaningful gains in power, a 3-wave intensive design allows the evaluation of the straight-line growth model and may reduce the effect of missing data. The authors identify the statistically most powerful method of data analysis in the 3-wave intensive design. If straight-line growth is assumed, the pretest-posttest slope must assume fairly extreme values for the intermediate time point to increase power beyond the standard analysis of covariance on the posttest with the pretest as covariate, ignoring the intermediate time point.

Multivariate methods to visualise colour-space and colour discrimination data.

PubMed

Hastings, Gareth D; Rubin, Alan

2015-01-01

Despite most modern colour spaces treating colour as three-dimensional (3-D), colour data is usually not visualised in 3-D (and two-dimensional (2-D) projection-plane segments and multiple 2-D perspective views are used instead). The objectives of this article are firstly, to introduce a truly 3-D percept of colour space using stereo-pairs, secondly to view colour discrimination data using that platform, and thirdly to apply formal statistics and multivariate methods to analyse the data in 3-D. This is the first demonstration of the software that generated stereo-pairs of RGB colour space, as well as of a new computerised procedure that investigated colour discrimination by measuring colour just noticeable differences (JND). An initial pilot study and thorough investigation of instrument repeatability were performed. Thereafter, to demonstrate the capabilities of the software, five colour-normal and one colour-deficient subject were examined using the JND procedure and multivariate methods of data analysis. Scatter plots of responses were meaningfully examined in 3-D and were useful in evaluating multivariate normality as well as identifying outliers. The extent and direction of the difference between each JND response and the stimulus colour point was calculated and appreciated in 3-D. Ellipsoidal surfaces of constant probability density (distribution ellipsoids) were fitted to response data; the volumes of these ellipsoids appeared useful in differentiating the colour-deficient subject from the colour-normals. Hypothesis tests of variances and covariances showed many statistically significant differences between the results of the colour-deficient subject and those of the colour-normals, while far fewer differences were found when comparing within colour-normals. The 3-D visualisation of colour data using stereo-pairs, as well as the statistics and multivariate methods of analysis employed, were found to be unique and useful tools in the representation and study of colour. Many additional studies using these methods along with the JND and other procedures have been identified and will be reported in future publications. © 2014 The Authors Ophthalmic & Physiological Optics © 2014 The College of Optometrists.

A comparison among observations and earthquake simulator results for the allcal2 California fault model

USGS Publications Warehouse

Tullis, Terry. E.; Richards-Dinger, Keith B.; Barall, Michael; Dieterich, James H.; Field, Edward H.; Heien, Eric M.; Kellogg, Louise; Pollitz, Fred F.; Rundle, John B.; Sachs, Michael K.; Turcotte, Donald L.; Ward, Steven N.; Yikilmaz, M. Burak

2012-01-01

In order to understand earthquake hazards we would ideally have a statistical description of earthquakes for tens of thousands of years. Unfortunately the ∼100‐year instrumental, several 100‐year historical, and few 1000‐year paleoseismological records are woefully inadequate to provide a statistically significant record. Physics‐based earthquake simulators can generate arbitrarily long histories of earthquakes; thus they can provide a statistically meaningful history of simulated earthquakes. The question is, how realistic are these simulated histories? This purpose of this paper is to begin to answer that question. We compare the results between different simulators and with information that is known from the limited instrumental, historic, and paleoseismological data.As expected, the results from all the simulators show that the observational record is too short to properly represent the system behavior; therefore, although tests of the simulators against the limited observations are necessary, they are not a sufficient test of the simulators’ realism. The simulators appear to pass this necessary test. In addition, the physics‐based simulators show similar behavior even though there are large differences in the methodology. This suggests that they represent realistic behavior. Different assumptions concerning the constitutive properties of the faults do result in enhanced capabilities of some simulators. However, it appears that the similar behavior of the different simulators may result from the fault‐system geometry, slip rates, and assumed strength drops, along with the shared physics of stress transfer.This paper describes the results of running four earthquake simulators that are described elsewhere in this issue of Seismological Research Letters. The simulators ALLCAL (Ward, 2012), VIRTCAL (Sachs et al., 2012), RSQSim (Richards‐Dinger and Dieterich, 2012), and ViscoSim (Pollitz, 2012) were run on our most recent all‐California fault model, allcal2. With the exception of ViscoSim, which ran for 10,000 years, all the simulators ran for 30,000 years. Presentations containing content similar to this paper can be found at http://scec.usc.edu/research/eqsims/.

Genetics, epidemiology, and cancer disparities: is it black and white?

PubMed

Rebbeck, Timothy R; Halbert, Chanita Hughes; Sankar, Pamela

2006-05-10

Epidemiologic studies attempt to understand the distribution and determinants of human disease. Epidemiologic research often incorporates information about race, ethnicity, or ancestry, usually as a self-identified race or ethnicity (SIRE) variable. Differences in the distribution and determinants of disease on the basis of SIRE may be identified in these studies. In addition, genetic and other biologic differences according to SIRE are frequently reported. If these differences are real and meaningful, they may have value in identifying disease-causative or -preventive factors, and thus may be beneficial to human health. However, the concepts of race, ethnicity, or ancestry are often poorly considered or crudely applied, particularly in genetic studies of disease etiology or outcome. Consequently, results suggesting genetic differences with respect to disease etiology or outcome across SIRE groups may not be meaningful; in fact, these differences may prove harmful if they propagate stereotypes or spurious differences. Therefore, it is critical to properly consider the meaning, definitions, and use of race, ethnicity, or ancestry in molecular epidemiologic studies.

A comparison of film and computer workstation measurements of degenerative spondylolisthesis: intraobserver and interobserver reliability.

PubMed

Bolesta, Michael J; Winslow, Lauren; Gill, Kevin

2010-06-01

A comparison of measurements of degenerative spondylolisthesis made on film and on computer workstations. To determine whether the 2 methodologies are comparable in some of the parameters used to assess lumbar degenerative spondylolisthesis. Digital radiology has been replacing analog radiographs. In scoliosis, several studies have shown that measurements made on digital and analog films are similar and that they are also similar to those made on computer workstations. Such work has not been done in spondylolisthesis. Twenty-four cases of lumbar degenerative spondylolisthesis were identified from our clinic practice. Three observers measured anterior displacement, sagittal rotation, and lumbar lordosis on digital films using the same protractor and pencil. The same parameters were measured on the same studies at clinical workstations. All measurements were repeated 2 weeks later. A statistician determined the intra and interobserver reliability of the 2 measurement methods and the degree of agreement between the 2 methods. The differences between the first and second readings did reach statistical significance in some cases, but none of them were large enough to be clinically meaningful. The interclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were >or=0.80 except for one (0.67). The difference among the 3 observers was similarly statistically significant in a few instances but not enough to influence clinical decisions and with good ICCs (0.67 and better). Similarly, the differences in the 2 methods were small, and ICCs ranged from 0.69 to 0.98. This study supports the use of computer workstation measurements in lumbar degenerative spondylolisthesis. The parameters used in this study were comparable, whether measured on film or at clinical workstations.

Relationships between event-related potentials and behavioral and scholastic measures of reading ability: A large-scale, cross-sectional study.

PubMed

Khalifian, Negin; Stites, Mallory C; Laszlo, Sarah

2016-09-01

In the cognitive, computational, neuropsychological, and educational literatures, it is established that children approach text in unique ways, and that even adult readers can differ in the strategies they bring to reading. In the developmental event-related potential (ERP) literature, however, children with differing degrees of reading ability are, the majority of the time, placed in monolithic groups such as 'normal' and 'dyslexic' (e.g. Araújo et al., 2012) and analyzed only at the group level. This is likely done due to methodological concerns - such as low sample size or a lack of statistical power - that can make it difficult to perform analysis at the individual level. Here, we collected ERPs and behavior from > 100 children in grades pre-K-7, as they read unconnected text silently to themselves. This large sample, combined with the statistical power of the Linear Mixed Effects Regression (LMER) technique, enables us to address individual differences in ERP component effects due to reading ability at an unprecedented level of detail. Results indicate that it is possible to predict reading-related report card scores from ERP component amplitudes - especially that of the N250, a component pertaining to sublexical processing (including phonological decoding). Results also reveal relationships between behavioral measures of reading ability and ERP component effects that have previously been elusive, such as the relationship between vocabulary and N400 mean amplitude (cf. Henderson et al., 2011). We conclude that it is possible to meaningfully examine reading-related ERP effects at the single subject level in developing readers, and that this type of analysis can provide novel insights into both behavior and scholastic achievement. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Early Spacelab missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pace, R. E., Jr.; Craft, H. G., Jr.

1977-01-01

NASA has issued payload flight assignments for the first three Spacelab missions. The first two of these missions will have dual objectives, that of verifying Spacelab system performance and accomplishing meaningful space research. The first of these missions will be a joint NASA and ESA mission with a multidisciplinary payload. The second mission will verify a different Spacelab configuration while addressing the scientific disciplines of astrophysics. The third assigned mission will concentrate on utilizing the capabilities of Spacelab to perform meaningful experiments in space applications, primarily space processing. The paper describes these missions with their objectives, planned configuration and accommodation.

Conceptualizing death in a worldview consistent, meaningful way and its effects on worldview defense.

PubMed

Rogers, Ross

2011-02-01

Research within terror management theory (TMT) has shown that when mortality is made salient, people subsequently engage in worldview defense: an increase in derogation of an individual who does not share their worldview along with an increase in veneration of an individual who does. Research has also shown that high levels of self-esteem (either dispositionally possessed or artificially enhanced) or legitimization of one's meaning supplying system (worldview) can attenuate the increase in worldview defense typically seen after mortality salience. Extending these findings, this research examined the hypothesis that motivating participants to consider their mortality in a manner that was personally meaningful and thus consistent with their particular worldview would also serve to assuage the need for worldview defense. The research reported below supported this reasoning. Specifically, participants with a Christian religious background who were given the typical mortality salience prime produced more positive evaluations of a Christian target and more negative evaluations of a Jewish target. However, participants with a Christian religious background who were presented with a meaningful mortality salience induction produced evaluations of the Christian and Jewish targets that did not differ. The implications of conceptualizing death meaningfully are discussed.

Meaningfulness in work - experiences among employed individuals with persistent mental illness.

PubMed

Leufstadius, Christel; Eklund, Mona; Erlandsson, Lena-Karin

2009-01-01

The aim of the present study was to investigate how people with persistent mental illness, with various types of work and employment conditions, experience and describe the meaningfulness of work. The study had a qualitative approach and twelve informants living in the community were purposefully selected and interviewed according to overarching themes. The interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis, and all of the authors were involved in the analysis process. The findings resulted in four main themes: 1) work per se has certain characteristics, 2) participation in different contexts gives a feeling of normality, acceptance, belonging and fulfilment of norms and values, 3) work affords structure, energy and a balanced daily life, and 4) work increases well-being and strengthens one's identity. A tentative model is described concerning perceived meaningfulness in work among individuals with persistent mental illness, in which the first three aspects of meaning are a prerequisite for meaning in terms of increased well-being and strengthened identity. Furthermore, it seems important that work has to bring the just right challenge to the individual in order for him or her to perceive the identified aspects of meaningfulness.

The success of free gracilis muscle transfer to restore smile in patients with nonflaccid facial paralysis.

PubMed

Lindsay, Robin W; Bhama, Prabhat; Weinberg, Julie; Hadlock, Tessa A

2014-08-01

Development of synkinesis, hypertonicity, and poor smile excursion after facial nerve insult and recovery contribute to disfigurement, psychological difficulties, and an inability to convey emotion via facial expression. Despite treatment with physical therapy and chemodenervation, some patients who recover from transient flaccid facial paralysis never spontaneously regain the ability to perform a meaningful smile. Prospective evaluation was performed on 20 patients with nonflaccid facial paralysis who underwent free gracilis muscle transfer. Patients were evaluated using the quality-of-life (QOL) FaCE survey, Facial Nerve Grading Scale, and Facegram to quantify QOL improvement, smile excursion, and symmetry after muscle transfer. A statistically significant increase in the FaCE score was seen after muscle transfer (paired 2-tailed t test, P < 0.039). In addition, there was a statistically significant improvement in the smile score on the Facial Nerve Grading Scale (P < 0.002), in the lower lip length at rest (P = 0.01) and with smile (P = 0.0001), and with smile symmetry (P = 0.0077) after surgery. Free gracilis muscle transfer has become a mainstay in the management armamentarium for patients who develop severe reduction in oral commissure movement after facial nerve insult and recovery. The operation achieves a high overall success rate, and innovations involving transplanting thinner segments of muscle avoid a cosmetic deformity secondary to excess bulk. This study demonstrates a quantitative improvement in QOL and facial function after free gracilis muscle transfer in patients who failed to achieve a meaningful smile after physical therapy.

Otolaryngology Residency Program Research Resources and Scholarly Productivity.

PubMed

Villwock, Jennifer A; Hamill, Chelsea S; Nicholas, Brian D; Ryan, Jesse T

2017-06-01

Objective To delineate research resources available to otolaryngology residents and their impact on scholarly productivity. Study Design Survey of current otolaryngology program directors. Setting Otolaryngology residency programs. Subjects and Methods An anonymous web-based survey was sent to 98 allopathic otolaryngology training program directors. Fisher exact tests and nonparametric correlations were used to determine statistically significant differences among various strata of programs. Results Thirty-nine percent (n = 38) of queried programs responded. Fourteen (37%) programs had 11 to 15 full-time, academic faculty associated with the residency program. Twenty (53%) programs have a dedicated research coordinator. Basic science lab space and financial resources for statistical work were present at 22 programs (58%). Funding is uniformly provided for presentation of research at conferences; a minority of programs (13%) only funded podium presentations. Twenty-four (63%) have resident research requirements beyond the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) mandate of preparing a "manuscript suitable for publication" prior to graduation. Twenty-five (67%) programs have residents with 2 to 3 active research projects at any given time. None of the investigated resources were significantly associated with increased scholarly output. There was no uniformity to research curricula. Conclusions Otolaryngology residency programs value research, evidenced by financial support provided and requirements beyond the ACGME minimum. Additional resources were not statistically related to an increase in resident research productivity, although they may contribute positively to the overall research experience during training. Potential future areas to examine include research curricula best practices, how to develop meaningful mentorship and resource allocation that inspires continued research interest, and intellectual stimulation.

Testing for qualitative heterogeneity: An application to composite endpoints in survival analysis.

PubMed

Oulhaj, Abderrahim; El Ghouch, Anouar; Holman, Rury R

2017-01-01

Composite endpoints are frequently used in clinical outcome trials to provide more endpoints, thereby increasing statistical power. A key requirement for a composite endpoint to be meaningful is the absence of the so-called qualitative heterogeneity to ensure a valid overall interpretation of any treatment effect identified. Qualitative heterogeneity occurs when individual components of a composite endpoint exhibit differences in the direction of a treatment effect. In this paper, we develop a general statistical method to test for qualitative heterogeneity, that is to test whether a given set of parameters share the same sign. This method is based on the intersection-union principle and, provided that the sample size is large, is valid whatever the model used for parameters estimation. We propose two versions of our testing procedure, one based on a random sampling from a Gaussian distribution and another version based on bootstrapping. Our work covers both the case of completely observed data and the case where some observations are censored which is an important issue in many clinical trials. We evaluated the size and power of our proposed tests by carrying out some extensive Monte Carlo simulations in the case of multivariate time to event data. The simulations were designed under a variety of conditions on dimensionality, censoring rate, sample size and correlation structure. Our testing procedure showed very good performances in terms of statistical power and type I error. The proposed test was applied to a data set from a single-center, randomized, double-blind controlled trial in the area of Alzheimer's disease.

The Distribution of Non-Volatile Elements on Mars: Mars Odyssey GRS Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Boynton, W.; Janes, D.; Kerry, K.; Kim, K.; Reedy, R.; Evans, L.; Starr, R.; Drake, D.; Taylor, J.; Waenke, H.

2004-01-01

The major scientific objective of the Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS) on the 2001 Mars Odyssey Mission is to determine the distribution of elements in the near-surface of Mars. Mars Odyssey has been in its mapping orbit since February, 2002, and the GRS boom, which removes the instrument from the gamma-ray background of the spacecraft, was erected in June, 2002. In the 580 days since boom erection, we have accumulated 453 days of mapping data. The difference is due mostly to two times when Odyssey went into safe mode and the instrument warmed up forcing us to anneal out radiation damage that manifests itself after warming. Other data losses are due to simple transmitter data gaps and to intense solar particle events. The data from the GRS is statistical in nature. We have a very low count rate and a very low signal-to-noise ratio. With the exception of K, the most easily mapped elements have a signal/noise ratio on the order of 0.1 (0.5 for K) and the counting rates are on the order of 0.3 to 0.7 counts/min (4 cpm for K). In order to map the distribution of an element, we have to divide the total signal from Mars up into many cells that define the map s spatial resolution (unless the statistics are good enough that the intrinsic spatial resolution of the instrument, about 550 km diameter, dominates). The data for several elements have now achieved a statistical precision that permits us to make meaningful maps.

Variable system: An alternative approach for the analysis of mediated moderation.

PubMed

Kwan, Joyce Lok Yin; Chan, Wai

2018-06-01

Mediated moderation (meMO) occurs when the moderation effect of the moderator (W) on the relationship between the independent variable (X) and the dependent variable (Y) is transmitted through a mediator (M). To examine this process empirically, 2 different model specifications (Type I meMO and Type II meMO) have been proposed in the literature. However, both specifications are found to be problematic, either conceptually or statistically. For example, it can be shown that each type of meMO model is statistically equivalent to a particular form of moderated mediation (moME), another process that examines the condition when the indirect effect from X to Y through M varies as a function of W. Consequently, it is difficult for one to differentiate these 2 processes mathematically. This study therefore has 2 objectives. First, we attempt to differentiate moME and meMO by proposing an alternative specification for meMO. Conceptually, this alternative specification is intuitively meaningful and interpretable, and, statistically, it offers meMO a unique representation that is no longer identical to its moME counterpart. Second, using structural equation modeling, we propose an integrated approach for the analysis of meMO as well as for other general types of conditional path models. VS, a computer software program that implements the proposed approach, has been developed to facilitate the analysis of conditional path models for applied researchers. Real examples are considered to illustrate how the proposed approach works in practice and to compare its performance against the traditional methods. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Empirical Tryout of a New Statistic for Detecting Temporally Inconsistent Responders.

PubMed

Kerry, Matthew J

2018-01-01

Statistical screening of self-report data is often advised to support the quality of analyzed responses - For example, reduction of insufficient effort responding (IER). One recently introduced index based on Mahalanobis's D for detecting outliers in cross-sectional designs replaces centered scores with difference scores between repeated-measure items: Termed person temporal consistency ( D 2 ptc ). Although the adapted D 2 ptc index demonstrated usefulness in simulation datasets, it has not been applied to empirical data. The current study addresses D 2 ptc 's low uptake by critically appraising its performance across three empirical applications. Independent samples were selected to represent a range of scenarios commonly encountered by organizational researchers. First, in Sample 1, a repeat-measure of future time perspective (FTP) inexperienced working adults (age >40-years; n = 620) indicated that temporal inconsistency was significantly related to respondent age and item reverse-scoring. Second, in repeat-measure of team efficacy aggregations, D 2 ptc successfully detected team-level inconsistency across repeat-performance cycles. Thirdly, the usefulness of the D 2 ptc was examined in an experimental study dataset of subjective life expectancy indicated significantly more stable responding in experimental conditions compared to controls. The empirical findings support D 2 ptc 's flexible and useful application to distinct study designs. Discussion centers on current limitations and further extensions that may be of value to psychologists screening self-report data for strengthening response quality and meaningfulness of inferences from repeated-measures self-reports. Taken together, the findings support the usefulness of the newly devised statistic for detecting IER and other extreme response patterns.

Robust hierarchical state-space models reveal diel variation in travel rates of migrating leatherback turtles.

PubMed

Jonsen, Ian D; Myers, Ransom A; James, Michael C

2006-09-01

1. Biological and statistical complexity are features common to most ecological data that hinder our ability to extract meaningful patterns using conventional tools. Recent work on implementing modern statistical methods for analysis of such ecological data has focused primarily on population dynamics but other types of data, such as animal movement pathways obtained from satellite telemetry, can also benefit from the application of modern statistical tools. 2. We develop a robust hierarchical state-space approach for analysis of multiple satellite telemetry pathways obtained via the Argos system. State-space models are time-series methods that allow unobserved states and biological parameters to be estimated from data observed with error. We show that the approach can reveal important patterns in complex, noisy data where conventional methods cannot. 3. Using the largest Atlantic satellite telemetry data set for critically endangered leatherback turtles, we show that the diel pattern in travel rates of these turtles changes over different phases of their migratory cycle. While foraging in northern waters the turtles show similar travel rates during day and night, but on their southward migration to tropical waters travel rates are markedly faster during the day. These patterns are generally consistent with diving data, and may be related to changes in foraging behaviour. Interestingly, individuals that migrate southward to breed generally show higher daytime travel rates than individuals that migrate southward in a non-breeding year. 4. Our approach is extremely flexible and can be applied to many ecological analyses that use complex, sequential data.

Using the TAT to Assess the Relation Between Gender Identity and the Use of Defense Mechanisms.

PubMed

Cramer, Phebe

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study is to explore whether 2 different dimensions of personality, when assessed at an implicit level with the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT; Murray, 1943 ) will show a theoretically meaningful coherence not demonstrated when 1 is assessed at an implicit level and the other at an explicit level. Gender identity and defense mechanisms were assessed implicitly using the TAT. Gender identity was compared with a self-report measure of gender-related attributes assessed at the explicit level. The results showed a theoretically meaningful coherence when different dispositions were assessed at the same level, but a lack of agreement when similar dispositions were assessed at different levels. The study is based on a secondary analysis of data from 2 previously published papers (Cramer, 1998 ; Cramer & Westergren, 1999 ).

The role of meaning in contextual cueing: evidence from chess expertise.

PubMed

Brockmole, James R; Hambrick, David Z; Windisch, David J; Henderson, John M

2008-01-01

In contextual cueing, the position of a search target is learned over repeated exposures to a visual display. The strength of this effect varies across stimulus types. For example, real-world scene contexts give rise to larger search benefits than contexts composed of letters or shapes. We investigated whether such differences in learning can be at least partially explained by the degree of semantic meaning associated with a context independently of the nature of the visual information available (which also varies across stimulus types). Chess boards served as the learning context as their meaningfulness depends on the observer's knowledge of the game. In Experiment 1, boards depicted actual game play, and search benefits for repeated boards were 4 times greater for experts than for novices. In Experiment 2, search benefits among experts were halved when less meaningful randomly generated boards were used. Thus, stimulus meaningfulness independently contributes to learning context-target associations.

Running the figure to the ground: figure-ground segmentation during visual search.

PubMed

Ralph, Brandon C W; Seli, Paul; Cheng, Vivian O Y; Solman, Grayden J F; Smilek, Daniel

2014-04-01

We examined how figure-ground segmentation occurs across multiple regions of a visual array during a visual search task. Stimuli consisted of arrays of black-and-white figure-ground images in which roughly half of each image depicted a meaningful object, whereas the other half constituted a less meaningful shape. The colours of the meaningful regions of the targets and distractors were either the same (congruent) or different (incongruent). We found that incongruent targets took longer to locate than congruent targets (Experiments 1, 2, and 3) and that this segmentation-congruency effect decreased when the number of search items was reduced (Experiment 2). Furthermore, an analysis of eye movements revealed that participants spent more time scrutinising the target before confirming its identity on incongruent trials than on congruent trials (Experiment 3). These findings suggest that the distractor context influences target segmentation and detection during visual search. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Do semantic contextual cues facilitate transfer learning from video in toddlers?

PubMed Central

Zimmermann, Laura; Moser, Alecia; Grenell, Amanda; Dickerson, Kelly; Yao, Qianwen; Gerhardstein, Peter; Barr, Rachel

2015-01-01

Young children typically demonstrate a transfer deficit, learning less from video than live presentations. Semantically meaningful context has been demonstrated to enhance learning in young children. We examined the effect of a semantically meaningful context on toddlers’ imitation performance. Two- and 2.5-year-olds participated in a puzzle imitation task to examine learning from either a live or televised model. The model demonstrated how to assemble a three-piece puzzle to make a fish or a boat, with the puzzle demonstration occurring against a semantically meaningful background context (ocean) or a yellow background (no context). Participants in the video condition performed significantly worse than participants in the live condition, demonstrating the typical transfer deficit effect. While the context helped improve overall levels of imitation, especially for the boat puzzle, only individual differences in the ability to self-generate a stimulus label were associated with a reduction in the transfer deficit. PMID:26029131

Engaging Axiology: Enabling MeaningfulTransdisciplinary Collaboration in Adapted Physical Activity.

PubMed

Peers, Danielle

2018-07-01

In this article, I explore the concept of axiology in the context of adapted physical activity research and analyze its connection to the more commonly discussed paradigmatic assumptions of epistemology and ontology. Following methodological scholars, I argue for an acknowledgment of the pivotal role that axiology already plays in adapted physical activity research and for the potential interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary opportunities that could be enabled by engaging with axiology in more explicit ways. I discuss a number of potential axiological gaps between the field of adapted physical activity and disability communities, arguing that such differences may undermine attempts at doing meaningful transdisciplinary research with such communities. I offer strategies for bridging these axiological gaps, encouraging us to work together in axiologically reflexive ways in order to increase meaningful opportunities for more people with disabilities to be engaged in the movement-based activities and communities of their choice.

Do semantic contextual cues facilitate transfer learning from video in toddlers?

PubMed

Zimmermann, Laura; Moser, Alecia; Grenell, Amanda; Dickerson, Kelly; Yao, Qianwen; Gerhardstein, Peter; Barr, Rachel

2015-01-01

Young children typically demonstrate a transfer deficit, learning less from video than live presentations. Semantically meaningful context has been demonstrated to enhance learning in young children. We examined the effect of a semantically meaningful context on toddlers' imitation performance. Two- and 2.5-year-olds participated in a puzzle imitation task to examine learning from either a live or televised model. The model demonstrated how to assemble a three-piece puzzle to make a fish or a boat, with the puzzle demonstration occurring against a semantically meaningful background context (ocean) or a yellow background (no context). Participants in the video condition performed significantly worse than participants in the live condition, demonstrating the typical transfer deficit effect. While the context helped improve overall levels of imitation, especially for the boat puzzle, only individual differences in the ability to self-generate a stimulus label were associated with a reduction in the transfer deficit.

Rural primary care practices and meaningful use of electronic health records: the role of Regional Extension Centers.

PubMed

Casey, Michelle M; Moscovice, Ira; McCullough, Jeffrey

2014-01-01

To examine the role of Regional Extension Centers (RECs) in helping rural physician practices adopt electronic health records (EHRs) and achieve meaningful use. Using data from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, we conducted a county-level regression analysis using ordinary least squares to better understand rural-urban differences in REC participation, EHR implementation, and meaningful use, controlling for counties' economic conditions. We prepared case studies of 2 RECs that are serving a large number of rural practices, based on interviews with key individuals at the RECs, their partner organizations, and rural primary care practices that received assistance from the RECs. RECs are largely achieving their objective of targeting providers in communities that face barriers to EHRs. REC participants are disproportionately rural and more likely to come from high poverty and low employment communities. The case study RECs had long-standing relationships with rural providers, as well as extensive staff expertise in quality improvement and EHR implementation, and employed a variety of strategies to successfully assist rural providers. Rural providers report that REC assistance was invaluable in helping them implement EHRs and achieve meaningful use status. Modifying the criteria for Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentives could help additional rural providers pay for EHRs. REC federal funding is scheduled to end in 2014, but practices that have not yet adopted EHRs may need significant, ongoing assistance to receive meaningful use. © 2013 National Rural Health Association.

Self-Determination and Meaningful Work: Exploring Socioeconomic Constraints.

PubMed

Allan, Blake A; Autin, Kelsey L; Duffy, Ryan D

2016-01-01

This study examined a model of meaningful work among a diverse sample of working adults. From the perspectives of Self-Determination Theory and the Psychology of Working Framework, we tested a structural model with social class and work volition predicting SDT motivation variables, which in turn predicted meaningful work. Partially supporting hypotheses, work volition was positively related to internal regulation and negatively related to amotivation, whereas social class was positively related to external regulation and amotivation. In turn, internal regulation was positively related to meaningful work, whereas external regulation and amotivation were negatively related to meaningful work. Indirect effects from work volition to meaningful work via internal regulation and amotivation were significant, and indirect effects from social class to meaningful work via external regulation and amotivation were significant. This study highlights the important relations between SDT motivation variables and meaningful work, especially the large positive relation between internal regulation and meaningful work. However, results also reveal that work volition and social class may play critical roles in predicting internal regulation, external regulation, and amotivation.

Effects of perceptual load and socially meaningful stimuli on crossmodal selective attention in Autism Spectrum Disorder and neurotypical samples.

PubMed

Tyndall, Ian; Ragless, Liam; O'Hora, Denis

2018-04-01

The present study examined whether increasing visual perceptual load differentially affected both Socially Meaningful and Non-socially Meaningful auditory stimulus awareness in neurotypical (NT, n = 59) adults and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD, n = 57) adults. On a target trial, an unexpected critical auditory stimulus (CAS), either a Non-socially Meaningful ('beep' sound) or Socially Meaningful ('hi') stimulus, was played concurrently with the presentation of the visual task. Under conditions of low visual perceptual load both NT and ASD samples reliably noticed the CAS at similar rates (77-81%), whether the CAS was Socially Meaningful or Non-socially Meaningful. However, during high visual perceptual load NT and ASD participants reliably noticed the meaningful CAS (NT = 71%, ASD = 67%), but NT participants were unlikely to notice the Non-meaningful CAS (20%), whereas ASD participants reliably noticed it (80%), suggesting an inability to engage selective attention to ignore non-salient irrelevant distractor stimuli in ASD. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evaluating the consistency of gene sets used in the analysis of bacterial gene expression data.

PubMed

Tintle, Nathan L; Sitarik, Alexandra; Boerema, Benjamin; Young, Kylie; Best, Aaron A; Dejongh, Matthew

2012-08-08

Statistical analyses of whole genome expression data require functional information about genes in order to yield meaningful biological conclusions. The Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) are common sources of functionally grouped gene sets. For bacteria, the SEED and MicrobesOnline provide alternative, complementary sources of gene sets. To date, no comprehensive evaluation of the data obtained from these resources has been performed. We define a series of gene set consistency metrics directly related to the most common classes of statistical analyses for gene expression data, and then perform a comprehensive analysis of 3581 Affymetrix® gene expression arrays across 17 diverse bacteria. We find that gene sets obtained from GO and KEGG demonstrate lower consistency than those obtained from the SEED and MicrobesOnline, regardless of gene set size. Despite the widespread use of GO and KEGG gene sets in bacterial gene expression data analysis, the SEED and MicrobesOnline provide more consistent sets for a wide variety of statistical analyses. Increased use of the SEED and MicrobesOnline gene sets in the analysis of bacterial gene expression data may improve statistical power and utility of expression data.

Evaluation of intima media thickness of carotid arteries in 40-60 years old persons with type d personality and its comparison with normal ones.

PubMed

Khorvash, Fariborz; Rahimi, Marzieh; Bagherian-Sararoudi, Reza; Mousavi, Sayed Ali; Ebneshahidi, Alireza; Amirpour, Afshin; Mirabdollahi, Mansoureh Alsadat

2013-05-01

In some studies, the involvement of dangerous psychological and behavioral factors in etiology and physiotherapy of vascular disturbances have been shown. In other studies, the relationship between the personality type and increase in cardiovascular disease has been demonstrated. The type D personality is defined as having two characteristics of negative affect and social inhibition. It is thought that individuals with type D personality are at increased risk of carotid artery intima-media thickening which predisposes them to vascular disease that is one of the most important factors for the stroke. In this study, we try to determine whether type D personality is a contributing factor to an increase in the intima-media of the carotid artery. This study was done in 2012 in the teaching hospital of Alzahra in Isfahan Iran. This is a case/control study which is done at Alzahra hospital in Isfahan in 2011-12. The statistical population in this study is composed of individuals who do not have any risk factors for stroke and are randomly selected among the hospital staff or the patient's family members who accompanied the patient at the hospital. They filled out a questioner that would assist in detecting type D personality. A carotid Doppler ultrasound that measures the intima-media thickness in the selected individuals was performed. The information obtained from the study was evaluated by Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) software and the intima-media thicknesses were compared in two groups of patients. The average thickness of intima media in two groups, consist of placebo and patients, was 0.739 ± 0.12 and 0.759 ± 0.14 millimeter, respectively. There was no meaningful difference between the two groups based on t-test values (P = 0.19). It is important to note that based on the results, 22.9% of placebos and 48.6% of individuals with type D personality presented with abnormal thickness. The difference between the two groups were meaningful based on Chi-Squared test (P = 0.001). We conclude that type D personality increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases specially the stroke and myocardial infarction due to the higher prevalence of hormonal imbalances leading to arterial vasospasm and atherosclerotic disease. As a result, it is necessary to evaluate and treat these patients due to increased risk of atherosclerotic diseases, stoke, and myocardial infarction.

Age Differences in the Neuroelectric Adaptation to Meaningful Sounds

PubMed Central

Leung, Ada W. S.; He, Yu; Grady, Cheryl L.; Alain, Claude

2013-01-01

Much of what we know regarding the effect of stimulus repetition on neuroelectric adaptation comes from studies using artificially produced pure tones or harmonic complex sounds. Little is known about the neural processes associated with the representation of everyday sounds and how these may be affected by aging. In this study, we used real life, meaningful sounds presented at various azimuth positions and found that auditory evoked responses peaking at about 100 and 180 ms after sound onset decreased in amplitude with stimulus repetition. This neural adaptation was greater in young than in older adults and was more pronounced when the same sound was repeated at the same location. Moreover, the P2 waves showed differential patterns of domain-specific adaptation when location and identity was repeated among young adults. Background noise decreased ERP amplitudes and modulated the magnitude of repetition effects on both the N1 and P2 amplitude, and the effects were comparable in young and older adults. These findings reveal an age-related difference in the neural processes associated with adaptation to meaningful sounds, which may relate to older adults’ difficulty in ignoring task-irrelevant stimuli. PMID:23935900

The effect of low-dose naltrexone on quality of life of patients with multiple sclerosis: a randomized placebo-controlled trial.

PubMed

Sharafaddinzadeh, Naser; Moghtaderi, Ali; Kashipazha, Davood; Majdinasab, Nastaran; Shalbafan, Bita

2010-08-01

Low-dose naltrexone (LDN) may promote psychological well-being as well as generalized health especially in autoimmune disorders. The objective of this study is to assess the effect of LDN on the Quality of Life (QoL) of patients with relapsing-remitting and secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) using the scales and composite scores of the MSQoL-54 questionnaire. A 17-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, crossover-design clinical trial was conducted in two universities. A total of 96 adult patients aged between 15 and 65 years with relapsing-remitting (RR) or secondary progressive (SP) clinically definite MS with disease duration longer than 6 months enrolled into the study. The primary outcome of the study was comparison of the scores of physical and mental health by conducting independent t-test of the results obtained in the middle and at the end of study between the two groups. Variables including presence of pain, energy, emotional well-being, social, cognitive, and sexual functions, role limitation due to physical and emotional problems, health distress, and overall QoL did not show any meaningful statistically difference between the two groups. Factor analysis revealed that health perception scores were statistically different between the groups before starting, in the middle, and at the end of the study. The study clearly illustrates that LDN is a relatively safe therapeutic option in RRMS and SPMS but its efficacy is under question and probably a long duration trial is needed in the future.

The Trier Social Stress Test and the Trier Social Stress Test for groups: Qualitative investigations

PubMed Central

Marqueste, Tanguy; Mascret, Nicolas

2018-01-01

The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and its version for groups (TSST-G) are the gold standard for inducing acute psychosocial stress in human experimental settings and have been used in numerous studies since the early 1990s. The TSST and the TSST-G lead to effects on different physiological and psychological markers, such as salivary cortisol, anxiety, and emotional states. These effects were assessed with quantitative methods comparing pre-test and post-test measures with statistical analyses. But to date, no qualitative analyses have been conducted to examine the meaningful experience of participants during the TSST and the TSST-G. This study is the first to conduct qualitative investigations to further clarify the stressful experience of participants confronted with these procedures. Preliminary results showed as expected that the TSST and the TSST-G effectively induced psychosocial stress, with cortisol levels, cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety, and arousal increases, and with pleasure and dominance decreases. At the qualitative level, the results evidenced that the two theoretically stressful components of the TSST and the TSST-G, namely social-evaluative threat and uncontrollability, were experienced as stress-inducing by the participants. Two case studies confirmed these findings. But the results also showed on one hand that psychosocial stress is a dynamic phenomenon, with important fluctuations throughout the tasks (mainly for the TSST-G); and on the other hand that despite the similar physiological and psychological responses between the TSST and the TSST-G evidenced by the literature, the experience of the participants was both similar and specific. Use of a qualitative method allowed us to provide a complementary point of view to understand the meaningful experience of participants during these stressful procedures, apprehending the dynamic of the subjective stress experience without disrupting it. PMID:29641572

Self-report of tobacco use status: comparison of paper-based questionnaire, online questionnaire, and direct face-to-face interview--implications for meaningful use.

PubMed

Steffen, Mark W; Murad, Mohammad Hassan; Hays, J Taylor; Newcomb, Richard D; Molella, Robin G; Cha, Stephen S; Hagen, Philip T

2014-06-01

Identifying tobacco use status is essential to address use and provide resources to help patients quit. Being able to collect this information in an electronic format will become increasingly important, as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has included the assessment of tobacco use as part of its Stage 1 Meaningful Use criteria. The objective was to compare the accuracy of online vs. paper assessment methods to ascertain cigarette smoking status using a face-to-face structured interview as the gold standard. This was a retrospective analysis of a stratified opportunity sample of consecutive patients, reporting in 2010 for a periodic health evaluation, who completed either a scannable paper-based form or an online questionnaire and underwent a standardized rooming interview. Compared with face-to-face structured interview, the overall observed agreement and kappa coefficient for both methods combined (paper and online) were 97.7% and 0.69 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.51-0.86) . For the online form they were 97.4% and 0.61 (95% CI 0.33-0.90), and for the paper form they were 97.9% and 0.75 (95% CI 0.54-0.96). There was no statistically significant difference in agreement between the online and paper-based methods (P=0.76) compared with a face-to-face structured interview. Online assessment of tobacco use status is as accurate as a paper questionnaire, and both methods have greater than 97% observed agreement with a face-to-face structured interview. The use of online assessment of tobacco use status has several advantages and more widespread use should be explored.

The effect of bibliotherapy on the psychological capital of the staff of the School of Management and Medical Informatics of Isfahan University of Medical Science

PubMed Central

Papi, Ahmad; Mosharraf, Zahra; Farashbandi, Firoozeh Zare; Samouei, Rahele; Hassanzadeh, Akbar

2017-01-01

BACKGROUND: Bibliotherapy is defined as using dynamic interaction along with reading a book in order to help the people to increase their cognitive understanding. This study aims to investigate the effect of bibliotherapy on the psychological capital of the employees of the Department of Management and Medical Informatics of Isfahan University of Medical Science. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is an applied study using a semi-empirical method. The statistical population consists of all nonfaculty employees of the target department (70 people). Twenty eight people were randomly selected and divided into experiment and control groups and answered the psychological capital questionnaire. The data gathering tool was the psychological capital questionnaire of Luthans. The experiment group underwent six 2-h sessions of bibliotherapy where the control group underwent no interference. Both groups answered the questionnaire again 1-month after the final bibliotherapy session. The information was analyzed using descriptive (average and frequency distribution) and analytical (independent t-test, paired t-test, Chi-square test, and Mann–Whitney U-test) with the help of SPSS 20 software. RESULTS: The findings showed no meaningful distinction average scores of the physiological capital of both groups before interference. However, the average physiological capital score and an average score of each factor in the experiment group was meaningfully higher than that of the control group after the bibliotherapy sections. CONCLUSION: The results showed that bibliotherapy is a suitable method for increasing the psychological capital of the employees of different organizations which will in turn provide both the employees themselves and the organization with material and spiritual gains. PMID:28584831

The immediate effects of thoracic transverse mobilization in patients with the primary complaint of mechanical neck pain: a pilot study.

PubMed

McGregor, CIndy; Boyles, Robert; Murahashi, Laura; Sena, Tanya; Yarnall, Robert

2014-11-01

Posterior-to-anterior (PA) vertebral mobilization to the thoracic spine has been studied as an intervention for neck pain. Our purpose was to explore effects of a different mobilization technique, transverse vertebral pressure, on cervical range of motion (ROM) and pain when applied to the thoracic spine among participants with neck pain. A single-blinded quasi-experimental study with a one-group pretest-posttest design. A transverse group consisted of 21 participants whose neck pain increased with active movements. A non-intervention group of 20 asymptomatic participants was included simply to ensure rater blinding. The treatment group received Grades IV to IV+ transverse mobilizations at T1 through T4 bilaterally. Measurements taken immediately after intervention included pre/post cervical ROM, distant pressure pain threshold (PPT), and a numerical pain rating scale (NPRS). Analysis utilized t-tests and ordinal counterparts. The transverse group demonstrated significant gains in extension and bilateral rotation (P≤0.005) but not flexion or side-bend. A total of 57% of mobilized participants reported clinically meaningful decreased pain (P<0.001). Seven participants exceeded the PPT MDC95 of 0.36 kg/cm(2). The non-intervention group had no significant changes in ROM or NPRS scores. After 8 minutes of transverse mobilization to the upper thoracic spine, significant gains in cervical extension and bilateral rotation, and decreased pain scores were found. There were no adverse effects. Unlike other mobilization studies, PPT changes at a remote site were statistically but not clinically meaningful. Findings suggest that transverse mobilization would be a productive topic for controlled clinical trials.

Improvements in Functional Exercise Capacity after a Residential Behavioural Change, Diet and Fitness Program for Obese Adults.

PubMed

Errickson, Sadye Paez; Kolotkin, Ronette L; Skidmore, Megan Simmons; Endress, Gerald; Østbye, Truls; Crosby, Ross; Eisenson, Howard

2016-06-01

Obese adults are at an increased risk for mobility-related problems. National guidelines recommend calorie restrictions and exercise for obese adults as a means to improve functional fitness capacity and to increase mobility. Yet, lifestyle weight loss interventions often fail to measure fitness changes. The aim of this study was to assess whether a 1-month, intensive behavioural change, diet and fitness intervention for overweight and obese adults would result in statistically significant and clinically meaningful changes in functional exercise. A pre-post test design was used in this study. Seventy-two participants (40 women, 32 men; mean baseline body mass index (BMI) = 42.6 + 9.0; mean age = 45.8 + 16.8) completed a modified 6-minute walk test (6MWT), performed on a treadmill, at baseline and at end of treatment. Significant improvements included decreased BMI (2.7 + 1.7 kg m(-2) , p < 0.001) and increased 6MWT distance (66.4 + 73.0 m, p < 0.001). The 6MWT improved by 66 m on average, a reported clinically meaningful difference. Greater improvements in the 6MWT were significantly correlated with greater weight loss and BMI reduction. Our findings suggest that rehabilitation beyond weight loss may be derived from participation in a brief, intensive behavioural change, diet and fitness programme. Physiotherapists are in a prime position to address the physical and motivational challenges participants face while living with severe obesity: targeting functional exercise capacity is one key strategy for addressing immobility associated with obesity. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The immediate effects of thoracic transverse mobilization in patients with the primary complaint of mechanical neck pain: a pilot study

PubMed Central

McGregor, CIndy; Boyles, Robert; Murahashi, Laura; Sena, Tanya; Yarnall, Robert

2014-01-01

Objective: Posterior-to-anterior (PA) vertebral mobilization to the thoracic spine has been studied as an intervention for neck pain. Our purpose was to explore effects of a different mobilization technique, transverse vertebral pressure, on cervical range of motion (ROM) and pain when applied to the thoracic spine among participants with neck pain. Methods: A single-blinded quasi-experimental study with a one-group pretest–posttest design. A transverse group consisted of 21 participants whose neck pain increased with active movements. A non-intervention group of 20 asymptomatic participants was included simply to ensure rater blinding. The treatment group received Grades IV to IV+ transverse mobilizations at T1 through T4 bilaterally. Measurements taken immediately after intervention included pre/post cervical ROM, distant pressure pain threshold (PPT), and a numerical pain rating scale (NPRS). Analysis utilized t-tests and ordinal counterparts. Results: The transverse group demonstrated significant gains in extension and bilateral rotation (P≤0.005) but not flexion or side-bend. A total of 57% of mobilized participants reported clinically meaningful decreased pain (P<0.001). Seven participants exceeded the PPT MDC95 of 0.36 kg/cm2. The non-intervention group had no significant changes in ROM or NPRS scores. Discussion: After 8 minutes of transverse mobilization to the upper thoracic spine, significant gains in cervical extension and bilateral rotation, and decreased pain scores were found. There were no adverse effects. Unlike other mobilization studies, PPT changes at a remote site were statistically but not clinically meaningful. Findings suggest that transverse mobilization would be a productive topic for controlled clinical trials. PMID:25395827

The psychosocial impact of an abnormal cervical smear result.

PubMed

Drolet, Mélanie; Brisson, Marc; Maunsell, Elizabeth; Franco, Eduardo L; Coutlée, François; Ferenczy, Alex; Fisher, William; Mansi, James A

2012-10-01

Data on the impact of abnormal cervical smear results on health-related quality of life (HrQoL) are scarce. We aimed to (i) prospectively assess the HrQoL of women who were informed of an abnormal smear result; (ii) identify predictors of greater negative psychosocial impact of an abnormal result; and (iii) prospectively estimate the quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) lost following an abnormal result. Between 08/2006 and 08/2008, 492 women with an abnormal result and 460 women with a normal result, frequency matched for age and clinic, were recruited across Canada. HrQoL was measured at recruitment and 4 and 12 weeks later with the EuroQol, Short Form-12, short Spielberg State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and HPV Impact Profile. Three blocks of potential predictors of higher psychosocial impact were tested by hierarchical modeling: (i) socio-demographics; (ii) sexual activity; and (iii) smear result severity, communication, and understanding. Receiving an abnormal result significantly increased anxiety (STAI mean difference between both groups = 8.3). Initial anxiety decreased over time for the majority of women. However, 35% of women had clinically meaningful anxiety at 12 weeks (i.e. STAI scores ≥0.5 standard deviation of the controls). These women reported a lower socio-economic level, did not completely understand the information about their result and perceived themselves at higher risk of cancer. QALY lost following an abnormal result were between 0.007 and 0.009. Receiving an abnormal smear has a statistically significant and clinically meaningful negative impact on mental health. However, this negative impact subsides after 12 weeks for the majority of women. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Trier Social Stress Test and the Trier Social Stress Test for groups: Qualitative investigations.

PubMed

Vors, Olivier; Marqueste, Tanguy; Mascret, Nicolas

2018-01-01

The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and its version for groups (TSST-G) are the gold standard for inducing acute psychosocial stress in human experimental settings and have been used in numerous studies since the early 1990s. The TSST and the TSST-G lead to effects on different physiological and psychological markers, such as salivary cortisol, anxiety, and emotional states. These effects were assessed with quantitative methods comparing pre-test and post-test measures with statistical analyses. But to date, no qualitative analyses have been conducted to examine the meaningful experience of participants during the TSST and the TSST-G. This study is the first to conduct qualitative investigations to further clarify the stressful experience of participants confronted with these procedures. Preliminary results showed as expected that the TSST and the TSST-G effectively induced psychosocial stress, with cortisol levels, cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety, and arousal increases, and with pleasure and dominance decreases. At the qualitative level, the results evidenced that the two theoretically stressful components of the TSST and the TSST-G, namely social-evaluative threat and uncontrollability, were experienced as stress-inducing by the participants. Two case studies confirmed these findings. But the results also showed on one hand that psychosocial stress is a dynamic phenomenon, with important fluctuations throughout the tasks (mainly for the TSST-G); and on the other hand that despite the similar physiological and psychological responses between the TSST and the TSST-G evidenced by the literature, the experience of the participants was both similar and specific. Use of a qualitative method allowed us to provide a complementary point of view to understand the meaningful experience of participants during these stressful procedures, apprehending the dynamic of the subjective stress experience without disrupting it.

Identifying clinically important difference on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale: results from a narcolepsy clinical trial of JZP-110.

PubMed

Scrima, Lawrence; Emsellem, Helene A; Becker, Philip M; Ruoff, Chad; Lankford, Alan; Bream, Gary; Khayrallah, Moise; Lu, Yuan; Black, Jed

2017-10-01

While scores ≤10 on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) are within the normal range, the reduction in elevated ESS score that is clinically meaningful in patients with narcolepsy has not been established. This post hoc analysis of a clinical trial of patients with narcolepsy evaluated correlations between Patient Global Impression of Change (PGI-C) and ESS. Data of adult patients with narcolepsy from a double-blind, 12-week placebo-controlled study of JZP-110, a wake-promoting agent, were used in this analysis. Descriptive statistics and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis compared PGI-C (anchor measure) to percent change from baseline in ESS to establish the responder criterion from patients taking either placebo or JZP-110 (treatments). At week 12, patients (n = 10) who reported being "very much improved" on the PGI-C had a mean 76.7% reduction in ESS score, and patients (n = 33) who reported being "much improved" on the PGI-C had a mean 49.1% reduction in ESS score. ROC analysis showed that patients who improved were almost exclusively from JZP-110 treatment group, with an area-under-the-curve of 0.9, and revealed that a 25% reduction in ESS (sensitivity, 81.4%; specificity, 80.9%) may be an appropriate threshold for defining a meaningful patient response to JZP-110 and placebo. A ≥25% reduction in patients' subjective ESS score may be useful as a threshold to identify patients with narcolepsy who respond to JZP-110 treatment. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Predictors of Compassion Fatigue and Compassion Satisfaction in Acute Care Nurses.

PubMed

Kelly, Lesly; Runge, Jody; Spencer, Christina

2015-11-01

To examine compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction in acute care nurses across multiple specialties in a hospital-based setting. A cross-sectional electronic survey design was used to collect data from direct care nurses in a 700-bed, quaternary care, teaching facility in the southwestern United States. A total of 491 direct care registered nurses completed a survey measuring their professional quality of life (burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and compassion satisfaction). Analysis was conducted to assess for differences between demographics, specialties, job satisfaction, and intent to leave their current position. Significant predictors of burnout included lack of meaningful recognition, nurses with more years of experience, and nurses in the "Millennial" generation (ages 21-33 years). Receiving meaningful recognition, higher job satisfaction, nurses in the "Baby Boomer" generation (ages 50-65 years), and nurses with fewer years of experience significantly predicted compassion satisfaction. No significant differences were noted across nurse specialties, units, or departments. This study adds to the literature the impact meaningful recognition may have on compassion satisfaction and fatigue. Our findings provide a potential explanation for the lack of retention of nurses in the millennial generation who leave their positions with limited years of experience. Based on our research, meaningful recognition may increase compassion satisfaction, positively impact retention, and elevate job satisfaction. Compassion fatigue in nurses has clear implications for nursing retention and the quality of care. Organizations willing to invest in reducing compassion fatigue have the potential to improve financial savings by reducing turnover and adverse events associated with burnout. © 2015 Sigma Theta Tau International.

Are workers who leave a job exposed to similar physical demands as workers who develop clinically meaningful declines in low-back function?

PubMed

Ferguson, Sue A; Marras, William S; Lavender, Steven A; Splittstoesser, Riley E; Yang, Gang

2014-02-01

The objective is to quantify differences in physical exposures for those who stayed on a job (survivor) versus those who left the job (turnover). It has been suggested that high physical job demands lead to greater turnover and that turnover rates may supplement low-back disorder incidence rates in passive surveillance systems. A prospective study with 811 participants was conducted. The physical exposure of distribution center work was quantified using a moment monitor. A total of 68 quantitative physical exposure measures in three categories (load, position, and timing) were examined. Low-back health function was quantified using the lumbar motion monitor at baseline and 6-month follow-up. There were 365 turnover employees within the 6-month follow-up period and 446 "survivors" who remained on the same job, of which 126 survivors had a clinically meaningful decline in low-back functional performance (cases) and 320 survivors did not have a meaningful decline in low-back functional performance (noncases). Of the job exposure measures, 6% were significantly different between turnover and cases compared to 69% between turnover and noncases. Turnover employees had significantly greater exposure compared to noncases. Turnover employees had similar physical job exposures to workers who remained on the job and had a clinically meaningful decline in low-back functional performance. Thus, ergonomists and HR should be aware that high turnover jobs appear to have similar physical exposure as those jobs that put workers at risk for a decline in low-back functional performance.

Comparing Different Approaches for Mapping Urban Vegetation Cover from Landsat ETM+ Data: A Case Study on Brussels

PubMed Central

Van de Voorde, Tim; Vlaeminck, Jeroen; Canters, Frank

2008-01-01

Urban growth and its related environmental problems call for sustainable urban management policies to safeguard the quality of urban environments. Vegetation plays an important part in this as it provides ecological, social, health and economic benefits to a city's inhabitants. Remotely sensed data are of great value to monitor urban green and despite the clear advantages of contemporary high resolution images, the benefits of medium resolution data should not be discarded. The objective of this research was to estimate fractional vegetation cover from a Landsat ETM+ image with sub-pixel classification, and to compare accuracies obtained with multiple stepwise regression analysis, linear spectral unmixing and multi-layer perceptrons (MLP) at the level of meaningful urban spatial entities. Despite the small, but nevertheless statistically significant differences at pixel level between the alternative approaches, the spatial pattern of vegetation cover and estimation errors is clearly distinctive at neighbourhood level. At this spatially aggregated level, a simple regression model appears to attain sufficient accuracy. For mapping at a spatially more detailed level, the MLP seems to be the most appropriate choice. Brightness normalisation only appeared to affect the linear models, especially the linear spectral unmixing. PMID:27879914

The trust-commitment challenge in service quality-loyalty relationships.

PubMed

Moreira, Antonio Carrizo; Silva, Pedro Miguel

2015-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test a model to examine service quality, satisfaction, trust and commitment as loyalty antecedents in a private healthcare service. The approach was tested using structural equation modelling, involving 175 patients from a private Portuguese healthcare unit, using a revised Service Quality Assessment Scale (SQAS) scale for service quality evaluation. The scale used to evaluate service quality is valid and meaningful. Service quality proved to be a multidimensional construct and relevant to build satisfaction. The path satisfaction→trust→loyalty was validated, whereas the path satisfaction→commitment→loyalty was not statistically supported. The revised SQAS scale showed good internal consistency in healthcare context. Further trust-commitment antecedents must be examined in a private healthcare landscape to generalise the findings. Healthcare quality managers must explore the service quality dimensions to generate satisfaction among their patients. Developing trust generates positive patient attitudes and loyalty. This study explores using the SQAS scale in a private healthcare context. The authors provide further evidence that service quality is an antecedent and different from satisfaction. All the measures used proved to be valid and reliable. Trust and commitment play different roles in their relationship with loyalty.

An acoustical study of English word stress produced by Americans and Koreans

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Byunggon

2002-05-01

Acoustical correlates of stress can be divided into duration, intensity, and fundamental frequency. This study examined the acoustical difference in the first two syllables of stressed English words produced by ten American and Korean speakers. The Korean subjects scored very high in TOEFL. They read, at a normal speed, a fable from which the acoustical parameters of eight words were analyzed. In order to make the data comparison meaningful, each parameter was collected at 100 dynamic time points proportional to the total duration of the two syllables. Then, the ratio of the parameter sum of the first rime to that of the second rime was calculated to determine the relative prominence of the syllables. Results showed that the durations of the first two syllables were almost comparable between the Americans and Koreans. However, statistically significant differences showed up in the diphthong pronunciations and in the words with the second syllable stressed. Also, remarkably high r-squared values were found between pairs of the three acoustical parameters, which suggests that either one or a combination of two or more parameters may account for the prominence of a syllable within a word. [Work supported by Korea Science Foundation R01-1999-00229.

Visualization on the Web of 20 Years of Crop Rotation and Wildlife Co-Evolutions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Plumejeaud-Perreau, Christine; Poitevin, Cyril; Bretagnolle, Vincent

2018-05-01

The accumulation of evidences of the effects of intensive agricultural practices against wildlife fauna and flora, and biodiversity in general, has been largely published in scientific papers (Tildman, 1999). However, data serving as sup-port to their conclusions are often kept hidden behind research institutions. This paper presents a data visualization sys-tem opened on the Web allowing citizens to get a comprehensive access to data issued from such kind of research institution, collected for more than 20 years. The Web Information System has been thought in order to ease the comparison of data issues from various databases describing the same object, the agricultural landscape, at different scales and through different observation devices. An interactive visualization is proposed in order to check co-evolution of fauna and flora together with agricultural practices. It mixes aerial orthoimagery produced since 1950 with vectorial data showing the evolutions of agricultural parcels with those of a few sentinel species such as the Montagu's harrier. This is made through a composition of maps, charts and time lines, and specific tools for comparison. A particular concern is given to the observation effort bias in order to show meaningful statistical aggregates.

Universality in eye movements and reading: A trilingual investigation.

PubMed

Liversedge, Simon P; Drieghe, Denis; Li, Xin; Yan, Guoli; Bai, Xuejun; Hyönä, Jukka

2016-02-01

Universality in language has been a core issue in the fields of linguistics and psycholinguistics for many years (e.g., Chomsky, 1965). Recently, Frost (2012) has argued that establishing universals of process is critical to the development of meaningful, theoretically motivated, cross-linguistic models of reading. In contrast, other researchers argue that there is no such thing as universals of reading (e.g., Coltheart & Crain, 2012). Reading is a complex, visually mediated psychological process, and eye movements are the behavioural means by which we encode the visual information required for linguistic processing. To investigate universality of representation and process across languages we examined eye movement behaviour during reading of very comparable stimuli in three languages, Chinese, English and Finnish. These languages differ in numerous respects (character based vs. alphabetic, visual density, informational density, word spacing, orthographic depth, agglutination, etc.). We used linear mixed modelling techniques to identify variables that captured common variance across languages. Despite fundamental visual and linguistic differences in the orthographies, statistical models of reading behaviour were strikingly similar in a number of respects, and thus, we argue that their composition might reflect universality of representation and process in reading. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Replicable Interprofessional Competency Outcomes from High-Volume, Inter-Institutional, Interprofessional Simulation

PubMed Central

Bambini, Deborah; Emery, Matthew; de Voest, Margaret; Meny, Lisa; Shoemaker, Michael J.

2016-01-01

There are significant limitations among the few prior studies that have examined the development and implementation of interprofessional education (IPE) experiences to accommodate a high volume of students from several disciplines and from different institutions. The present study addressed these gaps by seeking to determine the extent to which a single, large, inter-institutional, and IPE simulation event improves student perceptions of the importance and relevance of IPE and simulation as a learning modality, whether there is a difference in students’ perceptions among disciplines, and whether the results are reproducible. A total of 290 medical, nursing, pharmacy, and physical therapy students participated in one of two large, inter-institutional, IPE simulation events. Measurements included student perceptions about their simulation experience using the Attitude Towards Teamwork in Training Undergoing Designed Educational Simulation (ATTITUDES) Questionnaire and open-ended questions related to teamwork and communication. Results demonstrated a statistically significant improvement across all ATTITUDES subscales, while time management, role confusion, collaboration, and mutual support emerged as significant themes. Results of the present study indicate that a single IPE simulation event can reproducibly result in significant and educationally meaningful improvements in student perceptions towards teamwork, IPE, and simulation as a learning modality. PMID:28970407

Voxel-based morphometric analysis in hypothyroidism using diffeomorphic anatomic registration via an exponentiated lie algebra algorithm approach.

PubMed

Singh, S; Modi, S; Bagga, D; Kaur, P; Shankar, L R; Khushu, S

2013-03-01

The present study aimed to investigate whether brain morphological differences exist between adult hypothyroid subjects and age-matched controls using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) with diffeomorphic anatomic registration via an exponentiated lie algebra algorithm (DARTEL) approach. High-resolution structural magnetic resonance images were taken in ten healthy controls and ten hypothyroid subjects. The analysis was conducted using statistical parametric mapping. The VBM study revealed a reduction in grey matter volume in the left postcentral gyrus and cerebellum of hypothyroid subjects compared to controls. A significant reduction in white matter volume was also found in the cerebellum, right inferior and middle frontal gyrus, right precentral gyrus, right inferior occipital gyrus and right temporal gyrus of hypothyroid patients compared to healthy controls. Moreover, no meaningful cluster for greater grey or white matter volume was obtained in hypothyroid subjects compared to controls. Our study is the first VBM study of hypothyroidism in an adult population and suggests that, compared to controls, this disorder is associated with differences in brain morphology in areas corresponding to known functional deficits in attention, language, motor speed, visuospatial processing and memory in hypothyroidism. © 2012 British Society for Neuroendocrinology.

Influence of the Time Scale on the Construction of Financial Networks

PubMed Central

Emmert-Streib, Frank; Dehmer, Matthias

2010-01-01

Background In this paper we investigate the definition and formation of financial networks. Specifically, we study the influence of the time scale on their construction. Methodology/Principal Findings For our analysis we use correlation-based networks obtained from the daily closing prices of stock market data. More precisely, we use the stocks that currently comprise the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and estimate financial networks where nodes correspond to stocks and edges correspond to none vanishing correlation coefficients. That means only if a correlation coefficient is statistically significant different from zero, we include an edge in the network. This construction procedure results in unweighted, undirected networks. By separating the time series of stock prices in non-overlapping intervals, we obtain one network per interval. The length of these intervals corresponds to the time scale of the data, whose influence on the construction of the networks will be studied in this paper. Conclusions/Significance Numerical analysis of four different measures in dependence on the time scale for the construction of networks allows us to gain insights about the intrinsic time scale of the stock market with respect to a meaningful graph-theoretical analysis. PMID:20949124

The SENSE-Isomorphism Theoretical Image Voxel Estimation (SENSE-ITIVE) Model for Reconstruction and Observing Statistical Properties of Reconstruction Operators

PubMed Central

Bruce, Iain P.; Karaman, M. Muge; Rowe, Daniel B.

2012-01-01

The acquisition of sub-sampled data from an array of receiver coils has become a common means of reducing data acquisition time in MRI. Of the various techniques used in parallel MRI, SENSitivity Encoding (SENSE) is one of the most common, making use of a complex-valued weighted least squares estimation to unfold the aliased images. It was recently shown in Bruce et al. [Magn. Reson. Imag. 29(2011):1267–1287] that when the SENSE model is represented in terms of a real-valued isomorphism, it assumes a skew-symmetric covariance between receiver coils, as well as an identity covariance structure between voxels. In this manuscript, we show that not only is the skew-symmetric coil covariance unlike that of real data, but the estimated covariance structure between voxels over a time series of experimental data is not an identity matrix. As such, a new model, entitled SENSE-ITIVE, is described with both revised coil and voxel covariance structures. Both the SENSE and SENSE-ITIVE models are represented in terms of real-valued isomorphisms, allowing for a statistical analysis of reconstructed voxel means, variances, and correlations resulting from the use of different coil and voxel covariance structures used in the reconstruction processes to be conducted. It is shown through both theoretical and experimental illustrations that the miss-specification of the coil and voxel covariance structures in the SENSE model results in a lower standard deviation in each voxel of the reconstructed images, and thus an artificial increase in SNR, compared to the standard deviation and SNR of the SENSE-ITIVE model where both the coil and voxel covariances are appropriately accounted for. It is also shown that there are differences in the correlations induced by the reconstruction operations of both models, and consequently there are differences in the correlations estimated throughout the course of reconstructed time series. These differences in correlations could result in meaningful differences in interpretation of results. PMID:22617147

How do clinicians with different training backgrounds manage walk-in patients in the ED setting?

PubMed

Harris, Tim; McDonald, Keith

2014-12-01

To compare the initial assessment and management of walk-in emergency department (ED) patients between different types of healthcare providers. A large teaching hospital with an annual ED census of 140 000 adult patients. A random sample of 384 patients who self-presented to the ED was obtained. A detailed analysis of each patient record was performed by two clinicians. Data were obtained on the presenting condition, and disposition of each patient, either into the ED for further assessment, or discharge. GPs were significantly more likely to discharge patients home as compared to emergency nurses. ED senior nurses were more likely than GPs to stream patients into the ED for further assessment. Of the patients referred into the ED for further assessment by senior ED nurses, the majority were discharged home. There were insufficient numbers of emergency physician assessments for meaningful statistical analysis. The clinician groups studied here demonstrated different patterns of discharge and referral, reflecting their training and experience. When planning operational procedures, the training and background of the staff allocated to each area should be considered. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Impact of social media as an instructional component on content knowledge, attitudes, and public engagement related to global climate change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Greenberg, Sallie E.

Social media (SM) are considered important avenues to reach citizens and engage them in social change. Given the widespread use of SM and their potential to enhance communication, they could also have significant influence when used as an educational tool. Educators are exploring whether classroom SM use has instructional benefits, such as enhancing interactivity and engagement. It is critical to understand the potential of SM for creating meaningful learning environments and public engagement pathways. Much work remains to understand the use of SM in this context and how to use them effectively. This study draws on active learning theory to examine the impact of SM as an instructional component with community college students learning to make connections among science, social responsibility, and global understanding in an environmental biology course (the Course). Using global climate change as a theme, the Course included a Facebook instructional component. A pretest--posttest, nonrandomized comparison group design was used to measure the impact of Facebook as an integrated component of the Course. The treatment and comparison groups were determined to be comparable based on demographics, access and ownership of digital devices, and SM use despite non-random assignment. No statistically significant differences were found between groups on these factors. The intervention consisted of semester-long required use of Facebook for the treatment group. The impact of the SM intervention was measured in three areas: (a) content knowledge, (b) attitudes toward climate change, and (c) public engagement actions and intentions to act. At the conclusion of the Course, no discernable difference was measured in content knowledge gains between the two groups. However, students who used Facebook experienced statistically significant differences in attitude, becoming increasingly concerned about global climate change. The comparison group demonstrated statistically significant differences in attitudes shifting toward more disengaged. Students who used Facebook showed considerably greater tendency toward action and expressed more intention to act than those who did not. Treatment group participants self-reported in interviews that the learning environment was enhanced in four areas: (a) convenience and logistics, (b) community and communication, (c) engaging learning environment, and (d) alternative participation pathways. Comments classified under the theme convenience and logistics provided insight into how the instructor and participants used Facebook in the intervention, such as to post maps and discuss assignment details. Comments categorized under the theme community and communication were those that made explicit who used Facebook and the impact of the intervention on communication and classroom community in areas such as creating dialog, carrying the discussion beyond the classroom, and having access to the instructor. Responses categorized under the theme engaging learning environment provided specific details about how Facebook use affected participants' engagement in the learning environment, such as their contribution to the course content and increased interaction with the course content. Comments within the alternative participation pathways theme showed ways in which Facebook use facilitated the other three themes, including removing barriers for shy students, providing additional time for issues that arose during class discussions, and through passive participation by reading the posts of classmates. This empirical study demonstrated that the use of Facebook in an educational setting had an impact on student attitudes and engagement actions. Additionally, Facebook use enhanced the learning environment in meaningful ways showing that SM, when used intentionally, benefits active learning environments and provides an opportunity to enhance a sense of public engagement among college students.

Phase III trial of vinflunine plus best supportive care compared with best supportive care alone after a platinum-containing regimen in patients with advanced transitional cell carcinoma of the urothelial tract.

PubMed

Bellmunt, Joaquim; Théodore, Christine; Demkov, Tomasz; Komyakov, Boris; Sengelov, Lisa; Daugaard, Gedske; Caty, Armelle; Carles, Joan; Jagiello-Gruszfeld, Agnieszka; Karyakin, Oleg; Delgado, François-Michel; Hurteloup, Patrick; Winquist, Eric; Morsli, Nassim; Salhi, Yacine; Culine, Stéphane; von der Maase, Hans

2009-09-20

Vinflunine (VFL) is a new microtubule inhibitor that has activity against transitional cell carcinoma of urothelial tract (TCCU). We conducted a randomized phase III study of VFL and best supportive care (BSC) versus BSC alone in the treatment of patients with advanced TCCU who had experienced progression after a first-line platinum-containing regimen. The study was designed to compare overall survival (OS) between patients receiving VFL + BSC (performance status [PS] = 0: 320 mg/m(2), every 3 weeks; PS = 0 with previous pelvic radiation and PS = 1: 280 mg/m(2) subsequently escalated to 320 mg/m(2)) or BSC. Three hundred seventy patients were randomly assigned (VFL + BSC, n =253; BSC, n = 117). Both arms were well balanced except there were more patients with PS more than 1 (10% difference) in the BSC arm. Main grade 3 or 4 toxicities for VFL + BSC were neutropenia (50%), febrile neutropenia (6%), anemia (19%), fatigue (19%), and constipation (16%). In the intent-to-treat population, the objective of a median 2-month survival advantage (6.9 months for VFL + BSC v 4.6 months for BSC) was achieved (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.88; 95% CI, 0.69 to 1.12) but was not statistically significant (P = .287). Multivariate Cox analysis adjusting for prognostic factors showed statistically significant effect of VFL on OS (P = .036), reducing the death risk by 23% (HR = 0.77; 95% CI, 0.61 to 0.98). In the eligible population (n = 357), the median OS was significantly longer for VFL + BSC than BSC (6.9 v 4.3 months, respectively), with the difference being statistically significant (P = .040). Overall response rate, disease control, and progression-free survival were all statistically significant favoring VFL + BSC (P = .006, P = .002, and P = .001, respectively). VFL demonstrates a survival advantage in second-line treatment for advanced TCCU. Consistency of results exists with significant and meaningful benefit over all efficacy parameters. Safety profile is acceptable, and therefore, VFL seems to be a reasonable option for TCCU progressing after first-line platinum-based therapy.

Self-Determination and Meaningful Work: Exploring Socioeconomic Constraints

PubMed Central

Allan, Blake A.

2016-01-01

This study examined a model of meaningful work among a diverse sample of working adults. From the perspectives of Self-Determination Theory and the Psychology of Working Framework, we tested a structural model with social class and work volition predicting SDT motivation variables, which in turn predicted meaningful work. Partially supporting hypotheses, work volition was positively related to internal regulation and negatively related to amotivation, whereas social class was positively related to external regulation and amotivation. In turn, internal regulation was positively related to meaningful work, whereas external regulation and amotivation were negatively related to meaningful work. Indirect effects from work volition to meaningful work via internal regulation and amotivation were significant, and indirect effects from social class to meaningful work via external regulation and amotivation were significant. This study highlights the important relations between SDT motivation variables and meaningful work, especially the large positive relation between internal regulation and meaningful work. However, results also reveal that work volition and social class may play critical roles in predicting internal regulation, external regulation, and amotivation. PMID:26869970

Meaningfulness of service and marital satisfaction in Army couples.

PubMed

Bergmann, Jeffrey S; Renshaw, Keith D; Allen, Elizabeth S; Markman, Howard J; Stanley, Scott M

2014-10-01

The vast numbers of military service members who have been deployed since 2001 highlights the need to better understand relationships of military couples. A unique consideration in military couples is the concept of meaningfulness of service, or the value service members and their partners place on military service in spite of the sacrifices it requires. In a sample of 606 Army couples, the authors used path analysis to examine how male service members' and female spouses' perceived meaningfulness of service added to the prediction of marital satisfaction in both members of the couple, when accounting for service members' PTSD symptoms. Spouses' perceived meaningfulness of service was linked with higher marital satisfaction in spouses, regardless of service member's perceived meaningfulness of service. Service members' perceived meaningfulness of service was also associated with increased marital satisfaction in service members, but only when their spouses also perceived higher meaningfulness. There were no significant interactions between service members' PTSD and either partner's perceived meaningfulness. Implications for enhanced attention to spousal perceptions of meaningfulness of service are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

Sweeping the Floor or Putting a Man on the Moon: How to Define and Measure Meaningful Work.

PubMed

Both-Nwabuwe, Jitske M C; Dijkstra, Maria T M; Beersma, Bianca

2017-01-01

Meaningful work is integral to well-being and a flourishing life. The construct of "meaningful work" is, however, consistently affected by conceptual ambiguity. Although there is substantial support for arguments to maintain the status of conceptual ambiguity, we make a case for the benefits of having consensus on a definition and scale of meaningful work in the context of paid work. The objective of this article, therefore, was twofold. Firstly, we wanted to develop a more integrative definition of meaningful work. Secondly, we wanted to establish a corresponding operationalization. We reviewed the literature on the existing definitions of meaningful work and the scales designed to measure it. We found 14 definitions of meaningful work. Based on these definitions, we identified four categories of definitions, which led us to propose an integrative and comprehensive definition of meaningful work. We identified two validated scales that were partly aligned with the proposed definition. Based on our review, we conclude that scholars in this field should coalesce rather than diverge their efforts to conceptualize and measure meaningful work.

Relationship between meaningful work and job performance in nurses.

PubMed

Tong, Ling

2018-04-01

The present study was designed to determine the relationship between meaningful work and job performance, and the impact of meaningful work on nursing care quality. Meaningful work has been suggested as a significant factor affecting job performance, but the relationship has never been studied in nurses in China. A descriptive correlational study was designed to assess the level of meaningful work, tasks, and contextual performance as well as their relationships. We used a stratified random-sampling approach to enrol nurses from hospitals. Multivariate regression analysis was applied to determine the relationship between meaningful work and their demographic data. There were significant, positive relationships between meaningful work and task performance and contextual performance. Education level, work unit, and employment type influenced meaningful work. The work motivation score of the nurses was lower than that of the other 2 dimensions, and a negative work motivation score negatively influenced job performance. Improving meaningful work and providing more support and assistance could improve nurse performance, thereby improving the quality of nursing care. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Meaningfulness of Service and Marital Satisfaction in Army Couples

PubMed Central

Bergmann, Jeffrey S.; Renshaw, Keith D.; Allen, Elizabeth S.; Markman, Howard J.; Stanley, Scott M.

2015-01-01

The vast numbers of military service members who have been deployed since 2001 highlights the need to better understand relationships of military couples. A unique consideration in military couples is the concept of meaningfulness of service, or the value service members and their partners place on military service in spite of the sacrifices it requires. In a sample of 606 Army couples, we used path analysis to examine how male service members’ and female spouses’ perceived meaningfulness of service added to the prediction of marital satisfaction in both members of the couple, when accounting for service members’ PTSD symptoms. Spouses’ perceived meaningfulness of service was linked with higher marital satisfaction in spouses, regardless of service member’s perceived meaningfulness of service. Service members’ perceived meaningfulness of service was also associated with increased marital satisfaction in service members, but only when their spouses also perceived higher meaningfulness. There were no significant interactions between service members’ PTSD and either partner’s perceived meaningfulness. Implications for enhanced attention to spousal perceptions of meaningfulness of service are discussed. PMID:25046347

Sweeping the Floor or Putting a Man on the Moon: How to Define and Measure Meaningful Work

PubMed Central

Both-Nwabuwe, Jitske M. C.; Dijkstra, Maria T. M.; Beersma, Bianca

2017-01-01

Meaningful work is integral to well-being and a flourishing life. The construct of “meaningful work” is, however, consistently affected by conceptual ambiguity. Although there is substantial support for arguments to maintain the status of conceptual ambiguity, we make a case for the benefits of having consensus on a definition and scale of meaningful work in the context of paid work. The objective of this article, therefore, was twofold. Firstly, we wanted to develop a more integrative definition of meaningful work. Secondly, we wanted to establish a corresponding operationalization. We reviewed the literature on the existing definitions of meaningful work and the scales designed to measure it. We found 14 definitions of meaningful work. Based on these definitions, we identified four categories of definitions, which led us to propose an integrative and comprehensive definition of meaningful work. We identified two validated scales that were partly aligned with the proposed definition. Based on our review, we conclude that scholars in this field should coalesce rather than diverge their efforts to conceptualize and measure meaningful work. PMID:29033867

Impact of a family medicine resident wellness curriculum: a feasibility study.

PubMed

Runyan, Christine; Savageau, Judith A; Potts, Stacy; Weinreb, Linda

2016-01-01

Background Up to 60% of practicing physicians report symptoms of burnout, which often peak during residency. Residency is also a relevant time for habits of self-care and resiliency to be emphasized. A growing literature underscores the importance of this; however, evidence about effective burnout prevention curriculum during residency remains limited. Objectives The purpose of this project is to evaluate the impact of a new, 1-month wellness curriculum for 12 second-year family medicine residents on burnout, empathy, stress, and self-compassion. Methods The pilot program, introduced during a new rotation emphasizing competencies around leadership, focused on teaching skills to cultivate mindfulness and self-compassion in order to enhance empathy and reduce stress. Pre-assessments and 3-month follow-up assessments on measures of burnout, empathy, self-compassion, and perceived stress were collected to evaluate the impact of the curriculum. It was hypothesized that this curriculum would enhance empathy and self-compassion as well as reduce stress and burnout among family medicine residents. Results Descriptive statistics revealed positive trends on the mean scores of all the measures, particularly the Mindfulness Scale of the Self-Compassion Inventory and the Jefferson Empathy Scale. However, the small sample size and lack of sufficient power to detect meaningful differences limited the use of inferential statistics. Conclusions This feasibility study demonstrates how a residency wellness curriculum can be developed, implemented, and evaluated with promising results, including high participant satisfaction.

The influence of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation parameters on the level of pain perceived by participants with painful diabetic neuropathy: A crossover study.

PubMed

Upton, Gabrielle A; Tinley, Paul; Al-Aubaidy, Hayder; Crawford, Rachel

This pilot study aimed to investigate and compare the perceived pain relief effectiveness of two different modes of TENS in people with painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN). A cross-over study was conducted at Charles Sturt University, Orange. Five participants with PDN were assessed with a McGill Pain Questionnaire before and after each of the two TENS treatments. Participants were randomly allocated to Traditional TENS (80Hz, 200ms) or Acupuncture-like TENS (2Hz, 200ms) and the treatments were applied daily for 30min over ten days. Following a seven day washout period, the alternate mode of TENS was carried out using the same method. Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests were used to statistically analyse the results. All five participants reported personally meaningful pain relief during one or both of the TENS treatments. The Wilcoxon signed rank testing showed no statistical significance, p=1, likely due to the small sample size. Acupuncture-like TENS had a large effect size (z=-1.625, r=0.514), whilst Traditional TENS produced a medium effect size (z=-1.214, r=0.384). No adverse effects were reported. Acupuncture-like TENS may be more effective for PDN than traditional TENS. A larger scale replication of this pilot study is warranted. Copyright © 2016 Diabetes India. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Natural Bacterial Communities Serve as Quantitative Geochemical Biosensors

PubMed Central

Smith, Mark B.; Rocha, Andrea M.; Smillie, Chris S.; Olesen, Scott W.; Paradis, Charles; Wu, Liyou; Campbell, James H.; Fortney, Julian L.; Mehlhorn, Tonia L.; Lowe, Kenneth A.; Earles, Jennifer E.; Phillips, Jana; Joyner, Dominique C.; Elias, Dwayne A.; Bailey, Kathryn L.; Hurt, Richard A.; Preheim, Sarah P.; Sanders, Matthew C.; Yang, Joy; Mueller, Marcella A.; Brooks, Scott; Watson, David B.; Zhang, Ping; He, Zhili; Dubinsky, Eric A.; Adams, Paul D.; Arkin, Adam P.; Fields, Matthew W.; Zhou, Jizhong; Alm, Eric J.

2015-01-01

ABSTRACT Biological sensors can be engineered to measure a wide range of environmental conditions. Here we show that statistical analysis of DNA from natural microbial communities can be used to accurately identify environmental contaminants, including uranium and nitrate at a nuclear waste site. In addition to contamination, sequence data from the 16S rRNA gene alone can quantitatively predict a rich catalogue of 26 geochemical features collected from 93 wells with highly differing geochemistry characteristics. We extend this approach to identify sites contaminated with hydrocarbons from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, finding that altered bacterial communities encode a memory of prior contamination, even after the contaminants themselves have been fully degraded. We show that the bacterial strains that are most useful for detecting oil and uranium are known to interact with these substrates, indicating that this statistical approach uncovers ecologically meaningful interactions consistent with previous experimental observations. Future efforts should focus on evaluating the geographical generalizability of these associations. Taken as a whole, these results indicate that ubiquitous, natural bacterial communities can be used as in situ environmental sensors that respond to and capture perturbations caused by human impacts. These in situ biosensors rely on environmental selection rather than directed engineering, and so this approach could be rapidly deployed and scaled as sequencing technology continues to become faster, simpler, and less expensive. PMID:25968645

Rotational motion of elongated particles in isotropic turbulent flow: statistical perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Lihao; Andersson, Helge; Variano, Evan

2014-11-01

We consider the rotational motion of non-spherical particles in turbulent flow, comparing the statistics of particles' angular velocity to the corresponding quantities computed in the fluid phase. We use numerical (DNS) and laboratory measurements for particles that are both larger and smaller than the Kolmogorov lengthscale. The particles are spheroids or rods, with aspect ratios between 1 and 10. We will discuss the subtleties of defining a meaningful Stokes number for these particles, focusing on the effect of asphericity and the fact that our interest is in rotation and not translation. Comparing the probability density function of angular velocity between fluid and particle phase indicates that the angular velocity of particles has a narrower distribution than that of the fluid phase, and that. particles do respond to extreme events in the fluid phase. The first four moments of the PDFs are analyzed, and these show that the ``filtering'' effect is very similar between DNS and lab experiments, despite differences in particle sizes and mass. We propose a nondimensional curve for predicting the magnitude of the filtering effect, and discuss the implications of this curve for the definition of Stokes number, as discussed earlier. This work has been supported by grants from the Peder Sather Center for Advanced Study at UC Berkeley and from the Research Council of Norway (Contract No. 213917/F20).

Further validation of the Health Promoting Activities Scale with mothers of typically developing children.

PubMed

Bourke-Taylor, Helen; Lalor, Aislinn; Farnworth, Louise; Pallant, Julie F

2014-10-01

The Health Promoting Activities Scale (HPAS) measures the frequency that mothers participate in self-selected leisure activities that promote health and wellbeing. The scale was originally validated on mothers of school-aged children with disabilities, and the current article extends this research using a comparative sample of mothers of typically developing school-aged children. Australian mothers (N = 263) completed a questionnaire containing the HPAS, a measure of depression, anxiety and stress (DASS-21) and questions concerning their weight, height, sleep quality and demographics. Statistical analysis assessed the underlying structure, internal consistency and construct validity of the HPAS. Inferential statistics were utilised to investigate the construct validity. Exploratory factor analysis supported the unidimensionality of the HPAS. It showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.78). Significantly lower HPAS scores were recorded for women who were obese; had elevated levels of depression, anxiety and stress; had poor quality sleep or had heavy caring commitments. The mean HPAS score in this sample (M = 32.2) was significantly higher than was previously reported for women of children with a disability (M = 21.6: P < 0.001). Further psychometric evaluation of the HPAS continues to support the HPAS as a sound instrument that measures the frequency that women participate in meaningful occupation that is associated with differences in mental health and wellbeing and other health indicators. © 2014 Occupational Therapy Australia.

Impact of a family medicine resident wellness curriculum: a feasibility study.

PubMed

Runyan, Christine; Savageau, Judith A; Potts, Stacy; Weinreb, Linda

2016-01-01

Up to 60% of practicing physicians report symptoms of burnout, which often peak during residency. Residency is also a relevant time for habits of self-care and resiliency to be emphasized. A growing literature underscores the importance of this; however, evidence about effective burnout prevention curriculum during residency remains limited. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the impact of a new, 1-month wellness curriculum for 12 second-year family medicine residents on burnout, empathy, stress, and self-compassion. The pilot program, introduced during a new rotation emphasizing competencies around leadership, focused on teaching skills to cultivate mindfulness and self-compassion in order to enhance empathy and reduce stress. Pre-assessments and 3-month follow-up assessments on measures of burnout, empathy, self-compassion, and perceived stress were collected to evaluate the impact of the curriculum. It was hypothesized that this curriculum would enhance empathy and self-compassion as well as reduce stress and burnout among family medicine residents. Descriptive statistics revealed positive trends on the mean scores of all the measures, particularly the Mindfulness Scale of the Self-Compassion Inventory and the Jefferson Empathy Scale. However, the small sample size and lack of sufficient power to detect meaningful differences limited the use of inferential statistics. This feasibility study demonstrates how a residency wellness curriculum can be developed, implemented, and evaluated with promising results, including high participant satisfaction.

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

Tokovinin, Andrei; Horch, Elliott P., E-mail: atokovinin@ctio.noao.edu, E-mail: horche2@southernct.edu

Statistical characterization of secondary subsystems in binaries helps to distinguish between various scenarios of multiple-star formation. The Differential Speckle Survey Instrument was used at the Gemini-N telescope for several hours in 2015 July to probe the binarity of 25 secondary components in nearby solar-type binaries. Six new subsystems were resolved, with meaningful detection limits for the remaining targets. The large incidence of secondary subsystems agrees with other similar studies. The newly resolved subsystem HIP 115417 Ba,Bb causes deviations in the observed motion of the outer binary from which an astrometric orbit of Ba,Bb with a period of 117 years ismore » deduced.« less

Precision Measurements of Solar Energetic Particle Elemental Composition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Breneman, H.; Stone, E. C.

1985-01-01

Data from the Cosmic Ray Subsystem (CRS) aboard the Voyager 1 and 2 spaceraft were used to determined, solar energetic particle abundances or upper limits for all elements with Z 30 from a combined set of 10 solar flares during the 1977 to 1982 time period. Statistically meaningful abundances were determined for several rare elements including P, C1, K, Ti and Mn, while the precision of the mean abundances for the more abundant elements was proved. When compared to solar photospheric spectroscopic abundances, these new SEP abundances more clearly exhibit the step-function dependence on first ionization potential previously reported.

Productive Information Foraging

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Furlong, P. Michael; Dille, Michael

2016-01-01

This paper presents a new algorithm for autonomous on-line exploration in unknown environments. The objective of the algorithm is to free robot scientists from extensive preliminary site investigation while still being able to collect meaningful data. We simulate a common form of exploration task for an autonomous robot involving sampling the environment at various locations and compare performance with a simpler existing algorithm that is also denied global information. The result of the experiment shows that the new algorithm has a statistically significant improvement in performance with a significant effect size for a range of costs for taking sampling actions.

Insights from a pilot program to integrate medical and social services.

PubMed

Meiners, Mark R; Mokler, Pamela M; Kasunic, Mary Lynn; Hawthornthwaite, Scott; Foster, Susan; Scheer, David; Maldonado, Anna Maria

2014-01-01

This study examines lessons learned from the design, implementation, and early results of an integrated managed care pilot program linking member benefits of a Medicare-Medicaid health care plan with community services and supports. The health plan's average monthly costs for members receiving an assessment and services declined by an economically meaningful, statistically significant amount in the postintervention period relative to the preintervention period compared with those who did not accept an assessment or services. The results along with the lesson learned from the pilot are viewed by the parties as supportive of further program development.

On some stochastic formulations and related statistical moments of pharmacokinetic models.

PubMed

Matis, J H; Wehrly, T E; Metzler, C M

1983-02-01

This paper presents the deterministic and stochastic model for a linear compartment system with constant coefficients, and it develops expressions for the mean residence times (MRT) and the variances of the residence times (VRT) for the stochastic model. The expressions are relatively simple computationally, involving primarily matrix inversion, and they are elegant mathematically, in avoiding eigenvalue analysis and the complex domain. The MRT and VRT provide a set of new meaningful response measures for pharmacokinetic analysis and they give added insight into the system kinetics. The new analysis is illustrated with an example involving the cholesterol turnover in rats.

Increasing point-count duration increases standard error

USGS Publications Warehouse

Smith, W.P.; Twedt, D.J.; Hamel, P.B.; Ford, R.P.; Wiedenfeld, D.A.; Cooper, R.J.

1998-01-01

We examined data from point counts of varying duration in bottomland forests of west Tennessee and the Mississippi Alluvial Valley to determine if counting interval influenced sampling efficiency. Estimates of standard error increased as point count duration increased both for cumulative number of individuals and species in both locations. Although point counts appear to yield data with standard errors proportional to means, a square root transformation of the data may stabilize the variance. Using long (>10 min) point counts may reduce sample size and increase sampling error, both of which diminish statistical power and thereby the ability to detect meaningful changes in avian populations.

The effects of trunk stabilization exercise on bone density after menopause.

PubMed

Kang, Jeong-Il; Jeong, Dae-Keun; Choi, Hyun

2015-12-01

[Purpose] This study examined the effect of low intensity exercise on bone density by conducting trunk stabilization exercise on females after menopause for 24 weeks. [Subjects and Methods] Thirty three female subjects over 47 years old and under the age of 53 were selected and 16 for experimental group and 17 for control group were randomly selected. Experimental group had performed spinal and pelvic stabilization exercise 30 minutes a day, 5times a week, for 24 weeks. Except for the daily life, control group did not participate in any characteristic movement. Bone density of every member in experimental group was measured using average value of bone density of 1st-4th lumbar through quantitative computer tomography. [Results] There was a meaningful difference in only control group about measured value of bone density within each group, experimental and control group, but there was no meaningful difference in measured value of bone density between two groups, experimental group and control group. [Conclusion] Through this research, we could see the fact that although trunk stability exercise could not change bone density meaningfully, it could maintain bone density. In the future, it is randomly necessary to study things related this because results of researches can show different results according to exercise intensity, exercise period, age, weight, hormone status and mediation period. It is considered that it will help to prevent and treat patients with osteoporosis a lot.

The effect of meaningfulness and integrative processing in expressive writing on positive and negative affect and life satisfaction.

PubMed

Schutte, Nicola S; Searle, Trudy; Meade, Stephen; Dark, Neill A

2012-01-01

Meaningfulness and integrative processing of expressive writing may influence the effect of expressive writing. Participants completed measures of positive affect, negative affect and life satisfaction before and after an expressive writing intervention. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four expressive writing instruction conditions, which combined higher and lower levels of meaning and integrative processing instructions. Meaningfulness and integrative processing instructions had significant effects in increasing positive affect and there was a significant interaction between meaningfulness instructions and integrative processing instructions; participants in the high meaningfulness and high integrative processing instruction condition showed the greatest increase in positive affect. Meaningfulness had a significant effect in decreasing negative affect. The intervention did not influence life satisfaction. Both meaningfulness and integrative processing instructions led to more self-reported personal meaningfulness of the writing and more cognitive, emotional, behavioural and situational changes. More self-reported meaningfulness of the writing and more cognitive, emotional, behavioural and situational changes made as a result of the writing were in turn associated with greater increases in positive affect. The results of the study affirm the importance of meaningfulness and processing in expressive writing and potentially provide information regarding how to increase the effectiveness of expressive writing.

A method for improving reliability and relevance of LCA reviews: the case of life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of tap and bottled water.

PubMed

Fantin, Valentina; Scalbi, Simona; Ottaviano, Giuseppe; Masoni, Paolo

2014-04-01

The purpose of this study is to propose a method for harmonising Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) literature studies on the same product or on different products fulfilling the same function for a reliable and meaningful comparison of their life-cycle environmental impacts. The method is divided in six main steps which aim to rationalize and quicken the efforts needed to carry out the comparison. The steps include: 1) a clear definition of the goal and scope of the review; 2) critical review of the references; 3) identification of significant parameters that have to be harmonised; 4) harmonisation of the parameters; 5) statistical analysis to support the comparison; 6) results and discussion. This approach was then applied to the comparative analysis of the published LCA studies on tap and bottled water production, focussing on Global Warming Potential (GWP) results, with the aim to identify the environmental preferable alternative. A statistical analysis with Wilcoxon's test confirmed that the difference between harmonised GWP values of tap and bottled water was significant. The results obtained from the comparison of the harmonised mean GWP results showed that tap water always has the best environmental performance, even in case of high energy-consuming technologies for drinking water treatments. The strength of the method is that it enables both performing a deep analysis of the LCA literature and obtaining more consistent comparisons across the published LCAs. For these reasons, it can be a valuable tool which provides useful information for both practitioners and decision makers. Finally, its application to the case study allowed both to supply a description of systems variability and to evaluate the importance of several key parameters for tap and bottled water production. The comparative review of LCA studies, with the inclusion of a statistical decision test, can validate and strengthen the final statements of the comparison. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Profiles of Student Perceptions of School Climate: Relations with Risk Behaviors and Academic Outcomes.

PubMed

Shukla, Kathan; Konold, Timothy; Cornell, Dewey

2016-06-01

School climate has been linked to a variety of positive student outcomes, but there may be important within-school differences among students in their experiences of school climate. This study examined within-school heterogeneity among 47,631 high school student ratings of their school climate through multilevel latent class modeling. Student profiles across 323 schools were generated on the basis of multiple indicators of school climate: disciplinary structure, academic expectations, student willingness to seek help, respect for students, affective and cognitive engagement, prevalence of teasing and bullying, general victimization, bullying victimization, and bullying perpetration. Analyses identified four meaningfully different student profile types that were labeled positive climate, medium climate-low bullying, medium climate-high bullying, and negative climate. Contrasts among these profile types on external criteria revealed meaningful differences for race, grade-level, parent education level, educational aspirations, and frequency of risk behaviors. © Society for Community Research and Action 2016.

Implications of clinical trial design on sample size requirements.

PubMed

Leon, Andrew C

2008-07-01

The primary goal in designing a randomized controlled clinical trial (RCT) is to minimize bias in the estimate of treatment effect. Randomized group assignment, double-blinded assessments, and control or comparison groups reduce the risk of bias. The design must also provide sufficient statistical power to detect a clinically meaningful treatment effect and maintain a nominal level of type I error. An attempt to integrate neurocognitive science into an RCT poses additional challenges. Two particularly relevant aspects of such a design often receive insufficient attention in an RCT. Multiple outcomes inflate type I error, and an unreliable assessment process introduces bias and reduces statistical power. Here we describe how both unreliability and multiple outcomes can increase the study costs and duration and reduce the feasibility of the study. The objective of this article is to consider strategies that overcome the problems of unreliability and multiplicity.

Inferring action structure and causal relationships in continuous sequences of human action.

PubMed

Buchsbaum, Daphna; Griffiths, Thomas L; Plunkett, Dillon; Gopnik, Alison; Baldwin, Dare

2015-02-01

In the real world, causal variables do not come pre-identified or occur in isolation, but instead are embedded within a continuous temporal stream of events. A challenge faced by both human learners and machine learning algorithms is identifying subsequences that correspond to the appropriate variables for causal inference. A specific instance of this problem is action segmentation: dividing a sequence of observed behavior into meaningful actions, and determining which of those actions lead to effects in the world. Here we present a Bayesian analysis of how statistical and causal cues to segmentation should optimally be combined, as well as four experiments investigating human action segmentation and causal inference. We find that both people and our model are sensitive to statistical regularities and causal structure in continuous action, and are able to combine these sources of information in order to correctly infer both causal relationships and segmentation boundaries. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Inc.

The relationship between STEM educational attainment and utility patent conferrals: A state-level analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liao, Yuqi

The utility patent, as a legal record of invention, is widely believed to be a close proxy for innovation among firms, industries, and economies as a whole. One of the critical drivers of patenting -- and ultimately, innovation -- is education. The science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields in education are of special importance. There is, however, little empirical research to substantiate a connection between STEM education and innovation outcomes. Seeking to fill this gap, this paper finds that, in general, there is no evidence of a meaningful relationship between STEM educational attainment and utility patent conferrals. The relationship of interest, though generally not statistically significant, is stronger for temporary US visa holders than for US citizens or permanent US residents. However, I find a large and statistically significant association between STEM educational attainment and utility patent conferrals for states that have above-average college educational attainment or above-average advanced industries workforce concentration.

Psychiatric epidemiologic study of occupational lead exposure

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

Parkinson, D.K.; Ryan, C.; Bromet, E.J.

1986-02-01

The association of occupational lead exposure with neuropsychiatric functioning was evaluated using data collected in 1982 in eastern Pennsylvania from 288 lead-exposed workers and 181 nonexposed subjects. Both current and cumulative exposure indices were used. After controlling for age, education, and income, few meaningful differences between exposed and control workers were found on either neuropsychologic or psychosocial variables. Dose-response analyses indicated that among lead-exposed workers, cumulative and current exposure were unrelated to neuropsychologic performance. The only meaningful associations occurred between exposure and level of conflict in interpersonal relationships. The results thus give evidence against hypotheses suggesting adverse neuropsychologic effects.

Automated thematic mapping and change detection of ERTS-A images. [digital interpretation of Arizona imagery

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gramenopoulos, N. (Principal Investigator)

1973-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. For the recognition of terrain types, spatial signatures are developed from the diffraction patterns of small areas of ERTS-1 images. This knowledge is exploited for the measurements of a small number of meaningful spatial features from the digital Fourier transforms of ERTS-1 image cells containing 32 x 32 picture elements. Using these spatial features and a heuristic algorithm, the terrain types in the vicinity of Phoenix, Arizona were recognized by the computer with a high accuracy. Then, the spatial features were combined with spectral features and using the maximum likelihood criterion the recognition accuracy of terrain types increased substantially. It was determined that the recognition accuracy with the maximum likelihood criterion depends on the statistics of the feature vectors. Nonlinear transformations of the feature vectors are required so that the terrain class statistics become approximately Gaussian. It was also determined that for a given geographic area the statistics of the classes remain invariable for a period of a month but vary substantially between seasons.

Causality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pearl, Judea

2000-03-01

Written by one of the pre-eminent researchers in the field, this book provides a comprehensive exposition of modern analysis of causation. It shows how causality has grown from a nebulous concept into a mathematical theory with significant applications in the fields of statistics, artificial intelligence, philosophy, cognitive science, and the health and social sciences. Pearl presents a unified account of the probabilistic, manipulative, counterfactual and structural approaches to causation, and devises simple mathematical tools for analyzing the relationships between causal connections, statistical associations, actions and observations. The book will open the way for including causal analysis in the standard curriculum of statistics, artifical intelligence, business, epidemiology, social science and economics. Students in these areas will find natural models, simple identification procedures, and precise mathematical definitions of causal concepts that traditional texts have tended to evade or make unduly complicated. This book will be of interest to professionals and students in a wide variety of fields. Anyone who wishes to elucidate meaningful relationships from data, predict effects of actions and policies, assess explanations of reported events, or form theories of causal understanding and causal speech will find this book stimulating and invaluable.

Determining the longitudinal validity and meaningful differences in HRQL of the PedsQL™ Sickle Cell Disease Module.

PubMed

Panepinto, Julie A; Paul Scott, J; Badaki-Makun, Oluwakemi; Darbari, Deepika S; Chumpitazi, Corrie E; Airewele, Gladstone E; Ellison, Angela M; Smith-Whitley, Kim; Mahajan, Prashant; Sarnaik, Sharada A; Charles Casper, T; Cook, Larry J; Leonard, Julie; Hulbert, Monica L; Powell, Elizabeth C; Liem, Robert I; Hickey, Robert; Krishnamurti, Lakshmanan; Hillery, Cheryl A; Brousseau, David C

2017-06-12

Detecting change in health status over time and ascertaining meaningful changes are critical elements when using health-related quality of life (HRQL) instruments to measure patient-centered outcomes. The PedsQL™ Sickle Cell Disease module, a disease specific HRQL instrument, has previously been shown to be valid and reliable. Our objectives were to determine the longitudinal validity of the PedsQL™ Sickle Cell Disease module and the change in HRQL that is meaningful to patients. An ancillary study was conducted utilizing a multi-center prospective trial design. Children ages 4-21 years with sickle cell disease admitted to the hospital for an acute painful vaso-oclusive crisis were eligible. Children completed HRQL assessments at three time points (in the Emergency Department, one week post-discharge, and at return to baseline (One to three months post-discharge). The primary outcome was change in HRQL score. Both distribution (effect size, standard error of measurement (SEM)) and anchor (global change assessment) based methods were used to determine the longitudinal validity and meaningful change in HRQL. Changes in HRQL meaningful to patients were identified by anchoring the change scores to the patient's perception of global improvement in pain. Moderate effect sizes (0.20-0.80) were determined for all domains except the Communication I and Cognitive Fatigue domains. The value of 1 SEM varied from 3.8-14.6 across all domains. Over 50% of patients improved by at least 1 SEM in Total HRQL score. A HRQL change score of 7-10 in the pain domains represented minimal perceived improvement in HRQL and a HRQL change score of 18 or greater represented moderate to large improvement. The PedsQL™ Sickle Cell Disease Module is responsive to changes in HRQL in patients experiencing acute painful vaso-occlusive crises. The study data establish longitudinal validity and meaningful change parameters for the PedsQL™ Sickle Cell Disease Module. ClinicalTrials.gov (study identifier: NCT01197417 ). Date of registration: 08/30/2010.

Classification of chemical substances, reactions, and interactions: The effect of expertise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stains, Marilyne Nicole Olivia

2007-12-01

This project explored the strategies that undergraduate and graduate chemistry students engaged in when solving classification tasks involving microscopic (particulate) representations of chemical substances and microscopic and symbolic representations of different chemical reactions. We were specifically interested in characterizing the basic features to which students pay attention while classifying, identifying the patterns of reasoning that they follow, and comparing the performance of students with different levels of preparation in the discipline. In general, our results suggest that advanced levels of expertise in chemical classification do not necessarily evolve in a linear and continuous way with academic training. Novice students had a tendency to reduce the cognitive demand of the task and rely on common-sense reasoning; they had difficulties differentiating concepts (conceptual undifferentiation) and based their classification decisions on only one variable (reduction). These ways of thinking lead them to consider extraneous features, pay more attention to explicit or surface features than implicit features and to overlook important and relevant features. However, unfamiliar levels of representations (microscopic level) seemed to trigger deeper and more meaningful thinking processes. On the other hand, expert students classified entities using a specific set of rules that they applied throughout the classification tasks. They considered a larger variety of implicit features and the unfamiliarity with the microscopic level of representation did not affect their reasoning processes. Consequently, novices created numerous small groups, few of them being chemically meaningful, while experts created few but large chemically meaningful groups. Novices also had difficulties correctly classifying entities in chemically meaningful groups. Finally, expert chemists in our study used classification schemes that are not necessarily traditionally taught in classroom chemistry (e.g. the structure of substances is more relevant to them than their composition when classifying substances as compounds or elements). This result suggests that practice in the field may develop different types of knowledge framework than those usually presented in chemistry textbooks.

Does structural leg-length discrepancy affect postural control? Preliminary study.

PubMed

Eliks, Małgorzata; Ostiak-Tomaszewska, Wioleta; Lisiński, Przemysław; Koczewski, Paweł

2017-08-09

Leg-length inequality results in an altered position of the spine and pelvis. Previous studies on the influence of leg asymmetry on postural control have been inconclusive. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the effect of structural leg-length discrepancy (LLD) on the control of posture. We studied 38 individuals (19 patients with structural LLD, 19 healthy subjects). The examination included measurement of the length of the lower limbs and weight distribution as well as a static posturography. All statistical analyses were performed with Statistica software version 10.0. Non-parametrical Kruskal-Wallis with Dunn's post test and Spearman test were used. Differences between the groups and correlation between mean COP sway velocity and the value of LLD as well as the value of LLD and weight distribution were assumed as statistically significant at p < 0.05. There was a significant difference in the asymmetry of weight distribution between the group of patients and the healthy subjects (p = 0.0005). Differences in a posturographic examination between the groups were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Meaningful differences in mean COP velocity in mediolateral direction between tandem stance with eyes open and closed were detected in both groups (in controls p = 0.000134, in patients both with the shorter leg in a front and rear position, p = 0.029, p = 0.026 respectively). There was a positive moderate correlation between the value of LLD and the value of mean COP velocity in normal standing in mediolateral direction with eyes open (r = 0.47) and closed (r = 0.54) and in anterioposterior plane with eyes closed (r = 0.05). The fact that there were no significant differences in posturography between the groups might indicate compensations to the altered posture and neuromuscular adaptations in patients with structural leg-length inequality. LLD causes an increased asymmetry of weight distribution. This study confirmed a fundamental role of the sight in postural control, especially in unstable conditions. The analysis of mean COP sway velocity may suggest a proportional deterioration of postural control with the increase of the value of leg-length asymmetry. Trial registry: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03048656 , 8 February 2017 (retrospectively registered).

Individual Differences in Affect.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haviland, Jeannette

This paper argues that infants' affect patterns are innate and are meaningful indicators of individual differences in internal state. Videotapes of seven infants' faces were coded using an ethogram; the movement of the eyebrow, eye direction, eye openness, mouth shape, mouth position, lip position, and tongue protrusion were assessed…

Comprehensive profile of hip, knee and ankle ranges of motion in professional football players.

PubMed

López-Valenciano, Alejandro; Ayala, Francisco; Vera-García, Francisco J; de Ste Croix, Mark; Hernández-Sánchez, Sergio; Ruiz-Pérez, Iñaki; Cejudo, Antonio; Santonja, Fernando

2017-10-31

Limited ranges of motion (ROM) have been considered as a primary risk factor for some football injuries, but only a few studies have analysed differences in lower extremity joints. The main purposes were (a) to describe the lower extremity ROM profile in professional football players; and (b) to examine differences between goalkeepers and outfield players. 82 professional male football players from 4 teams were measured in the 2013 pre-season. Measures of passive hip (flexion with knee flexed [PHFKF] and extended [PHFKE], extension [PHE], abduction [PHA], external [PHER] and internal [PHIR] rotation), knee (flexion [PKF]) and ankle (dorsiflexion with knee flexed [ADFKF] and extended [ADFKE]) ROMs were taken. Magnitude-based inferences exploring differences between player position and limb were made. 46% of all participants showed restricted PHFKE and/or around 30% showed restricted ADFKF ROM values. Contrarily, most players reported normal PHFKF, PHE, PHIR and PHER as well as PKF ROM scores with percentage values close to 100%. Bilateral meaningful differences for PHA, PHIR and PHER were found in approximately 30% of outfield players and goalkeepers. Statistical analysis found trivial differences between players for PHFKE, PHE, PHIR, PHER, ADFKE and ADFKF. However, moderate differences between players were found for PHFKF, PHA and PKF, with goalkeepers demonstrating higher values than outfield players. The findings of this study reinforce the necessity of prescribing exercises aimed at improving PHFKE and ADFKF ROM within everyday football training routines. In addition, as some bilateral deficits were observed, unilateral training should be considered where appropriate.

Early versus late initiation of epidural analgesia for labour.

PubMed

Sng, Ban Leong; Leong, Wan Ling; Zeng, Yanzhi; Siddiqui, Fahad Javaid; Assam, Pryseley N; Lim, Yvonne; Chan, Edwin S Y; Sia, Alex T

2014-10-09

Pain during childbirth is arguably the most severe pain some women may experience in their lifetime. Epidural analgesia is an effective form of pain relief during labour. Many women have concerns regarding its safety. Furthermore, epidural services and anaesthetic support may not be available consistently across all centres. Observational data suggest that early initiation of epidural may be associated with an increased risk of caesarean section, but the same findings were not seen in recent randomised controlled trials. More recent guidelines suggest that in the absence of a medical contraindication, maternal request is a sufficient medical indication for pain relief during labour. The choice of analgesic technique, agent, and dosage is based on many factors, including patient preference, medical status, and contraindications. There is no systematically reviewed evidence on the maternal and foetal outcomes and safety of this practice. This systematic review aimed to summarise the effectiveness and safety of early initiation versus late initiation of epidural analgesia in women. We considered the obstetric and fetal outcomes relevant to women and side effects of the treatments, including risk of caesarean section, instrumental birth and time to birth. We searched the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group's Trials Register (12 February 2014), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library 2014, Issue 1), MEDLINE (January 1966 to February 2014), Embase (January 1980 to February 2014) and reference lists of retrieved studies. We included all randomised controlled trials involving women undergoing epidural labour analgesia that compared early initiation versus late initiation of epidural labour analgesia. Two review authors independently assessed trials for inclusion, extracted the data and assessed the trial quality. Data were checked for accuracy. We included nine studies with a total of 15,752 women.The overall risk of bias of the studies was low, with the exception of performance bias (blinding of participants and personnel).The nine studies showed no clinically meaningful difference in risk of caesarean section with early initiation versus late initiation of epidural analgesia for labour (risk ratio (RR) 1.02; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.96 to 1.08, nine studies, 15,499 women, high quality evidence). There was no clinically meaningful difference in risk of instrumental birth with early initiation versus late initiation of epidural analgesia for labour (RR 0.93; 95% CI 0.86 to 1.01, eight studies, 15,379 women, high quality evidence). The duration of second stage of labour showed no clinically meaningful difference between early initiation and late initiation of epidural analgesia (mean difference (MD) -3.22 minutes; 95% CI -6.71 to 0.27, eight studies, 14,982 women, high quality evidence). There was significant heterogeneity in the duration of first stage of labour and the data were not pooled.There was no clinically meaningful difference in Apgar scores less than seven at one minute (RR 0.96; 95% CI 0.84 to 1.10, seven studies, 14,924 women, high quality evidence). There was no clinically meaningful difference in Apgar scores less than seven at five minutes (RR 0.96; 95% CI 0.69 to 1.33, seven studies, 14,924 women, high quality evidence). There was no clinically meaningful difference in umbilical arterial pH between early initiation and late initiation (MD 0.01; 95% CI -0.01 to 0.03, four studies, 14,004 women, high quality evidence). There was no clinically meaningful difference in umbilical venous pH favouring early initiation (MD 0.01; 95% CI -0.00 to 0.02, four studies, 14,004 women, moderate quality evidence). There is predominantly high-quality evidence that early or late initiation of epidural analgesia for labour have similar effects on all measured outcomes. However, various forms of alternative pain relief were given to women who were allocated to delayed epidurals to cover that period of delay, so that is it hard to assess the outcomes clearly. We conclude that for first time mothers in labour who request epidurals for pain relief, it would appear that the time to initiate epidural analgesia is dependent upon women's requests.

The Social and Cultural Significance of Women's Sexual Identities Should Guide Health Promotion.

PubMed

Germanos, Rada; Deacon, Rachel; Mooney-Somers, Julie

2015-06-01

Our analysis aimed to identify the major risk behaviors and health issues for young lesbian, bisexual and queer women, and combine this with lifestyle and community engagement data to guide targeted health promotion for these groups. We conducted statistical analysis of 379 self-complete surveys from women aged 17-30 years attending lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) community events during the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival period in February 2010 and 2012. We found concerning rates of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use across all groups; a mental illness diagnosis and formal psychological support access were common. Queer women had the highest rates of illicit drug use, experiences of sexual coercion, and anti-LGBTQ discrimination. They were also the most proactive with their health. Bisexual women had low STI testing despite having high rates of sexual activity with both men and women. Lesbian women had the poorest uptake of Pap smears and STI testing. Findings demonstrate that meaningful sexual behavior is irrelevant for the majority of health disparities affecting sexual minority women. Meaningful engagement with contemporary sexual identities and their local social and cultural significance is essential for the development of appropriate and effective targeted public health interventions.

Recent applications of boxed molecular dynamics: a simple multiscale technique for atomistic simulations.

PubMed

Booth, Jonathan; Vazquez, Saulo; Martinez-Nunez, Emilio; Marks, Alison; Rodgers, Jeff; Glowacki, David R; Shalashilin, Dmitrii V

2014-08-06

In this paper, we briefly review the boxed molecular dynamics (BXD) method which allows analysis of thermodynamics and kinetics in complicated molecular systems. BXD is a multiscale technique, in which thermodynamics and long-time dynamics are recovered from a set of short-time simulations. In this paper, we review previous applications of BXD to peptide cyclization, solution phase organic reaction dynamics and desorption of ions from self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). We also report preliminary results of simulations of diamond etching mechanisms and protein unfolding in atomic force microscopy experiments. The latter demonstrate a correlation between the protein's structural motifs and its potential of mean force. Simulations of these processes by standard molecular dynamics (MD) is typically not possible, because the experimental time scales are very long. However, BXD yields well-converged and physically meaningful results. Compared with other methods of accelerated MD, our BXD approach is very simple; it is easy to implement, and it provides an integrated approach for simultaneously obtaining both thermodynamics and kinetics. It also provides a strategy for obtaining statistically meaningful dynamical results in regions of configuration space that standard MD approaches would visit only very rarely.

Asymptotic orderings and approximations of the Master kinetic equation for large hard spheres systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tessarotto, Massimo; Asci, Claudio

2017-05-01

In this paper the problem is posed of determining the physically-meaningful asymptotic orderings holding for the statistical description of a large N-body system of hard spheres, i.e., formed by N ≡1/ε ≫ 1 particles, which are allowed to undergo instantaneous and purely elastic unary, binary or multiple collisions. Starting point is the axiomatic treatment recently developed [Tessarotto et al., 2013-2016] and the related discovery of an exact kinetic equation realized by Master equation which advances in time the 1-body probability density function (PDF) for such a system. As shown in the paper the task involves introducing appropriate asymptotic orderings in terms of ε for all the physically-relevant parameters. The goal is that of identifying the relevant physically-meaningful asymptotic approximations applicable for the Master kinetic equation, together with their possible relationships with the Boltzmann and Enskog kinetic equations, and holding in appropriate asymptotic regimes. These correspond either to dilute or dense systems and are formed either by small-size or finite-size identical hard spheres, the distinction between the various cases depending on suitable asymptotic orderings in terms of ε.

Effects of Distress and Eustress on Changes in Fatigue from Waking to Working.

PubMed

Parker, Kelsey N; Ragsdale, Jennifer M

2015-11-01

As a potential indicator of strain, fatigue is an important outcome in occupational health research. The current study examined the influence of positive (eustress) and negative (distress) work experiences on changes in fatigue from morning to at-work. It was expected that within-person changes in fatigue from waking to working would be moderated by employees' experiences of stress, pain, happiness, and meaningfulness at work. Data on 1,195 full-time working adults were collected through the Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2010 American Time Use Study (ATUS) using a day reconstruction method to assess fatigue at two time points (morning and during work) and employees' eustress and distress experiences during work. Multilevel modeling showed that the indicators of distress, stress and pain, predicted higher morning fatigue and stronger increases in fatigue during the workday. The indicators of eustress, happiness and meaningfulness, predicted lower fatigue at both time points but not temporal changes. These results contribute to understanding changes in employees' fatigue and suggest that the differential effects of distress and eustress experiences at work may be important to consider in fatigue management interventions. © 2015 The International Association of Applied Psychology.

The effect of warm-ups with stretching on the isokinetic moments of collegiate men.

PubMed

Park, Hyoung-Kil; Jung, Min-Kyung; Park, Eunkyung; Lee, Chang-Young; Jee, Yong-Seok; Eun, Denny; Cha, Jun-Youl; Yoo, Jaehyun

2018-02-01

Performing warm-ups increases muscle temperature and blood flow, which contributes to improved exercise performance and reduced risk of injuries to muscles and tendons. Stretching increases the range of motion of the joints and is effective for the maintenance and enhancement of exercise performance and flexibility, as well as for injury prevention. However, stretching as a warm-up activity may temporarily decrease muscle strength, muscle power, and exercise performance. This study aimed to clarify the effect of stretching during warm-ups on muscle strength, muscle power, and muscle endurance in a nonathletic population. The subjects of this study consisted of 13 physically active male collegiate students with no medical conditions. A self-assessment questionnaire regarding how well the subjects felt about their physical abilities was administered to measure psychological readiness before and after the warm-up. Subjects performed a non-warm-up, warm-up, or warm-up regimen with stretching prior to the assessment of the isokinetic moments of knee joints. After the measurements, the respective variables were analyzed using nonparametric tests. First, no statistically significant intergroup differences were found in the flexor and extensor peak torques of the knee joints at 60°/sec, which were assessed to measure muscle strength. Second, no statistically significant intergroup differences were found in the flexor and extensor peak torques of the knee joints at 180°/sec, which were assessed to measure muscle power. Third, the total work of the knee joints at 240°/sec, intended to measure muscle endurance, was highest in the aerobic-stretch-warm-ups (ASW) group, but no statistically significant differences were found among the groups. Finally, the psychological readiness for physical activity according to the type of warm-up was significantly higher in ASW. Simple stretching during warm-ups appears to have no effect on variables of exercise physiology in nonathletes who participate in routine recreational sport activities. However, they seem to have a meaningful effect on exercise performance by affording psychological stability, preparation, and confidence in exercise performance.

The Retention of Meaningful Understanding of Meiosis and Genetics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cavallo, Ann Liberatore

This study investigated the retention of meaningful understanding of the biological topics of meiosis, the Punnett square method and the relations between these two topics. This study also explored the predictive influence of students' general tendency to learn meaningfully or by rote (meaningful learning orientation), prior knowledge of meiosis,…

Regional reference variation provides ecologically meaningful protection criteria for northern world heritage site.

PubMed

Bowman, Michelle; Spencer, Paula; Dubé, Monique; West, David

2010-01-01

Unprecedented rates of resource development and climate change at northern latitudes coupled with a lack of baseline information limits our ability to set ecologically meaningful criteria needed to protect these inherently sensitive ecosystems. We surveyed water and sediment chemistry, community composition of benthic algae and invertebrates and fish, and condition of a sentinel fish species, slimy sculpin (Cottus cognatus), in 2 rivers adjacent to metal mines and in 20 reference rivers in the headwaters of a World Heritage Site, the South Nahanni River Basin, NWT, Canada. The normal range (i.e., mean ± 2 standard deviations) of biological conditions in regional reference sites (grouped by community type) were used to set ecologically meaningful effect sizes. These effect sizes were used in noncentral hypotheses tests to assess the ecological condition of potentially impaired sites. Significant impairments at sites influenced by current and historical mining activity were indicative of mild enrichment (e.g., increased benthic abundance and sculpin condition) and bioaccumulation of metals (e.g., increased concentrations of Cu and Fe in muscle tissue of sculpin). Comparisons between our regional reference study and a concurrent upstream–downstream study showed that the sensitivity of biological endpoints was typically related to the impairment criteria used and not to the type of study design. Concentrations of metals such as Al, Cu, and Fe in river water at reference sites were above federal and regional guidelines, suggesting that these guidelines are not appropriate for the metal-rich headwaters of the South Nahanni River. The ephemerellid mayflies Drunella spinifera and Ephemerella maculata were present in 4 of our study sites; their occurrence had not previously been documented in the Yukon or Northwest Territories. Our results confirmed that the lack of baseline information on the physiochemical and biological composition of northern rivers is hampering our ability to evaluate changes in these understudied ecosystems. However, the use of noncentral hypotheses tests based on empirically derived effect sizes enabled us to develop ecologically meaningful protection criteria, maintain statistical rigor, and provide probabilities of impairment that can be used directly in risk assessment.