Image fusion metrics : evolution in a nutshell

Image fusion process merges two images into a single more informative image. Objective image fusion per- formance metrics rely primarily on measuring the amount of information transferred from each source image into the fused image. Objective image fusion metrics have evolved from image processing dissimilarity metrics. Additionally, researchers have developed many additions to image dissimilarity metrics in order to better value the local fusion worthy features in source images. This paper studies the evolution of objective image fusion performance metrics and their subjective and objective validation. It describes how a fusion performance metric evolves starting with image dissimilarity metrics, its realization into image fusion contexts, its localized weighting factors and the validation process.

The construction of a subset of ICNP® for patients with dementia: a Delphi consensus and a group interview study

BACKGROUND: The International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP®) 2013 includes over 4000 concepts for global nursing diagnoses, outcomes and interventions and is a large and complex set of standardised nursing concepts and expressions. Nurses may use subsets from the ICNP as concepts and expressions for research, education and clinical practice. The objective of this study was to identify and validate concepts for an ICNP subset to guide observations and documentation of nursing care for patients with dementia.

METHOD: The process model for developing ICNP subsets was followed, according to the guidelines adopted by the International Council of Nursing (ICN). To identify relevant and useful concepts for the subset, a modified form of the Delphi method was used. Six nurses working in healthcare services in three municipalities in Norway with postgraduate education in geriatric psychiatry and dementia care participated in two Delphi sessions. The participants reviewed and scored the concepts included in the suggested subset and had an opportunity to rewrite them and offer alternatives. To validate the subset after the Delphi study, a group interview was conducted with six other nurses with postgraduate education in geriatric psychiatry and dementia care. The group interview was recorded and transcribed, and summative content analysis was used.

RESULTS: Suitable concepts for an ICNP subset to guide observations and documentation of nursing care for patients with dementia were identified. In total, 301 concepts were identified, including 77 nursing diagnoses, 78 outcomes and 146 nursing interventions. An increased focus on concepts to describe basic psychosocial needs such as identity, comfort, connection, inclusion and engagement was recommended by nurses in the validation process.

CONCLUSIONS: Relevant and pre-formulated nursing diagnoses, goals and interventions were identified, which can be used to develop care plans and facilitate accuracy in the documentation of individuals with dementia. The participants believed that it may be difficult to find formulations for all steps of the nursing process. In particular, nursing diagnoses and psychosocial needs are often inadequately documented. The participants highlighted the need for the subset to contain essential information about psychosocial needs and communication.

Automatic acceptance test case generation from essential use cases

Requirements validation is a crucial process to determine whether client-stakeholders' needs and expectations of a product are sufficiently correct and complete. Various requirements validation techniques have been used to evaluate the correctness and quality of requirements, but most of these techniques are tedious, expensive and time consuming. Accordingly, most project members are reluctant to invest their time and efforts in the requirements validation process. Moreover, automated tool supports that promote effective collaboration between the client-stakeholders and the engineers are still lacking. In this paper, we describe a novel approach that combines prototyping and test-based requirements techniques to improve the requirements validation process and promote better communication and collaboration between requirements engineers and clientstakeholders. To justify the potential of this prototype tool, we also present three types of evaluation conducted on the prototpye tool, which are the usability survey, 3-tool comparison analysis and expert reviews.

Uncertainty Characterization Of A Conceptual Rainfall-Runoff Model By Using Grey Numbers

A procedure for characterizing global uncertainty of a rainfall-runoff simulation model based on using grey numbers is presented. By using the grey numbers technique the uncertainty is characterized by an interval; once the parameters of the rainfall-runoff model have been properly defined as grey numbers, by using the grey mathematics and functions it is possible to obtain simulated discharges in the form of grey numbers whose envelope defines a band which represents the vagueness/uncertainty associated with the simulated variable. The grey numbers representing the model parameters are estimated in such a way that the band obtained from the envelope of simulated grey discharges includes an assigned percentage of observed discharge values and is at the same time as narrow as possible. The approach is applied to a real case study highlighting that a rigorous application of the procedure for direct simulation through the rainfall-runoff model with grey parameters involves long computational times. However, these times can be significantly reduced using a simplified computing procedure with minimal approximations in the quantification of the grey numbers representing the simulated discharges. Relying on this simplified procedure, the conceptual rainfall-runoff grey model is thus calibrated and the uncertainty bands obtained both downstream of the calibration process and downstream of the validation process are compared with those obtained by using a well-established approach, like the GLUE approach, for characterizing uncertainty. The results of the comparison show that the proposed approach may represent a valid tool for characterizing the global uncertainty associable with the output of a rainfall-runoff simulation model.

A compreensão do corpo na formação profissional do fisioterapeuta

Physical therapy has suffered of a mechanistic influence, with the superspecialization and fragmentation of learning, which interfers directly in the professional s understanding of the body, besides affecting his therapeutic performance. Worried about this reality, this research analyzed perceptions of Physical therapy students from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte and Universidade Potiguar about the human body. This is a descriptive study where 167 students were evaluated through objective and subjective responses to questionnaires designited QUEB Questionnare of understanding body evaluation. Searching the complement of the datas the QUEB open-ended was created, which gives freedom to students to answer freely. This questionnnaire was applicated on a subgroup composed by 21 students of the Health Sociology subject of the Physical therapy course. The validation process of these questionnaires included strategies of a panel of experts and face validity. The theorical reference analyzed based on the studies which favor the rejoining of knowledge represented by transdisciplinary support. The analysis of the results were performed quantitativavely and qualitatively through categorization of the responses selectioning key-words and the most expressive discourses , besides using descritive statistics interpretation. According to the responses, the body thought only thought biologically, ignoring the understanding of man as a cultural and social construction, confirming the presence of the reductionist model, with overvalorization of early specialization, technical training and purely biological and mechanical considerations of the body and its mobility. Probably, the dialogic knowledge of the body human inside Physical Therapist s learning can promote a growth of health s concept and a true activeness of Physical therapy on it, being the body a link with social environment. So, through understanding of the body as a complex form, the physical therapy will be able to attend your patients considerating their biological characteristics, but so the religious, political, social and ethics. Finally, this reflection suggests a search for a less technical vision, which allows the professional to discern more than segments of the body and which will contribute to a wider understanding of the patient and his social context, leading to greater humanization of the body , improvement in services and consequently, in the quality of life of these patients

Protocolo de avaliação do cuidado de enfermagem e da segurança do paciente em unidades de terapia intensiva

The reports of adverse events date from 1990 up to the present day. Conceptually, these adverse events are unintentional injuries unrelated to the underlying disease, causing measurable lesions in patients, extending the period of hospitalization, or leading to death. These issues require discussions with regard to patient safety, improved quality of service, and preventing medical errors. In the Intensive Care Units, this concern is greater because these are sectors of intensive care to individuals with hemodynamic changes and imminent risk of death. Therefore, it is essential to conduct evaluation processes to investigate aspects of quality of nursing care and patient safety in these spaces. For that reason, we aimed to propose the Evaluation protocol of nursing care and patient safety in Intensive Care Units. For its achievement, we needed to: 1) analyze the evolution of the patient safety concept used in scientific productions, under Rodgers evolutionary concept; 2) identify the necessary items to build the evaluation protocol of nursing care and patient safety in the Intensive Care Unit, from the available evidence in literature; 3) construct an instrument for content validation of the evaluation protocol of nursing care and patient safety in the Intensive Care Unit; and 4) describe and evaluate the appropriateness of the content for an evaluation protocol of nursing care and patient safety in the Intensive Care Unit. This is a methodological study for the content validation of the abovementioned protocol. To meet the first three specific objectives, we used the integrative literature review in Theses Database of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel and the portal of the Collaborating Centre for Quality of Care and Patient Safety. The fourth specific objective happened through the participation of judges, located from the Lattes curricula, in the content validation process developed in two stages: Delphi 1 and Delphi 2. As instrument, we used the electronic form of Google docs. We present in tables the answers from the evaluation instruments by Delphi consensus and Content Validity Index (CVI) of the entire protocol. We summarized the results in articles entitled Analysis of the patient safety concept: Rodgers evolutionary concept ; Scientific evidence regarding patient safety in the Intensive Care Unit ; Technological device for the content validation process: experience report ; and Evaluation protocol of nursing care and patient safety in Intensive Care Units. The Embodied Opinion of the Research Ethics Committee of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, No. 461,246, under CAAE 19586813.2.0000.5537, approved the study. Thus, we conclude the protocol valid in its content, constituting an important tool for evaluating the quality of nursing care and patient safety in Intensive Care Units

Desenvolvimento de um sistema de indicadores de desempenho para empreendimentos em construção civil, utilizando a abordagem macroergonômica

This paper presents the validation of the Performance Indicator System for Projects under Construction - SIDECC. The goal was to develop a system of performance indicators from the macroergonômica approach, considering criteria of usefulness, practicality and applicability and the concept of continuous improvement in the construction industry. The validation process SIDECC consisted of three distinct models. Modeling I corresponded to the theoretical development and validation of a system of indicators. Modeling II concerns the development and validation of multi- indicator system. For this modeling, we used the Mother of Use and Importance and Multivariate Analysis. Modeling III corresponded to the validation situated, which consisted of a case study of a work of construction of buildings, which were applied and analyzed the results of modeling II. This work resulted in the development of an applied and tested for the construction of an integrated system of performance indicators methodology, involving aspects of production, quality, environmental, health and safety. It is inferred that the SIDECC can be applied, in full or in part, the construction companies as a whole, as well as in other economic sectors

Desenvolvimento de um ambiente para projeto de controladores fuzzy para dispositivos móveis

Fuzzy intelligent systems are present in a variety of equipment ranging from household appliances to Fuzzy intelligent systems are present in a variety of equipment ranging from household appliances to small devices such as digital cameras and cell phones being used primarily for dealing with the uncertainties in the modeling of real systems. However, commercial implementations of Fuzzy systems are not general purpose and do not have portability to different hardware platforms. Thinking about these issues this work presents the implementation of an open source development environment that consists of a desktop system capable of generate Graphically a general purpose Fuzzy controller and export these parameters for an embedded system with a Fuzzy controller written in Java Platform Micro Edition To (J2ME), whose modular design makes it portable to any mobile device that supports J2ME. Thus, the proposed development platform is capable of generating all the parameters of a Fuzzy controller and export it in XML file, and the code responsible for the control logic that is embedded in the mobile device is able to read this file and start the controller. All the parameters of a Fuzzy controller are configurable using the desktop system, since the membership functions and rule base, even the universe of discourse of the linguistic terms of output variables. This system generates Fuzzy controllers for the interpolation model of Takagi-Sugeno. As the validation process and testing of the proposed solution the Fuzzy controller was embedded on the mobile device Sun SPOT ® and used to control a plant-level Quanser®, and to compare the Fuzzy controller generated by the system with other types of controllers was implemented and embedded in sun spot a PID controller to control the same level plant of Quanser®

Development and application of methods for determination of residual monomer in dental acrylic resins using high performance liquid chromatography

Two high-performance liquid chromatographic methods for determination of residual monomer in dental acrylic resins are described. Monomers were detected by their UV absorbance at 230 nm, on a Nucleosil((R)) C-18 (5 mu m particle size, 100 angstrom pore size, 15 x 0.46 cm i.d.) column. The separation was performed using acetonitrile-water (55:45 v/v) containing 0.01% triethylamine (TEA) for methyl methacrylate and butyl methacrylate, and acetonitrile-water (60:40 v/v) containing 0.01% TEA for isobutyl methacrylate and 1,6-hexanediol dimethacrylate as mobile phases, at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min. Good linear relationships were obtained in the concentration range 5.0-80.0 mu g/mL for methyl methacrylate, 10.0-160.0 mu g/mL for butyl methacrylate, 50.0-500.0 mu g/mL for isobutyl methacrylate and 2.5-180.0 mu g/mL for 1,6-hexanediol dimethacrylate. Adequate assay for intra- and inter-day precision and accuracy was observed during the validation process. An extraction procedure to remove residual monomer from the acrylic resins was also established. Residual monomer was obtained from broken specimens of acrylic disks using methanol as extraction solvent for 2 h in an ice-bath. The developed methods and the extraction procedure were applied to dental acrylic resins, tested with or without post-polymerization treatments, and proved to be accurate and precise for the determination of residual monomer content of the materials evaluated. Copyright (c) 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A validação do Teste de Juízo Moral (MJT) para diferentes culturas: o caso brasileiro

The present article deals with the adaptation of the Moral Judgment Test (MJT) for the Portuguese language. The principles of the test, its format and the process of content, construct and criterion validation are presented. In the same way, reliability is discussed using Brazilian research results that produced the necessity of elaborating another dilemma to compose the MJT-xt (extended).

Adaptação para o Português do questionário de auto-avaliação de percepção de saúde física e mental da mulher de meia-idade - Questionário da Saúde da Mulher

The objective of this study is to translate to Brazilian Portuguese, and validate (criterion) it to the Brazilian population, the Women's Health Questionnaire (WHQ), questionnaire was developed by Hunter (1992) in order to evaluate physical and mental symptoms, which were experienced by women, along their climacteric transition. A sample of 63 women, from 45 to 65 years old, was selected from the HC-UNESP staff and HC-Community Health School Center users. The WHQ and the General Health Questionnaire - GHQ (Goldberg-1972 - 60 items) were answered by all of them. The GHQ was used as reference. Pearson correlation coefficient, sensitivity and specificity were calculated for assessing the validity of the questionnaire. Cut-off points were determined in the WHQ by linear regressions (the reference was GHQ's cut-off points - higher than 2). Outcomes highlighted a general index of sensitivity of 0.83, specificity of 0.87, and correlation of - 0.82 and reliability of 0.89. The study sample does not portray the general population because the persons interviewed had high level of education. As the WHQ is easy to be applied and analyzed, it could be used in general, gynecologic, oncology and psychiatric practice.

Non-aqueous Titration of Gatifloxacin in Pharmaceutical Formulations using Perchloric Acid

An inexpensive, simple, precise and rapid method for the determination of fluoroquinolone gatifloxacin in tablets is described. The procedure is based on the use of volumetric dosage in a non-aqueous medium in glacial acetic acid with 0.1 M perchloric acid. The method validation yielded good results and included the precision, recovery and accuracy. It was also found that the excipients in the commercial tablet preparation did not interfere with the assay.

Preliminary core sets of measures for disease activity and damage assessment in juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus and juvenile dermatomyositis

Objective. To identify preliminary core sets of outcome variables for disease activity and damage assessment in juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus (JSLE) and juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM). Methods. Two questionnaire surveys were mailed to 267 physicians from 46 different countries asking each member to select and rank the response variables used when assessing clinical response in patients with JSLE or JDM. Next, 40 paediatric rheumatologists from 34 countries met and, using the nominal group technique, selected the domains to be included in the disease activity and damage core sets for JSLE and JDM. Results. A total of 41 response variables for JSLE and 37 response variables for JDM were selected and ranked through the questionnaire surveys. In the consensus conference, domains selected for both JSLE and JDM activity or damage core sets included the physician and parent/patient subjective assessments and a global score tool. Domains specific for JSLE activity were the immunological tests and the kidney function parameters. Concerning JDM, functional ability and muscle strength assessments were indicated for both activity and damage core sets, whereas serum muscle enzymes were included only in the activity core set. A specific paediatric domain called 'growth and development' was introduced in the disease damage core set for both diseases and the evaluation of health-related quality of life was advised in order to capture the influence of the disease on the patient lifestyle. Conclusions. We developed preliminary core sets of measures for disease activity and damage assessment in JSLE and JDM. The prospective validation of the core sets is in progress.