Interrater reliability of Alberta Infant Motor Scale in term and preterm born infants between 10 to 16 months age from Talca province - Chile

Purpose: To examine the ‘interrater reliability’ of the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) in term and preterm born infants between 10 to 16 months age from Talca province, Maule Region - Chile. Subjects: 115 infants between 10 to 16 months age were incorporated to the study; 95 term born infants were attended in the local Health Centre in Talca City, and 20 preterm infants belonged to the Premature Infants Follow-Up Programme of Talca Regional Hospital. Methods: The motor behaviour of each infant was recorded and later it was assessed by two trained assessors using AIMS. It was obtained the total AIMS’ score and also from prone, supine, seated, and stand subscales. For ‘interrater reliability’ analysis it was used the Intraclass Coefficient of Correlation (ICC), the Standard Error of Measurement (SEM) and 95% limits of agreement. Results: The obtained ICC for the total scores AIMS were major than 0.94 (p<0.0002) for term and preterm born infants. The SEM of total scores was less than 3.1 points, higher than what was found in other similar studies. The 95% limits of agreement were +5.3 to -4.1 points and +7.7 to – 3.9 points in term and preterm born, respectively, revealing ‘interrater agreement’. Conclusion: The AIMS showed adequate ‘interrater reliable’ levels when was applied in Chilean term and preterm born from 10 to 16 month’s age.

Validación diagnóstica del test neural 1 para el síndrome de túnel del carpo

El objetivo de este estudio fue realizar una prueba de validez diagnostica del test neural 1 para el diagnóstico del Síndrome de Túnel del Carpo (STC) utilizando como prueba de referencia o de oro el test de conducción nerviosa. En este estudio participaron 115 sujetos, 230 manos con sospecha clínica de STC quienes fueron evaluados con el test de conducción nerviosa y el test neural 1. Se encontró una sensibilidad del 93.0% (IC 95%:88,21-96,79) y una especificidad del 6,67% (IC 95%:0,0-33,59), razón de verosimilitud positiva fue de 1,00 y razón de verosimilitud negativa de 1,05. Valor predictivo positivo de 86,9% y un valor predictivo negativo de 12,5%. Se concluye que el test neural 1 es una prueba clínica de alta sensibilidad y baja especificidad de gran utilidad para el monitoreo e identificación del STC. Es un procedimiento para el diagnóstico clínico de bajo costo que puede incluirse en los exámenes de rutina de los trabajadores como complemento a las pruebas clínicas sugeridas por las Gatiso para dar mayor precisión a la identificación temprana del STC. Se sugiere combinarla con otros test de mayor especificidad para ser aplicada en trabajadores en condiciones de riesgo o que presenten síntomas en miembros superiores y realizar otros estudios en donde participen sujetos sin diagnóstico clínico del STC.

Reference values for handgrip strength in among healthy young adults

Background: Isometric grip strength, evaluated with a handgrip dynamometer, is a marker of current nutritional status and cardiometabolic risk and future morbidity and mortality. We present reference values for handgrip strength in healthy young Colombian adults (aged 18 to 29 years). Methods: The sample comprised 5.647 (2.330 men and 3.317 women) apparently healthy young university students (mean age, 20.6±2.7 years) attending public and private institutions in the cities of Bogota and Cali (Colombia). Handgrip strength was measured two times with a TKK analogue dynamometer in both hands and the highest value used in the analysis. Sex- and age-specific normative values for handgrip strength were calculated using the LMS method and expressed as tabulated percentiles from 3 to 97 and as smoothed centile curves (P3, P10, P25, P50, P75, P90 and P97). Results: Mean values for right and left handgrip strength were 38.1±8.9 and 35.9±8.6 kg for men, and 25.1±8.7 and 23.3±8.2 kg for women, respectively. Handgrip strength increased with age in both sexes and was significantly higher in men in all age categories. The results were generally more homogeneous amongst men than women. Conclusions: Sex- and age-specific handgrip strength normative values among healthy young Colombian adults are defined. This information may be helpful in future studies of secular trends in handgrip strength and to identify clinically relevant cut points for poor nutritional and elevated cardiometabolic risk in a Latin American population. Evidence of decline in handgrip strength before the end of the third decade is of concern and warrants further investigation

Caracterizacion de nódulos tiroideos: concordancia entre estudio citopatologico y ecografia en la detección de nódulos malignos

: Los métodos imagenológicos para evaluar los nódulos tiroideos han sido motivo de estudio en las últimas décadas, especialmente la ecografía sobresale sobre las otras modalidades diagnósticas por su accesibilidad, portabilidad, y seguridad. A pesar de ello, las características ecográficas de cada nódulo han sido objeto de controversia en cuanto a su potencial detección de malignidad o benignidad. Se presenta un estudio de concordancia entre el estudio citopatológico y la ecografía para la caracterización nódulos tiroideos de naturaleza maligna y benigna, y su análisis de pruebas diagnósticas. Metodología: Se realizó un estudio descriptivo de concordancia con estudio de pruebas diagnósticas anidado. Se escogieron todos los pacientes con nódulos tiroideos a quienes se les realizó ecografía y estudio citopatológico de la lesión y se estudiaron los hallazgos ecográficos para evaluar su potencial diagnóstico para malignidad. Se incluyeron un total de 100 pacientes con nódulos tiroideos potencialmente malignos. La concordancia entre la ecografía en modo B y el estudio citopatológico fue moderada (índice kappa 0.55). La característica con mayor potencial para detectar malignidad fue la presencia de Microcalcificaciones (sensibilidad 75%, especificidad 92%).

Can consumer complaints reduce product reliability? Should we worry?

We analyze a monopolist’s pricing and product reliability problem when consumers are entitled to product replacement but have heterogeneous cost of exercising this right, and we assess the implications of a decrease in consumers’ claiming cost on reliability, profit, and welfare. We find that reducing consumers’ claiming cost may reduce reliability and increase profit. Additionally, the model can explain why some firms encourage consumers to complain while others discourage consumers from complaining. We also show that welfare and profit are partially aligned, specially when consumers’ claiming cost are relatively low and the firm prefers to promote complaints; consequently, we find that encouraging complaints will eventually increase welfare

Prediction of human adaptation and performance in underwater environments

Resumen tomado de la publicaci??n

Estimating the reliability coefficient of tests in presence of missing values

Resumen tomado de la publicaci??n

Validity and reliability of the Spanish version of the Displaced Aggression Questionnaire

Resumen tomado de la publicaci??n

Psychometric prediction of penitentiary recidivism

Resumen tomado de la publicaci??n

Prediction of the bulking phenomenon in wastewater treatment plants

The control and prediction of wastewater treatment plants poses an important goal: to avoid breaking the environmental balance by always keeping the system in stable operating conditions. It is known that qualitative information — coming from microscopic examinations and subjective remarks — has a deep influence on the activated sludge process. In particular, on the total amount of effluent suspended solids, one of the measures of overall plant performance. The search for an input–output model of this variable and the prediction of sudden increases (bulking episodes) is thus a central concern to ensure the fulfillment of current discharge limitations. Unfortunately, the strong interrelation between variables, their heterogeneity and the very high amount of missing information makes the use of traditional techniques difficult, or even impossible. Through the combined use of several methods — rough set theory and artificial neural networks, mainly — reasonable prediction models are found, which also serve to show the different importance of variables and provide insight into the process dynamics

Internal test sets studies in a group of antimalarials

Topological indices have been applied to build QSAR models for a set of 20 antimalarial cyclic peroxy cetals. In order to evaluate the reliability of the proposed linear models leave-n-out and Internal Test Sets (ITS) approaches have been considered. The proposed procedure resulted in a robust and consensued prediction equation and here it is shown why it is superior to the employed standard cross-validation algorithms involving multilinear regression models

Social networks and performance in knowledge creation. An application and a methodological proposal

El objetivo de esta tesis es predecir el rendimiento de los estudiantes de doctorado en la Universidad de Girona según características personales (background), actitudinales y de redes sociales de los estudiantes. La población estudiada son estudiantes de tercer y cuarto curso de doctorado y sus directores de tesis doctoral. Para obtener los datos se ha diseño un cuestionario web especificando sus ventajas y teniendo en cuenta algunos problemas tradicionales de no cobertura o no respuesta. El cuestionario web se hizo debido a la complejidad que comportan de las preguntas de red social. El cuestionario electrónico permite, mediante una serie de instrucciones, reducir el tiempo para responder y hacerlo menos cargado. Este cuestionario web, además es auto administrado, lo cual nos permite, según la literatura, unas respuestas mas honestas que cuestionario con encuestador. Se analiza la calidad de las preguntas de red social en cuestionario web para datos egocéntricos. Para eso se calcula la fiabilidad y la validez de este tipo de preguntas, por primera vez a través del modelo Multirasgo Multimétodo (Multitrait Multimethod). Al ser datos egocéntricos, se pueden considerar jerárquicos, y por primera vez se una un modelo Multirasgo Multimétodo Multinivel (multilevel Multitrait Multimethod). Las la fiabilidad y validez se pueden obtener a nivel individual (within group component) o a nivel de grupo (between group component) y se usan para llevar a cabo un meta-análisis con otras universidades europeas para analizar ciertas características de diseño del cuestionario. Estas características analizan si para preguntas de red social hechas en cuestionarios web son más fiables y validas hechas "by questions" o "by alters", si son presentes todas las etiquetas de frecuencia para los ítems o solo la del inicio y final, o si es mejor que el diseño del cuestionario esté en con color o blanco y negro. También se analiza la calidad de la red social en conjunto, en este caso específico son los grupos de investigación de la universidad. Se tratan los problemas de los datos ausentes en las redes completas. Se propone una nueva alternativa a la solución típica de la red egocéntrica o los respondientes proxies. Esta nueva alternativa la hemos nombrado "Nosduocentered Network" (red Nosduocentrada), se basa en dos actores centrales en una red. Estimando modelos de regresión, esta "Nosduocentered network" tiene mas poder predictivo para el rendimiento de los estudiantes de doctorado que la red egocéntrica. Además se corrigen las correlaciones de las variables actitudinales por atenuación debido al pequeño tamaño muestral. Finalmente, se hacen regresiones de los tres tipos de variables (background, actitudinales y de red social) y luego se combinan para analizar cual para predice mejor el rendimiento (según publicaciones académicas) de los estudiantes de doctorado. Los resultados nos llevan a predecir el rendimiento académico de los estudiantes de doctorado depende de variables personales (background) i actitudinales. Asimismo, se comparan los resultados obtenidos con otros estudios publicados.

Prediction of postprandial blood glucose under intra-patient variability and uncertainty and its use in the design of insulin dosing strategies for type 1 diabetic patients

In this thesis I propose a novel method to estimate the dose and injection-to-meal time for low-risk intensive insulin therapy. This dosage-aid system uses an optimization algorithm to determine the insulin dose and injection-to-meal time that minimizes the risk of postprandial hyper- and hypoglycaemia in type 1 diabetic patients. To this end, the algorithm applies a methodology that quantifies the risk of experiencing different grades of hypo- or hyperglycaemia in the postprandial state induced by insulin therapy according to an individual patient’s parameters. This methodology is based on modal interval analysis (MIA). Applying MIA, the postprandial glucose level is predicted with consideration of intra-patient variability and other sources of uncertainty. A worst-case approach is then used to calculate the risk index. In this way, a safer prediction of possible hyper- and hypoglycaemic episodes induced by the insulin therapy tested can be calculated in terms of these uncertainties.

Understanding safety and production risks in rail engineering planning and protection

Much of the published human factors work on risk is to do with safety and within this is concerned with prediction and analysis of human error and with human reliability assessment. Less has been published on human factors contributions to understanding and managing project, business, engineering and other forms of risk and still less jointly assessing risk to do with broad issues of ‘safety’ and broad issues of ‘production’ or ‘performance’. This paper contains a general commentary on human factors and assessment of risk of various kinds, in the context of the aims of ergonomics and concerns about being too risk averse. The paper then describes a specific project, in rail engineering, where the notion of a human factors case has been employed to analyse engineering functions and related human factors issues. A human factors issues register for potential system disturbances has been developed, prior to a human factors risk assessment, which jointly covers safety and production (engineering delivery) concerns. The paper concludes with a commentary on the potential relevance of a resilience engineering perspective to understanding rail engineering systems risk. Design, planning and management of complex systems will increasingly have to address the issue of making trade-offs between safety and production, and ergonomics should be central to this. The paper addresses the relevant issues and does so in an under-published domain – rail systems engineering work.

SN10: reliability and validity

This study discusses a study to assess reliability and validity of the 500 Hz SN10 for adult, non-sedated patients.