A standard format for design and evaluation of pond experiments

Details are given of a standard format used by the Pond Dynamics/Aquaculture Collaborative Research Support Program of the US Agency for International Development for the communication of experimental ideas. An example is given of the "Preliminary Proposal Format," which contains a list of information categories or headings as follows: Title; Objectives: Significance; Experimental design; Pond facilities; Stocking rate; Other inputs; Sampling plan; Hypotheses; Statistical methods; Duration; Water management; and Schedule.

Design, construction and evaluation of systems to predict risk in obstetrics.

We present a systematic, practical approach to developing risk prediction systems, suitable for use with large databases of medical information. An important part of this approach is a novel feature selection algorithm which uses the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve to measure the expected discriminative power of different sets of predictor variables. We describe this algorithm and use it to select variables to predict risk of a specific adverse pregnancy outcome: failure to progress in labour. Neural network, logistic regression and hierarchical Bayesian risk prediction models are constructed, all of which achieve close to the limit of performance attainable on this prediction task. We show that better prediction performance requires more discriminative clinical information rather than improved modelling techniques. It is also shown that better diagnostic criteria in clinical records would greatly assist the development of systems to predict risk in pregnancy.

Some further considerations in the development of an experimental design for sensory evaluation of fish quality

An experimental procedure along with a method of analysis to judge the suitability of an individual to be included in a taste panel is described. The procedure is based on comparison of the organoleptic scores assigned by the individual to pairs of fish samples whose qualities are known and a set of physical measurements of the same samples. Fisher's Exact Probability Test provides a criterion for the judgement.

Import substitution of combination wire rope. Part 1. Design, production and evaluation of a prototype combination wire rope

Model combination wire ropes with different covering materials were prepared and worked out specification for the prototype. A table model hand operated wire rope twisting machine was also developed for this. Prototype combination wire rope was twisted in collaboration with M/s South India Wire Ropes Ltd., Alwaye. Specification details, properties and field performance of the prototype studied are reported.

Design, development, and evaluation of a simple blackbody radiative source

This paper presents a simple design and the testing of a blackbody prototype. The physical properties and geometry of the cavity produce a radiator or blackbody with an emissivity greater than 0.99. The prototype has the advantages of having a traditional spherical cavity made of alumina refractory cement and a radiative emission very close to that of an ideal blackbody. The prototype can be used as a calibration standard for other radiation measuring instruments or sensors. Experimental measurements of radiant flux of the prototype measured with a calibrated infrared radiometer and a wide spectrum radiometer are also presented. The prototype is easy to construct and the material required are available to most research centers, laboratories, industries, and universities. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.