A3 Subscale Diffuser Test Article Design

Science.gov (United States)

Saunders, G. P.

2009-01-01

This paper gives a detailed description of the design of the A3 Subscale Diffuser Test (SDT) Article Design. The subscale diffuser is a geometrically accurate scale model of the A3 altitude rocket facility. It was designed and built to support the SDT risk mitigation project located at the E3 facility at Stennis Space Center, MS (SSC) supporting the design and construction of the A3 facility at SSC. The subscale test article is outfitted with a large array of instrumentation to support the design verification of the A3 facility. The mechanical design of the subscale diffuser and test instrumentation are described here

Measuring the quality of life in mild to very severe dementia: testing the inter-rater and intra-rater reliability of the German version of the QUALIDEM.

Science.gov (United States)

Dichter, Martin Nikolaus; Schwab, Christian G G; Meyer, Gabriele; Bartholomeyczik, Sabine; Dortmann, Olga; Halek, Margareta

2014-05-01

Quality of life (Qol) is an increasingly used outcome measure in dementia research. The QUALIDEM is a dementia-specific and proxy-rated Qol instrument. We aimed to determine the inter-rater and intra-rater reliability in residents with dementia in German nursing homes. The QUALIDEM consists of nine subscales that were applied to a sample of 108 people with mild to severe dementia and six consecutive subscales that were applied to a sample of 53 people with very severe dementia. The proxy raters were 49 registered nurses and nursing assistants. Inter-rater and intra-rater reliability scores were calculated on the subscale and item level. None of the QUALIDEM subscales showed strong inter-rater reliability based on the single-measure Intra-Class Correlation Coefficient (ICC) for absolute agreement ≥ 0.70. Based on the average-measure ICC for four raters, eight subscales for people with mild to severe dementia (care relationship, positive affect, negative affect, restless tense behavior, social relations, social isolation, feeling at home and having something to do) and five subscales for very severe dementia (care relationship, negative affect, restless tense behavior, social relations and social isolation) yielded a strong inter-rater agreement (ICC: 0.72-0.86). All of the QUALIDEM subscales, regardless of dementia severity, showed strong intra-rater agreement. The ICC values ranged between 0.70 and 0.79 for people with mild to severe dementia and between 0.75 and 0.87 for people with very severe dementia. This study demonstrated insufficient inter-rater reliability and sufficient intra-rater reliability for all subscales of both versions of the German QUALIDEM. The degree of inter-rater reliability can be improved by collaborative Qol rating by more than one nurse. The development of a measurement manual with accurate item definitions and a standardized education program for proxy raters is recommended.

Distress Tolerance Scale: A Study of Reliability and Validity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmet Emre SARGIN

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Objective: Distress Tolerance Scale (DTS is developed by Simons and Gaher in order to measure individual differences in the capacity of distress tolerance.The aim of this study is to assess the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of DTS. Method: One hundred and sixty seven university students (male=66, female=101 participated in this study. Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI, State-trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI and Discomfort Intolerance Scale (DIS were used to determine the criterion validity. Construct validity was evaluated with factor analysis after the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO and Barlett test had been performed. To assess the test-retest reliability, the scale was re-applied to 79 participants six weeks later. Results: To assess construct validity, factor analyses were performed using varimax principal components analysis with varimax rotation. While there were factors in the original study, our factor analysis resulted in three factors. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the entire scale and tolerance, regulation, self-efficacy subscales were .89, .90, .80 and .64 respectively. There were correlations at the level of 0.01 between the Trait Anxiety Inventory of STAI and BAI, and all the subscales of DTS and also between the State Anxiety Inventory and regulation subscale. Both of the subscales of DIS were correlated with the entire subscale and all the subscales except regulation at the level of 0.05.Test-retest reliability was statistically significant at the level of 0.01. Conclusion: Analysis demonstrated that DTS had a satisfactory level of reliability and validity in Turkish university students.

Psychometric and Structural Analysis of the MMPI-2 Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY-5) Facet Subscales

Science.gov (United States)

Quilty, Lena C.; Bagby, R. Michael

2007-01-01

The Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY-5) is a model of personality psychopathology assessed in adult populations with a set of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) scales. The authors examine the reliability and validity of recently developed lower-order facet subscales for each of these five domains, with an emphasis on…

Antisocial Personality Disorder Subscale (Chinese Version) of the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV Axis II disorders: validation study in Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong Chinese.

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, D Y Y; Liu, A C Y; Leung, M H T; Siu, B W M

2013-06-01

OBJECTIVE. Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) is a risk factor for violence and is associated with poor treatment response when it is a co-morbid condition with substance abuse. It is an under-recognised clinical entity in the local Hong Kong setting, for which there are only a few available Chinese-language diagnostic instruments. None has been tested for its psychometric properties in the Cantonese-speaking population in Hong Kong. This study therefore aimed to assess the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the ASPD subscale of the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV Axis II Disorders (SCID-II) in Hong Kong Chinese. METHODS. This assessment tool was modified according to dialectal differences between Mainland China and Hong Kong. Inpatients in Castle Peak Hospital, Hong Kong, who were designated for priority follow-up based on their assessed propensity for violence and who fulfilled the inclusion criteria for the study, were recruited. To assess the level of agreement, best-estimate diagnosis made by a multidisciplinary team was compared with diagnostic status determined by the SCID-II ASPD subscale. The internal consistency, sensitivity, and specificity of the subscale were also calculated. RESULTS. The internal consistency of the subscale was acceptable at 0.79, whereas the test-retest reliability and inter-rater reliability showed an excellent and good agreement of 0.90 and 0.86, respectively. Best-estimate clinical diagnosis-SCID diagnosis agreement was acceptable at 0.76. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were 0.91, 0.86, 0.83, and 0.93, respectively. CONCLUSION. The Chinese version of the SCID-II ASPD subscale is reliable and valid for diagnosing ASPD in a Cantonese-speaking clinical population.

Translation and Adaptation of Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS in to Persian and Testing Persian Version Reliability Among Iranians with Osteoarthritis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Solaleh Saraei-Pour

2007-04-01

Full Text Available Objective: To achieve a reliable tool for measuring health related quality of life among Iranians with knee osteoarthritis, by translating and culturally adapting the Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score(KOOS to Persian and testing the reliability and internal consistency of the Iranian version. Materials & Methods: It was a non experimental methodology study. KOOS was translated and adapted culturally to Persian language and culture in three phases with respect to IQOLA project. For examining test-retest reliability Iranians version of KOOS was corresponded twice with in at least two days or at most one week interval, by 30 Iranian people with knee OA whom were referred to Municipality and 110 physiotherapy clinics of Tehran with PT order by physicians. It was a non experimental methodological research and we used sample of convenience and non probability design for sampling. Psychometric evaluation: the collected data from the questionnaires was rated and analyzed with SPSS software from the aspects of test-retest reliability, absolute reliability, subscale and item internal consistency. Results: Internal consistency which was calculated by Cronbach '&alpha was high for all the subscales (at least 0.76, except for "symptom" subscale which was moderate, and showed that items of each subscale measured the same construct. Item internal consistency after correction for overlap, was higher than optimal value (0.4, except for the items of" symptom" subscale , which demonstrated good item internal consistency. SEM and ICC which were used for evaluating the absolute and test-retest reliability in respect showed that all the subscales had good test-retest reliability (0.7 and the absolute reliability was also very good in such away that the highest calculated SEM for Persian version was 7.44 which was less than Minimal Perceptible Clinical Improvement (MPCI that is estimated 8 to 10 for the KOOS questionnaire. Conclusion: With the Persian

The validity and reliability of the Turkish version of Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-Cog) in patients with mild and moderate Alzheimer's disease and normal subjects.

Science.gov (United States)

Mavioglu, H; Gedizlioglu, M; Akyel, S; Aslaner, T; Eser, E

2006-03-01

The cognitive subscale of the Alzheimer's Disease Assesment Scale (ADAS-Cog) is the most widely used test in clinical trials dealing with Alzheimer's disease (AD). The aim of this study was to investigate the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of ADAS-Cog. Twenty-nine patients with AD, fulfilling NINCDS-ADRDA criteria of probable AD, who were in stage 3-5 according to the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS), and 27 non-demented control subjects with similar age, gender and educational status were recruited for the study. The Turkish version of ADAS-Cog, Standardized Mini Mental Status Examination (MMSE) and Short Orientation-Memory-Concentration Test (SOMCT) were applied to both of the groups. Inter-rater reliability, internal consistency, test-retest reliability; face validity, differential validity and convergent validity were statistically analyzed. Both MMSE and ADAS-Cog have significantly differentiated patients with AD and control subjects (p ADAS-Cog scores in AD group (r: -0.739). ADAS-Cog was also highly significantly correlated with GDS (r: 0.720) and SOMCT (r: 0.738). For the group with AD, control and whole cohort coefficients of internal consistency, Cronbach's alpha: 0.800, 0.515, 0.873 were found respectively. Inter-rater reliability for total ADAS-Cog score was found as ICC: 0.99 and 0.98 and test-retest reliability was found as ICC: 0.91 and 0.95 for demented and nondemented subjects, respectively. The Turkish version of ADAS-Cog has been found to be highly reliable and valid in differentiating patients with mild and moderate AD from nondemented subjects.

Improving Reliability of a Residency Interview Process

Science.gov (United States)

Serres, Michelle L.; Gundrum, Todd E.

2013-01-01

Objective. To improve the reliability and discrimination of a pharmacy resident interview evaluation form, and thereby improve the reliability of the interview process. Methods. In phase 1 of the study, authors used a Many-Facet Rasch Measurement model to optimize an existing evaluation form for reliability and discrimination. In phase 2, interviewer pairs used the modified evaluation form within 4 separate interview stations. In phase 3, 8 interviewers individually-evaluated each candidate in one-on-one interviews. Results. In phase 1, the evaluation form had a reliability of 0.98 with person separation of 6.56; reproducibly, the form separated applicants into 6 distinct groups. Using that form in phase 2 and 3, our largest variation source was candidates, while content specificity was the next largest variation source. The phase 2 g-coefficient was 0.787, while confirmatory phase 3 was 0.922. Process reliability improved with more stations despite fewer interviewers per station—impact of content specificity was greatly reduced with more interview stations. Conclusion. A more reliable, discriminating evaluation form was developed to evaluate candidates during resident interviews, and a process was designed that reduced the impact from content specificity. PMID:24159209

Improving reliability of a residency interview process.

Science.gov (United States)

Peeters, Michael J; Serres, Michelle L; Gundrum, Todd E

2013-10-14

To improve the reliability and discrimination of a pharmacy resident interview evaluation form, and thereby improve the reliability of the interview process. In phase 1 of the study, authors used a Many-Facet Rasch Measurement model to optimize an existing evaluation form for reliability and discrimination. In phase 2, interviewer pairs used the modified evaluation form within 4 separate interview stations. In phase 3, 8 interviewers individually-evaluated each candidate in one-on-one interviews. In phase 1, the evaluation form had a reliability of 0.98 with person separation of 6.56; reproducibly, the form separated applicants into 6 distinct groups. Using that form in phase 2 and 3, our largest variation source was candidates, while content specificity was the next largest variation source. The phase 2 g-coefficient was 0.787, while confirmatory phase 3 was 0.922. Process reliability improved with more stations despite fewer interviewers per station-impact of content specificity was greatly reduced with more interview stations. A more reliable, discriminating evaluation form was developed to evaluate candidates during resident interviews, and a process was designed that reduced the impact from content specificity.

Exploring the dimensionality of the Originality subscale of the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory.

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Im, Subin; Hu, Michael Y; Toh, Rex S

2003-12-01

The Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory, which is a widely used measure of innovative (as opposed to adaptive) cognitive individual style, is believed to have three dimensions: Sufficiency of Originality, Efficiency, and Rule/Group Conformity. Several studies have raised concerns regarding its construct validity, specifically with respect to the Sufficiency of Originality subscale. Within this subscale, exploratory factor analysis identified two distinct subdimensions, Idea Generation and Preference for Change. In this study, we used a sample of 356 household participants (with an average age of 56 yr., average income of 39,700 dollars, and average of 15 yr. of education) from the Arkansas Household Research Panel. We then employed Bollen and Grandjean's approach based on confirmatory factor analysis to assess whether there are actually two distinct subdimensions instead of one. Our study shows that within the Sufficiency of Originality subscale, there are indeed two distinct subdimensions, Idea Generation and Preference for Change. Further analyses indicate that dropping double-loaded items identified through exploratory factor analysis significantly improves the fit statistics. Also, allowing correlated errors for the measurement items that belong to the same subdimension can also significantly improve the overall fit of the model based on chi-square statistics.

Validity and reliability of a self-administered foot evaluation questionnaire (SAFE-Q).

Science.gov (United States)

Niki, Hisateru; Tatsunami, Shinobu; Haraguchi, Naoki; Aoki, Takafumi; Okuda, Ryuzo; Suda, Yasunori; Takao, Masato; Tanaka, Yasuhito

2013-03-01

The Japanese Society for Surgery of the Foot (JSSF) is developing a QOL questionnaire instrument for use in pathological conditions related to the foot and ankle. The main body of the outcome instrument (the Self-Administered Foot Evaluation Questionnaire, SAFE-Q version 2) consists of 34 questionnaire items, which provide five subscale scores (1: Pain and Pain-Related; 2: Physical Functioning and Daily Living; 3: Social Functioning; 4: Shoe-Related; and 5: General Health and Well-Being). In addition, the instrument has nine optional questionnaire items that provide a Sports Activity subscale score. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the test-retest reliability of the SAFE-Q. Version 2 of the SAFE-Q was administered to 876 patients and 491 non-patients, and the test-retest reliability was evaluated for 131 patients. In addition, the SF-36 questionnaire and the JSSF Scale scoring form were administered to all of the participants. Subscale scores were scaled such that the final sum of scores ranged between zero (least healthy) to 100 (healthiest). The intraclass correlation coefficients were larger than 0.7 for all of the scores. The means of the five subscale scores were between 60 and 75. The five subscales easily separated patients from non-patients. The coefficients for the correlations of the subscale scores with the scores on the JSSF Scale and the SF-36 subscales were all highly statistically significantly greater than zero (p valid and reliable. In the future, it will be beneficial to test the responsiveness of the SAFE-Q.

Heroic Reliability Improvement in Manned Space Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Harry W.

2017-01-01

System reliability can be significantly improved by a strong continued effort to identify and remove all the causes of actual failures. Newly designed systems often have unexpected high failure rates which can be reduced by successive design improvements until the final operational system has an acceptable failure rate. There are many causes of failures and many ways to remove them. New systems may have poor specifications, design errors, or mistaken operations concepts. Correcting unexpected problems as they occur can produce large early gains in reliability. Improved technology in materials, components, and design approaches can increase reliability. The reliability growth is achieved by repeatedly operating the system until it fails, identifying the failure cause, and fixing the problem. The failure rate reduction that can be obtained depends on the number and the failure rates of the correctable failures. Under the strong assumption that the failure causes can be removed, the decline in overall failure rate can be predicted. If a failure occurs at the rate of lambda per unit time, the expected time before the failure occurs and can be corrected is 1/lambda, the Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF). Finding and fixing a less frequent failure with the rate of lambda/2 per unit time requires twice as long, time of 1/(2 lambda). Cutting the failure rate in half requires doubling the test and redesign time and finding and eliminating the failure causes.Reducing the failure rate significantly requires a heroic reliability improvement effort.

Improving the safety and reliability of Monju

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Itou, Kazumoto; Maeda, Hiroshi; Moriyama, Masatoshi

1998-01-01

Comprehensive safety review has been performed at Monju to determine why the Monju secondary sodium leakage accident occurred. We investigated how to improve the situation based on the results of the safety review. The safety review focused on five aspects of whether the facilities for dealing with the sodium leakage accident were adequate: the reliability of the detection method, the reliability of the method for preventing the spread of the sodium leakage accident, whether the documented operating procedures are adequate, whether the quality assurance system, program, and actions were properly performed and so on. As a result, we established for Monju a better method of dealing with sodium leakage accidents, rapid detection of sodium leakage, improvement of sodium drain facilities, and way to reduce damage to Monju systems after an accident. We also improve the operation procedures and quality assurance actions to increase the safety and reliability of Monju. (author)

Reliability-How to Quantify and Improve?

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education; Volume 5; Issue 5. Reliability - How to Quantify and Improve? - Improving the Health of Products. N K Srinivasan. General Article Volume 5 Issue 5 May 2000 pp 55-63. Fulltext. Click here to view fulltext PDF. Permanent link:

Evaluation of Neuropsychiatric Function in Phenylketonuria: Psychometric Properties of the ADHD Rating Scale-IV and Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale Inattention Subscale in Phenylketonuria.

Science.gov (United States)

Wyrwich, Kathleen W; Auguste, Priscilla; Yu, Ren; Zhang, Charlie; Dewees, Benjamin; Winslow, Barbara; Yu, Shui; Merilainen, Markus; Prasad, Suyash

2015-06-01

Previous qualitative research among adults and parents of children with phenylketonuria (PKU) has identified inattention as an important psychiatric aspect of this condition. The parent-reported ADHD Rating Scale-IV (ADHD RS-IV) and the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) have been validated for measuring inattention symptoms in persons with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); however, their psychometric attributes for measuring PKU-related inattention have not been established. The primary objective of this investigation was to demonstrate the reliability, validity, and responsiveness of the ADHD RS-IV and ASRS inattention symptoms subscales in a randomized controlled trial of patients with PKU aged 8 years or older. A post hoc analysis investigated the psychometric properties (Rasch model fit, reliability, construct validity, and responsiveness) of the ADHD RS-IV and ASRS inattention subscales using data from a phase 3b, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial in those with PKU aged 8 years or older. The Rasch results revealed good model fit, and reliability analyses revealed strong internal consistency reliability (α ≥ 0.87) and reproducibility (intraclass correlation coefficient ≥ 0.87) for both measures. Both inattention measures demonstrated the ability to discriminate between known groups (P < 0.001) created by the Clinical Global Impression-Severity scale. Correlations between the ADHD RS-IV and the ASRS with the Clinical Global Impression-Severity scale and the age-appropriate Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function Working Memory subscale were consistently moderate to strong (r ≥ 0.56). Similarly, results of the change score correlations were of moderate magnitude (r ≥ 0.43) for both measures when compared with changes over time in Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function Working Memory subscales. These findings of reliability, validity, and responsiveness of both the ADHD RS-IV and the ASRS inattention scales

Modeling the Gas Dynamics Environment in a Subscale Solid Rocket Test Motor

Science.gov (United States)

Eaton, Andrew M.; Ewing, Mark E.; Bailey, Kirk M.; McCool, Alex (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

Subscale test motors are often used for the evaluation of solid rocket motor component materials such as internal insulation. These motors are useful for characterizing insulation performance behavior, screening insulation material candidates and obtaining material thermal and ablative property design data. One of the primary challenges associated with using subscale motors however, is the uncertainty involved when extrapolating the results to full-scale motor conditions. These uncertainties are related to differences in such phenomena as turbulent flow behavior and boundary layer development, propellant particle interactions with the wall, insulation off-gas mixing and thermochemical reactions with the bulk flow, radiation levels, material response to the local environment, and other anomalous flow conditions. In addition to the need for better understanding of physical mechanisms, there is also a need to better understand how to best simulate these phenomena using numerical modeling approaches such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD). To better understand and model interactions between major phenomena in a subscale test motor, a numerical study of the internal flow environment of a representative motor was performed. Simulation of the environment included not only gas dynamics, but two-phase flow modeling of entrained alumina particles like those found in an aluminized propellant, and offgassing from wall surfaces similar to an ablating insulation material. This work represents a starting point for establishing the internal environment of a subscale test motor using comprehensive modeling techniques, and lays the groundwork for improving the understanding of the applicability of subscale test data to full-scale motors. It was found that grid resolution, and inclusion of phenomena in addition to gas dynamics, such as two-phase and multi-component gas composition are all important factors that can effect the overall flow field predictions.

Cost benefit justification of nuclear plant reliability improvement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

El-Sayed, M.A.H.; Abdelmonem, N.M.

1986-01-01

Nuclear power costs are evaluated on the bases of general ground rules (a) vary from time to time (b) vary from country to another (c) even vary from one reactor type to another. The main objective of an electric utility is to provide the electric energy to the different consummers at the lowest possible cost with reasonable reliability level. Rapid increase of the construction costs and fuel prices in recent years have stimulated a great deal of interest in improving the reliability and productivity of new and existing power plants. One of the most important areas is the improvement of the secondary steam loop and the reactor cooling system. The method for evaluating the reliability of steam loop and cooling system utilizes the cut-set technique. The developed method can be easily used to show to what extent the overall reliability of the nuclear plant is affected by the possible failures in the steam and cooling subsystem. The cost reliability trade-off analysis is used to evaluate alternative schemes in the design with a view towards meeting a high reliability goal. Based on historical or estimated failure and repair rate, the reliability of the alternate scheme can be calculated

Improving Power Converter Reliability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ghimire, Pramod; de Vega, Angel Ruiz; Beczkowski, Szymon

2014-01-01

of a high-power IGBT module during converter operation, which may play a vital role in improving the reliability of the power converters. The measured voltage is used to estimate the module average junction temperature of the high and low-voltage side of a half-bridge IGBT separately in every fundamental......The real-time junction temperature monitoring of a high-power insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) module is important to increase the overall reliability of power converters for industrial applications. This article proposes a new method to measure the on-state collector?emitter voltage...... is measured in a wind power converter at a low fundamental frequency. To illustrate more, the test method as well as the performance of the measurement circuit are also presented. This measurement is also useful to indicate failure mechanisms such as bond wire lift-off and solder layer degradation...

Cost benefit justification of nuclear plant reliability improvement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

El-Sayed, M.A.H.; Abdelmonem, N.M.

1985-01-01

The design of the secondary steam loop of the nuclear power plant has a significant effect on the reliability of the plant. Moreover, the necessity to cool a reactor safely has increased the reliability demanded from the system. The rapidly rising construction costs and fuel prices in recent years have stimulated a great deal in optimizing the productivity of a nuclear power plant through reliability improvement of the secondary steamloop and the reactor cooling system. A method for evaluating the reliability of steam loop and cooling system of a nuclear power plant is presented. The method utilizes the cut-set technique. The developed method can be easily used to show to what extent the overall reliability of the nuclear plant is affected by the possible failures in the steam and cooling subsystem. A model for calculating the increase in the nuclear plant productivity resulting from a proposed improvement in the two subsystems reliability is discussed. The model takes into account the capital cost of spare parts for several components, replacement energy, operating and maintenance costs

Teaming up to improve reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Malone, E.A.; Ayres, D.J.; Lear, R.C. van

1989-01-01

Responding to increasingly stringent regulatory requirements, Babcock and Wilcox has teamed up with three specialist companies to provide services for nuclear utilities aiming to improve the performance of their valves and actuators. The services, which are outlined here, include inspection, repair, overhaul and valve and actuator reliability programmes. (author)

Analysis of the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the intermittent and constant osteoarthritis pain questionnaire.

Science.gov (United States)

Erel, Suat; Şimşek, İbrahim Engin; Özkan, Hüseyin

2015-01-01

The aim of this study was to analyze the validity and reliability of the Turkish version (ICOAP-TR) of the intermittent and constant osteoarthritis pain (ICOAP) questionnaire in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA). Thirty-eight volunteer patients diagnosed with knee OA answered the questionnaire twice with an interval of 2-4 days. The reliability of the measurement was assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient and intraclass correlation (ICC) for test-retest reliability. Criterion validity was tested against the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC) pain score and visual analog scale (VAS) designed to assess the perceived discomfort rated by the patient. Test-retest reliability was found to be ICC=0.942 for total score, 0.902 for constant pain subscale, and 0.945 for intermittent pain subscale. Internal consistency was tested using Cronbach's alpha and was found to be 0.970 for total score, 0.948 for constant pain subscale, and 0.972 for intermittent pain subscale. For criterion validity, the correlation between the total score of ICOAP-TR and WOMAC pain subscale was r=0.779 (p<0.05), and correlation between total score of ICOAP-TR and VAS was r=0.570 (p<0.05). The ICOAP-TR is a reliable and valid instrument to be used with patients with knee OA.

Examination of the reliability and validity of the Mindful Eating Questionnaire in pregnant women.

Science.gov (United States)

Apolzan, John W; Myers, Candice A; Cowley, Amanda D; Brady, Heather; Hsia, Daniel S; Stewart, Tiffany M; Redman, Leanne M; Martin, Corby K

2016-05-01

Mindfulness is theorized to affect the eating behavior and weight of pregnant women, yet no measure has been validated during pregnancy. This study qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated the reliability and validity of the Mindful Eating Questionnaire (MEQ) in overweight and obese pregnant women. Participants completed focus groups and cognitive interviews. The MEQ was administered twice to measure test-retest reliability. The Eating Inventory (EI) and Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) were administered to assess convergent validity, and the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS) assessed discriminant validity. Participants were 20 ± 8 weeks gestation (mean ± SD), 30 ± 2 years old, and 55% were obese. The MEQ total score had good test-retest reliability (r = .85). The total score internal consistency reliability was poor (Cronbach's α = .56). The external cues subscale (ECS) was not internally consistent (α = .31). Other subscales ranged from α = .59-.68. When the ECS was excluded, the MEQ total score internal consistency was acceptable (α = .62). Convergent validity was supported by the MEQ total score (with and without ECS) correlating significantly with the MAAS and the EI disinhibition and hunger subscales. Discriminant validity of the MEQ was supported by the MEQ and NEWS total scores and subscales not being significantly correlated. The quantitative results were supported by the qualitative context and content analysis. With the exception of the ECS, the MEQ's reliability and validity was supported in pregnant women, and most of the subscales were more robust in pregnant women than in the original sample of healthy adults. The MEQ's use with overweight and obese pregnant women is supported. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The patellofemoral pain and osteoarthritis subscale of the KOOS (KOOS-PF)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Crossley, Kay M; Macri, Erin M; Cowan, Sallie M

2018-01-01

with patellofemoral pain and/or osteoarthritis and 14 health and medical clinicians. Item reduction was performed using data from patellofemoral cohorts (n=138). We used the COnsesus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurements INstruments guidelines to evaluate reliability, validity, responsiveness......BACKGROUND: Patellofemoral pain and osteoarthritis are prevalent and associated with substantial pain and functional impairments. Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are recommended for research and clinical use, but no PROMs are specific for patellofemoral osteoarthritis, and existing PROMs...... for patellofemoral pain have methodological limitations. This study aimed to develop a new subscale of the Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score for patellofemoral pain and osteoarthritis (KOOS-PF), and evaluate its measurement properties. METHODS: Items were generated using input from 50 patients...

Reliability improvement of multiversion software by exchanging modules

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shima, Kazuyuki; Matsumoto, Ken-ichi; Torii, Koji

1996-01-01

In this paper, we proposes a method to improve reliability of multiversion software. In CER proposed in, checkpoints are put in versions of program and errors of versions are detected and recovered at the checkpoints. It prevent versions from failing and improve the reliability of multiversion software. But it is point out that CER decreases the reliability of the multiversion software if the detection and recovery of errors are assumed to be able to fail. In the method proposed in this paper, versions of program are developed following the same module specifications. When failures of versions of program are detected, faulty modules are identified and replaced them to other modules. It create versions without faulty modules and improve the reliability of multiversion software. The failure probability of multiversion software is estimated to become about a hundredth of the failure probability by the proposed method where the failure probability of each version is 0.000698, the number of versions is 5 and the number of modules is 20. (author)

Evidence for validity and reliability of a french version of the FAAM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ballabeni Pierluigi

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The Foot and Ankle Ability Measure (FAAM is a self reported questionnaire for patients with foot and ankle disorders available in English, German, and Persian. This study plans to translate the FAAM from English to French (FAAM-F and assess the validity and reliability of this new version. Methods The FAAM-F Activities of Daily Living (ADL and sports subscales were completed by 105 French-speaking patients (average age 50.5 years presenting various chronic foot and ankle disorders. Convergent and divergent validity was assessed by Pearson's correlation coefficients between the FAAM-F subscales and the SF-36 scales: Physical Functioning (PF, Physical Component Summary (PCS, Mental Health (MH and Mental Component Summary (MCS. Internal consistency was calculated by Cronbach's Alpha (CA. To assess test re-test reliability, 22 patients filled out the questionnaire a second time to estimate minimal detectable changes (MDC and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC. Results Correlations for FAAM-F ADL subscale were 0.85 with PF, 0.81 with PCS, 0.26 with MH, 0.37 with MCS. Correlations for FAAM-F Sports subscale were 0.72 with PF, 0.72 with PCS, 0.21 with MH, 0.29 with MCS. CA estimates were 0.97 for both subscales. Respectively for the ADL and Sports subscales, ICC were 0.97 and 0.94, errors for a single measure were 8 and 10 points at 95% confidence and the MDC values at 95% confidence were 7 and 18 points. Conclusion The FAAM-F is valid and reliable for the self-assessment of physical function in French-speaking patients with a wide range of chronic foot and ankle disorders.

Reliability and Validity Study of the Attitude towards Mathematics Instruments Short Form

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Güney HACIÖMEROĞLU

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability and validity of the Turkish form of the Attitude Towards Mathematics Instrument Short Form developed by Lim and Chapman (2013. In this study, data gathered from 310 elementary students were utilized for Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis to determine the structure of factor loading. The factor loading among the sub-scales were different from original. Confirmatory Factor analysis revealed that the model was acceptable. There were three sub-scales, value, self-confidence, enjoyment and motivation. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the overall instrument was calculated as .84, respectively. The adapted instrument includes three sub-scales: value (α=.91, self-confidence (α=.86, enjoyment and motivation (α=.82. Turkish adaptation of the questionnaire is valid and reliable and appropriate to use in Turkish culture.

A reliability generalization meta-analysis of coefficient alpha and test-retest coefficient for the aging males' symptoms (AMS) scale.

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Lee, Chin-Pang; Chiu, Yu-Wen; Chu, Chun-Lin; Chen, Yu; Jiang, Kun-Hao; Chen, Jiun-Liang; Chen, Ching-Yen

2016-12-01

The aging males' symptoms (AMS) scale is an instrument used to determine the health-related quality of life in adult and elderly men. The purpose of this study was to synthesize internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) and test-retest reliability for the AMS scale and its three subscales. Of the 123 studies reviewed, 12 provided alpha coefficients which were then used in the meta-analyses of internal consistency. Seven of the 12 included studies provided test-retest coefficients, and these were used in the meta-analyses of test-retest reliability. The AMS scale had excellent internal consistency [α = 0.89 (95% CI 0.88-0.90)]; the mean alpha estimates across the AMS subscales ranged from 0.79 to 0.82. The AMS scale also had good test-retest reliability [r = 0.85 (95% CI 0.82-0.88]; the test-retest reliability coefficients of the AMS subscales ranged from 0.76 to 0.83. There was significant heterogeneity among the included studies. The AMS scale and the three subscales had fairly good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Future psychometric studies of the AMS scale should report important characteristics of the participants, details of item scores, and test-retest reliability.

Strategy for continuous improvement in IC manufacturability, yield, and reliability

Science.gov (United States)

Dreier, Dean J.; Berry, Mark; Schani, Phil; Phillips, Michael; Steinberg, Joe; DePinto, Gary

1993-01-01

Continual improvements in yield, reliability and manufacturability measure a fab and ultimately result in Total Customer Satisfaction. A new organizational and technical methodology for continuous defect reduction has been established in a formal feedback loop, which relies on yield and reliability, failed bit map analysis, analytical tools, inline monitoring, cross functional teams and a defect engineering group. The strategy requires the fastest detection, identification and implementation of possible corrective actions. Feedback cycle time is minimized at all points to improve yield and reliability and reduce costs, essential for competitiveness in the memory business. Payoff was a 9.4X reduction in defectivity and a 6.2X improvement in reliability of 256 K fast SRAMs over 20 months.

On Improving Reliability of SRAM-Based Physically Unclonable Functions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arunkumar Vijayakumar

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Physically unclonable functions (PUFs have been touted for their inherent resistance to invasive attacks and low cost in providing a hardware root of trust for various security applications. SRAM PUFs in particular are popular in industry for key/ID generation. Due to intrinsic process variations, SRAM cells, ideally, tend to have the same start-up behavior. SRAM PUFs exploit this start-up behavior. Unfortunately, not all SRAM cells exhibit reliable start-up behavior due to noise susceptibility. Hence, design enhancements are needed for improving reliability. Some of the proposed enhancements in literature include fuzzy extraction, error-correcting codes and voting mechanisms. All enhancements involve a trade-off between area/power/performance overhead and PUF reliability. This paper presents a design enhancement technique for reliability that improves upon previous solutions. We present simulation results to quantify improvement in SRAM PUF reliability and efficiency. The proposed technique is shown to generate a 128-bit key in ≤0.2 μ s at an area estimate of 4538 μ m 2 with error rate as low as 10 − 6 for intrinsic error probability of 15%.

New Methods for Building-In and Improvement of Integrated Circuit Reliability

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Pol, J.A.; van der Pol, Jacob Antonius

2000-01-01

Over the past 30 years the reliability of semiconductor products has improved by a factor of 100 while at the same time the complexity of the circuits has increased by a factor 105. This 7-decade reliability improvement has been realised by implementing a sophisticated reliability assurance system

The patellofemoral pain and osteoarthritis subscale of the KOOS (KOOS-PF): development and validation using the COSMIN checklist.

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Crossley, Kay M; Macri, Erin M; Cowan, Sallie M; Collins, Natalie J; Roos, Ewa M

2017-03-03

Patellofemoral pain and osteoarthritis are prevalent and associated with substantial pain and functional impairments. Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are recommended for research and clinical use, but no PROMs are specific for patellofemoral osteoarthritis, and existing PROMs for patellofemoral pain have methodological limitations. This study aimed to develop a new subscale of the Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score for patellofemoral pain and osteoarthritis (KOOS-PF), and evaluate its measurement properties. Items were generated using input from 50 patients with patellofemoral pain and/or osteoarthritis and 14 health and medical clinicians. Item reduction was performed using data from patellofemoral cohorts (n=138). We used the COnsesus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurements INstruments guidelines to evaluate reliability, validity, responsiveness and interpretability of the final version of KOOS-PF and other KOOS subscales. From an initial 80 generated items, the final subscale included 11 items. KOOS-PF items loaded predominantly on one factor, pain during activities that load the patellofemoral joint. KOOS-PF had good internal consistency (Cronbach's α 0.86) and adequate test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.86). Hypothesis testing supported convergent, divergent and known-groups validity. Responsiveness was confirmed, with KOOS-PF demonstrating a moderate correlation with Global Rating of Change scores (r 0.52) and large effect size (Cohen's d 0.89). Minimal detectable change was 2.3 (groups) and 16 (individuals), while minimal important change was 16.4. There were no floor or ceiling effects. The 11-item KOOS-PF, developed in consultation with patients and clinicians, demonstrated adequate measurement properties, and is recommended for clinical and research use in patients with patellofemoral pain and osteoarthritis. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of

The Relationship Between Pathological Gambling and Sensation Seeking: The Role of Subscale Scores

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Fortune, Erica E.

2010-01-01

Research investigating the relationship between gambling and sensation seeking has yet to establish conclusively whether pathological gamblers (PGs) are more or less sensation seeking than nonpathological gamblers (NPGs). Sensation seeking is usually measured with the Zuckerman et al. (J Consult Clin Psychol 46:139–149, 1978) SS Scale form V (SSS-V). Whereas previous studies relied on the SSS-V total score, the current study uses two samples to demonstrate the importance of the SSS-V subscales, which include Thrill and Adventure Seeking (TA), Experience Seeking (ES), Disinhibition (DS), and Boredom Susceptibility (BS). In two samples, strong intrascale correlations between DS and BS, and between TA and ES, suggest that certain subscales reflect similar underlying characteristics. In both samples PGs displayed higher scores than NPGs on the DS and BS subscales, with mean differences in Sample 2 reaching significant levels for both DS and BS. Results support the notion that the SSS-V can be divided into concepts reflecting actual behavior, based on the DS and BS subscales, and hypothetical behavior, based on the TA and ES subscales. Furthermore, PGs appear to have a preference for the more behavioral subscales while NPGs show a preference for the more hypothetical subscales. Reasons for the subscale divisions and preferences are discussed. PMID:19943092

The subscales and short forms of the dizziness handicap inventory: are they useful for comparison of the patient groups?

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Ardıç, Fazıl Necdet; Tümkaya, Funda; Akdağ, Beyza; Şenol, Hande

2017-10-01

Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) is one of the most frequently used surveys for vertigo. The aim of the study was re-analyze the consistency of subscales and correlation between original and different short forms. The data of 2111 patients were analyzed. Original three subscales, screening form of DHI and short form of DHI were evaluated. The suitability of the data set for factor analysis and factor structure was analyzed with Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) coefficient, Bartlett's Sphericity Test, and Varimax method. Pearson correlation analysis was performed. Factor analysis showed that two factor solutions are more prominent in our data. The factors proposed in different studies are not in harmony with each other. There is high correlation between the original and screening and short forms of DHI. This study indicated that the factor structure of the scale was not consistent. It is not advised to use subscale scores for comparison especially in international level. Therefore, total score should be used rather than the scores of the subscales. Using DHI screening form instead of original 25 questions is more convenient, because it is highly correlated with the original one and has fewer questions. Implications for rehabilitation Factor structure of the DHI is not consistent enough for comparison of the international studies. Total score of DHI is reliable. Using the screening version of DHI is better, because it is highly correlated with the original form and has fewer questions (10 questions).

Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the reliability of the Thai version of the Hip disability and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (HOOS).

Science.gov (United States)

Trathitiphan, Warayos; Paholpak, Permsak; Sirichativapee, Winai; Wisanuyotin, Taweechok; Laupattarakasem, Pat; Sukhonthamarn, Kamolsak; Jeeravipoolvarn, Polasak; Kosuwon, Weerachai

2016-10-01

HOOS was developed as an extension of the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities' Osteoarthritis Index questionnaire for measuring symptoms and functional limitations related to the hip(s) of patients with osteoarthritis. To determine the validity and reliability of the Thai version of the Hip disability and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (HOOS) vis-à-vis hip osteoarthritis, the original HOOS was translated into a Thai version of HOOS, according to international recommendations. Patients with hip osteoarthritis (n = 57; 25 males) were asked to complete the Thai version of HOOS twice: once then again after a 3-week interval. The test-retest reliability was analyzed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Internal consistencies were analyzed using Cronbach's alpha, while the construct validity was tested by comparing the Thai HOOS with the Thai modified SF-36 and calculating the Spearman's rank correlation coefficients. The Thai HOOS produced good reliability (i.e., the ICC was greater than 0.9 in all five subscales). All of the Cronbach's alpha showed that the Thai HOOS had high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha greater than 0.8), especially for the pain and ADL subscales (0.89 and 0.90, respectively). The Spearman's rank correlation for all five subscales of the Thai HOOS had moderate correlation with the Bodily Pain subscale of the Thai SF-36. The pain subscale of the Thai HOOS had a high correlation with the Vitality and Social Function subscales of the Thai SF-36 (r = 0.55 and 0.54)-with which the symptom subscale had a moderate correlation. The Thai version of HOOS had excellent internal consistency, excellent test-retest reliability, and good construct validity. It can be used as a reliable tool for assessing quality of life for patients with hip osteoarthritis in Thailand.

The Persian Version of the "Life Satisfaction Scale": Construct Validity and Test-Re-Test Reliability among Iranian Older Adults.

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Moghadam, Manije; Salavati, Mahyar; Sahaf, Robab; Rassouli, Maryam; Moghadam, Mojgan; Kamrani, Ahmad Ali Akbari

2018-03-01

After forward-backward translation, the LSS was administered to 334 Persian speaking, cognitively healthy elderly aged 60 years and over recruited through convenience sampling. To analyze the validity of the model's constructs and the relationships between the constructs, a confirmatory factor analysis followed by PLS analysis was performed. The Construct validity was further investigated by calculating the correlations between the LSS and the "Short Form Health Survey" (SF-36) subscales measuring similar and dissimilar constructs. The LSS was re-administered to 50 participants a month later to assess the reliability. For the eight-factor model of the life satisfaction construct, adequate goodness of fit between the hypothesized model and the model derived from the sample data was attained (positive and statistically significant beta coefficients, good R-squares and acceptable GoF). Construct validity was supported by convergent and discriminant validity, and correlations between the LSS and SF-36 subscales. Minimum Intraclass Correlation Coefficient level of 0.60 was exceeded by all subscales. Minimum level of reliability indices (Cronbach's α, composite reliability and indicator reliability) was exceeded by all subscales. The Persian-version of the Life Satisfaction Scale is a reliable and valid instrument, with psychometric properties which are consistent with the original version.

Improvement of plant reliability in PT. Badak LNG plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Achmad, S.; Somantri, A.

1997-01-01

PT. Badak's LNG sales commitment has been steadily increasing, therefore, there has been more emphasis to improve and maintain the LNG plant reliability. From plant operation historical records, Badak LNG plant experienced a high number of LNG process train trips and down time for 1977 through 1988. The highest annual number of LNG plant trips (50 times) occurred in 1983 and the longest LNG process train down time (1259 train-hours) occurred in 1988. Since 1989, PT. Badak has been able to reduce the number of LNG process train trips and down time significantly. In 1994 the number of LNG process train trips and was 18 times and the longest LNG process train down time was 377 train-hours. This plant reliability improvement was achieved by implementing plant reliability improvement programs beginning with the design of the new facilities and continuing with the maintenance and modification of the existing facilities. To improve reliability of the existing facilities, PT. Badak has been implementing comprehensive maintenance programs, to reduce the frequency and down time of the plant, such as Preventive and Predictive Maintenance as well as procurement material improvement since PT. Badak location is in a remote area. By implementing the comprehensive reliability maintenance, PT. Badak has been able to reduce the LNG process train trips to 18 and down time to 337 train hours in 1994 with the subsequent maintenance cost reduction. The average PT. Badak plant availability from 1985 to 1995 is 94.59%. New facilities were designed according to the established PT. Badak design philosophy, master plan and specification. Design of new facilities was modified to avoid certain problems from past experience. (au)

[Evaluation on the validity and reliability of the Diabetes Self-management Knowledge, Attitude, and Behavior Assessment Scale (DSKAB)].

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Xiaoli; Dai, Long; Chen, Bo; Feng, Nongping; Wu, Qianhui; Lin, Yonghai; Zhang, Lan; Tan, Dong; Zhang, Jinhua; Tu, Huijuan; Li, Changfeng; Wang, Wenjuan

2016-01-01

To evaluate the validity and reliability of Diabetes Self-management Knowledge, Attitude, and Behavior Assessment Scale (DSKAB). We selected 460 patients with diabetes in the community, used the scale which was after two rounds of the Delphi method and pilot study. Investigators surveyed the patients by the way of face to face. by draw lots, we selected 25 community diabetes randomly for repeating investigations after one week. The validity analyses included face validity, content validity, construct validity and discriminant validity. The reliability analyses included Cronbach's α coefficient, θ coefficient, Ω coefficient, split-half reliability and test-retest reliability. This study distributed a total of 460 questionnaires, reclaimed 442, qualified 432. The score of the scale was 254.59 ± 28.90, the scores of the knowledge, attitude, behavior sub-scales were 82.44 ± 11.24, 63.53 ± 5.77 and 108.61 ± 17.55, respectively. It had excellent face validity and content validity. The correlation coefficient was from 0.71 to 0.91 among three sub-scales and the scale, Pvalidity. The scores of high group and low group in three sub-scales were: knowledge (91.12 ± 3.62) and (69.96 ± 11.20), attitude (68.75 ± 4.51) and (58.79 ± 4.87), behavior (129.38 ± 8.53) and (89.65 ± 11.34),mean scores of three sub-scales were apparently different, which compared between high score group and low score group, the t value were - 19.45, -16.24 and -30.29, respectively, Pvalidity. The Cronbach's α coefficient of the scale and three sub-scales was from 0.79 to 0.93, the θ coefficient was from 0.86 to 0.95, the Ω coefficient was from 0.90 to 0.98, split-half reliability was from 0.89 to 0.95.Test-retest reliability of the scale was 0.51;the three sub-scales was from 0.46 to 0.52, Pvalidity and reliability of the Diabetes Self-management Knowledge, Attitude, and Behavior Assessment Scale are excellent, which is a suitable instrument to evaluate the self-management for patients

Cross-cultural adaptation and reliability and validity of the Dutch Patient-Rated Tennis Elbow Evaluation (PRTEE-D).

Science.gov (United States)

van Ark, Mathijs; Zwerver, Johannes; Diercks, Ronald L; van den Akker-Scheek, Inge

2014-08-11

Lateral Epicondylalgia (LE) is a common injury for which no reliable and valid measure exists to determine severity in the Dutch language. The Patient-Rated Tennis Elbow Evaluation (PRTEE) is the first questionnaire specifically designed for LE but in English. The aim of this study was to translate into Dutch and cross-culturally adapt the PRTEE and determine reliability and validity of the PRTEE-D (Dutch version). The PRTEE was cross-culturally adapted according to international guidelines. Participants (n = 122) were asked to fill out the PRTEE-D twice with a one week interval to assess test-retest reliability. Internal consistency of the PRTEE-D was determined by calculating Crohnbach's alphas for the questionnaire and subscales. Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC) were calculated for the overall PRTEE-D score, pain and function subscale and individual questions to determine test-retest reliability. Additionally, the Disabilities for the Arm, Shoulder and Hand questionnaire (DASH) and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) pain scores were obtained from 30 patients to assess construct validity; Spearman's correlation coefficients were calculated between the PRTEE-D (subscales) and DASH and VAS-pain scores. The PRTEE was successfully cross-culturally adapted into Dutch (PRTEE-D). Crohnbach's alpha for the first assessment of the PRTEE-D was 0.98; Crohnbach's alpha was 0.93 for the pain subscale and 0.97 for the function subscale. ICC for the PRTEE-D was 0.98; subscales also showed excellent ICC values (pain scale 0.97 and function scale 0.97). A significant moderate correlation exists between PRTEE-D and DASH (0.65) and PRTEE-D and VAS pain (0.68). The PRTEE was successfully cross-culturally adapted and this study showed that the PRTEE-D is reliable and valid to obtain an indication of severity of LE. An easy-to-use instrument for practitioners is now available and this facilitates comparing Dutch and international research data.

Some approaches to system reliability improvement in engineering design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shen, Kecheng.

1990-01-01

In this thesis some approaches to system reliability improvement in engineering design are studied. In particular, the thesis aims at developing alternative methodologies for ranking of component importance which are more related to the design practice and which are more useful in system synthesis than the existing ones. It also aims at developing component reliability models by means of stress-strength interference which will enable both component reliability prediction and design for reliability. A new methodology for ranking of component importance is first developed based on the notion of the increase of the expected system yield. This methodology allows for incorporation of different improvement actions at the component level such as parallel redundancy, standby redundancy, burn-in, minimal repair and perfect replacement. For each of these improvement actions, the increase of system reliability is studied and used as the component importance measure. A possible connection between the commonly known models of component lifetimes and the stress-strength interference models is suggested. Under some general conditions the relationship between component failure rate and the stress and strength distribution characteristics is studied. A heuristic approach for obtaining bounds on failure probability through stress-strength interference is also presented. A case study and a worked example are presented, which illustrate and verify the developed importance measures and their applications in the analytical as well as synthetical work of engineering design. (author)

Assessment and Improving Methods of Reliability Indices in Bakhtar Regional Electricity Company

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Saeed Shahrezaei

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Reliability of a system is the ability of a system to do prospected duties in future and the probability of desirable operation for doing predetermined duties. Power system elements failures data are the main data of reliability assessment in the network. Determining antiseptic parameters is the goal of reliability assessment by using system history data. These parameters help to recognize week points of the system. In other words, the goal of reliability assessment is operation improving and decreasing of the failures and power outages. This paper is developed to assess reliability indices of Bakhtar Regional Electricity Company up to 1393 and the improving methods and their effects on the reliability indices in this network. DIgSILENT Power Factory software is employed for simulation. Simulation results show the positive effect of improving methods in reliability indices of Bakhtar Regional Electricity Company.

Reliability improvement: where do we go from here

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haueter, R.L.

1976-01-01

The present programs and the future plans in the area of power-plant productivity and reliability data collection and analyses are discussed. The shortcomings of the past industry efforts toward improving plant productivity are described, and some suggestions for improvement are presented

Reliability and validity of the perspectives of Support From God Scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Hamilton, Jill B; Crandell, Jamie L; Carter, J Kameron; Lynn, Mary R

2010-01-01

Existing spiritual support scales for use with cancer survivors focus on the support believed to come from a religious community, clergy, or health care providers. The objective of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of a new measure of spiritual support believed to come from God in older Christian African American cancer survivors. The Perceived Support From God Scale was administered to 317 African American cancer survivors aged 55-89 years. Psychometric evaluation involved identifying underlying factors, conducting item analysis and estimating reliability, and obtaining evidence on the relationship to other variables or the extent to which the Perceived Support From God Scale correlates with religious involvement and depression. The Perceived Support From God Scale consists of 15 items in two subscales (Support From God and God's Purpose for Me). The two subscales explained 59% of the variance. Cronbach's alpha coefficients were .94 and .86 for the Support From God and God's Purpose for Me subscales, respectively. Test-retest correlations were strong, supporting the temporal stability of the instrument. Pearson's correlations to an existing religious involvement and beliefs scale were moderate to strong. Subscale scores on Support From God were negatively correlated to depression. Initial support for reliability and validity was demonstrated for the Perceived Support From God Scale. The scale captures a facet of spirituality not emphasized in other measures. Further research is needed to evaluate the scale with persons of other racial/ethnic groups and to explore the relationship of spirituality to other outcome measures.

Improving the Reliability of Case-Based Reasoning Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xu Xu

2010-09-01

also discussed in this paper, especially the property that whether inter-feature of case exists redundancy. After that, the reliability of an individual suggested solution is studied. To illustrate these ideas, some experiments and their results are discussed in this paper. The results of experiments show a new route concerning on how to improve the reliability of a CBR system at an overall level.

PWR system reliability improvement activities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoshikawa, Yuichiro

1985-01-01

In Japan lacking in energy resources, it is our basic energy policy to accelerate the development program of nuclear power, thereby reducing our dependence. As referred to in the foregoing, every effort has been exerted on our part to improve the PWR system reliability by dint of the so-called 'HOMEMADE' TQC activities, which is our brain-child as a result of applying to the energy industry the quality control philosophy developed in the field of manufacturing industry

Equipment reliability improvement process; implementation in Almaraz NPP and Trillo NPP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Risquez Bailon, Aranzazu; Gutierrez Fernandez, Eduardo

2010-01-01

The Equipment Reliability Improvement Process (INPO AP-913) is a non-regulatory process developed by the US Nuclear Industry for improving Plants Availability. This Process integrates and coordinates a broad range of equipment reliability activities into one process, performed by the Plant in a non-centralized way. The integration and coordination of these activities will allow plant personnel to evaluate the trends of important station equipment, develop and implement long-term equipment health plans, monitor equipment performance and condition, and make adjustments to preventive maintenance tasks and frequencies based on equipment operating experience, if necessary, arbitrating operational and design improvements, to reach a Failure-free Operation. This paper describes the methodology of Equipment Reliability Improvement Process, being focused on main aspects of the implementation process, relating to the scope and establishment of an Equipment Reliability Monitoring Plan, which should include and complement the existing mechanisms and organizations in the Plant to monitor the condition and performance of the equipments, with the common aim of achieving an operation free of failures. The paper will describe the tools that Iberdrola Ingenieria has developed to support the implementation and monitoring of the Equipment Reliability Improvement Process, as well as the results and lessons learned from its implementation in Almaraz NPP and Trillo NPP. (authors)

Subscales measuring symptoms of non-specific depression, anhedonia, and anxiety in the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Tuohy, Alan; McVey, Cynthia

2008-06-01

There has been considerable research and clinical interest in the comorbidity of anxiety and depression in the post-partum period, and specifically in the possibility that the commonly used Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) incorporates an anxiety component. We hypothesized that the recommended version of factor analysis (Fabrigar, Wegener, MacCallum, & Strahan, 1999) would identify such covert dimensions more reliably than the commonly used principal components analysis with varimax rotation and eigenvalues greater than 1. Principal axis factor extraction with parallel analysis and oblique (direct quartimin) factor rotation was applied to the 10 EPDS items. The study used a sample of recent mothers recruited and assessed via e-mail and the Internet (N=440). In addition to the EPDS, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Positive and Negative Affect Scales (PANAS) were also administered. Three factors were found, which were identified as 'non-specific depressive symptoms', 'anhedonia', and 'anxietal symptoms' subscales, respectively. These subscales were regressed on the HADS anxiety and depression and the PANAS positive and negative affectivity scales, with results substantially consistent with current structural models of the taxonomy of the emotional disorders. The data were obtained from a self-selected non-clinical sample. In addition, it is known that the use of computer-based assessment may tend to inflate self-report scores. It was concluded that there is now sufficient evidence that clinicians should not assume the EPDS to be unidimensional, but should assess all three subscales when screening for susceptibility to post-partum depression and/or post-partum anxiety.

Palliative sedation: reliability and validity of sedation scales.

Science.gov (United States)

Arevalo, Jimmy J; Brinkkemper, Tijn; van der Heide, Agnes; Rietjens, Judith A; Ribbe, Miel; Deliens, Luc; Loer, Stephan A; Zuurmond, Wouter W A; Perez, Roberto S G M

2012-11-01

Observer-based sedation scales have been used to provide a measurable estimate of the comfort of nonalert patients in palliative sedation. However, their usefulness and appropriateness in this setting has not been demonstrated. To study the reliability and validity of observer-based sedation scales in palliative sedation. A prospective evaluation of 54 patients under intermittent or continuous sedation with four sedation scales was performed by 52 nurses. Included scales were the Minnesota Sedation Assessment Tool (MSAT), Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale (RASS), Vancouver Interaction and Calmness Scale (VICS), and a sedation score proposed in the Guideline for Palliative Sedation of the Royal Dutch Medical Association (KNMG). Inter-rater reliability was tested with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Cohen's kappa coefficient. Correlations between the scales using Spearman's rho tested concurrent validity. We also examined construct, discriminative, and evaluative validity. In addition, nurses completed a user-friendliness survey. Overall moderate to high inter-rater reliability was found for the VICS interaction subscale (ICC = 0.85), RASS (ICC = 0.73), and KNMG (ICC = 0.71). The largest correlation between scales was found for the RASS and KNMG (rho = 0.836). All scales showed discriminative and evaluative validity, except for the MSAT motor subscale and VICS calmness subscale. Finally, the RASS was less time consuming, clearer, and easier to use than the MSAT and VICS. The RASS and KNMG scales stand as the most reliable and valid among the evaluated scales. In addition, the RASS was less time consuming, clearer, and easier to use than the MSAT and VICS. Further research is needed to evaluate the impact of the scales on better symptom control and patient comfort. Copyright © 2012 U.S. Cancer Pain Relief Committee. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Using the eating disorder examination in the assessment of bulimia and anorexia: issues of reliability and validity.

Science.gov (United States)

Guest, T

2000-01-01

The Eating Disorder Examination will be assessed according to its reliability and validity in the assessment of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. A thorough review of the literature was conducted to judge the reliability and validity of the Eating Disorder Examination and its subscales. The review shows that the EDE and its subscales have good interrater reliability and internal consistency reliability. Similarly, high levels of discriminant validity, construct validity, and treatment validity in the assessment of eating disorders were also found. A summary of each study concerning the various types of reliability and validity will be provided. The EDE is considered to be the "gold standard" by which to identify eating disorders, so this tool used in conjunction with other behavioral measures will be imperative for clinical social work practice.

[Validity, reliability, and acceptability of the brief version of the self-management knowledge, attitude, and behavior assessment scale for diabetes patients].

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Y Z; Wang, W J; Feng, N P; Chen, B; Li, G C; Liu, J W; Liu, H L; Yang, Y Y

2016-07-06

To evaluate the validity, reliability, and acceptability of the brief version of the self-management knowledge, attitude, and behavior (KAB) assessment scale for diabetes patients. Diabetes patients who were managed at the Xinkaipu Community Health Service Center of Tianxin in Changsha, Hunan Province were selected for survey by cluster sampling. A total of 350 diabetes patients were surveyed using the brief scale to collect data on knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of self-management. Content validity was evaluated by Pearson correlation coefficient between the brief scale and subscales of knowledge, attitude, and behavior. Structure validity was evaluated by factor analysis, and discrimination validity was evaluated by an independent sample t-test between the high-score and low-score groups. Reliability was tested by internal consistency reliability and split-half reliability. The evaluation indexes of internal consistency reliability were Cronbach's α coefficients, θ coefficient, and Ω coefficient. Acceptability was evaluated by valid response rate and completion time of the brief scale. A total of 346(98.9%) valid questionnaires were returned, with average survey time of (11.43±3.4) minutes. Average score of the brief scale was 78.85 ± 11.22; scores of the knowledge, attitude, and behavior subscales were 16.45 ± 4.42, 21.33 ± 2.03, and 41.07 ± 8.34, respectively. Pearson correlation coefficients between the brief scale and the knowledge, attitude, and behavior subscales were 0.92, 0.42, and 0.60, respectively; P-values were all less than 0.01, indicating that the face validity and content validity of the brief scale were achieved to a good level. The common factor cumulative variance contribution rate of the brief scale and three subscales was from 53.66% to 61.75%, which achieved more than 50% of the approved standard. There were 11 common factors; 41 of the total 42 items had factor loadings above 0.40 in their relevant common factor, indicating

Sub-scale Inverse Wind Turbine Blade Design Using Bound Circulation

Science.gov (United States)

Kelley, Christopher; Berg, Jonathan

2014-11-01

A goal of the National Rotor Testbed project at Sandia is to design a sub-scale wind turbine blade that has similitude to a modern, commercial size blade. However, a smaller diameter wind turbine operating at the same tip-speed-ratio exhibits a different range of operating Reynolds numbers across the blade span, thus changing the local lift and drag coefficients. Differences to load distribution also affect the wake dynamics and stability. An inverse wind turbine blade design tool has been implemented which uses a target, dimensionless circulation distribution from a full-scale blade to find the chord and twist along a sub-scale blade. In addition, airfoil polar data are interpolated from a few specified span stations leading to a smooth, manufacturable blade. The iterative process perturbs chord and twist, after running a blade element momentum theory code, to reduce the residual sum of the squares between the modeled sub-scale circulation and the target full-scale circulation. It is shown that the converged sub-scale design also leads to performance similarity in thrust and power coefficients. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

Subscale Water Based Phase Change Material Heat Exchanger Development

Science.gov (United States)

Sheth, Rubik; Hansen, Scott

2016-01-01

Supplemental heat rejection devices are required in many spacecraft as the radiators are not sized to meet the full heat rejection demand. One means of obtaining additional heat rejection is through the use of phase change material heat exchangers (PCM HX's). PCM HX's utilize phase change to store energy in unfavorable thermal environments (melting) and reject the energy in favorable environments (freezing). Traditionally, wax has been used as a PCM on spacecraft. However, water is an attractive alternative because it is capable of storing about 40% more energy per unit mass due to its higher latent heat of fusion. The significant problem in using water as a PCM is its expansion while freezing, leading to structural integrity concerns when housed in an enclosed heat exchanger volume. Significant investigation and development has taken place over the past five years to understand and overcome the problems associated with water PCM HX's. This paper reports on the final efforts by Johnson Space Center's Thermal Systems Branch to develop a water based PCM HX. The test article developed and reported on is a subscale version of the full-scale water-based PCM HX's constructed by Mezzo Technologies. The subscale unit was designed by applying prior research on freeze front propagation and previous full-scale water PCM HX development. Design modifications to the subscale unit included use of urethane bladder, decreased aspect ratio, perforated protection sheet, and use of additional mid-plates. Testing of the subscale unit was successful and 150 cycles were completed without fail.

Development of a reliable, valid measure to assess parents' and teachers' understanding of postural care for children with physical disabilities: the (UKC PostCarD) questionnaire.

Science.gov (United States)

Hotham, S; Hutton, E; Hamilton-West, K E

2015-11-01

Previous research has highlighted lack of knowledge, understanding and confidence among parents and teachers responsible for the postural care of children with physical disability. Interventions designed to improve these qualities require a reliable and validated tool to assess pre- and post-intervention levels. Currently, however, no validated measure of postural care confidence (i.e. self-efficacy) exists. Hence, the aim of this research was to develop a reliable and valid questionnaire to assess parents' and teachers' confidence, alongside knowledge and understanding of postural care - the Understanding Knowledge and Confidence in providing POSTural CARe for children with Disabilities (UKC PostCarD) questionnaire. Items were developed by a multidisciplinary team and designed to map onto the content of 'An A-to-Z of Postural Care'. Parents, teachers and therapists assessed items for face validity. Scale reliability was then assessed using Cronbach's alpha and known-group validity was assessed by comparing scores of an 'expert' group (physiotherapists and occupational therapists) with those of a 'non-expert' group (with no formal training in postural care). The total scale and all three subscales (understanding and knowledge, confidence and concerns) demonstrated adequate reliability (α > 0.83) and subscale correlations formed a logical pattern (understanding and knowledge correlated positively with confidence and negatively with concerns). Experts' (n = 111) scores were higher than non-experts' (n = 79) for the total scale and all subscales (P children with disabilities. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Quantitative measurement of hypertrophic scar: interrater reliability and concurrent validity.

Science.gov (United States)

Nedelec, Bernadette; Correa, José A; Rachelska, Grazyna; Armour, Alexis; LaSalle, Léo

2008-01-01

Research into the pathophysiology and treatment of hypertrophic scar (HSc) remains limited by the heterogeneity of scar and the imprecision with which its severity is measured. The objective of this study was to test the interrater reliability and concurrent validity of the Cutometer measurement of elasticity, the Mexameter measurement of erythema and pigmentation, and total thickness measure of the DermaScan C relative to the modified Vancouver Scar Scale (mVSS) in patient-matched normal skin, normal scar, and HSc. Three independent investigators evaluated 128 sites (severe HSc, moderate or mild HSc, donor site, and normal skin) on 32 burn survivors using all of the above measurement tools. The intraclass correlation coefficient, which was used to measure interrater reliability, reflects the inherent amount of error in the measure and is considered acceptable when it is >0.75. Interrater reliability of the totals of the height, pliability, and vascularity subscales of the mVSS fell below the acceptable limit ( congruent with0.50). The individual subscales of the mVSS fell well below the acceptable level (0.89) for each study site with the exception of severe scar. Mexameter and DermaScan C reliability measurements were acceptable for all sites (>0.82). Concurrent validity correlations with the mVSS were significant except for the comparison of the mVSS pliability subscale and the Cutometer maximum deformation measure comparison in severe scar. In conclusion, the Mexameter and DermaScan C measurements of scar color and thickness of all sites, as well as the Cutometer measurement of elasticity in all but the most severe scars shows high interrater reliability. Their significant concurrent validity with the mVSS confirms that these tools are measuring the same traits as the mVSS, and in a more objective way.

Improvement of standards on functional reliability of electric power systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barinov, V.A.; Volkov, G.A.; Kalita, V.V.; Kogan, F.L.; Makarov, S.F.; Manevich, A.S.; Mogirev, V.V.; Sin'chugov, F.I.; Skopintsev, V.A.; Khvoshchinskaya, Z.G.

1993-01-01

Analysis of the most principal aspects of the existing standards and requirements on assuring safety and stability of electric power systems (EPS) and effective (reliable and economical) power supply of consumers is given. The reliability is determined as ability to accomplish the assigned functions. Basic recommendations on improving the standards regulating the safety and reliability of the NPP functioning are formulated

The Addiction Severity Index: Reliability and validity in a Dutch alcoholic population

OpenAIRE

Dejong, C.A.J.; Willems, J.C.E.W.; Schippers, G.M.; Hendriks, V.M.

1995-01-01

The Addiction Severity Index (ASI) was evaluated for its psychometric qualities in a Dutch alcoholic population admitted to an addiction treatment center in the Netherlands. Its factorial structure in this population was found to be consistent with the established six factor structure of the ASI. Reliability analysis revealed that the homogeneity of the subscales was acceptable with the exception of the Alcohol Scale. The six subscales were not highly intercorrelated. The results of this stud...

The Chinese version of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ (PedsQL™) 3.0 Asthma Module: reliability and validity.

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Lifen; Zhang, Yingfen; Chen, Ruoqing; Hao, Yuantao

2011-08-07

Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) has been recognized as an important health outcome measurement for pediatric patients. One of the most promising instruments in measuring pediatric HRQOL emerged in recent years is the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL™). The PedsQL™ 3.0 Asthma Module, one of the PedsQL™disease-specific scales, was designed to measure HRQOL dimensions specifically tailored for pediatric asthma. The present study is aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the PedsQL™ 3.0 Asthma Module. The PedsQL™ 3.0 Asthma Module was translated into Chinese following the PedsQL™ Measurement Model Translation Methodology. The Chinese version scale was administered to 204 children with asthma and 337 parents of children with asthma from four Triple A hospitals. The psychometric properties were then evaluated. The percentage of missing value for each item of the scale ranged from 0.00% to 8.31%. All child self-report subscales and parent proxy-report subscales approached or exceeded the minimum reliability standard of 0.70 for alpha coefficient, except 3 subscales of Young Child (aged 5-7) self-report (alphas ranging from 0.59 to 0.68). Test-retest reliability was satisfactory with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) which exceeded the recommended standard of 0.80 in all subscales. Correlation coefficients between items and their hypothesized subscales were higher than those with other subscales. The PedsQL™ 3.0 Asthma Module distinguished between outpatients and inpatients. Patients with mild asthma reported higher scores than those with moderate/severe asthma in majority of subscales. The intercorrelations among the PedsQL™ 3.0 Asthma Module subscales and the PedsQL™ 4.0 Generic Core Scales were in medium to large effect size. The child self-report scores were consistent with the parent proxy-report scores. The Chinese version of the PedsQL™ 3.0 Asthma Module has acceptable psychometric

Psychometric test of the Team Climate Inventory-short version investigated in Dutch quality improvement teams

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nieboer Anna P

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Although some studies have used the Team Climate Inventory within teams working in health care settings, none of these included quality improvement teams. The aim of our study is to investigate the psychometric properties of the 14-item version of the Team Climate Inventory in healthcare quality improvement teams participating in a Dutch quality collaborative. Methods This study included quality improvement teams participating in the Care for Better improvement program for home care, care for the handicapped and the elderly in the Netherlands between 2006 and 2008. As part of a larger evaluation study 270 written questionnaires from team members were collected at baseline and 139 questionnaires at end measurement. Confirmatory factor analyses, reliability, Pearson correlations and paired samples t-tests were conducted to investigate construct validity, reliability, predictive validity and temporal stability. Results Confirmatory factor analyses revealed the expected four-factor structure and good fit indices. For the four subscales – vision, participative safety, task orientation and support for innovation – acceptable Cronbach's alpha coefficients and high inter-item correlations were found. The four subscales all proved significant predictors of perceived team effectiveness, with participatory safety being the best predictor. As expected the four subscales were found to be stable over time; i.e. without significant changes between baseline and end measurement. Conclusion The psychometric properties of the Dutch version of the TCI-14 are satisfactory. Together these results show that the TCI-14 is a useful instrument to assess to what extent aspects of team climate influence perceived team effectiveness of quality improvement teams.

Psychometric test of the Team Climate Inventory-short version investigated in Dutch quality improvement teams.

Science.gov (United States)

Strating, Mathilde M H; Nieboer, Anna P

2009-07-24

Although some studies have used the Team Climate Inventory within teams working in health care settings, none of these included quality improvement teams. The aim of our study is to investigate the psychometric properties of the 14-item version of the Team Climate Inventory in healthcare quality improvement teams participating in a Dutch quality collaborative. This study included quality improvement teams participating in the Care for Better improvement program for home care, care for the handicapped and the elderly in the Netherlands between 2006 and 2008. As part of a larger evaluation study 270 written questionnaires from team members were collected at baseline and 139 questionnaires at end measurement. Confirmatory factor analyses, reliability, Pearson correlations and paired samples t-tests were conducted to investigate construct validity, reliability, predictive validity and temporal stability. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed the expected four-factor structure and good fit indices. For the four subscales--vision, participative safety, task orientation and support for innovation--acceptable Cronbach's alpha coefficients and high inter-item correlations were found. The four subscales all proved significant predictors of perceived team effectiveness, with participatory safety being the best predictor. As expected the four subscales were found to be stable over time; i.e. without significant changes between baseline and end measurement. The psychometric properties of the Dutch version of the TCI-14 are satisfactory. Together these results show that the TCI-14 is a useful instrument to assess to what extent aspects of team climate influence perceived team effectiveness of quality improvement teams.

Assessment of power reliability and improvement potential by using ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper presents the use of smart reclosers for improving reliability of a distribution system of one of the major cities of Ethiopia. As frequent power interruptions are posing a huge problem to the life of the people and the economy, finding a solution to the problem is very essential. Electric reliability has affected social well ...

Evidence of Reliability and Validity for a Children’s Auditory Continuous Performance Test

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael J. Lasee

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Continuous Performance Tests (CPTs are commonly utilized clinical measures of attention and response inhibition. While there have been many studies of CPTs that utilize a visual format, there is considerably less research employing auditory CPTs. The current study provides initial reliability and validity evidence for the Auditory Vigilance Screening Measure (AVSM, a newly developed CPT. Participants included 105 five- to nine-year-old children selected from two rural Midwestern school districts. Reliability data for the AVSM was collected through retesting of 42 participants. Validity was evaluated through correlation of AVSM scales with subscales from the ADHD Rating Scale–IV. Test–retest reliability coefficients ranged from .62 to .74 for AVSM subscales. A significant (r = .31 correlation was obtained between the AVSM Impulsivity Scale and teacher ratings of inattention. Limitations and implications for future study are discussed.

Improvement of the reliability on nondestructive inspection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Song, Sung Jin; Kim, Young H.; Lee, Hyang Beom; Shin, Young Kil; Jung, Hyun Jo; Park, Ik Keun; Park, Eun Soo

2002-03-01

Retaining reliabilities of nondestructive testing is essential for the life-time maintenance of Nuclear Power Plant. The nondestructive testing methods which are frequently used in the Nuclear Power Plant are eddy current testing for the inspection of steam generator tubes and ultrasonic testing for the inspection of weldments. In order to improve reliabilities of ultrasonic testing and eddy current testing, the subjects carried out in this study are as follows : development of BEM analysis technique for ECT of SG tube, development of neural network technique for the intelligent analysis of ECT flaw signals of SG tubes, development of RFECT technology for the inspection of SG tube, FEM analysis of ultrasonic scattering field, evaluation of statistical reliability of PD-RR test of ultrasonic testing and development of multi-Gaussian beam modeling technique to predict accurate signal of signal beam ultrasonic testing with the efficiency in calculation time

Improvement of the reliability on nondestructive inspection

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Song, Sung Jin; Kim, Young H. [Sungkyunkwan Univ., Suwon (Korea, Republic of); Lee, Hyang Beom [Soongsil Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Shin, Young Kil [Kunsan National Univ., Gunsan (Korea, Republic of); Jung, Hyun Jo [Wonkwang Univ., Iksan (Korea, Republic of); Park, Ik Keun; Park, Eun Soo [Seoul Nationl Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2002-03-15

Retaining reliabilities of nondestructive testing is essential for the life-time maintenance of Nuclear Power Plant. The nondestructive testing methods which are frequently used in the Nuclear Power Plant are eddy current testing for the inspection of steam generator tubes and ultrasonic testing for the inspection of weldments. In order to improve reliabilities of ultrasonic testing and eddy current testing, the subjects carried out in this study are as follows : development of BEM analysis technique for ECT of SG tube, development of neural network technique for the intelligent analysis of ECT flaw signals of SG tubes, development of RFECT technology for the inspection of SG tube, FEM analysis of ultrasonic scattering field, evaluation of statistical reliability of PD-RR test of ultrasonic testing and development of multi-Gaussian beam modeling technique to predict accurate signal of signal beam ultrasonic testing with the efficiency in calculation time.

Preliminary testing of the reliability and feasibility of SAGE: a system to measure and score engagement with and use of research in health policies and programs.

Science.gov (United States)

Makkar, Steve R; Williamson, Anna; D'Este, Catherine; Redman, Sally

2017-12-19

Few measures of research use in health policymaking are available, and the reliability of such measures has yet to be evaluated. A new measure called the Staff Assessment of Engagement with Evidence (SAGE) incorporates an interview that explores policymakers' research use within discrete policy documents and a scoring tool that quantifies the extent of policymakers' research use based on the interview transcript and analysis of the policy document itself. We aimed to conduct a preliminary investigation of the usability, sensitivity, and reliability of the scoring tool in measuring research use by policymakers. Nine experts in health policy research and two independent coders were recruited. Each expert used the scoring tool to rate a random selection of 20 interview transcripts, and each independent coder rated 60 transcripts. The distribution of scores among experts was examined, and then, interrater reliability was tested within and between the experts and independent coders. Average- and single-measure reliability coefficients were computed for each SAGE subscales. Experts' scores ranged from the limited to extensive scoring bracket for all subscales. Experts as a group also exhibited at least a fair level of interrater agreement across all subscales. Single-measure reliability was at least fair except for three subscales: Relevance Appraisal, Conceptual Use, and Instrumental Use. Average- and single-measure reliability among independent coders was good to excellent for all subscales. Finally, reliability between experts and independent coders was fair to excellent for all subscales. Among experts, the scoring tool was comprehensible, usable, and sensitive to discriminate between documents with varying degrees of research use. Secondly, the scoring tool yielded scores with good reliability among the independent coders. There was greater variability among experts, although as a group, the tool was fairly reliable. The alignment between experts' and independent

A psychometric evaluation of the Diabetes Symptom Checklist-Revised (DSC-R cognitive distress, fatigue, hyperglycemia, and hypoglycemia subscales in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Naegeli AN

2010-03-01

Full Text Available April N Naegeli1, Timothy E Stump2, Risa P Hayes11Global Health Outcomes, Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, IN, USA; 2Consultant, Indianapolis, IN, USAObjective: To explore the use of Diabetes Symptom Checklist-Revised (DSC-R Cognitive Distress, Fatigue, Hyperglycemia, and Hypoglycemia subscales as measures of acute diabetesassociated symptoms in patients with both type 1 and 2 diabetes.Research design and methods: Our study was conducted in context of two international, multicenter, randomized clinical trials for inhaled insulin. Confirmatory factor analyses and assessments of reliability and construct validity were performed.Results: Study participants were 371 patients with type 2 (56% male; mean age, 57 years and 481 with type 1 diabetes (57% male, mean age, 40 years. In both populations a four-factor model was the best fit. Cronbach’s α ≥ 0.79 and intraclass correlation coefficient ≥0.63; subscales correlated (P ≤ 0.05 with measures of well-being and satisfaction (0.12 ≤ r ≤ 0.71. In patients with type 1 diabetes, three subscales correlated (P < 0.05 with A1C.Conclusions: The psychometric properties of the DSC-R Cognitive Distress, Fatigue, Hyperglycemia, and Hypoglycemia suggest they may be utilized in clinical trials as reliable and valid measures of acute symptoms of diabetes.Keywords: Diabetes Symptom Checklist-Revised, DSC-R, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, psychometric validation

Improvement on reliability of control system in power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Taguchi, S.; Mizumoto, T.; Hirose, Y.; Kashiwai, J.; Takami, I.; Shono, M.; Roji, Y.; Kizaki, S.

1985-01-01

Studies made of Japanese PWR operating experiences have revealed that failures in the control system are the primary causes of unscheduled shutdowns. An attempt has, therefore, been made to improve the reliability of the control system in order to raise the plant reliability. The following are the procedures applied to solve the issue; study of operating experiences, fault tree analysis and failure mode and effects analysis. Improvement measures are developed for the control system whose failure threatens to cause the plant trip during the plant life. These systems are the main feedwater control system, rod control system, pressurizer control system and main steam control system in the primary control system. As a result, the plant unavailability is expected to be reduced significantly by applying the improvements. The improvements are applied to the plants under construction and the operating plants in co-operation with utilities and vendors. (author)

Validity and Reliability of the Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) in University Students.

Science.gov (United States)

Tiburcio Sainz, Marcela; Rosete-Mohedano, Ma Guadalupe; Natera Rey, Guillermina; Martínez Vélez, Nora Angélica; Carreño García, Silvia; Pérez Cisneros, Daniel

2016-03-02

The Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST), developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), has been used successfully in many countries, but there are few studies of its validity and reliability for the Mexican population. The objective of this study was to determine the psychometric properties of the self-administered ASSIST test in university students in Mexico. This was an ex post facto non-experimental study with 1,176 undergraduate students, the majority women (70.1%) aged 18-23 years (89.5%) and single (87.5%). To estimate concurrent validity, factor analysis and tests of reliability and correlation were carried out between the subscale for alcohol and AUDIT, those for tobacco and the Fagerström Test, and those for marijuana and DAST-20. Adequate reliability coefficients were obtained for ASSIST subscales for tobacco (alpha = 0.83), alcohol (alpha = 0.76), and marijuana (alpha = 0.73). Significant correlations were found only with the AUDIT (r = 0.71) and the alcohol subscale. The best balance of sensitivity and specificity of the alcohol subscale (83.8% and 80%, respectively) and the largest area under the ROC curve (81.9%) was found with a cutoff score of 8. The self-administered version of ASSIST is a valid screening instrument to identify at-risk cases due to substance use in this population.

Clinical meaningfulness of Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive subscale change in relation to goal attainment in patients on cholinesterase inhibitors.

Science.gov (United States)

Rockwood, Kenneth; Howlett, Susan E; Hoffman, Deborah; Schindler, Rachel; Mitnitski, Arnold

2017-10-01

The clinical meaningfulness of Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive subscale (ADAS-Cog) subscale change is disputed. We compared 2- to 4-point ADAS-Cog changes with changes in Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) and everyday function across initial ADAS-Cog scores and treatment responses. This exploratory analysis evaluated mild-moderate Alzheimer's disease patients treated with donepezil (12 months) or galantamine (8 months). Clinical meaningfulness was defined as concomitant ADAS-Cog and GAS changes of ±3 points and/or functional improvement. Patients with ≥3-point ADAS-Cog improvement significantly improved on GAS but not on standard tests of everyday function. ADAS-Cog "no change" (≤±3 points) was seen with mean GAS improvement. Initial ADAS-Cog improvement made endpoint improvement (ADAS-Cog 3 points and GAS 1 point) more likely (odds ratio = 6.9; 95% confidence interval = 2.5-19.5). In contrast, initial deterioration made endpoint improvement unlikely (0.33; 0.14-0.64). ADAS-Cog improvement and no change were each associated with GAS improvement. Initial ADAS-Cog worsening was unlikely to result in later improvement. ISRCTN26167328. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Reliability Improved Cooperative Communication over Wireless Sensor Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhuangbin Chen

2017-10-01

Full Text Available With the development of smart devices and connection technologies, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs are becoming increasingly intelligent. New or special functions can be obtained by receiving new versions of program codes to upgrade their software systems, forming the so-called smart Internet of Things (IoT. Due to the lossy property of wireless channels, data collection in WSNs still suffers from a long delay, high energy consumption, and many retransmissions. Thanks to wireless software-defined networks (WSDNs, software in sensors can now be updated to help them transmit data cooperatively, thereby achieving more reliable communication. In this paper, a Reliability Improved Cooperative Communication (RICC data collection scheme is proposed to improve the reliability of random-network-coding-based cooperative communications in multi-hop relay WSNs without reducing the network lifetime. In WSNs, sensors in different positions can have different numbers of packets to handle, resulting in the unbalanced energy consumption of the network. In particular, nodes in non-hotspot areas have up to 90% of their original energy remaining when the network dies. To efficiently use the residual energy, in RICC, high data transmission power is adopted in non-hotspot areas to achieve a higher reliability at the cost of large energy consumption, and relatively low transmission power is adopted in hotspot areas to maintain the long network lifetime. Therefore, high reliability and a long network lifetime can be obtained simultaneously. The simulation results show that compared with other scheme, RICC can reduce the end-to-end Message Fail delivering Ratio (MFR by 59.4%–62.8% under the same lifetime with a more balanced energy utilization.

Reliability and Factorial Validity of the Artes de Lenguaje.

Science.gov (United States)

Powers, Stephen; And Others

1984-01-01

Spanish speaking first graders were administered the Artes de Lenguage (ADL)--a Spanish, criterion-referenced, language arts test. Reliability analyses indicated the adequacy of three of the four subscales (Phonetic Analysis, Vocabulary Development, Comprehension Skills, and General Skills). A principal factors analysis of the intercorrelation…

Measuring social skills of children and adolescents in a Chinese population: Preliminary evidence on the reliability and validity of the translated Chinese version of the Social Skills Improvement System-Rating Scales (SSIS-RS-C).

Science.gov (United States)

Cheung, Phoebe P P; Siu, Andrew M H; Brown, Ted

2017-01-01

The Social Skills Improvement System-Rating Scales (SSIS-RS; Gresham & Elliott, 2008) are designed to assist in the screening and classification of students (aged 5-18 years) who are suspected of presenting with social skills deficits and to offer guidelines in the development of interventions to remediate those types of problems. The objective of this study is to examine the preliminary reliability and validity of the translated Chinese version of the SSIS-RS, referred to as the SSIS-RS-C. In this study, parent-reported social skills and problem behaviors among students with typical development (n=79) were compared with those of age- and gender-matched students with a known developmental disability (n=79) using the SSIS-RS-C. The results indicated that the SSIS-RS-C subscale scores in all the disability groups were significantly different except for those in the Assertion scale for one disability group. Furthermore, the normative sample of typically developing children and adolescents (aged 5-12 and 13-18 years, n=567) from Hong Kong was established to improve the psychometric properties of the SSIS-RS-C. There were moderate to strong relationships between the common subscales across all forms of the SSIS-RS-C. Acceptable to excellent levels of internal consistency across all common subscales was also obtained. The scores for the Hong Kong sample (n=567) derived from the use of the SSIS-RS-C were then compared to the normative sample scores from the American version of the SSIS-RS. It was found that there were statistically significant differences on five out of the seven SSIS-RS-C Social Skill subscales for children aged 5-12 years and on four out of the seven SSIS-RS-C Social Skills subscales for the adolescent group (aged 13-18 years). Also, there were statistically significant differences between the American and Hong Kong samples on all of the SSIS-RS-C Problem Behavior scale scores. It was concluded that the SSIS-RS-C is a promising instrument for clinicians

Preliminary Reliability and Validity of an Exercise Benefits and Barriers for Stroke Prevention Scale in an African American Sample.

Science.gov (United States)

Aycock, Dawn M; Clark, Patricia C

2015-01-01

African Americans are at heightened risk of first stroke, and regular exercise can reduce stroke risk. Benefits and barriers to exercise subscales from 2 instruments were combined to create the Exercise Benefits and Barriers for Stroke Prevention (EBBSP) scale. Reliability and validity of the EBBSP scale were examined in a nonrandom sample of 66 African Americans who were primarily female, average age 43.3 ± 9.4 years, and high school graduates. Both subscales had adequate internal consistency reliability. Factor analysis revealed two factors for each subscale. More benefits and fewer perceived barriers were significantly related to current exercise and future intentions to exercise. The EBBSP scale may be useful in research focused on understanding, predicting, and promoting exercise for stroke prevention in adults.

System ergonomics as an approach to improve human reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bubb, H.

1988-01-01

The application of system technics on ergonomical problems is called system ergonomics. This enables improvements of human reliability by design measures. The precondition for this is the knowledge of how information processing is performed by man and machine. By a separate consideration of sensory processing, cognitive processing, and motory processing it is possible to have a more exact idea of the system element 'man'. The system element 'machine' is well described by differential equations which allow an ergonomical assessment of the manouverability. The knowledge of information processing of man and machine enables a task analysis. This makes appear on one hand the human boundaries depending on the different properties of the task and on the other hand suitable ergonomical solution proposals which improve the reliability of the total system. It is a disadvantage, however, that the change of human reliability by such measures may not be quoted numerically at the moment. (orig.)

Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale - Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-Cog): Normative Data for the Portuguese Population.

Science.gov (United States)

Nogueira, Joana; Freitas, Sandra; Duro, Diana; Tábuas-Pereira, Miguel; Guerreiro, Manuela; Almeida, Jorge; Santana, Isabel

2018-02-28

The Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale - Cognitive Subscale is a brief battery developed to assess cognitive functioning in Alzheimer's disease that encompasses the core characteristics of cognitive decline (e.g. memory, language, praxis, constructive ability and orientation). The early detection, as well as the monitoring of cognitive decline along disease progression, is extremely important in clinical care and interventional research. The main goals of the present study were to analyze the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale - Cognitive Subscale, and to establish normative values for the Portuguese population. The Portuguese version of Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale - Cognitive Subscale was administered to 223 cognitively healthy participants according to a standard assessment protocol consisting of the Mini-Mental State Examination, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and the Adults and Older Adults Functional Assessment Inventory. Normal performance on the assessment protocol was the inclusion criteria for the study. The Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale - Cognitive Subscale revealed good psychometric properties when used in the Portuguese population. Age was the main predictor of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale - Cognitive Subscale total score (R2 = 0.123), whereas the influence of education level was lower (R2 = 0.027). These two variables explained 14.4% of the variance on the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale - Cognitive Subscale scores and were used to stratify the normative values for the Portuguese population presented here. On the total sample, the average total score in the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale - Cognitive Subscale was 6 points. The normative data were determined according to age and educational level as these were the sociodemographic variables that significantly contributed to the prediction of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale - Cognitive Subscale

Energy Cascade Analysis: from Subscale Eddies to Mean Flow

Science.gov (United States)

Cheikh, Mohamad Ibrahim; Wonnell, Louis; Chen, James

2017-11-01

Understanding the energy transfer between eddies and mean flow can provide insights into the energy cascade process. Much work has been done to investigate the energy cascade at the level of the smallest eddies using different numerical techniques derived from the Navier-Stokes equations. These methodologies, however, prove to be computationally inefficient when producing energy spectra for a wide range of length scales. In this regard, Morphing Continuum Theory (MCT) resolves the length-scales issues by assuming the fluid continuum to be composed of inner structures that play the role of subscale eddies. The current study show- cases the capabilities of MCT in capturing the dynamics of energy cascade at the level of subscale eddies, through a supersonic turbulent flow of Mach 2.93 over an 8× compression ramp. Analysis of the results using statistical averaging procedure shows the existence of a statistical coupling of the internal and translational kinetic energy fluctuations with the corresponding rotational kinetic energy of the subscale eddies, indicating a multiscale transfer of energy. The results show that MCT gives a new characterization of the energy cascade within compressible turbulence without the use of excessive computational resources. This material is based upon work supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under Award Number FA9550-17-1-0154.

Designing incentive market mechanisms for improving restructured power system reliabilities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ding, Yi; Østergaard, Jacob; Wu, Qiuwei

2011-01-01

state. The reliability management of producers usually cannot be directly controlled by the system operators in a restructured power system. Producers may have no motivation to improve their reliabilities, which can result in serious system unreliability issues in the new environment. Incentive market...... mechanisms for improving the restructured power system reliabilities have been designed in this paper. In the proposed incentive mechanisms, penalty will be implemented on a producer if the failures of its generator(s) result in the variation of electricity prices. Incentive market mechanisms can motivate......In a restructured power system, the monopoly generation utility is replaced by different electricity producers. There exists extreme price volatility caused by random failures by generation or/and transmission systems. In these cases, producers' profits can be much higher than those in the normal...

The Chinese version of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ (PedsQL™ 3.0 Asthma Module: reliability and validity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chen Ruoqing

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Health-related quality of life (HRQOL has been recognized as an important health outcome measurement for pediatric patients. One of the most promising instruments in measuring pediatric HRQOL emerged in recent years is the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL™. The PedsQL™ 3.0 Asthma Module, one of the PedsQL™disease-specific scales, was designed to measure HRQOL dimensions specifically tailored for pediatric asthma. The present study is aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the PedsQL™ 3.0 Asthma Module. Methods The PedsQL™ 3.0 Asthma Module was translated into Chinese following the PedsQL™ Measurement Model Translation Methodology. The Chinese version scale was administered to 204 children with asthma and 337 parents of children with asthma from four Triple A hospitals. The psychometric properties were then evaluated. Results The percentage of missing value for each item of the scale ranged from 0.00% to 8.31%. All child self-report subscales and parent proxy-report subscales approached or exceeded the minimum reliability standard of 0.70 for alpha coefficient, except 3 subscales of Young Child (aged 5-7 self-report (alphas ranging from 0.59 to 0.68. Test-retest reliability was satisfactory with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs which exceeded the recommended standard of 0.80 in all subscales. Correlation coefficients between items and their hypothesized subscales were higher than those with other subscales. The PedsQL™ 3.0 Asthma Module distinguished between outpatients and inpatients. Patients with mild asthma reported higher scores than those with moderate/severe asthma in majority of subscales. The intercorrelations among the PedsQL™ 3.0 Asthma Module subscales and the PedsQL™ 4.0 Generic Core Scales were in medium to large effect size. The child self-report scores were consistent with the parent proxy-report scores. Conclusions The Chinese version of

Using data from Multidimensional Pain Inventory subscales to assess functioning in pain rehabilitation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Harlacher, Uwe; Persson, Ann L; Rivano-Fischer, Marcelo

2011-01-01

The aim of this study was to examine whether Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI) subscale score changes can be used for monitoring interdisciplinary cognitive behavioural pain rehabilitation programmes, using the Psychological General Well-Being (PGWB) index as an independent variable...... of rehabilitation outcome. Data from 434 consecutively referred patients disabled by chronic pain were analysed. The intervention was a 4-week interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation group programme (5 h/day), based on biopsychosocial and cognitive behavioural principles. Mean PGWB total scores improved after...... rehabilitation (P...

Reliability and construct validity of a new Danish translation of the Prosthesis Evaluation Questionnaire in a population of Danish amputees

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Jan; Doherty, Patrick; Bjorner, Jakob Bue

2017-01-01

. Estimates for standard error of measurement (SEM) were calculated based on reliability estimates. Construct validity was evaluated by testing using hypotheses testing. Results: Reliability estimates (ICC/Cronbach’s alpha) for the nine subscales were: Social Burden (0.85/0.76), Appearance (0....... Methods: Lower limb amputees responded to electronic versions of the PEQ and SF-36v2 at baseline (n=64), after two weeks (n=51), and after 12 weeks (n=50). Reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) analyses of the baseline and two weeks test-retest data.......85/0.72), Residual Limb Health (0.80/0.69), Well-Being (0.78/0.90), Utility (0.76/0.89), Frustration (0.74/0.90), Perceived Response (0.62/0.80), Ambulation (0.61/0.94), Sounds (0.51/0.65). Construct validity was supported in three out of four subscales evaluated. Conclusions: The subscales Social Burden, Appearance...

Technology and equipment to improve reliability of pipeline transport

Science.gov (United States)

Suleimanov, D. F.; Shulayev, N. S.; Bondar, K. E.; Laponov, S. V.; Uzinger, A. A.

2017-10-01

The article is dedicated to development of technology and hardware design of method pipeline transport reliability improving by improving the isolated coating properties modified by microwave radiation. The article describes the technology of the modification process of the coating and instrumentation production, which allows improving operational properties not only in stationary conditions in the manufacture of the insulation coating, but also during its replacement in the field.

Aviation Fuel System Reliability and Fail-Safety Analysis. Promising Alternative Ways for Improving the Fuel System Reliability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. S. Shumilov

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The paper deals with design requirements for an aviation fuel system (AFS, AFS basic design requirements, reliability, and design precautions to avoid AFS failure. Compares the reliability and fail-safety of AFS and aircraft hydraulic system (AHS, considers the promising alternative ways to raise reliability of fuel systems, as well as elaborates recommendations to improve reliability of the pipeline system components and pipeline systems, in general, based on the selection of design solutions.It is extremely advisable to design the AFS and AHS in accordance with Aviation Regulations АП25 and Accident Prevention Guidelines, ICAO (International Civil Aviation Association, which will reduce risk of emergency situations, and in some cases even avoid heavy disasters.ATS and AHS designs should be based on the uniform principles to ensure the highest reliability and safety. However, currently, this principle is not enough kept, and AFS looses in reliability and fail-safety as compared with AHS. When there are the examined failures (single and their combinations the guidelines to ensure the AFS efficiency should be the same as those of norm-adopted in the Regulations АП25 for AHS. This will significantly increase reliability and fail-safety of the fuel systems and aircraft flights, in general, despite a slight increase in AFS mass.The proposed improvements through the use of components redundancy of the fuel system will greatly raise reliability of the fuel system of a passenger aircraft, which will, without serious consequences for the flight, withstand up to 2 failures, its reliability and fail-safety design will be similar to those of the AHS, however, above improvement measures will lead to a slightly increasing total mass of the fuel system.It is advisable to set a second pump on the engine in parallel with the first one. It will run in case the first one fails for some reasons. The second pump, like the first pump, can be driven from the

Advanced solutions for operational reliability improvements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Holmberg, K [VTT Manufacturing Technology, Espoo (Finland)

1998-12-31

A great number of new technical tools are today developed for improved operational reliability of machines and industrial equipment. Examples of such techniques and tools recently developed at the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) are: metallographic approach for steam-piping lifetime estimation, an expert system AURORA for corrosion prediction and material selection, an automatic image-processing-based on-line wear particle analysis system, microsensors for condition monitoring, a condition monitoring and expert system, CEPDIA, for the diagnosis of centrifugal pumps, a machine tool analysis and diagnostic expert system, non-leakage magnetic fluid seals with extended lifetime and diamond-like surface coatings on components with decreased friction and wear properties. A hyperbook-supported holistic approach to problem solving in maintenance and reliability engineering has been developed to help the user achieve a holistic understanding of the problem and its relationships, to navigate among the several technical tools and methods available, and to find those suitable for his application. (orig.)

Advanced solutions for operational reliability improvements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Holmberg, K. [VTT Manufacturing Technology, Espoo (Finland)

1997-12-31

A great number of new technical tools are today developed for improved operational reliability of machines and industrial equipment. Examples of such techniques and tools recently developed at the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) are: metallographic approach for steam-piping lifetime estimation, an expert system AURORA for corrosion prediction and material selection, an automatic image-processing-based on-line wear particle analysis system, microsensors for condition monitoring, a condition monitoring and expert system, CEPDIA, for the diagnosis of centrifugal pumps, a machine tool analysis and diagnostic expert system, non-leakage magnetic fluid seals with extended lifetime and diamond-like surface coatings on components with decreased friction and wear properties. A hyperbook-supported holistic approach to problem solving in maintenance and reliability engineering has been developed to help the user achieve a holistic understanding of the problem and its relationships, to navigate among the several technical tools and methods available, and to find those suitable for his application. (orig.)

New scoring methodology improves the sensitivity of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive subscale (ADAS-Cog) in clinical trials.

Science.gov (United States)

Verma, Nishant; Beretvas, S Natasha; Pascual, Belen; Masdeu, Joseph C; Markey, Mia K

2015-11-12

As currently used, the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive subscale (ADAS-Cog) has low sensitivity for measuring Alzheimer's disease progression in clinical trials. A major reason behind the low sensitivity is its sub-optimal scoring methodology, which can be improved to obtain better sensitivity. Using item response theory, we developed a new scoring methodology (ADAS-CogIRT) for the ADAS-Cog, which addresses several major limitations of the current scoring methodology. The sensitivity of the ADAS-CogIRT methodology was evaluated using clinical trial simulations as well as a negative clinical trial, which had shown an evidence of a treatment effect. The ADAS-Cog was found to measure impairment in three cognitive domains of memory, language, and praxis. The ADAS-CogIRT methodology required significantly fewer patients and shorter trial durations as compared to the current scoring methodology when both were evaluated in simulated clinical trials. When validated on data from a real clinical trial, the ADAS-CogIRT methodology had higher sensitivity than the current scoring methodology in detecting the treatment effect. The proposed scoring methodology significantly improves the sensitivity of the ADAS-Cog in measuring progression of cognitive impairment in clinical trials focused in the mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease stage. This provides a boost to the efficiency of clinical trials requiring fewer patients and shorter durations for investigating disease-modifying treatments.

Training Improves Interobserver Reliability for the Diagnosis of Scaphoid Fracture Displacement

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Buijze, Geert A.; Guitton, Thierry G.; van Dijk, C. Niek; Ring, David; Osterman, A. Lee; Wahegaonkar, Abhijeet L.; Ladd, Amy; Barquet, Antonio; van Vugt, Arie B.; Shyam, Ashok K.; Swigart, Carrie; Coles, Chad P.; Zalavras, Charalampos; Goldfarb, Charles A.; Cassidy, Charles; Allan, Christopher; Beingessner, Daphne; Kalainov, David M.; Eygendaal, Denise; Sancheti, Parag; Feibel, Robert J.; Rocha, Steve; Grosso, Elena; Frihagen, Frede; Dyer, George S. M.; Athwal, George S.; Goslings, J. Carel; Della Rocca, Gregory J.; Harris, Ian; Fanuele, Jason C.; Lawton, Jeff; Jiuliano, John; McAuliffe, John; Capo, John T.; Conflitti, Joseph M.; Segalman, Keith; Egol, Kenneth; Ponsen, Kornelis J.; Jeray, Kyle; Lattanza, Lisa; Catalano, Louis; Swiontkowski, Marc; Boyer, Martin; Richardson, Martin; Soong, Maximillian; Baskies, Michael; Prayson, Michael; McKee, Michael; Chen, Neal C.; Kloen, Peter

2012-01-01

The diagnosis of displacement in scaphoid fractures is notorious for poor interobserver reliability. We tested whether training can improve interobserver reliability and sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy for the diagnosis of scaphoid fracture displacement on radiographs and CT scans. Sixty-four

The validity and reliability of the Dutch Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hanson, E. K.; Schaufeli, W.; Vrijkotte, T.; Plomp, N. H.; Godaert, G. L.

2000-01-01

The reliability and validity of the Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire were tested in 775 blue- and white-collar workers in the Netherlands. Cronbach's alpha revealed sufficient internal consistency of all subscales except Need for Control. With exploratory probabilistic scaling (Mokken)

Improving fMRI reliability in presurgical mapping for brain tumours.

Science.gov (United States)

Stevens, M Tynan R; Clarke, David B; Stroink, Gerhard; Beyea, Steven D; D'Arcy, Ryan Cn

2016-03-01

Functional MRI (fMRI) is becoming increasingly integrated into clinical practice for presurgical mapping. Current efforts are focused on validating data quality, with reliability being a major factor. In this paper, we demonstrate the utility of a recently developed approach that uses receiver operating characteristic-reliability (ROC-r) to: (1) identify reliable versus unreliable data sets; (2) automatically select processing options to enhance data quality; and (3) automatically select individualised thresholds for activation maps. Presurgical fMRI was conducted in 16 patients undergoing surgical treatment for brain tumours. Within-session test-retest fMRI was conducted, and ROC-reliability of the patient group was compared to a previous healthy control cohort. Individually optimised preprocessing pipelines were determined to improve reliability. Spatial correspondence was assessed by comparing the fMRI results to intraoperative cortical stimulation mapping, in terms of the distance to the nearest active fMRI voxel. The average ROC-r reliability for the patients was 0.58±0.03, as compared to 0.72±0.02 in healthy controls. For the patient group, this increased significantly to 0.65±0.02 by adopting optimised preprocessing pipelines. Co-localisation of the fMRI maps with cortical stimulation was significantly better for more reliable versus less reliable data sets (8.3±0.9 vs 29±3 mm, respectively). We demonstrated ROC-r analysis for identifying reliable fMRI data sets, choosing optimal postprocessing pipelines, and selecting patient-specific thresholds. Data sets with higher reliability also showed closer spatial correspondence to cortical stimulation. ROC-r can thus identify poor fMRI data at time of scanning, allowing for repeat scans when necessary. ROC-r analysis provides optimised and automated fMRI processing for improved presurgical mapping. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence

Improving patient safety: patient-focused, high-reliability team training.

Science.gov (United States)

McKeon, Leslie M; Cunningham, Patricia D; Oswaks, Jill S Detty

2009-01-01

Healthcare systems are recognizing "human factor" flaws that result in adverse outcomes. Nurses work around system failures, although increasing healthcare complexity makes this harder to do without risk of error. Aviation and military organizations achieve ultrasafe outcomes through high-reliability practice. We describe how reliability principles were used to teach nurses to improve patient safety at the front line of care. Outcomes include safety-oriented, teamwork communication competency; reflections on safety culture and clinical leadership are discussed.

Trans-adapted, reliability, and validity of children fear survey schedule-dental subscale in Bahasa Indonesia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arlette Suzy

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Background: The most frequently used measuring instrument for determination of dental fear in children nowadays is the children’s fear survey schedule-dental scale (CFSS-DS. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the reliability and validity of the scale with Indonesian trans adapted version of the scale, thus the scale can be reliable to be used in other similar research in Indonesia. Methods: Total of 113 participants, who were parent’s 3 to 12 years old children. Children were divided into two age groups, group I 3-6 year old (83 children and group II 7-12 year old (30 children. Eighty three children from the first group were divided into first dental visit group (30 children and non first dental visit group (53 children. Test-retest approach was applied to 30 first dental visit children aged 3-6 year old. Original scale was translated to Indonesian language. Result: The result showed the high value of the Cronbach’s coefficient of internal consistency α=0.956. Three factors were extracted by screen test method with Eigen values higher than 1, which explained 93.05% variance of results. Conclusion: CFSS-DS scale is reliable and valid psychometric instrument for dental fear evaluation in children in Bahasa Indonesia. The differences between this study and those of others may appear due to many factors. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE

Relative and Absolute Reliability of the Professionalism in Physical Therapy Core Values Self-Assessment Tool.

Science.gov (United States)

Furgal, Karen E; Norris, Elizabeth S; Young, Sonia N; Wallmann, Harvey W

2018-01-01

Development of professional behaviors in Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students is an important part of professional education. The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) has developed the Professionalism in Physical Therapy Core Values Self-Assessment (PPTCV-SA) tool to increase awareness of personal values in practice. The PPTCV-SA has been used to measure growth in professionalism following a clinical or educational experience. There are few studies reporting psychometric properties of the PPTCV-SA. The purpose of this study was to establish properties of relative reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient, iCC) and absolute reliability (standard error of measurement, SEM; minimal detectable change, MDC) of the PPTCV-SA. in this project, 29 first-year students in a DPT program were administered the PPTCVA-SA on two occasions, 2 weeks apart. Paired t-tests were used to examine stability in PPTCV-SA scores on the two occasions. iCCs were calculated as a measure of relative reliability and for use in the calculation of the absolute reliability measures of SEM and MDC. Results of paired t-tests indicated differences in the subscale scores between times 1 and 2 were non-significant, except for three subscales: Altruism (p=0.01), Excellence (p=0.05), and Social Responsibility (p=0.02). iCCs for test-retest reliability were moderate-to-good for all subscales, with SEMs ranging from 0.30 to 0.62, and MDC95 ranging from 0.83 to 1.71. These results can guide educators and researchers when determining the likelihood of true change in professionalism following a professional development activity.

Using Rasch Analysis to Evaluate the Reliability and Validity of the Swallowing Quality of Life Questionnaire: An Item Response Theory Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Cordier, Reinie; Speyer, Renée; Schindler, Antonio; Michou, Emilia; Heijnen, Bas Joris; Baijens, Laura; Karaduman, Ayşe; Swan, Katina; Clavé, Pere; Joosten, Annette Veronica

2018-02-01

The Swallowing Quality of Life questionnaire (SWAL-QOL) is widely used clinically and in research to evaluate quality of life related to swallowing difficulties. It has been described as a valid and reliable tool, but was developed and tested using classic test theory. This study describes the reliability and validity of the SWAL-QOL using item response theory (IRT; Rasch analysis). SWAL-QOL data were gathered from 507 participants at risk of oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD) across four European countries. OD was confirmed in 75.7% of participants via videofluoroscopy and/or fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation, or a clinical diagnosis based on meeting selected criteria. Patients with esophageal dysphagia were excluded. Data were analysed using Rasch analysis. Item and person reliability was good for all the items combined. However, person reliability was poor for 8 subscales and item reliability was poor for one subscale. Eight subscales exhibited poor person separation and two exhibited poor item separation. Overall item and person fit statistics were acceptable. However, at an individual item fit level results indicated unpredictable item responses for 28 items, and item redundancy for 10 items. The item-person dimensionality map confirmed these findings. Results from the overall Rasch model fit and Principal Component Analysis were suggestive of a second dimension. For all the items combined, none of the item categories were 'category', 'threshold' or 'step' disordered; however, all subscales demonstrated category disordered functioning. Findings suggest an urgent need to further investigate the underlying structure of the SWAL-QOL and its psychometric characteristics using IRT.

A Chinese version of the City of Hope Quality of Life-Ostomy Questionnaire: validity and reliability assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Wenjun; Yuan, Changrong; Wang, Jichuan; Du, Jiarui; Wu, Huiqiao; Qian, Xiaojie; Hinds, Pamela S

2013-01-01

The City of Hope Quality of Life-Ostomy Questionnaire is a widely accepted scale to assess quality of life in ostomy patients. However, the validity and reliability of the Chinese version (C-COH) have not been studied. The objective of the study was to assess the validity and reliability of the C-COH among ostomy patients sampled from Shanghai from August 2010 to June 2011. Content validity was examined based on the reviews of a panel of 10 experts; test-retest was conducted to assess the item reliabilities of the scale; a pilot sample (n = 274) was selected to explore the factorial structure of the C-COH using exploratory factor analysis; a validation sample (n = 370) was selected to confirm the findings from the exploratory study using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Statistical package SPSS version 16.0 was used for the exploratory factor analysis, and Amos 17.0 was used for the CFA. The C-COH was developed by modifying 1 item and excluding 11 items from the original scale. Four factors/subscales (physical well-being, psychological well-being, social well-being, and spiritual well-being) were identified and confirmed in the C-COH The scale reliabilities estimated from the CFA results for the 4 subscales were 0.860, 0.885, 0.864, and 0.686, respectively. Findings support the reliability and validity of the C-COH. The C-COH could be a useful measure of the level of quality of life among Chinese patients with a stoma and may provide important intervention implications for healthcare providers to help improve the life quality of patients with a stoma.

Evaluation and improvement of nondestructive evaluation reliability for inservice inspection of light water reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bates, D.J.; Deffenbaugh, J.D.; Good, M.S.; Heasler, P.G.; Mart, G.A.; Simonen, F.A.; Spanner, J.C.; Taylor, T.T.; Van Fleet, L.G.

1987-01-01

The Evaluation and Improvement of NDE Reliability for Inservice Inspection (ISI) of Light Water Reactors (NDE Reliability) Program at Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) was established to determine the reliability of current ISI techniques and to develop recommendations that will ensure a suitably high inspection reliability. The objectives of this NRC program are to: determine the reliability of ultrasonic ISI performed on commercial light-water reactor (LWR) primary systems, using probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis, determine the impact of NDE unreliability on system safety and determine the level of inspection reliability required to ensure a suitably low failure probability, evaluate the degree of reliability improvement that could be achieved using improved and advanced NDE techniques, based on material properties, service conditions, and NDE uncertainties, recommend revisions to ASME Code, Section XI, and Regulatory Requirements that will ensure suitably low failure probabilities. The scope of this program is limited to ISI of primary systems; the results and recommendations may also be applicable to Class II piping systems

Evaluation and improvement in nondestructive examination (NDE) reliability for inservice inspection of light water reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doctor, S.R.; Andersen, E.S.; Bowey, R.E.; Diaz, A.A.; Good, M.S.; Heasler, P.G.; Hockey, R.L.; Simonen, F.A.; Spanner, J.C.; Taylor, T.T.; Vo, T.V.

1991-01-01

This program is intended to establish the effectiveness, reliability and adequacy of inservice inspection of reactor pressure vessels and primary piping systems and the impact of ISI reliability on system integrity. The objectives of the program include: (a) determine the effectiveness and reliability of ultrasonic inservice inspection (ISI) performed on commercial, light water reactor pressure vessels and piping; (b) recommend Code changes to the inspection procedures to improve the reliability of ISI; (c) using fracture mechanics analysis, determine the impact of NDE unreliability on system safety and determine the level of inspection reliability required to assure a suitably low failure probability; (d) evaluate the degree of reliability improvement which could be achieved using improved NDE techniques; and (e) based on importance of component to safety, material properties, service conditions, and NDE uncertainties, formulate improved inservice inspection criteria (including sampling plan, frequency, and reliability of inspection) for revisions to ASME Section XI and regulatory requirements needed to assure suitably low failure probabilities

Evaluation and improvement in nondestructive examination (NDE) reliability for in-service inspection of light water reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Deffenbaugh, J.D.; Good, M.S.; Green, E.R.; Heasler, P.G.; Simonen, F.A.; Spanner, J.C.; Taylor, T.T.

1988-01-01

The evaluation and improvement of NDE Reliability for In-service Inspection (ISI) of Light Water Reactors (NDE Reliability) Program at Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) was established to determine the reliability of current ISI techniques and to develop recommendations that will ensure a suitably high inspection reliability. The objectives of this NRC program are to: determine the reliability of ultrasonic ISI performed on commercial light-water reactor (LWR) primary systems; determine the impact of NDE unreliability on system safety and determine the level of inspection reliability required to ensure a suitably low failure probability using probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis; evaluate the degree of reliability improvement that could be achieved using improved and advanced NDE technique; and recommend revisions to ASME Code, Section XI, and Regulatory Requirements, based on material properties, service conditions, and NDE uncertainties, that will ensure suitably low failure probabilities. The program consists of three basic tasks: a Piping task, a Pressure Vessel task, and an Evaluation and Improvement in NDE Reliability task. The major efforts were concentrated in the Piping task and the Evaluation and Improvement in NDE Reliability task

Translation, reliability, and clinical utility of the Melbourne Assessment 2.

Science.gov (United States)

Gerber, Corinna N; Plebani, Anael; Labruyère, Rob

2017-10-12

The aims were to (i) provide a German translation of the Melbourne Assessment 2 (MA2), a quantitative test to measure unilateral upper limb function in children with neurological disabilities and (ii) to evaluate its reliability and aspects of clinical utility. After its translation into German and approval of the back translation by the original authors, the MA2 was performed and videotaped twice with 30 children with neuromotor disorders. For each participant, two raters scored the video of the first test for inter-rater reliability. To determine test-retest reliability, one rater additionally scored the video of the second test while the other rater repeated the scoring of the first video to evaluate intra-rater reliability. Time needed for rater training, test administration, and scoring was recorded. The four subscale scores showed excellent intra-, inter-rater, and test-retest reliability with intraclass correlation coefficients of 0.90-1.00 (95%-confidence intervals 0.78-1.00). Score items revealed substantial to almost perfect intra-rater reliability (weighted kappa k w  = 0.66-1.00) for the more affected side. Score item inter-rater and test-retest reliability of the same extremity were, with one exception, moderate to almost perfect (k w  = 0.42-0.97; k w  = 0.40-0.89). Furthermore, the MA2 was feasible and acceptable for patients and clinicians. The MA2 showed excellent subscale and moderate to almost perfect score item reliability. Implications for Rehabilitation There is a lack of high-quality studies about psychometric properties of upper limb measurement tools in the neuropediatric population. The Melbourne Assessment 2 is a promising tool for reliable measurement of unilateral upper limb movement quality in the neuropediatric population. The Melbourne Assessment 2 is acceptable and practicable to therapists and patients for routine use in clinical care.

Improvement of reliability of heater and condenser

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamagishi, Hiroki

1988-01-01

Recently, the diversification of the operation modes of power plants has advanced as well as daily start and stop and weekly start and stop operations, as the result, the needs for the reliability improvement of various heat exchangers around steam turbines heighten. In newly constructed plants, the design to meet this demand is carried out, but also in existing platns, the application of the latest technology is investigated. As for the reliability of condensers, aluminum brass cooling tubes have been used by doing the optimal maintenance and taking the measures against deposit attack. In the case of requiring high reliability, the examples of adopting titanium cooling tubes increased. The technology of titanium tube condensers, completely assembled condensers, the replacement of existing brass tubes with titanium tubes and so on are discussed. In the case of feed heaters, the deterioration phenomena due to the lapse of long years, such as the attack of steel tube inlet, the drain attack on the external surfaces of steel tubes, the ammonia attack of aluminum brass tubes and the adhesion of scale to heaters, are explained, and the countermeasures are shown. (Kako, I.)

Improving Reliability, Security, and Efficiency of Reconfigurable Hardware Systems (Habilitation)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ziener, Daniel

2017-01-01

In this treatise,  my research on methods to improve efficiency, reliability, and security of reconfigurable hardware systems, i.e., FPGAs, through partial dynamic reconfiguration is outlined. The efficiency of reconfigurable systems can be improved by loading optimized data paths on-the-fly on an

Does parallel item content on WOMAC's Pain and Function Subscales limit its ability to detect change in functional status?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kennedy Deborah M

2004-06-01

status; however, no significant change was noted for the SIMILAR-8. The WOMAC pain scale demonstrated a slight reduction in pain and the performance specific pain measures did not reflect a change in pain. All measures showed substantial improvement over the second assessment interval. Conclusions These findings support the hypothesis that activity overlap on the pain and function subscales plays a causal role in limiting the WOMAC physical function subscale's ability to detect change.

System 80+ Design and Licensing : Improving Plant Reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Newman, Robert E.

1989-01-01

The U. S. nuclear industry is striving to improve plant reliability and availability through improved plant design, component designs and plant maintenance. In an effort to improve safety and to demonstrate that commercial nuclear power is economically competitive with other energy sources, the utilities, nuclear vendors, architect engineers and constructors, and component suppliers are all participating in an industry-wide effort to develop improved Light Water Reactor (LWR) designs that are based upon the many years of successful LWR operation. In an age when the world faces the environmental pressures of the greenhouse effect and acid rain, electricity generated from nuclear energy must play an increasing role in the energy picture of Korea, the United States and the rest of the world. This paper discusses the plant availability requirement that has been established by the industry-wide effort mentioned above. After briefly describing Combustion Engineering's program for development of the System 80 Plus standard design and the participation of the Korea Advanced Energy Research Institute (KAERI) in the program, the paper then describes the design features that are being incorporated into System 80+. The industry ALRR Program has established a very ambitious criterion of 87% for the plant availability of future nuclear units. To satisfy such a requirement, the next generation of nuclear plants will include a great many design improvements that reflect the hundreds of years of operating experience that we have accrued. C-ESA's System 80+ will include a number of design changes that improve operating margins and make the plant easier to operate and maintain. Not surprisingly, there is a great deal of overlap between improved safety and improved reliability. In the end, our design will satisfy the future needs of the utilities, the regulators, and the public. C-E is very pleased that KAERI is working with US to achieve these important goals

Construct validity and reliability of the Finnish version of the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score.

Science.gov (United States)

Multanen, Juhani; Honkanen, Mikko; Häkkinen, Arja; Kiviranta, Ilkka

2018-05-22

The Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) is a commonly used knee assessment and outcome tool in both clinical work and research. However, it has not been formally translated and validated in Finnish. The purpose of this study was to translate and culturally adapt the KOOS questionnaire into Finnish and to determine its validity and reliability among Finnish middle-aged patients with knee injuries. KOOS was translated and culturally adapted from English into Finnish. Subsequently, 59 patients with knee injuries completed the Finnish version of KOOS, Western Ontario and McMaster Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), Short-Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) and Numeric Pain Rating Scale (Pain-NRS). The same KOOS questionnaire was re-administered 2 weeks later. Psychometric assessment of the Finnish KOOS was performed by testing its construct validity and reliability by using internal consistency, test-retest reliability and measurement error. The floor and ceiling effects were also examined. The cross-cultural adaptation revealed only minor cultural differences and was well received by the patients. For construct validity, high to moderate Spearman's Correlation Coefficients were found between the KOOS subscales and the WOMAC, SF-36, and Pain-NRS subscales. The Cronbach's alpha was from 0.79 to 0.96 for all subscales indicating acceptable internal consistency. The test-retest reliability was good to excellent, with Intraclass Correlation Coefficients ranging from 0.73 to 0.86 for all KOOS subscales. The minimal detectable change ranged from 17 to 34 on an individual level and from 2 to 4 on a group level. No floor or ceiling effects were observed. This study yielded an appropriately translated and culturally adapted Finnish version of KOOS which demonstrated good validity and reliability. Our data indicate that the Finnish version of KOOS is suitable for assessment of the knee status of Finnish patients with different knee complaints. Further studies are needed to

Comparative prediction of nonepileptic events using MMPI-2 clinical scales, Harris Lingoes subscales, and restructured clinical scales.

Science.gov (United States)

Yamout, Karim Z; Heinrichs, Robin J; Baade, Lyle E; Soetaert, Dana K; Liow, Kore K

2017-03-01

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) is a psychological testing tool used to measure psychological and personality constructs. The MMPI-2 has proven helpful in identifying individuals with nonepileptic events/nonepileptic seizures. However, the MMPI-2 has had some updates that enhanced its original scales. The aim of this article was to test the utility of updated MMPI-2 scales in predicting the likelihood of non-epileptic seizures in individuals admitted to an EEG video monitoring unit. We compared sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood ratios of traditional MMPI-2 Clinical Scales against more homogenous MMPI-2 Harris-Lingoes subscales and the newer Restructured Clinical (RC) scales. Our results showed that the Restructured Scales did not show significant improvement over the original Clinical scales. However, one Harris-Lingoes subscale (HL4 of Clinical Scale 3) did show improved predictive utility over the original Clinical scales as well as over the newer Restructured Clinical scales. Our study suggests that the predictive utility of the MMPI-2 can be improved using already existing scales. This is particularly useful for those practitioners who are not invested in switching over to the newly developed MMPI-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2 RF). Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

78 FR 69018 - Improving the Resiliency of Mobile Wireless Communications Networks; Reliability and Continuity...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-11-18

... consumers value overall network reliability and quality in selecting mobile wireless service providers, they...-125] Improving the Resiliency of Mobile Wireless Communications Networks; Reliability and Continuity... (Reliability NOI) in 2011 to ``initiate a comprehensive examination of issues regarding the reliability...

Discomfort Intolerance Scale: A Study of Reliability and Validity

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Kadir ÖZDEL

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Objective: Discomfort Intolerance Scale was developed by Norman B. Schmidt et al. to assess the individual differences of capacity to withstand physical perturbations or uncomfortable bodily states (2006. The aim of this study is to investigate the validity and reliability of Discomfort Intolerance Scale-Turkish Version (RDÖ. Method: From two different universities, total of 225 students (male=167, female=58 were participated in this study. In order to determine the criterion validity, Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI were used. Construct validity was evaluated by factor analysis after the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO and Barlett test had been performed. To assess the test-retest reliability the scale was re-applied to 54 participants 6 weeks later. Results: To assess construct validity of DIS, factor analyses were performed using varimax principal components analysis with varimax rotation. The factor analysis resulted in two factors named “discomfort (in tolerance” and “discomfort avoidance”. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the entire scale, discomfort-(intolerance subscale, discomfortavoidance subscale were, .592, .670, .600 respectively. Correlations between two factors of DIS, discomfort intolerance and discomfort avoidance, and Trait Anxiety Inventory of STAI (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were statistically significant at the level of 0.05. Test-retest reliability was statistically significant at the level of 0.01. Conclusion: Analysis demonstrated that DIS had a satisfactory level of reliability and validity in Turkish university students.

QA support for TFTR reliability improvement program in preparation for DT operation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parsells, R.F.; Howard, H.P.

1987-01-01

As TFTR approaches experiments in the Q=1 regime, machine reliability becomes a major variable in achieving experimental objectives. This paper describes the methods used to quantify current reliability levels, levels required for D-T operations, proposed methods for reliability growth and improvement, and tracking of reliability performance in that growth. Included in this scope are data collection techniques and short comings, bounding current reliability on the upper end, and requirements for D-T operations. Problem characterization through Pareto diagrams provides insight into recurrent failure modes and the use of Duane plots for charting of reliability changes both cumulative and instantaneous, is explained and demonstrated

Results of subscale MTF compression experiments

Science.gov (United States)

Howard, Stephen; Mossman, A.; Donaldson, M.; Fusion Team, General

2016-10-01

In magnetized target fusion (MTF) a magnetized plasma torus is compressed in a time shorter than its own energy confinement time, thereby heating to fusion conditions. Understanding plasma behavior and scaling laws is needed to advance toward a reactor-scale demonstration. General Fusion is conducting a sequence of subscale experiments of compact toroid (CT) plasmas being compressed by chemically driven implosion of an aluminum liner, providing data on several key questions. CT plasmas are formed by a coaxial Marshall gun, with magnetic fields supported by internal plasma currents and eddy currents in the wall. Configurations that have been compressed so far include decaying and sustained spheromaks and an ST that is formed into a pre-existing toroidal field. Diagnostics measure B, ne, visible and x-ray emission, Ti and Te. Before compression the CT has an energy of 10kJ magnetic, 1 kJ thermal, with Te of 100 - 200 eV, ne 5x1020 m-3. Plasma was stable during a compression factor R0/R >3 on best shots. A reactor scale demonstration would require 10x higher initial B and ne but similar Te. Liner improvements have minimized ripple, tearing and ejection of micro-debris. Plasma facing surfaces have included plasma-sprayed tungsten, bare Cu and Al, and gettering with Ti and Li.

Reliability and validity of the foot and ankle outcome score: a validation study from Iran.

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Negahban, Hossein; Mazaheri, Masood; Salavati, Mahyar; Sohani, Soheil Mansour; Askari, Marjan; Fanian, Hossein; Parnianpour, Mohamad

2010-05-01

The aims of this study were to culturally adapt and validate the Persian version of Foot and Ankle Outcome Score (FAOS) and present data on its psychometric properties for patients with different foot and ankle problems. The Persian version of FAOS was developed after a standard forward-backward translation and cultural adaptation process. The sample included 93 patients with foot and ankle disorders who were asked to complete two questionnaires: FAOS and Short-Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36). To determine test-retest reliability, 60 randomly chosen patients completed the FAOS again 2 to 6 days after the first administration. Test-retest reliability and internal consistency were assessed using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Cronbach's alpha, respectively. To evaluate convergent and divergent validity of FAOS compared to similar and dissimilar concepts of SF-36, the Spearman's rank correlation was used. Dimensionality was determined by assessing item-subscale correlation corrected for overlap. The results of test-retest reliability show that all the FAOS subscales have a very high ICC, ranging from 0.92 to 0.96. The minimum Cronbach's alpha level of 0.70 was exceeded by most subscales. The Spearman's correlation coefficient for convergent construct validity fell within 0.32 to 0.58 for the main hypotheses presented a priori between FAOS and SF-36 subscales. For dimensionality, the minimum Spearman's correlation coefficient of 0.40 was exceeded by most items. In conclusion, the results of our study show that the Persian version of FAOS seems to be suitable for Iranian patients with various foot and ankle problems especially lateral ankle sprain. Future studies are needed to establish stronger psychometric properties for patients with different foot and ankle problems.

Validity and reliability of Thai version of the Foot and Ankle Outcome Score in patients with arthritis of the foot and ankle.

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Angthong, Chayanin

2016-12-01

Although the Foot and Ankle Outcome Score (FAOS) is commonly used in several languages for a variety of foot disorders, it has not been validated specifically for foot and ankle arthritic conditions. The aims of the present study were to translate the original English FAOS into Thai and to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Thai version of the FAOS for the foot and ankle arthritic conditions. The original FAOS was translated into Thai using forward-backward translation. The Thai FAOS and validated Thai Short Form-36 (SF-36 ® ) questionnaires were distributed to 44 Thai patients suffering from arthritis of the foot and ankle to complete. For validation, Thai FAOS scores were correlated with SF-36 scores. Test-retest reliability and internal consistency were also analyzed in this study. The Thai FAOS score demonstrated sufficient correlation with SF-36 total score in Pain (Pearson's correlation coefficient (r)=0.45, p=0.002), Symptoms (r=0.45, p=0.002), Activities of Daily Living (ADL) (r=0.47, p=0.001), and Quality of Life (QOL) (r=0.38, p=0.011) subscales. The Sports and Recreational Activities (Sports & Rec) subscale did not correlate significantly with the SF-36 ® (r=0.20, p=0.20). Cronbach's alpha, a measure of internal consistency, for the five subscales was as follows: Pain, 0.94 (pvalidity for the evaluation of foot and ankle arthritis. Although reliability was satisfactory for the major subscale ADL, it was not sufficient for the minor subscales. Our findings suggest that it can be used as a disease-specific instrument to evaluate foot and ankle arthritis and can complement other reliable outcome surveys. Copyright © 2015 European Foot and Ankle Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Active Listening Attitude Scale (ALAS: Reliability and Validity in a Nationwide Sample of Greek Educators

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Ntina Kourmousi

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The present study examined the Active Listening Attitude Scale (ALAS validity and reliability in a sample of 3955 Greek educators. The sample was randomly split and an exploratory factor analysis (EFA was conducted in the even subsample to evaluate the scale’s construct validity. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA was performed in the odd subsample to confirm the three-factor model identified by the EFA. The chi square test (χ2 of the model was significant (p < 0.05, due to the large sample size. The root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA, the comparative fit index (CFI and the goodness of fit index (GFI values were 0.079, 0.969 and 0.960, respectively, further supporting the fit of the three-factor model. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to test internal consistency reliability and was satisfactory exceeding 0.72 for ALAS subscales. The intercorrelations of the three subscales were all positive and significant (p < 0.001, ranging from 0.20 to 0.42. Student’s t-tests and the computation of effect sizes revealed that women scored higher on Listening Skill and Conversation Opportunity, while principals and participants trained on mental health promotion scored higher on all three subscales. The analyses confirmed the three-factor model of ALAS and demonstrated its validity and reliability in measuring Greek teachers’ active listening attitudes.

Validity and reliability of the Family Empowerment Scale for caregivers of adults with mental health issues.

Science.gov (United States)

Kageyama, M; Nakamura, Y; Kobayashi, S; Yokoyama, K

2016-10-01

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Empowerment of family caregivers of adults with mental health issues has received increasing attention among mental health nurses in Japan and has been recognized as a new goal of family interventions. The Family Empowerment Scale (FES) was originally developed to measure the empowerment status of parents of children with emotional disorders. However, it was later applied to broader health issues. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: We developed a Japanese version of the FES for family caregivers of adults with mental health issues (FES-AMJ) and examined the validity and reliability among parents. Results showed that the FES-AMJ had acceptable concurrent validity and reliability; however, insufficient construct validity was found, especially for the subscale regarding the service system. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: Further studies need to modify the scale. Clarification of ideal family empowerment status in the service system through discussion with mental health nurses and family caregivers may be important. Introduction The Family Empowerment Scale (FES) was originally developed for parents of children with emotional disorders. In Japan, family empowerment is gaining increasing attention and may be one goal of nursing interventions. Aim To develop a Japanese version of the FES for family caregivers of adults with mental health issues and to study the validity and reliability of this scale among parents. Method We translated the FES into Japanese and administered this self-report questionnaire to 275 parents. Results The multitrait scaling analysis revealed acceptable convergent validity and insufficient discriminant validity among all subscales. In particular, all items of the Service system subscale had insufficient discriminant and/or convergent validity. Each subscale significantly correlated with the indicator of empowerment. The intraclass correlation coefficients of each subscale were .855-.917. Cronbach

Validity and Reliability of the Upper Extremity Work Demands Scale.

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Jacobs, Nora W; Berduszek, Redmar J; Dijkstra, Pieter U; van der Sluis, Corry K

2017-12-01

Purpose To evaluate validity and reliability of the upper extremity work demands (UEWD) scale. Methods Participants from different levels of physical work demands, based on the Dictionary of Occupational Titles categories, were included. A historical database of 74 workers was added for factor analysis. Criterion validity was evaluated by comparing observed and self-reported UEWD scores. To assess structural validity, a factor analysis was executed. For reliability, the difference between two self-reported UEWD scores, the smallest detectable change (SDC), test-retest reliability and internal consistency were determined. Results Fifty-four participants were observed at work and 51 of them filled in the UEWD twice with a mean interval of 16.6 days (SD 3.3, range = 10-25 days). Criterion validity of the UEWD scale was moderate (r = .44, p = .001). Factor analysis revealed that 'force and posture' and 'repetition' subscales could be distinguished with Cronbach's alpha of .79 and .84, respectively. Reliability was good; there was no significant difference between repeated measurements. An SDC of 5.0 was found. Test-retest reliability was good (intraclass correlation coefficient for agreement = .84) and all item-total correlations were >.30. There were two pairs of highly related items. Conclusion Reliability of the UEWD scale was good, but criterion validity was moderate. Based on current results, a modified UEWD scale (2 items removed, 1 item reworded, divided into 2 subscales) was proposed. Since observation appeared to be an inappropriate gold standard, we advise to investigate other types of validity, such as construct validity, in further research.

Validity and reliability of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-Student Version in Sri Lanka.

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Wickramasinghe, Nuwan Darshana; Dissanayake, Devani Sakunthala; Abeywardena, Gihan Sajiwa

2018-05-04

The present study was aimed at assessing the validity and the reliability of the Sinhala version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-Student Version (UWES-S) among collegiate cycle students in Sri Lanka. The 17-item UWES-S was translated to Sinhala and the judgmental validity was assessed by a multi-disciplinary panel of experts. Construct validity of the UWES-S was appraised by using multi-trait scaling analysis and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on data obtained from a sample of 194 grade thirteen students in the Kurunegala district, Sri Lanka. Reliability of the UWES-S was assessed by using internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Except for item 13, all other items showed good psychometric properties in judgemental validity, item-convergent validity and item-discriminant validity. EFA using principal component analysis with Oblimin rotation, suggested a three-factor solution (including vigor, dedication and absorption subscales) explaining 65.4% of the total variance for the 16-item UWES-S (with item 13 deleted). All three subscales show high internal consistency with Cronbach's α coefficient values of 0.867, 0.819, and 0.903 and test-retest reliability was high (p valid and a reliable instrument to assess work engagement among collegiate cycle students in Sri Lanka.

Validity and Reliability Study of the Korean Tinetti Mobility Test for Parkinson's Disease.

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Park, Jinse; Koh, Seong-Beom; Kim, Hee Jin; Oh, Eungseok; Kim, Joong-Seok; Yun, Ji Young; Kwon, Do-Young; Kim, Younsoo; Kim, Ji Seon; Kwon, Kyum-Yil; Park, Jeong-Ho; Youn, Jinyoung; Jang, Wooyoung

2018-01-01

Postural instability and gait disturbance are the cardinal symptoms associated with falling among patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). The Tinetti mobility test (TMT) is a well-established measurement tool used to predict falls among elderly people. However, the TMT has not been established or widely used among PD patients in Korea. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Korean version of the TMT for PD patients. Twenty-four patients diagnosed with PD were enrolled in this study. For the interrater reliability test, thirteen clinicians scored the TMT after watching a video clip. We also used the test-retest method to determine intrarater reliability. For concurrent validation, the unified Parkinson's disease rating scale, Hoehn and Yahr staging, Berg Balance Scale, Timed-Up and Go test, 10-m walk test, and gait analysis by three-dimensional motion capture were also used. We analyzed receiver operating characteristic curve to predict falling. The interrater reliability and intrarater reliability of the Korean Tinetti balance scale were 0.97 and 0.98, respectively. The interrater reliability and intra-rater reliability of the Korean Tinetti gait scale were 0.94 and 0.96, respectively. The Korean TMT scores were significantly correlated with the other clinical scales and three-dimensional motion capture. The cutoff values for predicting falling were 14 points (balance subscale) and 10 points (gait subscale). We found that the Korean version of the TMT showed excellent validity and reliability for gait and balance and had high sensitivity and specificity for predicting falls among patients with PD.

Reliability improvement through alternative designs-A case study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kumar, Saurabh; Chattopadhyay, Gopi; Kumar, Uday

2007-01-01

In today's competitive world, reliability of equipment is extremely important to maintain quality and delivery deadlines. This is achieved by using proper maintenance and design changes for unreliable subsystems and components of a complex system. It is significant to develop a strategy for maintenance, replacement and design changes related to those subsystems and components. An analysis of down time along with causes is essential to identify the unreliable components and subsystems. This paper presents an analysis of failure data of solenoid coils of automatic internal grinding machine used in a bearing manufacturing plant. It analyses various replacement and change of design options such as introduction of pneumatic system in place of electromagnetic solenoids for improvement of reliability of the plunger movement mechanism

Improving inspection reliability through operator selection and training

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McGrath, Bernard; Carter, Luke

2013-01-01

A number of years ago the UK's Health and Safety Executive sponsored a series of three PANI projects investigating the application of manual ultrasonics, which endeavoured to establish the necessary steps that ensure a reliable inspection is performed. The results of the three projects were each reported separately on completion and also presented at number of international conferences. This paper summarises the results of these projects from the point of view of operator performance. The correlation of operator ultrasonic performance with results of aptitude tests is presented along with observations on the impact of training and qualifications of the operators. The results lead to conclusions on how the selection and training of operators could be modified to improve reliability of inspections.

Subscales of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale differentially relate to the Big Five factors of personality.

Science.gov (United States)

Lange, Florian; Wagner, Adina; Müller, Astrid; Eggert, Frank

2017-06-01

The place of impulsiveness in multidimensional personality frameworks is still unclear. In particular, no consensus has yet been reached with regard to the relation of impulsiveness to Neuroticism and Extraversion. We aim to contribute to a clearer understanding of these relationships by accounting for the multidimensional structure of impulsiveness. In three independent studies, we related the subscales of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) to the Big Five factors of personality. Study 1 investigated the associations between the BIS subscales and the Big Five factors as measured by the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) in a student sample (N = 113). Selective positive correlations emerged between motor impulsiveness and Extraversion and between attentional impulsiveness and Neuroticism. This pattern of results was replicated in Study 2 (N = 132) using a 10-item short version of the Big Five Inventory. In Study 3, we analyzed BIS and NEO-FFI data obtained from a sample of patients with pathological buying (N = 68). In these patients, the relationship between motor impulsiveness and Extraversion was significantly weakened when compared to the non-clinical samples. At the same time, the relationship between attentional impulsiveness and Neuroticism was substantially stronger in the clinical sample. Our studies highlight the utility of the BIS subscales for clarifying the relationship between impulsiveness and the Big Five personality factors. We conclude that impulsiveness might occupy multiple places in multidimensional personality frameworks, which need to be specified to improve the interpretability of impulsiveness scales. © 2017 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Training improves interobserver reliability for the diagnosis of scaphoid fracture displacement.

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Buijze, Geert A; Guitton, Thierry G; van Dijk, C Niek; Ring, David

2012-07-01

The diagnosis of displacement in scaphoid fractures is notorious for poor interobserver reliability. We tested whether training can improve interobserver reliability and sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy for the diagnosis of scaphoid fracture displacement on radiographs and CT scans. Sixty-four orthopaedic surgeons rated a set of radiographs and CT scans of 10 displaced and 10 nondisplaced scaphoid fractures for the presence of displacement, using a web-based rating application. Before rating, observers were randomized to a training group (34 observers) and a nontraining group (30 observers). The training group received an online training module before the rating session, and the nontraining group did not. Interobserver reliability for training and nontraining was assessed by Siegel's multirater kappa and the Z-test was used to test for significance. There was a small, but significant difference in the interobserver reliability for displacement ratings in favor of the training group compared with the nontraining group. Ratings of radiographs and CT scans combined resulted in moderate agreement for both groups. The average sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of diagnosing displacement of scaphoid fractures were, respectively, 83%, 85%, and 84% for the nontraining group and 87%, 86%, and 87% for the training group. Assuming a 5% prevalence of fracture displacement, the positive predictive value was 0.23 in the nontraining group and 0.25 in the training group. The negative predictive value was 0.99 in both groups. Our results suggest training can improve interobserver reliability and sensitivity, specificity and accuracy for the diagnosis of scaphoid fracture displacement, but the improvements are slight. These findings are encouraging for future research regarding interobserver variation and how to reduce it further.

Reliability database development and plant performance improvement effort at Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oh, S. J.; Hwang, S. W.; Na, J. H.; Lim, H. S.

2008-01-01

Nuclear utilities in recent years have focused on improved plant performance and equipment reliability. In U.S., there is a movement toward process integration. Examples are INPO AP-913 equipment reliability program and the standard nuclear performance model developed by NEI. Synergistic effect from an integrated approach can be far greater than as compared to individual effects from each program. In Korea, PSA for all Korean NPPs (Nuclear Power Plants) has been completed. Plant performance monitoring and improvement is an important goal for KHNP (Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Company) and a risk monitoring system called RIMS has been developed for all nuclear plants. KHNP is in the process of voluntarily implementing maintenance rule program similar to that in U.S. In the future, KHNP would like to expand the effort to equipment reliability program and to achieve highest equipment reliability and improved plant performance. For improving equipment reliability, the current trend is moving toward preventive/predictive maintenance from corrective maintenance. With the emphasis on preventive maintenance, the failure cause and operation history and environment are important. Hence, the development of accurate reliability database is necessary. Furthermore, the database should be updated regularly and maintained as a living program to reflect the current status of equipment reliability. This paper examines the development of reliability database system and its application of maintenance optimization or Risk Informed Application (RIA). (authors)

Advanced reliability improvement of AC-modules (ARIA)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rooij, P.; Real, M.; Moschella, U.; Sample, T.; Kardolus, M.

2001-09-01

The AC-module is a relatively new development in PV-system technology and offers significant advantages over conventional PV-systems with a central inverter : e.g. increased modularity, ease of installation and freedom of system design. The Netherlands and Switzerland have a leading position in the field of AC-modules, both in terms of technology and of commercial and large-scale application. An obstacle towards large-scale market introduction of AC-modules is that the reliability and operational lifetime of AC-modules and the integrated inverters in particular are not yet proven. Despite the advantages, no module-integrated inverter has yet achieved large scale introduction. The AC-modules will lower the barrier towards market penetration. But due to the great interest in the new AC-module technology there is the risk of introducing a not fully proven product. This may damage the image of PV-systems. To speed up the development and to improve the reliability, research institutes and PV-industry will address the aspects of reliability and operational lifetime of AC-modules. From field experiences we learn that in general the inverter is still the weakest point in PV-systems. The lifetime of inverters is an important factor on reliability. Some authors are indicating a lifetime of 1.5 years, whereas the field experiences in Germany and Switzerland have shown that for central inverter systems, an availability of 97% has been achieved in the last years. From this point of view it is highly desirable that the operational lifetime and reliability of PV-inverters and especially AC-modules is demonstrated/improved to make large scale use of PV a success. Module Integrated Inverters will most likely be used in modules in the power range between 100 and 300 Watt DC-power. These are modules with more than 100 cells in series, assuming that the module inverter will benefit from the higher voltage. Hot-spot is the phenomenon that can occur when one or more cells of a string

Validity and Reliability of Persian Version of HIV/AIDS Related Stigma Scale for People Living With HIV/AIDS in Iran

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Davoud Pourmarzi

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Objective: To assess the perceived HIV/AIDS related stigma a comprehensive and well developed stigma instrument is necessary. This study aimed to assess validity and reliability of the Persian version of HIV/AIDS related stigma scale which was developed by Kang et al for people living with HIV/AIDS in Iran.Materials and methods: Thescale was forward translatedby two bilingual academic members then both translations were discussed by expert team. Back-translation was done by two other bilingual translators then we carried out discussion with both of them. To evaluate understandability the scale was administered to 10 Persons Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA. Final Persian version was administered to 80 PLWHA in Qom, Iran in 2014. Test–retest reliability was assessed in a sample of 20 PLWHA after a week by intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC.Results: Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for overall scale was 0.85. Also Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the five subscales were as follows: social rejection (9 items, α = 0.84, negative self-worth (4 items, α = 0.70, perceived interpersonal insecurity (2 items, α = 0.57, financial insecurity (3 items, α = 0.70, discretionary disclosure (2 items, α = 0.83. Test–retest reliability was also approved with ICC = 0.78. Correlation between items and their hypothesized subscale is greater than 0.5. Correlation between an item and its own subscale was significantly higher than its correlation with other subscales.Conclusion: This study demonstrate that the Persian version of HIV/AIDS related stigma scale is valid and reliable to assess HIV/AIDS related stigma perceived by people living whit HIV/AIDS in Iran.

Evaluation and improvement in nondestructive examination (NDE) reliability for inservice inspection of light water reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doctor, S.R.; Deffenbaugh, J.D.; Good, M.S.; Green, E.R.; Heasler, P.G.; Simonen, F.A.; Spanner, J.C.; Taylor, T.T.

1988-01-01

The Evaluation and Improvement of NDE Reliability for Inservice Inspection of Light Water Reactors (NDE Reliability) program at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory was established by the NRC to determine the reliability of current inservice inspection (ISI) techniques and to develop recommendations that will ensure a suitably high inspection reliability. The objectives of this program include determining the reliability of ISI performed on the primary systems of commercial light-water reactors (LWRs); using probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis to determine the impact of NDE unreliability on system safety; and evaluating reliability improvements that can be achieved with improved and advanced technology. A final objective is to formulate recommended revisions to ASME Code and Regulatory requirements, based on material properties, service conditions and NDE uncertainties. The program scope is limited to ISI of the primary systems including the piping, vessel, and other inspected components. This is a progress report covering the programmatic work from October 1986 through September 1987. (author)

Evaluation and improvement in nondestructive examination (NDE) reliability for inservice inspection of light water reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doctor, S.R.; Deffenbaugh, J.D.; Good, M.S.; Green, E.R.; Heasler, P.G.; Simonen, F.A.; Spanner, J.C.; Taylor, T.T.

1988-01-01

The Evaluation and Improvement of NDE Reliability for Inservice Inspection of Light Water Reactor (NDE Reliability) program at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory was established by the NRC to determine the reliability of current inservice inspection (ISI) techniques and to develop recommendations that will ensure a suitably high inspection reliability. The objectives of this program include determining the reliability of ISI performed on the primary systems of commercial light-water reactors (LWRs); using probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis to determine the impact of NDE unreliability on system safety; and evaluating reliability improvements that can be achieved with improved and advanced technology. A final objective is to formulate recommended revisions to ASME Code and Regulatory requirements, based on material properties, service conditions, and NDE uncertainties. The program scope is limited to ISI of the primary systems including the piping, vessel, and other inspected components. This is a progress report covering the programmatic work from October 1986 through September 1987

Real-Time Observation of Apathy in Long-Term Care Residents With Dementia: Reliability of the Person-Environment Apathy Rating Scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Jao, Ying-Ling; Mogle, Jacqueline; Williams, Kristine; McDermott, Caroline; Behrens, Liza

2018-04-01

Apathy is prevalent in individuals with dementia. Lack of responsiveness to environmental stimulation is a key characteristic of apathy. The Person-Environment Apathy Rating (PEAR) scale consists of environment and apathy subscales, which allow for examination of environmental impact on apathy. The interrater reliability of the PEAR scale was examined via real-time observation. The current study included 45 observations of 15 long-term care residents with dementia. Each participant was observed at three time points for 10 minutes each. Two raters observed the participant and surrounding environment and independently rated the participant's apathy and environmental stimulation using the PEAR scale. Weighted Kappa was 0.5 to 0.82 for the PEAR-Environment subscale and 0.5 to 0.8 for the PEAR-Apathy subscale. Overall, with the exception of three items with relatively weak reliability (0.50 to 0.56), the PEAR scale showed moderate to strong interrater reliability (0.63 to 0.82). The results support the use of the PEAR scale to measure environmental stimulation and apathy via real-time observation in long-term care residents with dementia. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 44(4), 23-28.]. Copyright 2018, SLACK Incorporated.

Testing comparison models of DASS-12 and its reliability among adolescents in Malaysia.

Science.gov (United States)

Osman, Zubaidah Jamil; Mukhtar, Firdaus; Hashim, Hairul Anuar; Abdul Latiff, Latiffah; Mohd Sidik, Sherina; Awang, Hamidin; Ibrahim, Normala; Abdul Rahman, Hejar; Ismail, Siti Irma Fadhilah; Ibrahim, Faisal; Tajik, Esra; Othman, Norlijah

2014-10-01

The 21-item Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) is frequently used in non-clinical research to measure mental health factors among adults. However, previous studies have concluded that the 21 items are not stable for utilization among the adolescent population. Thus, the aims of this study are to examine the structure of the factors and to report on the reliability of the refined version of the DASS that consists of 12 items. A total of 2850 students (aged 13 to 17 years old) from three major ethnic in Malaysia completed the DASS-21. The study was conducted at 10 randomly selected secondary schools in the northern state of Peninsular Malaysia. The study population comprised secondary school students (Forms 1, 2 and 4) from the selected schools. Based on the results of the EFA stage, 12 items were included in a final CFA to test the fit of the model. Using maximum likelihood procedures to estimate the model, the selected fit indices indicated a close model fit (χ(2)=132.94, df=57, p=.000; CFI=.96; RMR=.02; RMSEA=.04). Moreover, significant loadings of all the unstandardized regression weights implied an acceptable convergent validity. Besides the convergent validity of the item, a discriminant validity of the subscales was also evident from the moderate latent factor inter-correlations, which ranged from .62 to .75. The subscale reliability was further estimated using Cronbach's alpha and the adequate reliability of the subscales was obtained (Total=76; Depression=.68; Anxiety=.53; Stress=.52). The new version of the 12-item DASS for adolescents in Malaysia (DASS-12) is reliable and has a stable factor structure, and thus it is a useful instrument for distinguishing between depression, anxiety and stress. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Depression Subscale of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale applied preoperatively in spinal surgery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Asdrubal Falavigna

2012-05-01

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the accuracy of the Depression Subscale of Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS-D in spine surgery, comparing it to Beck Depression Inventory (BDI. METHODS: In a cross-sectional study, the HADS-D and the BDI were applied to patients undergoing spine surgery for lumbar (n=139 or cervical spondylosis (n=17. Spearman correlation tests for HADS-D and BDI were applied. The internal consistency of HADS-D was estimated by Cronbach's alpha coefficient. RESULTS: According to the BDI, the prevalence of depression was of 28.8% (n=45. The Spearman r coefficient between HADS-D and BDI was 0.714 (p10, there was a sensitivity of 71.1%, specificity of 95.4%, and positive likelihood-ratio of 15.78. CONCLUSIONS: HADS-D showed a strong correlation with BDI and good reliability. HADS-D is a good alternative for screening depression and assessing its severity.

An accurate and efficient reliability-based design optimization using the second order reliability method and improved stability transformation method

Science.gov (United States)

Meng, Zeng; Yang, Dixiong; Zhou, Huanlin; Yu, Bo

2018-05-01

The first order reliability method has been extensively adopted for reliability-based design optimization (RBDO), but it shows inaccuracy in calculating the failure probability with highly nonlinear performance functions. Thus, the second order reliability method is required to evaluate the reliability accurately. However, its application for RBDO is quite challenge owing to the expensive computational cost incurred by the repeated reliability evaluation and Hessian calculation of probabilistic constraints. In this article, a new improved stability transformation method is proposed to search the most probable point efficiently, and the Hessian matrix is calculated by the symmetric rank-one update. The computational capability of the proposed method is illustrated and compared to the existing RBDO approaches through three mathematical and two engineering examples. The comparison results indicate that the proposed method is very efficient and accurate, providing an alternative tool for RBDO of engineering structures.

Training less-experienced faculty improves reliability of skills assessment in cardiac surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Lou, Xiaoying; Lee, Richard; Feins, Richard H; Enter, Daniel; Hicks, George L; Verrier, Edward D; Fann, James I

2014-12-01

Previous work has demonstrated high inter-rater reliability in the objective assessment of simulated anastomoses among experienced educators. We evaluated the inter-rater reliability of less-experienced educators and the impact of focused training with a video-embedded coronary anastomosis assessment tool. Nine less-experienced cardiothoracic surgery faculty members from different institutions evaluated 2 videos of simulated coronary anastomoses (1 by a medical student and 1 by a resident) at the Thoracic Surgery Directors Association Boot Camp. They then underwent a 30-minute training session using an assessment tool with embedded videos to anchor rating scores for 10 components of coronary artery anastomosis. Afterward, they evaluated 2 videos of a different student and resident performing the task. Components were scored on a 1 to 5 Likert scale, yielding an average composite score. Inter-rater reliabilities of component and composite scores were assessed using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and overall pass/fail ratings with kappa. All components of the assessment tool exhibited improvement in reliability, with 4 (bite, needle holder use, needle angles, and hand mechanics) improving the most from poor (ICC range, 0.09-0.48) to strong (ICC range, 0.80-0.90) agreement. After training, inter-rater reliabilities for composite scores improved from moderate (ICC, 0.76) to strong (ICC, 0.90) agreement, and for overall pass/fail ratings, from poor (kappa = 0.20) to moderate (kappa = 0.78) agreement. Focused, video-based anchor training facilitates greater inter-rater reliability in the objective assessment of simulated coronary anastomoses. Among raters with less teaching experience, such training may be needed before objective evaluation of technical skills. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Reliability improvements on Thales RM2 rotary Stirling coolers: analysis and methodology

Science.gov (United States)

Cauquil, J. M.; Seguineau, C.; Martin, J.-Y.; Benschop, T.

2016-05-01

The cooled IR detectors are used in a wide range of applications. Most of the time, the cryocoolers are one of the components dimensioning the lifetime of the system. The cooler reliability is thus one of its most important parameters. This parameter has to increase to answer market needs. To do this, the data for identifying the weakest element determining cooler reliability has to be collected. Yet, data collection based on field are hardly usable due to lack of informations. A method for identifying the improvement in reliability has then to be set up which can be used even without field return. This paper will describe the method followed by Thales Cryogénie SAS to reach such a result. First, a database was built from extensive expertizes of RM2 failures occurring in accelerate ageing. Failure modes have then been identified and corrective actions achieved. Besides this, a hierarchical organization of the functions of the cooler has been done with regard to the potential increase of its efficiency. Specific changes have been introduced on the functions most likely to impact efficiency. The link between efficiency and reliability will be described in this paper. The work on the two axes - weak spots for cooler reliability and efficiency - permitted us to increase in a drastic way the MTTF of the RM2 cooler. Huge improvements in RM2 reliability are actually proven by both field return and reliability monitoring. These figures will be discussed in the paper.

Sub-Scale Re-entry Capsule Drop via High Altitude Balloons

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The project objective is to develop and test a sub-scale version of the Maraia Entry Capsule on a high altitude balloon. The capsule is released at 100,000 ft. The...

The multiple sclerosis work difficulties questionnaire: translation and cross-cultural adaptation to Turkish and assessment of validity and reliability.

Science.gov (United States)

Kahraman, Turhan; Özdoğar, Asiye Tuba; Honan, Cynthia Alison; Ertekin, Özge; Özakbaş, Serkan

2018-05-09

To linguistically and culturally adapt the Multiple Sclerosis Work Difficulties Questionnaire-23 (MSWDQ-23) for use in Turkey, and to examine its reliability and validity. Following standard forward-back translation of the MSWDQ-23, it was administered to 124 people with multiple sclerosis (MS). Validity was evaluated using related outcome measures including those related to employment status and expectations, disability level, fatigue, walking, and quality of life. Randomly selected participants were asked to complete the MSWDQ-23 again to assess test-retest reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis on the MSWDQ-23 demonstrated a good fit for the data, and the internal consistency of each subscale was excellent. The test-retest reliability for the total score, psychological/cognitive barriers, physical barriers, and external barriers subscales were high. The MSWDQ-23 and its subscales were positively correlated with the employment, disability level, walking, and fatigue outcome measures. This study suggests that the Turkish version of MSWDQ-23 has high reliability and adequate validity, and it can be used to determine the difficulties faced by people with multiple sclerosis in workplace. Moreover, the study provides evidence about the test-retest reliability of the questionnaire. Implications for rehabilitation Multiple sclerosis affects young people of working age. Understanding work-related problems is crucial to enhance people with multiple sclerosis likelihood of maintaining their job. The Multiple Sclerosis Work Difficulties Questionnaire-23 (MSWDQ-23) is a valid and reliable measure of perceived workplace difficulties in people with multiple sclerosis: we presented its validation to Turkish. Professionals working in the field of vocational rehabilitation may benefit from using the MSWDQ-23 to predict the current work outcomes and future employment expectations.

Validity and reliability testing of the Prenatal Psychosocial Profile.

Science.gov (United States)

Curry, M A; Campbell, R A; Christian, M

1994-04-01

Two studies of low-income pregnant women (N = 179) were done to examine the validity and reliability of the Prenatal Psychosocial Profile (PPP). The PPP, a composite of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Support Behaviors Inventory, and a newly developed measure of stress, is a brief, comprehensive clinical assessment of psychosocial risk during pregnancy. Construct validity of the stress scale was supported by theoretically predicted negative correlations with self-esteem, partner support, and support from others (N = 91). Convergent validity of the stress scale was demonstrated by a correlation of .71 with the Difficult Life Circumstances Scale. Adequate levels of internal consistency were found. Interrelationships between the four subscales were consistent with the underlying conceptualization, and there was beginning evidence of the factorial independence of the subscales.

Improved Reliability-Based Optimization with Support Vector Machines and Its Application in Aircraft Wing Design

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yu Wang

2015-01-01

Full Text Available A new reliability-based design optimization (RBDO method based on support vector machines (SVM and the Most Probable Point (MPP is proposed in this work. SVM is used to create a surrogate model of the limit-state function at the MPP with the gradient information in the reliability analysis. This guarantees that the surrogate model not only passes through the MPP but also is tangent to the limit-state function at the MPP. Then, importance sampling (IS is used to calculate the probability of failure based on the surrogate model. This treatment significantly improves the accuracy of reliability analysis. For RBDO, the Sequential Optimization and Reliability Assessment (SORA is employed as well, which decouples deterministic optimization from the reliability analysis. The improved SVM-based reliability analysis is used to amend the error from linear approximation for limit-state function in SORA. A mathematical example and a simplified aircraft wing design demonstrate that the improved SVM-based reliability analysis is more accurate than FORM and needs less training points than the Monte Carlo simulation and that the proposed optimization strategy is efficient.

Design and Test of a Nb3Sn Subscale Dipole Magnet for Training Studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Felice, Helene; Caspi, Shlomo; Dietderich, Daniel R.; Felice, Helene; Ferracin, Paolo; Gourlay, Steve A.; Hafalia, Aurelo R.; Lietzke, Alan F.; Mailfert, Alain; Sabbi, GainLuca; Vedrine, Pierre

2007-01-01

As part of a collaboration between CEA/Saclay and the Superconducting Magnet Group at LBNL, a subscale dipole structure has been developed to study training in Nb3Sn coils under variable pre-stress conditions. This design is derived from the LBNL Subscale Magnet and relies on the use of identical Nb 3 Sn racetrack coils. Whereas the original LBNL subscale magnet was in a dual bore 'common-coil' configuration, the new subscale dipole magnet (SD) is assembled as a single bore dipole made of two superposed racetrack coils. The dipole is supported by a new mechanical structure developed to withstand the horizontal and axial Lorentz forces and capable of applying variable vertical, horizontal and axial preload. The magnet was tested at LBNL as part of a series of training studies aiming at understanding of the relation between pre-stress and magnet performance. Particular attention is given to the coil ends where the magnetic field peaks and stress conditions are the least understood. After a description of SD design, assembly, cool-down and tests results are reported and compared with the computations of the OPERA3D and ANSYS magnetic and mechanical models

Improving QST Reliability – More Raters, Tests or Occasions? A Multivariate Generalizability Study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

O'Neill, Søren; O'Neill, Lotte

2015-01-01

The reliability of quantitative sensory testing (QST) is affected by the error attributable to both test occasion and rater (examiner) as well as interactions between them. Most reliability studies only account for one source of error. The present study employed a fully-crossed, multivariate...... threshold, intensity, tolerance and modulation with mechanical, thermal and chemical stimuli. The classical test-retest and inter-rater reliability (0.19... procedures. Reliability was improved more by repeated testing on separate occasions opposed to repeated testing by different raters....

Questionnaire for measuring organisational attributes in dental-care practices: psychometric properties and test-retest reliability.

Science.gov (United States)

Goetz, Katja; Hasse, Philipp; Szecsenyi, Joachim; Campbell, Stephen M

2016-04-01

The consideration of organisational aspects, such as shared goals and clear communication, within the health care team is important to ensure good quality care. In primary health care, the instrument Survey of Organizational Attributes for Primary Care (SOAPC) is available to measure organisational attributes of care. However, there is no instrument available for dental care. The aim of the present study was to investigate psychometric properties and test-retest reliability of the version of SOAPC adapted for dental care, namely the Survey of Organizational Attributes in Dental Care (SOADC). The SOADC consists of 21 items in the following four subscales: communication; decision making; stress/chaos; and history of change. Convergent construct validity was measured using the job satisfaction scale. A total of 287 dental-care practices were asked to participate in the validation study. Psychometric properties and test-retest reliability were observed. A total of 43 dental-care practices responded to the survey. At baseline, 178 dental-care staff completed the questionnaire, and 4 weeks later 138 did so. Internal consistency, measured by Cronbach's alpha, was 0.718 or higher in the subscales. The test-retest reliability for each subscale and the overall SOADC score demonstrated good correlations over the 4-week test-retest interval, except for 'history of change'. A strong correlation with the aggregated job-satisfaction scale showed high convergent construct validity of SOADC. The consideration of organisational aspects from the perspective of dental-care teams is important for providing good quality of care. The SOADC is a reliable instrument with good psychometric properties and is suitable for the evaluation of organisational attributes in dental-care practices. © 2015 FDI World Dental Federation.

Reliability improvement methods for sapphire fiber temperature sensors

Science.gov (United States)

Schietinger, C.; Adams, B.

1991-08-01

Mechanical, optical, electrical, and software design improvements can be brought to bear in the enhancement of fiber-optic sapphire-fiber temperature measurement tool reliability in harsh environments. The optical fiber thermometry (OFT) equipment discussed is used in numerous process industries and generally involves a sapphire sensor, an optical transmission cable, and a microprocessor-based signal analyzer. OFT technology incorporating sensors for corrosive environments, hybrid sensors, and two-wavelength measurements, are discussed.

SLAC modulator system improvements and reliability results

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Donaldson, A.R.

1998-06-01

In 1995, an improvement project was completed on the 244 klystron modulators in the linear accelerator. The modulator system has been previously described. This article offers project details and their resulting effect on modulator and component reliability. Prior to the project, the authors had collected four operating cycles (1991 through 1995) of MTTF data. In this discussion, the '91 data will be excluded since the modulators operated at 60 Hz. The five periods following the '91 run were reviewed due to the common repetition rate at 120 Hz

Reliability Evaluation and Improvement Approach of Chemical Production Man - Machine - Environment System

Science.gov (United States)

Miao, Yongchun; Kang, Rongxue; Chen, Xuefeng

2017-12-01

In recent years, with the gradual extension of reliability research, the study of production system reliability has become the hot topic in various industries. Man-machine-environment system is a complex system composed of human factors, machinery equipment and environment. The reliability of individual factor must be analyzed in order to gradually transit to the research of three-factor reliability. Meanwhile, the dynamic relationship among man-machine-environment should be considered to establish an effective blurry evaluation mechanism to truly and effectively analyze the reliability of such systems. In this paper, based on the system engineering, fuzzy theory, reliability theory, human error, environmental impact and machinery equipment failure theory, the reliabilities of human factor, machinery equipment and environment of some chemical production system were studied by the method of fuzzy evaluation. At last, the reliability of man-machine-environment system was calculated to obtain the weighted result, which indicated that the reliability value of this chemical production system was 86.29. Through the given evaluation domain it can be seen that the reliability of man-machine-environment integrated system is in a good status, and the effective measures for further improvement were proposed according to the fuzzy calculation results.

Subscale and Full-Scale Testing of Buckling-Critical Launch Vehicle Shell Structures

Science.gov (United States)

Hilburger, Mark W.; Haynie, Waddy T.; Lovejoy, Andrew E.; Roberts, Michael G.; Norris, Jeffery P.; Waters, W. Allen; Herring, Helen M.

2012-01-01

New analysis-based shell buckling design factors (aka knockdown factors), along with associated design and analysis technologies, are being developed by NASA for the design of launch vehicle structures. Preliminary design studies indicate that implementation of these new knockdown factors can enable significant reductions in mass and mass-growth in these vehicles and can help mitigate some of NASA s launch vehicle development and performance risks by reducing the reliance on testing, providing high-fidelity estimates of structural performance, reliability, robustness, and enable increased payload capability. However, in order to validate any new analysis-based design data or methods, a series of carefully designed and executed structural tests are required at both the subscale and full-scale level. This paper describes recent buckling test efforts at NASA on two different orthogrid-stiffened metallic cylindrical shell test articles. One of the test articles was an 8-ft-diameter orthogrid-stiffened cylinder and was subjected to an axial compression load. The second test article was a 27.5-ft-diameter Space Shuttle External Tank-derived cylinder and was subjected to combined internal pressure and axial compression.

Improvement of Equipment reliability for Auxiliary Feed Water System

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Deok, Lee Sang; Kwan, Lee Yong [KEPCO International Nuclear Graduate School, Ulsan (Korea, Republic of)

2013-10-15

According to AP913 ER) of INPO, Number of the event related to equipment is higher than others like external or human performance. In the top 25 systems, Auxiliary feed water system is the seventh highest among systems. AWFS consists of many component and complex system and Main Function of AFWS is to supply feedwater to the steam generators for the removal of heat from the RCS(Reactor Coolant System) in event the main feedwater system is unavailable following a transient or accident. Reliability of component means how well operate on demands and monitoring is necessary to keep track of condition of component. If component performance is lower than the required value, corrective action for failure mode should be done. The objective of this study is focused to improve of AF pump by adding the tasks of SHR(System Health Report) into the task of system engineer walkdown of PMT(Preventive Maintenance Template). Increasing the reliability of AF pump will contribute to improvement of reliability of AFWS. Based on operating history, there was high vibration of AF pump during performance test. In that case, there were a lot of maintenance works for normal operation of AF pump. Vibration problem related pump can't be detected by tasks of SE walkdown because it's not running during normal operation except for surveillance test. CHR(Component Health Report) of AF pump in AFWS can be made from necessary part which means monitoring and functional failure because problem of Stand-by pump can be covered by conducting monitoring and analysis of functional failure. To improve reliability of AF pump, walkdown of PMT and SHR should be conducted both in accordance with surveillance test frequency. Health of AF pump based on operation history can be verified first and then can find out which parts of pump are weak. Finally, weak part can be managed intensively and failure can be reduced according to SE walkdown. But this work can be risky and burdensome because all parts of

Reliability improvement in GaN HEMT power device using a field plate approach

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Wen-Hao; Lin, Yueh-Chin; Chin, Ping-Chieh; Hsu, Chia-Chieh; Lee, Jin-Hwa; Liu, Shih-Chien; Maa, Jer-shen; Iwai, Hiroshi; Chang, Edward Yi; Hsu, Heng-Tung

2017-07-01

This study investigates the effect of implementing a field plate on a GaN high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) to improve power device reliability. The results indicate that the field plate structure reduces the peak electrical field and interface traps in the device, resulting in higher breakdown voltage, lower leakage current, smaller current collapse, and better threshold voltage control. Furthermore, after high voltage stress, steady dynamic on-resistance and gate capacitance degradation improvement were observed for the device with the field plate. This demonstrates that GaN device reliability can be improved by using the field plate approach.

Developing a system engineering program to improve performance and reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Keuter, D.

1985-01-01

After several maintenance, operational, and equipment problems last year, Trojan set out on a mission to improve plant performance and reliability by strengthening its on-site engineering organization. This paper presents Trojan's plans in developing an on-site system engineering organization

Airspace Simulation Through Indoor Operation of Subscale Flight Vehicles, Phase I

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — An indoor environment for simulating airspace operations will be designed. Highly maneuverable subscale vehicles can be used to simulate the dynamics of full-scale...

Precision of lumbar intervertebral measurements: does a computer-assisted technique improve reliability?

Science.gov (United States)

Pearson, Adam M; Spratt, Kevin F; Genuario, James; McGough, William; Kosman, Katherine; Lurie, Jon; Sengupta, Dilip K

2011-04-01

Comparison of intra- and interobserver reliability of digitized manual and computer-assisted intervertebral motion measurements and classification of "instability." To determine if computer-assisted measurement of lumbar intervertebral motion on flexion-extension radiographs improves reliability compared with digitized manual measurements. Many studies have questioned the reliability of manual intervertebral measurements, although few have compared the reliability of computer-assisted and manual measurements on lumbar flexion-extension radiographs. Intervertebral rotation, anterior-posterior (AP) translation, and change in anterior and posterior disc height were measured with a digitized manual technique by three physicians and by three other observers using computer-assisted quantitative motion analysis (QMA) software. Each observer measured 30 sets of digital flexion-extension radiographs (L1-S1) twice. Shrout-Fleiss intraclass correlation coefficients for intra- and interobserver reliabilities were computed. The stability of each level was also classified (instability defined as >4 mm AP translation or 10° rotation), and the intra- and interobserver reliabilities of the two methods were compared using adjusted percent agreement (APA). Intraobserver reliability intraclass correlation coefficients were substantially higher for the QMA technique THAN the digitized manual technique across all measurements: rotation 0.997 versus 0.870, AP translation 0.959 versus 0.557, change in anterior disc height 0.962 versus 0.770, and change in posterior disc height 0.951 versus 0.283. The same pattern was observed for interobserver reliability (rotation 0.962 vs. 0.693, AP translation 0.862 vs. 0.151, change in anterior disc height 0.862 vs. 0.373, and change in posterior disc height 0.730 vs. 0.300). The QMA technique was also more reliable for the classification of "instability." Intraobserver APAs ranged from 87 to 97% for QMA versus 60% to 73% for digitized manual

Grant Peer Review: Improving Inter-Rater Reliability with Training.

Science.gov (United States)

Sattler, David N; McKnight, Patrick E; Naney, Linda; Mathis, Randy

2015-01-01

This study developed and evaluated a brief training program for grant reviewers that aimed to increase inter-rater reliability, rating scale knowledge, and effort to read the grant review criteria. Enhancing reviewer training may improve the reliability and accuracy of research grant proposal scoring and funding recommendations. Seventy-five Public Health professors from U.S. research universities watched the training video we produced and assigned scores to the National Institutes of Health scoring criteria proposal summary descriptions. For both novice and experienced reviewers, the training video increased scoring accuracy (the percentage of scores that reflect the true rating scale values), inter-rater reliability, and the amount of time reading the review criteria compared to the no video condition. The increase in reliability for experienced reviewers is notable because it is commonly assumed that reviewers--especially those with experience--have good understanding of the grant review rating scale. The findings suggest that both experienced and novice reviewers who had not received the type of training developed in this study may not have appropriate understanding of the definitions and meaning for each value of the rating scale and that experienced reviewers may overestimate their knowledge of the rating scale. The results underscore the benefits of and need for specialized peer reviewer training.

Piping reliability improvement through passive seismic supports

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baltus, R.; Rubbers, A.

1999-01-01

The nuclear plants designed in the 1970's were equipped with large quantities of snubbers in auxiliary piping systems. The experience revealed a poor performance of snubbers during periodic inspection, while non-nuclear facility piping survived through strong earthquakes. Consequently, seismic design rules evolved towards more realistic criteria and passive dynamic supports were developed to reduce snubber quantities. These solutions improve the pipe reliability during normal operation while reducing the radiation exposure in a sample line is presented with the impact on pipe stresses compared to the results obtained with passive supports named Limit Stops. (author)

The Addiction Severity Index: reliability and validity in a Dutch alcoholic population.

Science.gov (United States)

DeJong, C A; Willems, J C; Schippers, G M; Hendriks, V M

1995-04-01

The Addiction Severity Index (ASI) was evaluated for its psychometric qualities in a Dutch alcoholic population admitted to an addiction treatment center in The Netherlands. Its factorial structure in this population was found to be consistent with the established six factor structure of the ASI. Reliability analysis revealed that the homogeneity of the subscales was acceptable with the exception of the Alcohol Scale. The six subscales were not highly intercorrelated. The results of this study indicate that the ASI is a useful instrument for the assessment of several problems associated with alcoholism. However, the Alcohol Scale appears to be limited as a diagnostic and research instrument in the field of inpatient treatment of alcohol dependence in The Netherlands.

Reliability and Validity of the Pain Anxiety Symptom Scale in Persian Speaking Chronic Low Back Pain Patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Shanbehzadeh, Sanaz; Salavati, Mahyar; Tavahomi, Mahnaz; Khatibi, Ali; Talebian, Saeed; Khademi-Kalantari, Khosro

2017-11-01

Psychometric testing of the Persian version of Pain Anxiety Symptom Scale 20. The aim of this study was to assess the reliability and construct validity of the PASS-20 in nonspecific chronic low back pain (LBP) patients. The PASS-20 is a self-report questionnaire that assesses pain-related anxiety. The Psychometric properties of this instrument have not been assessed in Persian-speaking chronic LBP patients. One hundred and sixty participants with chronic LBP completed the Persian version of PASS-20, Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (TSK), Fear-Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire (FABQ), Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), trait form of the State-Trait Anxiety (STAI-T), Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Index (ODI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). To evaluate test-retest reliability, 60 patients filled out the PASS-20, 6 to 8 days after the first visit. Test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC], standard error of measurement [SEM], and minimal detectable change [MDC]), internal consistency, dimensionality, and construct validity were examined. The ICCs of the PASS-20 subscales and total score ranged from 0.71 to 0.8. The SEMs for PASS-20 total score was 7.29 and for the subscales ranged from 2.43 to 2.98. The MDC for the total score was 20.14 and for the subscales ranged from 6.71 to 8.23. The Cronbach alpha values for the subscales and total score ranged from 0.70 to 0.91. Significant positive correlations were found between the PASS-20 total score and PCS, TSK, FABQ, ODI, BDI, STAI-T, and pain intensity. The Persian version of the PASS-20 showed acceptable psychometric properties for the assessment of pain-related anxiety in Persian-speaking patients with chronic LBP. 3.

The Vocal Tract Discomfort Scale: Validity and Reliability of the Persian Version in the Assessment of Patients With Muscle Tension Dysphonia.

Science.gov (United States)

Torabi, Hadi; Khoddami, Seyyedeh Maryam; Ansari, Noureddin Nakhostin; Dabirmoghaddam, Payman

2016-11-01

To cross-culturally adapt of Persian Vocal Tract Discomfort (VTDp) scale and evaluate its validity and reliability in the assessment of patients with muscle tension dysphonia (MTD). A cross-sectional and prospective cohort design was used to psychometrically test the VTDp. The VTD scale was cross-culturally adapted into Persian language following standard forward-backward translations. The VTDp scale was administrated to 100 patients with MTD (54 men and 46 women; mean age: 38.05 ± 10.02 years) and 50 healthy volunteers (26 men and 24 women; mean age: 36.50 ± 12.27 years). Forty-five patients with MTD completed the VTDp 7 days later for test-retest reliability. Patients also completed the Persian Voice Handicap Index (VHIp) to assess construct validity. The results of discriminative validity demonstrated that the VTDp was able to discriminate between patients with MTD and healthy participants. The internal consistency was confirmed with Cronbach α .77 and 0.73 for VTDp frequency and severity subscales, respectively. The test-retest reliability was excellent with an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC agreement ) of 0.93 for the frequency subscale and 0.91 for the severity subscale. Construct validity of the VTDp was shown with significant correlations between the VTDp frequency and severity subscales and the VHIp total scores (0.36 and 0.37, respectively). The standard error of measurement and smallest detectable change values for VTDp frequency (2.11 and 5.85, respectively) and severity (2.25 and 6.23, respectively) were acceptable. The Bland-Altman analysis for assessing the agreement between test and retest measurements showed no systematic bias. The VTDp is a valid and reliable self-administered scale to measure patient's vocal tract sensations in Persian-speaking population. Copyright © 2016 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Improving the Test-Retest Reliability of Resting State fMRI by Removing the Impact of Sleep.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jiahui; Han, Junwei; Nguyen, Vinh T; Guo, Lei; Guo, Christine C

2017-01-01

Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) provides a powerful tool to examine large-scale neural networks in the human brain and their disturbances in neuropsychiatric disorders. Thanks to its low demand and high tolerance, resting state paradigms can be easily acquired from clinical population. However, due to the unconstrained nature, resting state paradigm is associated with excessive head movement and proneness to sleep. Consequently, the test-retest reliability of rs-fMRI measures is moderate at best, falling short of widespread use in the clinic. Here, we characterized the effect of sleep on the test-retest reliability of rs-fMRI. Using measures of heart rate variability (HRV) derived from simultaneous electrocardiogram (ECG) recording, we identified portions of fMRI data when subjects were more alert or sleepy, and examined their effects on the test-retest reliability of functional connectivity measures. When volumes of sleep were excluded, the reliability of rs-fMRI is significantly improved, and the improvement appears to be general across brain networks. The amount of improvement is robust with the removal of as much as 60% volumes of sleepiness. Therefore, test-retest reliability of rs-fMRI is affected by sleep and could be improved by excluding volumes of sleepiness as indexed by HRV. Our results suggest a novel and practical method to improve test-retest reliability of rs-fMRI measures.

Change of International Restless Legs Syndrome Study Group Rating Scale subscales with treatment and placebo: a pilot study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mitchell UH

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Ulrike H Mitchell,1 Sterling C Hilton2 1Brigham Young University, Department of Exercise Sciences, 2Department of Educational Leadership and Foundations, Provo, UT, USA Background: In 2003, the 10-question International Restless Legs Syndrome Study Group Rating Scale (IRLS was developed as a means of assessing the severity of restless legs syndrome. Two subscales were identified: symptom severity (SS 1 and symptom impact (SS 2. Only one study has investigated the subscales' responsiveness to a 12-week treatment with ropinirole. This current study was undertaken to assess the impact of a 4-week, non-pharmaceutical treatment on the two subscales and to explore whether or not both subscales were impacted by the observed placebo effect. Methods: The pooled data from questionnaires of 58 patients (41 from both treatment groups and 17 from the sham treatment control group, who participated in two clinical studies, were reviewed. Their change in score over a 4-week trial was computed. The average change in both subscales in both groups was computed and t-tests were performed. Results: In the treatment group, the average scores of both subscales changed significantly from baseline to week 4 (P<0.005 for both. Compared to the control, SS 1 changed (P<0.001, but not SS 2 (P=0.18. In the sham treatment group, the scores for SS 1 changed significantly (P=0.002, but not for SS 2 (P=0.2. Conclusion: This study corroborated findings from an earlier study in which both subscales changed with a 12-week drug treatment. It also showed that the observed placebo effect is attributed to a small but significant change in symptom severity, but not symptom impact. Keywords: restless legs syndrome, RLS severity scale, IRLS subscales, symptom impact, symptom severity

The Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire: reliability and validity of the Italian version.

Science.gov (United States)

Calugi, Simona; Milanese, Chiara; Sartirana, Massimiliano; El Ghoch, Marwan; Sartori, Federica; Geccherle, Eleonora; Coppini, Andrea; Franchini, Cecilia; Dalle Grave, Riccardo

2017-09-01

To examine the validity and reliability of a new Italian language version of the latest edition of the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q 6.0). The sixth edition of the EDE-Q was translated into Italian and administered to 264 Italian-speaking inpatient and outpatient (257 females in their mid-20s) with eating disorder (75.4% anorexia nervosa) and 216 controls (205 females). Internal consistency was high for both the global EDE-Q and all subscale scores. Test-retest reliability was good to excellent (0.66-0.83) for global and subscale scores, and for items assessing key behavioral features of eating disorders (0.55-0.91). Patients with an eating disorder displayed significantly higher EDE-Q scores than controls, demonstrating the good criterion validity of the tool. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed a good fit for a modified seven-item three-factor structure. The study showed the good psychometric properties of the new Italian version of the EDE-Q 6.0, and validated its use in Italian eating disorder patients, particularly in young females with anorexia nervosa.

SOFC Systems with Improved Reliability and Endurance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ghezel-Ayagh, Hossein [Fuelcell Energy, Incorporated, Danbury, CT (United States)

2015-12-31

The overall goal of this U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sponsored project was the development of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) technology suitable for ultra-efficient central power generation systems utilizing coal and natural gas fuels and featuring greater than 90% carbon dioxide capture. The specific technical objective of this project was to demonstrate, via analyses and testing, progress towards adequate stack life (≥ 4 years) and stack performance stability (degradation rate ≤ 0.2% per 1000 hours) in a low-cost SOFC stack design. This final technical report summarizes the progress made during the project period of 27 months. Significant progress was made in the areas of cell and stack technology development, stack module development, sub-scale module tests, and Proof-of-Concept Module unit design, fabrication and testing. The work focused on cell and stack materials and designs, balance-of-plant improvements, and performance evaluation covering operating conditions and fuel compositions anticipated for commercially-deployed systems. In support of performance evaluation under commercial conditions, this work included the design, fabrication, siting, commissioning, and operation of a ≥ 50 kWe proof-of-concept module (PCM) power plant, based upon SOFC cell and stack technology developed to date by FuelCell Energy, Inc. (FCE) under the Office of Fossil Energy’s Solid Oxide Fuel Cells program. The PCM system was operated for at least 1000 hours on natural gas fuel at FCE’s facility. The factory cost of the SOFC stack was estimated to be at or below the DOE’s high-volume production cost target (2011 $).

Structural and reliability analysis of quality of relationship index in cancer patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Cousson-Gélie, Florence; de Chalvron, Stéphanie; Zozaya, Carole; Lafaye, Anaïs

2013-01-01

Among psychosocial factors affecting emotional adjustment and quality of life, social support is one of the most important and widely studied in cancer patients, but little is known about the perception of support in specific significant relationships in patients with cancer. This study examined the psychometric properties of the Quality of Relationship Inventory (QRI) by evaluating its factor structure and its convergent and discriminant validity in a sample of cancer patients. A total of 388 patients completed the QRI. Convergent validity was evaluated by testing the correlations between the QRI subscales and measures of general social support, anxiety and depression symptoms. Discriminant validity was examined by testing group comparison. The QRI's longitudinal invariance across time was also tested. Principal axis factor analysis with promax rotation identified three factors accounting for 42.99% of variance: perceived social support, depth, and interpersonal conflict. Estimates of reliability with McDonald's ω coefficient were satisfactory for all the QRI subscales (ω ranging from 0.75 - 0.85). Satisfaction from general social support was negatively correlated with the interpersonal conflict subscale and positively with the depth subscale. The interpersonal conflict and social support scales were correlated with depression and anxiety scores. We also found a relative stability of QRI subscales (measured 3 months after the first evaluation) and differences between partner status and gender groups. The Quality of Relationship Inventory is a valid tool for assessing the quality of social support in a particular relationship with cancer patients.

Orofacial Pain during Mastication in People with Dementia: Reliability Testing of the Orofacial Pain Scale for Non-Verbal Individuals.

Science.gov (United States)

de Vries, Merlijn W; Visscher, Corine; Delwel, Suzanne; van der Steen, Jenny T; Pieper, Marjoleine J C; Scherder, Erik J A; Achterberg, Wilco P; Lobbezoo, Frank

2016-01-01

Objectives. The aim of this study was to establish the reliability of the "chewing" subscale of the OPS-NVI, a novel tool designed to estimate presence and severity of orofacial pain in nonverbal patients. Methods. The OPS-NVI consists of 16 items for observed behavior, classified into four categories and a subjective estimate of pain. Two observers used the OPS-NVI for 237 video clips of people with dementia in Dutch nursing homes during their meal to observe their behavior and to estimate the intensity of orofacial pain. Six weeks later, the same observers rated the video clips a second time. Results. Bottom and ceiling effects for some items were found. This resulted in exclusion of these items from the statistical analyses. The categories which included the remaining items (n = 6) showed reliability varying between fair-to-good and excellent (interobserver reliability, ICC: 0.40-0.47; intraobserver reliability, ICC: 0.40-0.92). Conclusions. The "chewing" subscale of the OPS-NVI showed a fair-to-good to excellent interobserver and intraobserver reliability in this dementia population. This study contributes to the validation process of the OPS-NVI as a whole and stresses the need for further assessment of the reliability of the OPS-NVI with subjects that might already show signs of orofacial pain.

Zero tolerance for failure. An AREVA initiative to improve reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lippert, Hans-Joachim; Gentet, Guy; Mollard, Pierre; Garner, Norman

2010-01-01

Significant improvements in fuel reliability have been realized over the past 2 decades, but total elimination of failures has remained elusive. Driving reliability to higher levels requires a philosophy that does not accept that even infrequent and isolated failures are inevitable - it was on this foundation that Areva's Zero Tolerance for Failure (ZTF) initiative was established. This is not in itself either a program or project, but a fundamental shift in the way of thinking about work according to the following four principles: - Failures are avoidable, - Zero failures are our goal, - We will respond rapidly to any failure, - We succeed when we fix failures in a way that precludes recurrence. The shift to a ZTF philosophy is a broad change in corporate culture that expands the concept of failure far beyond cases where fuel rod cladding integrity is breached. While this paper specifically illustrates the ways in which ZTF has shaped the company's response to enhancing fuel rod reliability, ZTF extends to any failures of fuel products to deliver expected levels of performance, manufacturing processes to meet specifications and high first-pass acceptance criteria, and beyond to error-free performance of engineering analyses and cycle design and licensing services. Application of ZTF to enhancing fuel reliability deploys efforts in the areas of manufacturing, human factors, design, R and D, processes and product strategy. In order to achieve the necessary improvements, a number of important actions have been initiated across regions and facilities. In addition to these global scale projects and measures, each region contributes by adopting measures which are relevant to its particular activities and market needs. (orig.)

Improving Metrological Reliability of Information-Measuring Systems Using Mathematical Modeling of Their Metrological Characteristics

Science.gov (United States)

Kurnosov, R. Yu; Chernyshova, T. I.; Chernyshov, V. N.

2018-05-01

The algorithms for improving the metrological reliability of analogue blocks of measuring channels and information-measuring systems are developed. The proposed algorithms ensure the optimum values of their metrological reliability indices for a given analogue circuit block solution.

Device Performance and Reliability Improvements of AlGaBN/GaN/Si MOSFET

Science.gov (United States)

2016-02-04

AFRL-AFOSR-JP-TR-2016-0037 Device Performance and Reliablity Improvements of AlGaBN/GaN/Si MOSFET Robert Wallace UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS Final...GaN/Si MOSFET 5a.  CONTRACT NUMBER 5b.  GRANT NUMBER FA2386-14-1-4069 5c.  PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 61102F 6. AUTHOR(S) Robert Wallace 5d.  PROJECT...AOARD Grant FA2386-14-1-4069 Device Performance and Reliability Improvements of AlGaN/GaN/Si MOSFET US 12 month extension (2014 – 2015) for current

German validation of the Conners Adult ADHD Rating Scales (CAARS) II: reliability, validity, diagnostic sensitivity and specificity.

Science.gov (United States)

Christiansen, H; Kis, B; Hirsch, O; Matthies, S; Hebebrand, J; Uekermann, J; Abdel-Hamid, M; Kraemer, M; Wiltfang, J; Graf, E; Colla, M; Sobanski, E; Alm, B; Rösler, M; Jacob, C; Jans, T; Huss, M; Schimmelmann, B G; Philipsen, A

2012-07-01

The German version of the Conners Adult ADHD Rating Scales (CAARS) has proven to show very high model fit in confirmative factor analyses with the established factors inattention/memory problems, hyperactivity/restlessness, impulsivity/emotional lability, and problems with self-concept in both large healthy control and ADHD patient samples. This study now presents data on the psychometric properties of the German CAARS-self-report (CAARS-S) and observer-report (CAARS-O) questionnaires. CAARS-S/O and questions on sociodemographic variables were filled out by 466 patients with ADHD, 847 healthy control subjects that already participated in two prior studies, and a total of 896 observer data sets were available. Cronbach's-alpha was calculated to obtain internal reliability coefficients. Pearson correlations were performed to assess test-retest reliability, and concurrent, criterion, and discriminant validity. Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC-analyses) were used to establish sensitivity and specificity for all subscales. Coefficient alphas ranged from .74 to .95, and test-retest reliability from .85 to .92 for the CAARS-S, and from .65 to .85 for the CAARS-O. All CAARS subscales, except problems with self-concept correlated significantly with the Barrett Impulsiveness Scale (BIS), but not with the Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS). Criterion validity was established with ADHD subtype and diagnosis based on DSM-IV criteria. Sensitivity and specificity were high for all four subscales. The reported results confirm our previous study and show that the German CAARS-S/O do indeed represent a reliable and cross-culturally valid measure of current ADHD symptoms in adults. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Improving the Test-Retest Reliability of Resting State fMRI by Removing the Impact of Sleep

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiahui Wang

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI provides a powerful tool to examine large-scale neural networks in the human brain and their disturbances in neuropsychiatric disorders. Thanks to its low demand and high tolerance, resting state paradigms can be easily acquired from clinical population. However, due to the unconstrained nature, resting state paradigm is associated with excessive head movement and proneness to sleep. Consequently, the test-retest reliability of rs-fMRI measures is moderate at best, falling short of widespread use in the clinic. Here, we characterized the effect of sleep on the test-retest reliability of rs-fMRI. Using measures of heart rate variability (HRV derived from simultaneous electrocardiogram (ECG recording, we identified portions of fMRI data when subjects were more alert or sleepy, and examined their effects on the test-retest reliability of functional connectivity measures. When volumes of sleep were excluded, the reliability of rs-fMRI is significantly improved, and the improvement appears to be general across brain networks. The amount of improvement is robust with the removal of as much as 60% volumes of sleepiness. Therefore, test-retest reliability of rs-fMRI is affected by sleep and could be improved by excluding volumes of sleepiness as indexed by HRV. Our results suggest a novel and practical method to improve test-retest reliability of rs-fMRI measures.

Improved radiograph measurement inter-observer reliability by use of statistical shape models

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pegg, E.C., E-mail: elise.pegg@ndorms.ox.ac.uk [University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Windmill Road, Oxford OX3 7LD (United Kingdom); Mellon, S.J., E-mail: stephen.mellon@ndorms.ox.ac.uk [University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Windmill Road, Oxford OX3 7LD (United Kingdom); Salmon, G. [University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Windmill Road, Oxford OX3 7LD (United Kingdom); Alvand, A., E-mail: abtin.alvand@ndorms.ox.ac.uk [University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Windmill Road, Oxford OX3 7LD (United Kingdom); Pandit, H., E-mail: hemant.pandit@ndorms.ox.ac.uk [University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Windmill Road, Oxford OX3 7LD (United Kingdom); Murray, D.W., E-mail: david.murray@ndorms.ox.ac.uk [University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Windmill Road, Oxford OX3 7LD (United Kingdom); Gill, H.S., E-mail: richie.gill@ndorms.ox.ac.uk [University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Windmill Road, Oxford OX3 7LD (United Kingdom)

2012-10-15

Pre- and post-operative radiographs of patients undergoing joint arthroplasty are often examined for a variety of purposes including preoperative planning and patient assessment. This work examines the feasibility of using active shape models (ASM) to semi-automate measurements from post-operative radiographs for the specific case of the Oxford™ Unicompartmental Knee. Measurements of the proximal tibia and the position of the tibial tray were made using the ASM model and manually. Data were obtained by four observers and one observer took four sets of measurements to allow assessment of the inter- and intra-observer reliability, respectively. The parameters measured were the tibial tray angle, the tray overhang, the tray size, the sagittal cut position, the resection level and the tibial width. Results demonstrated improved reliability (average of 27% and 11.2% increase for intra- and inter-reliability, respectively) and equivalent accuracy (p > 0.05 for compared data values) for all of the measurements using the ASM model, with the exception of the tray overhang (p = 0.0001). Less time (15 s) was required to take measurements using the ASM model compared with manual measurements, which was significant. These encouraging results indicate that semi-automated measurement techniques could improve the reliability of radiographic measurements.

Improved radiograph measurement inter-observer reliability by use of statistical shape models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pegg, E.C.; Mellon, S.J.; Salmon, G.; Alvand, A.; Pandit, H.; Murray, D.W.; Gill, H.S.

2012-01-01

Pre- and post-operative radiographs of patients undergoing joint arthroplasty are often examined for a variety of purposes including preoperative planning and patient assessment. This work examines the feasibility of using active shape models (ASM) to semi-automate measurements from post-operative radiographs for the specific case of the Oxford™ Unicompartmental Knee. Measurements of the proximal tibia and the position of the tibial tray were made using the ASM model and manually. Data were obtained by four observers and one observer took four sets of measurements to allow assessment of the inter- and intra-observer reliability, respectively. The parameters measured were the tibial tray angle, the tray overhang, the tray size, the sagittal cut position, the resection level and the tibial width. Results demonstrated improved reliability (average of 27% and 11.2% increase for intra- and inter-reliability, respectively) and equivalent accuracy (p > 0.05 for compared data values) for all of the measurements using the ASM model, with the exception of the tray overhang (p = 0.0001). Less time (15 s) was required to take measurements using the ASM model compared with manual measurements, which was significant. These encouraging results indicate that semi-automated measurement techniques could improve the reliability of radiographic measurements

Evaluation of Factorial Validity and Reliability of a Food Behavior Checklist for Low-Income Filipinos.

Science.gov (United States)

Suzuki, Asuka; Choi, So Yung; Lim, Eunjung; Tauyan, Socorro; Banna, Jinan C

To examine factorial validity, test-retest reliability, and internal consistency of a Tagalog-language food behavior checklist (FBC) for a low-income Filipino population. Participants (n = 160) completed the FBC on 2 occasions 3 weeks apart. Factor structure was examined using principal component analysis. For internal consistency, Cronbach α was calculated. For test-retest reliability, Spearman correlation or intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was calculated between scores at the 2 points. All but 1 item loaded on 6 factors: fruit and vegetable quantity, fruit and vegetable variety, fast food, sweetened beverage, healthy fat, and diet quality. Cronbach α was .75 for the total scale (range, .39-.76 for subscales). Spearman correlation was 0.78 (ICC, 0.79) for the total scale (range, 0.66-0.80 [ICC, 0.68-0.80] for subscales). The FBC demonstrated adequate factorial validity, test-retest reliability, and internal consistency. With additional testing, the FBC may be used to evaluate the US Department of Agriculture's nutrition education programs for Tagalog speakers. Copyright © 2017 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Unidimensionality and reliability under Mokken scaling of the Dutch language version of the SF-36

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Heijden, P.G.M. van der; Buuren, S. van; Fekkes, M.; Radder, J.; Verrips, E.

2003-01-01

The sub-scales of the SF-36 in the Dutch National Study are investigated with respect to unidimensionality and reliability. It is argued that these properties deserve separate treatment. For unidimensionality we use a non-parametric model from item response theory, called the Mokken scaling model,

Embedded Sensors and Controls to Improve Component Performance and Reliability Conceptual Design Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kisner, R.; Melin, A.; Burress, T.; Fugate, D.; Holcomb, D.; Wilgen, J.; Miller, J.; Wilson, D.; Silva, P.; Whitlow, L.; Peretz, F.

2012-09-15

The objective of this project is to demonstrate improved reliability and increased performance made possible by deeply embedding instrumentation and controls (I&C) in nuclear power plant (NPP) components and systems. The project is employing a highly instrumented canned rotor, magnetic bearing, fluoride salt pump as its I&C technology demonstration platform. I&C is intimately part of the basic millisecond-by-millisecond functioning of the system; treating I&C as an integral part of the system design is innovative and will allow significant improvement in capabilities and performance. As systems become more complex and greater performance is required, traditional I&C design techniques become inadequate and more advanced I&C needs to be applied. New I&C techniques enable optimal and reliable performance and tolerance of noise and uncertainties in the system rather than merely monitoring quasistable performance. Traditionally, I&C has been incorporated in NPP components after the design is nearly complete; adequate performance was obtained through over-design. By incorporating I&C at the beginning of the design phase, the control system can provide superior performance and reliability and enable designs that are otherwise impossible. This report describes the progress and status of the project and provides a conceptual design overview for the platform to demonstrate the performance and reliability improvements enabled by advanced embedded I&C.

Measuring teacher regulating activities concerning student learning in secondary education classrooms : Reliability and validity of student perceptions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Beek, J. A.; de Jong, F. P. C. M.; Wubbels, Th.; Minnaert, A. E. M. G.

2014-01-01

This article describes the use and validation of the Pedagogical Practices Inventory, which uses student perceptions arranged into five subscales to measure teacher activities concerning the regulation of student learning in secondary education. To determine the reliability and validity of the

Improvement of the reliability graph with general gates to analyze the reliability of dynamic systems that have various operation modes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shin, Seung Ki [Div. of Research Reactor System Design, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); No, Young Gyu; Seong, Poong Hyun [Dept. of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2016-04-15

The safety of nuclear power plants is analyzed by a probabilistic risk assessment, and the fault tree analysis is the most widely used method for a risk assessment with the event tree analysis. One of the well-known disadvantages of the fault tree is that drawing a fault tree for a complex system is a very cumbersome task. Thus, several graphical modeling methods have been proposed for the convenient and intuitive modeling of complex systems. In this paper, the reliability graph with general gates (RGGG) method, one of the intuitive graphical modeling methods based on Bayesian networks, is improved for the reliability analyses of dynamic systems that have various operation modes with time. A reliability matrix is proposed and it is explained how to utilize the reliability matrix in the RGGG for various cases of operation mode changes. The proposed RGGG with a reliability matrix provides a convenient and intuitive modeling of various operation modes of complex systems, and can also be utilized with dynamic nodes that analyze the failure sequences of subcomponents. The combinatorial use of a reliability matrix with dynamic nodes is illustrated through an application to a shutdown cooling system in a nuclear power plant.

Improvement of the reliability graph with general gates to analyze the reliability of dynamic systems that have various operation modes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shin, Seung Ki; No, Young Gyu; Seong, Poong Hyun

2016-01-01

The safety of nuclear power plants is analyzed by a probabilistic risk assessment, and the fault tree analysis is the most widely used method for a risk assessment with the event tree analysis. One of the well-known disadvantages of the fault tree is that drawing a fault tree for a complex system is a very cumbersome task. Thus, several graphical modeling methods have been proposed for the convenient and intuitive modeling of complex systems. In this paper, the reliability graph with general gates (RGGG) method, one of the intuitive graphical modeling methods based on Bayesian networks, is improved for the reliability analyses of dynamic systems that have various operation modes with time. A reliability matrix is proposed and it is explained how to utilize the reliability matrix in the RGGG for various cases of operation mode changes. The proposed RGGG with a reliability matrix provides a convenient and intuitive modeling of various operation modes of complex systems, and can also be utilized with dynamic nodes that analyze the failure sequences of subcomponents. The combinatorial use of a reliability matrix with dynamic nodes is illustrated through an application to a shutdown cooling system in a nuclear power plant

How well do the ADAS-cog and its subscales measure cognitive dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease?

Science.gov (United States)

Benge, Jared F; Balsis, Steve; Geraci, Lisa; Massman, Paul J; Doody, Rachelle S

2009-01-01

The Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-cognitive (ADAS-cog) is regularly used to assess cognitive dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease (AD) clinical trials. Yet, little is known about how the instrument and its subscales measure cognition across the spectrum of AD. The current investigation used item response theory (IRT) analyses to assess the measurement properties of the ADAS-cog across the range of cognitive dysfunction in AD. We used IRT-based analyses to establish the relationship between cognitive dysfunction and the probability of obtaining observed scores on each subscale and the test as a whole. Data were obtained from 1,087 patients with AD and amnestic mild cognitive impairment. Results showed that the ADAS-cog and its subscales provide maximum information at moderate levels of cognitive dysfunction. Raw score differences toward the lower and higher ends of the scale corresponded to large differences in cognitive dysfunction, whereas raw score differences toward the middle of the scale corresponded to smaller differences. The utility of the ADAS-cog and its subscales is optimal in the moderate range of cognitive dysfunction, but raw score differences in that region correspond to relatively small differences in cognitive dysfunction. Implications for tracking and staging dementia and for clinical trials are discussed. Copyright 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel.

[Development of social activities-related daily life satisfaction scale for the elderly and evaluation of its reliability and validity].

Science.gov (United States)

Okamoto, Hideaki

2010-07-01

The purpose of this study was to develop a Social Activities-Related Daily Life Satisfaction Scale specifically applicable to elderly people in communities and to evaluate its reliability and validity. Sixteen items were extracted from an initial pool and assessed for inclusion in the scale by correlation and exploratory factor analyses. To confirm validity, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted and correlation coefficients were calculated. In addition, t-tests were performed in order to generate scores of the subscale related to activity. To prove reliability, Cronbach's coefficient alpha values were calculated. Data for 755 older adults aged 65 to 84 years were obtained from a mail survey in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture. Exploratory factor analyses indicated that four factors, "satisfaction with learning" (four items), "satisfaction with usefulness to others and society" (four items), "satisfaction with health and physical strength" (three items), and "satisfaction with friends" (three items) should be extracted. Confirmatory factor analysis for assessing the 14-item four-factor model showed high goodness of fit indices (GFI = 0.943, AGFI = 0.915, RMSEA = 0.068). Concurrent validity was established by comparing the score of the scale with five external variables (Activity and Daily Life Satisfaction Scale for the Elderly, Life Satisfaction Index K, etc). Student's t-tests revealed that each score of the subscale was positively associated with activity variable. The overall Cronbach's coefficient alpha for the scale was 0.919 and for its four subscales values ranged from 0.814 to 0.887. A Social Activities-Related Daily Life Satisfaction Scale was derived consisting of four subscales, "satisfaction with learning", "satisfaction with usefulness to others and society", "satisfaction with health and physical strength", and "satisfaction with friends". The results of the present study suggested that the Social Activities-Related Daily Life Satisfaction Scale

ANALYSIS OF POWER SYSTEM RELIABILITY IMPROVEMENT FOR 74-BUS RADIAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

OpenAIRE

Su Mon Myint*

2018-01-01

In Myanmar, electric power system planning is widely constructed because of more and more load growth and facing with failure of electricity, outage problems and system shut-down. Thus, not only making new power system network but also improving reliability of the existing system using suitable methods is very important to provide an adequate supply of electrical energy to its customers as economically and reliably as possible with an acceptable degree of continuity and quality that is design...

The Reliability of In-Training Assessment when Performance Improvement Is Taken into Account

Science.gov (United States)

van Lohuizen, Mirjam T.; Kuks, Jan B. M.; van Hell, Elisabeth A.; Raat, A. N.; Stewart, Roy E.; Cohen-Schotanus, Janke

2010-01-01

During in-training assessment students are frequently assessed over a longer period of time and therefore it can be expected that their performance will improve. We studied whether there really is a measurable performance improvement when students are assessed over an extended period of time and how this improvement affects the reliability of the…

Monolithic QCL design approaches for improved reliability and affordability

Science.gov (United States)

Law, K. K.

2013-12-01

Many advances have been made recently in mid-wave infrared and long-wave infrared quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) technologies, and there is an increasing demand for these laser sources for ever expanding Naval, DoD and homeland security applications. We will discuss in this paper a portfolio of various Naval Air Warfare Weapons Division's current and future small business innovative research programs and efforts on significantly improving QCLs' performance, affordability, and reliability.

Technology Improvement for the High Reliability LM-2F Launch Vehicle

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

QIN Tong; RONG Yi; ZHENG Liwei; ZHANG Zhi

2017-01-01

The Long March 2F (LM-2F) launch vehicle,the only launch vehicle designed for manned space flight in China,successfully launched the Tiangong 2 space laboratory and the Shenzhou ll manned spaceship into orbits in 2016 respectively.In this study,it introduces the technological improvements for enhancing the reliability of the LM-2F launch vehicle in the aspects of general technology,control system,manufacture and ground support system.The LM2F launch vehicle will continue to provide more contributions to the Chinese Space Station Project with its high reliability and 100％ success rate.

Vertical equilibrium with sub-scale analytical methods for geological CO2 sequestration

KAUST Repository

Gasda, S. E.; Nordbotten, J. M.; Celia, M. A.

2009-01-01

equilibrium with sub-scale analytical method (VESA) combines the flexibility of a numerical method, allowing for heterogeneous and geologically complex systems, with the efficiency and accuracy of an analytical method, thereby eliminating expensive grid

Reliability and validity of a Chinese version of the HADS for screening depression and anxiety in psycho-cardiological outpatients.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Yuan; Ding, Rongjing; Hu, Dayi; Zhang, Fan; Sheng, Li

2014-01-01

The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) has been used widely with cardiovascular patients. This study aims to examine the reliability and validity of a Chinese version of HADS among psycho-cardiological outpatients. One hundred psycho-cardiological outpatients were asked to complete the Chinese version of HADS and were then interviewed according to the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, Version 5 (MINI). According to the MINI, 38 outpatients were diagnosed with major depression and 15 outpatients were diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Compared with the MINI diagnoses, the optimum cutoff value of the anxiety subscale (HADS-A) was six (6) with a sensitivity of 81.6%, specificity of 75.8%, positive predictive value (PPV) of 54.0% and negative predictive value (NPV) of 91.9%; at the optimum cutoff value of nine (9), the depression subscale (HADS-D) had a sensitivity of 80.0%, specificity of 92.9%, PPV of 52.2% and NPV of 96.1%. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the HADS-A and HADS-D subscales were 0.753 and 0.764, respectively. The areas under the ROC curves of the HADS-A and the HADS-D subscales, as compared to MINI diagnoses of anxiety and depression, were 0.81 (SE = 0.05, 95%CI: [0.73, 0.90]) and 0.86 (SE = 0.05, 95%CI: [0.77, 0.94]), respectively. The HADS was found to be a reliable measurement tool for excluding depression and anxiety in psycho-cardiological outpatients. © 2014.

Orofacial Pain during Mastication in People with Dementia: Reliability Testing of the Orofacial Pain Scale for Non-Verbal Individuals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Merlijn W. de Vries

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Objectives. The aim of this study was to establish the reliability of the “chewing” subscale of the OPS-NVI, a novel tool designed to estimate presence and severity of orofacial pain in nonverbal patients. Methods. The OPS-NVI consists of 16 items for observed behavior, classified into four categories and a subjective estimate of pain. Two observers used the OPS-NVI for 237 video clips of people with dementia in Dutch nursing homes during their meal to observe their behavior and to estimate the intensity of orofacial pain. Six weeks later, the same observers rated the video clips a second time. Results. Bottom and ceiling effects for some items were found. This resulted in exclusion of these items from the statistical analyses. The categories which included the remaining items (n=6 showed reliability varying between fair-to-good and excellent (interobserver reliability, ICC: 0.40–0.47; intraobserver reliability, ICC: 0.40–0.92. Conclusions. The “chewing” subscale of the OPS-NVI showed a fair-to-good to excellent interobserver and intraobserver reliability in this dementia population. This study contributes to the validation process of the OPS-NVI as a whole and stresses the need for further assessment of the reliability of the OPS-NVI with subjects that might already show signs of orofacial pain.

The commissioning of CMS sites: Improving the site reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Belforte, S; Fisk, I; Flix, J; Hernandez, J M; Klem, J; Letts, J; Magini, N; Saiz, P; Sciaba, A

2010-01-01

The computing system of the CMS experiment works using distributed resources from more than 60 computing centres worldwide. These centres, located in Europe, America and Asia are interconnected by the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid. The operation of the system requires a stable and reliable behaviour of the underlying infrastructure. CMS has established a procedure to extensively test all relevant aspects of a Grid site, such as the ability to efficiently use their network to transfer data, the functionality of all the site services relevant for CMS and the capability to sustain the various CMS computing workflows at the required scale. This contribution describes in detail the procedure to rate CMS sites depending on their performance, including the complete automation of the program, the description of monitoring tools, and its impact in improving the overall reliability of the Grid from the point of view of the CMS computing system.

Cost/worth assessment of reliability improvement in distribution networks by means of artificial intelligence

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bouhouras, Aggelos S.; Labridis, Dimitris P.; Bakirtzis, Anastasios G. [Power Systems Laboratory, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 54124 Thessaloniki (Greece)

2010-06-15

A major challenge for the power utilities today is to ensure a high level of reliability of supply to customers. Two main factors determine the feasibility of a project that improves the reliability of supply: the project cost (investment and operational) and the benefits that result from the implementation of the project. This paper examines the implementation of an Artificial Intelligence System in an urban distribution network, capable to locate and isolate short circuit faults in the feeder, thus accomplishing immediate restoration of electric supply to the customers. The paper describes the benefits of the project, which are supply reliability improvement and distribution network loss reduction through network reconfigurations. By comparison of the project benefits and costs the economic feasibility of such a project for an underground distribution feeder in Greece is demonstrated. (author)

Organizational readiness to change assessment (ORCA: Development of an instrument based on the Promoting Action on Research in Health Services (PARIHS framework

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li Yu-Fang

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services, or PARIHS, framework is a theoretical framework widely promoted as a guide to implement evidence-based clinical practices. However, it has as yet no pool of validated measurement instruments that operationalize the constructs defined in the framework. The present article introduces an Organizational Readiness to Change Assessment instrument (ORCA, organized according to the core elements and sub-elements of the PARIHS framework, and reports on initial validation. Methods We conducted scale reliability and factor analyses on cross-sectional, secondary data from three quality improvement projects (n = 80 conducted in the Veterans Health Administration. In each project, identical 77-item ORCA instruments were administered to one or more staff from each facility involved in quality improvement projects. Items were organized into 19 subscales and three primary scales corresponding to the core elements of the PARIHS framework: (1 Strength and extent of evidence for the clinical practice changes represented by the QI program, assessed with four subscales, (2 Quality of the organizational context for the QI program, assessed with six subscales, and (3 Capacity for internal facilitation of the QI program, assessed with nine subscales. Results Cronbach's alpha for scale reliability were 0.74, 0.85 and 0.95 for the evidence, context and facilitation scales, respectively. The evidence scale and its three constituent subscales failed to meet the conventional threshold of 0.80 for reliability, and three individual items were eliminated from evidence subscales following reliability testing. In exploratory factor analysis, three factors were retained. Seven of the nine facilitation subscales loaded onto the first factor; five of the six context subscales loaded onto the second factor; and the three evidence subscales loaded on the third factor. Two subscales failed to load

Organizational readiness to change assessment (ORCA): development of an instrument based on the Promoting Action on Research in Health Services (PARIHS) framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Helfrich, Christian D; Li, Yu-Fang; Sharp, Nancy D; Sales, Anne E

2009-07-14

The Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services, or PARIHS, framework is a theoretical framework widely promoted as a guide to implement evidence-based clinical practices. However, it has as yet no pool of validated measurement instruments that operationalize the constructs defined in the framework. The present article introduces an Organizational Readiness to Change Assessment instrument (ORCA), organized according to the core elements and sub-elements of the PARIHS framework, and reports on initial validation. We conducted scale reliability and factor analyses on cross-sectional, secondary data from three quality improvement projects (n = 80) conducted in the Veterans Health Administration. In each project, identical 77-item ORCA instruments were administered to one or more staff from each facility involved in quality improvement projects. Items were organized into 19 subscales and three primary scales corresponding to the core elements of the PARIHS framework: (1) Strength and extent of evidence for the clinical practice changes represented by the QI program, assessed with four subscales, (2) Quality of the organizational context for the QI program, assessed with six subscales, and (3) Capacity for internal facilitation of the QI program, assessed with nine subscales. Cronbach's alpha for scale reliability were 0.74, 0.85 and 0.95 for the evidence, context and facilitation scales, respectively. The evidence scale and its three constituent subscales failed to meet the conventional threshold of 0.80 for reliability, and three individual items were eliminated from evidence subscales following reliability testing. In exploratory factor analysis, three factors were retained. Seven of the nine facilitation subscales loaded onto the first factor; five of the six context subscales loaded onto the second factor; and the three evidence subscales loaded on the third factor. Two subscales failed to load significantly on any factor. One measured resources

End-stage dementia spark of life: reliability and validity of the "GATOS" questionnaire.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsoucalas, Gregory; Bourelia, Stamati; Kalogirou, Vaso; Giatsiou, Styliani; Mavrogiannaki, Eirini; Gatos, Georgios; Galanos, Antonis; Repana, Olga; Iliadou, Eleni; Antoniou, Antonis; Sgantzos, Markos; Gatos, Konstantinos

2015-01-01

Fl oor effects are present in most dementia assessment tools as dementia progresses and the in-depth assessment of patients considered more or less on vegetative state is questionable. To develop a questionnaire (the "Gatos Clinical Test-GCT") for the assessment of end-stage demented patients. Five hundred patients with dementia of various causes and an MMSE score between 0 and 2 were enrolled in the study. The GCT consists of 14 closed type questions rated on a Likert scale. The total score is used to evaluate patient's dementia. Various aspects of validity and reliability (including face, content and structural validity as well as test-retest reliability) were examined. Three subscales "Autonomy/Alertness", "Gnosias" and "Somatokinetic function" were defined, with a Cronbach equal to 0.851, 0.756 and 0.598 respectively. The GCT subscales and total score were statistically significant higher in patients with MMSE score 1 or 2 compared with those with MMSE score 0 (pGATOS" questionnaire is a valid and reliable test for patients with severe dementia, aiming at identification of those patients who could sustain some quality of life. It is a relatively short and easy to administer tool. As dementia prevalence is expected to rise further worldwide we believe that GCT could offer valuable services to health professionals, caregivers and patients.

Improved FTA methodology and application to subsea pipeline reliability design.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Jing; Yuan, Yongbo; Zhang, Mingyuan

2014-01-01

An innovative logic tree, Failure Expansion Tree (FET), is proposed in this paper, which improves on traditional Fault Tree Analysis (FTA). It describes a different thinking approach for risk factor identification and reliability risk assessment. By providing a more comprehensive and objective methodology, the rather subjective nature of FTA node discovery is significantly reduced and the resulting mathematical calculations for quantitative analysis are greatly simplified. Applied to the Useful Life phase of a subsea pipeline engineering project, the approach provides a more structured analysis by constructing a tree following the laws of physics and geometry. Resulting improvements are summarized in comparison table form.

Subscale Flight Testing for Aircraft Loss of Control: Accomplishments and Future Directions

Science.gov (United States)

Cox, David E.; Cunningham, Kevin; Jordan, Thomas L.

2012-01-01

Subscale flight-testing provides a means to validate both dynamic models and mitigation technologies in the high-risk flight conditions associated with aircraft loss of control. The Airborne Subscale Transport Aircraft Research (AirSTAR) facility was designed to be a flexible and efficient research facility to address this type of flight-testing. Over the last several years (2009-2011) it has been used to perform 58 research flights with an unmanned, remotely-piloted, dynamically-scaled airplane. This paper will present an overview of the facility and its architecture and summarize the experimental data collected. All flights to date have been conducted within visual range of a safety observer. Current plans for the facility include expanding the test volume to altitudes and distances well beyond visual range. The architecture and instrumentation changes associated with this upgrade will also be presented.

Evaluating validity and reliability of Persian version of Supports Intensity Scale in adults with intellectual disability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shahin Soltani

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Background: Shifting paradigms regarding the ways to assess the support needs of people with intellectual disability in 1980 necessitates the design and development of appropriate tools more than ever. In this regard, American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD developed Supports Intensity Scale (SIS to respond the lack of an appropriate measurement tool. The aim of this study is the cultural adaptation and evaluation of psychometric properties of Supports Intensity Scale in adults with intellectual disability. Methods: Validity of Persian version of SIS was assessed by Content validity. The reliability of the scale was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha and test–retest reliability with a 3-week interval. In this study, the sample contained 43 adults (29 men and 14 women with intellectual disability. Results: The content of the Persian version of SIS was approved by the experts. The Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficients for the subscales ranged between 0.80 and 0.99. Also, Intraclass correlation coefficients ranged between 0.90 and 0.99 (P<0.001. Furthermore, all Pearson correlation coefficients among the SIS subscales ranged between 0.63 and 0.98 (P<0.01. Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that the validity and reliability of the equivalent Persian version of SIS for identifying pattern and required supports intensity in adults with intellectual disability is acceptable.

Attitude Control of Quad-rotor by Improving the Reliability of Multi-Sensor System

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yu, Dong Hyeon; Chong, Kil To [Chon-bok National University, Jeonju (Korea, Republic of); Park, Jong Ho [Seonam University, Namwon (Korea, Republic of); Ryu, Ji Hyoung [ETRI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2015-05-15

This paper presents the results of study for improving the reliability of quadrotor attitude control by applying a multi-sensor along with a data fusion algorithm. First, a mathematical model of the quadrotor dynamics was developed. Then, using the quadrotor mathematical model, simulations were performed using the improved reliability multi-sensor data as the inputs. From the simulation results, we designed a Gimbal-equipped quadrotor system. With the quadrotor in a hover state, we performed experiments according to the angle change of the user's specifications . We then calculated the attitude control data from the actual experimental data. Furthermore, with additional simulations, we verified the performance of the designed quadrotor attitude control system with multiple sensors.

Reliability improvement: where do we go from here. The role of codes and standards

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Davidson, R.H.

1976-01-01

The role of codes and standards in contributing to the future improvement is discussed. The Nuclear Plant Reliability Data System is examined. It is suggested that two systems of the type are needed. One system should focus on component and system reliability while the other should focus on system availability, capacity factor, and fixed outage rate assessment

Psychometric Properties of an Instrument to Measure Mother-Infant Togetherness After Childbirth.

Science.gov (United States)

Lawrence, Carol L; Norris, Anne E

2016-01-01

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the psychometric properties of a new instrument to measure mother-infant togetherness, Mother-Infant Togetherness Survey (MITS). Stage 1 examined content validity. Stage 2 pretested the readability and understandability and further examined content validity. Stage 3 examined women's ability to accurately self-report on the Delivery Events subscale. Stages 4 and 5 examined construct validity. Good content validity was obtained at the scale/subscale level (CVI = .91-1.00). Internal consistency reliability was evaluated at the scale/subscale level (α = .62-.89). Construct validity was supported with known groups testing and factor analysis. Study findings provide support for the reliability and validity of the MITS. Future research should be done to improve the internal consistency reliability of the Postpartum Events subscale.

Reliability and validity of a survey to measure bowel function and quality of life in long-term rectal cancer survivors.

Science.gov (United States)

Wendel, Christopher S; Grant, Marcia; Herrinton, Lisa; Temple, Larissa K F; Hornbrook, Mark C; McMullen, Carmit K; Bulkley, Joanna E; Altschuler, Andrea; Krouse, Robert S

2014-12-01

Examination of reliability and validity of a specialized health-related quality of life questionnaire for rectal cancer (RC) survivors (≥5 years post-diagnosis). We mailed 1,063 Kaiser Permanente (KP) RC survivors (313 ostomy and 750 anastomosis) a questionnaire containing the Modified City of Hope Quality of Life-Ostomy (mCOH-QOL-O), SF-12v2, Duke-UNC Functional Social Support Questionnaire (FSSQ), and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Bowel Function Index (BFI). We adapted certain BFI items for use by subjects with intestinal ostomies. We evaluated reliability for all instruments with inter-item correlations and Cronbach's alpha. We assessed construct validity only for the BFI in the ostomy group, because such use has not been reported. The overall response rate was 60.5 % (577 respondents/953 eligible). Compared with non-responders, participants were on average 2 years younger and more likely non-Hispanic white, resided in educationally non-deprived areas, and had KP membership through a group. The mCOH-QOL-O, SF-12, and FSSQ were found to be highly reliable for RC survivors. In the ostomy group, BFI Urgency/Soilage and Dietary subscales were found to be reliable, but Frequency was not. Factor analysis supported the construct of Urgency/Soilage and Dietary subscales in the ostomy group, although one item had a moderate correlation with all three factors. The BFI also demonstrated good concurrent validity with other instruments in the ostomy group. With possible exception of the BFI Frequency subscale in populations with ostomies, components of our survey can be used for the entire population of RC survivors, no matter whether they received anastomosis or ostomy.

Cross-Cultural Adaptation, Validation, and Reliability Testing of the Modified Oswestry Disability Questionnaire in Persian Population with Low Back Pain.

Science.gov (United States)

Baradaran, Aslan; Ebrahimzadeh, Mohammad H; Birjandinejad, Ali; Kachooei, Amir Reza

2016-04-01

Prospective study. We aimed to validate the Persian version of the modified Oswestry disability questionnaire (MODQ) in patients with low back pain. Modified Oswestry low back pain disability questionnaire is a well-known condition-specific outcome measure that helps quantify disability in patients with lumbar syndromes. To test the validity in a pilot study, the Persian MODQ was administered to 25 individuals with low back pain. We then enrolled 200 consecutive patients with low back pain to fill the Persian MODQ as well as the short form 36 (SF-36) questionnaire. Convergent validity of the MODQ was tested using the Spearman's correlation coefficient between the MODQ and SF-36 subscales. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Cronbach's α coefficient were measured to test the reliability between test and retest and internal consistency of all items, respectively. ICC for individual items ranged from 0.43 to 0.80 showing good reliability and reproducibility of each individual item. Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.69 showing good internal consistency across all 10 items of the Persian MODQ. Total MODQ score showed moderate to strong correlation with the eight subscales and the two domains of the SF-36. The highest correlation was between the MODQ and the physical functioning subscale of the SF-36 (r=-0.54, pPersian version of the MODQ is a valid and reliable tool for the assessment of the disability following low back pain.

The development, validity, and reliability of the Addiction Profile Index (API).

Science.gov (United States)

Ögel, Kültegin; Evren, Cüneyt; Karadağ, Figen; Gürol, Defne Tamar

2012-01-01

The objective of this study was to develop a practical questionnaire for multidimensional assessment of problems associated with alcohol and substance abuse that would also be useful for treatment planning. The Addiction Profile Index (API) is a self-report questionnaire consisting of 37 items and the following 5 subscales: characteristics of substance use; dependency diagnosis; the effects of subsance use on the user; craving; motivation to quit using substances. The study included 345 alcohol and/or substance abusers from 2 addiction treatment clinics and a prison addiction service. The validity of the questionnaire was assessed using the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST), Readiness to Change Questionnaire (SOCRATES), Penn Alcohol Craving Scale (PACS), Drug Craving Scale (DCS), Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I), and Addiction Severity Index (ASI). The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the total API was 0.89 and for the subscales it ranged from 0.63 to 0.86. Item-total correlation coefficients ranged from 0.42 to 0.89. The Spearman Brown split-half method coefficient for the total API was 0.83. In all, 4 factors were obtained using explanatory factor analysis that represented 52.3% of the total variance. The API craving subscale was observed to be consistent with PACS and the API motivation subscale was consistent with SOCRATES. The API total score was strongly correlated with the mean MAST score, and the composite ASI medical status, substance use, legal status, and family social relations subscale scores. Based on ROC analyses, the area under curve was 0.90. With a total API cut-off score of 4, the scale's sensitivity and specificity 0.85 was 0.78, respectively. The findings show that the API is a valid and reliable questionnaire that can be used to measure the severity of different dimensions of substance dependency.

Reliability

OpenAIRE

Condon, David; Revelle, William

2017-01-01

Separating the signal in a test from the irrelevant noise is a challenge for all measurement. Low test reliability limits test validity, attenuates important relationships, and can lead to regression artifacts. Multiple approaches to the assessment and improvement of reliability are discussed. The advantages and disadvantages of several different approaches to reliability are considered. Practical advice on how to assess reliability using open source software is provided.

Characteristic deterioration of ADAS-Jcog subscale scores and correlations with regional cerebral blood flow reductions in Alzheimer's disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Yoshii, Fumihito; Kawaguchi, Chikako; Kohara, Saori; Shimizu, Mie; Onaka, Hiroe; Ryo, Masafuchi; Takahashi, Wakoh

2018-05-01

The Alzheimer Disease Assessment Scale (Japanese version) cognitive subscale (ADAS-Jcog) is composed of a number of subscale tasks. However, it is not clear which subscale tasks are most susceptible to impairment in Alzheimer's disease (AD) or what is the relationship between reduction in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and decreased ADAS-Jcog scores. Subjects were 32 AD patients, aged 52-86 years. We examined the relationship between subscale tasks that showed marked score changes and brain regions that showed reduced rCBF over a 2-year period. rCBF was measured by single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) with technetium-99m ethyl cysteinate dimer ( 99m Tc-ECD), and the SPECT imaging data were analyzed with the easy Z-score imaging system (eZIS) and voxel-based stereotactic extraction estimation (vbSEE) methods. Total score of ADAS-Jcog deteriorated from 19.5 ± 7.0 to 35.7 ± 15.2 after 2 years. Subscale scores were significantly worse in all fields, particularly in orientation, word recall, remembering test instructions, commands, constructional praxis, and ideational praxis, in that order. Significant correlations were found between (1) word recall and commands and rCBF in the left middle temporal lobe, (2) naming objects/fingers and rCBF in the left temporal (middle, inferior) lobe, and (3) constructional and ideational praxis and rCBF in the right parietal (superior, inferior) lobe, temporal (superior, middle) lobe, angular gyrus, and cingulate gyrus. We identified the brain regions associated with specifically impaired subscales of ADAS-Jcog during progressive deterioration of AD over 2 years.

Improved Yield, Performance and Reliability of High-Actuator-Count Deformable Mirrors, Phase I

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The project team will conduct processing and design research aimed at improving yield, performance, and reliability of high-actuator-count micro-electro-mechanical...

A more in-depth interpretation of MMPI-2 in MS patients by using Harris and Lingoes subscales.

Science.gov (United States)

Incerti, Chiara C; Argento, Ornella; Pisani, Valerio; Magistrale, Giuseppe; Sabatello, Ugo; Caltagirone, Carlo; Nocentini, Ugo

2017-01-01

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is frequently associated with neuropsychiatric abnormalities. The aim of our study was to discriminate between psychosomatic disturbances and MS physically-related symptoms using the Harris-Lingoes subscales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2). Forty-six MS out-patients (35 females; mean age = 44.5); and 82 healthy volunteers (62 females; mean age = 46.5) were evaluated with MMPI-2 questionnaire. The frequency distribution of MMPI-2 clinical scales with high scores (> = 65) and the related Harris-Lingoes subscales were analyzed for both MS patients and healthy control subjects. Data analysis showed elevated scores in 47.8% of the patients mainly on MMPI-2 clinical scales 1, 2, and 3. The Harris-Lingoes subscales analysis allowed us to isolate and identify physical symptoms contributing to elevation of MMPI-2 clinical scales, reduce the occurrence of false positives (MMPI-2 clinical scales elevations mainly due to MS physical disability) and provide a more detailed description of psycho-emotional symptoms of MS patients. In conclusion, our study shows the utility of Harris-Lingoes subscales analysis when MMPI-2 is used for psychological assessment of MS patients.

Reliability and Validity of Modified Service Quality Instrument (SERVQUAL) in Patients' Motivation to Adhere to Insulin Therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Jakupovic, Vedran; Solakovic, Suajb; Celebic, Nedim; Kulovic, Dzenan

2018-03-01

Diabetes is progressive condition which requires various ways of treatment. Adequate therapy prescribed in the right time helps patient to postpone development of complications. Adherence to complicated therapy is challenge for both patients and HCPs and is subject of research in many disciplines. Improvement in communication between HCP and patients is very important in patient's adherence to therapy. Aim of this research was to explore validity and reliability of modified SERVQUAL instrument in attempt to explore ways of motivating diabetic patient to accept prescribed insulin therapy. We used modified SERVQUAL questionnaire as instrument in the research. It was necessary to check validity and reliability of the new modified instrument. Results show that modified Servqual instrument has excellent reliability (α=0.908), so we could say that it measures precisely Expectations, Perceptions and Motivation at patients. Factor analysis (EFA method) with Varimax rotation extracted 4 factors which together explain 52.902% variance of the results on this subscale. Bifactorial solution could be seen on Scree-plot diagram (break at second factor). Results in this research show that modified Servqual instrument which is created in order to measure expectations and perceptions of the patients is valid and reliable. Reliability and validity are proven indeed in additional dimension which was created originally for this research - motivation to accept insulin therapy.

Reliability and Validity of Modified Service Quality Instrument (SERVQUAL) in Patients’ Motivation to Adhere to Insulin Therapy

Science.gov (United States)

Jakupovic, Vedran; Solakovic, Suajb; Celebic, Nedim; Kulovic, Dzenan

2018-01-01

Introduction: Diabetes is progressive condition which requires various ways of treatment. Adequate therapy prescribed in the right time helps patient to postpone development of complications. Adherence to complicated therapy is challenge for both patients and HCPs and is subject of research in many disciplines. Improvement in communication between HCP and patients is very important in patient’s adherence to therapy. Aim: Aim of this research was to explore validity and reliability of modified SERVQUAL instrument in attempt to explore ways of motivating diabetic patient to accept prescribed insulin therapy. Material and Methods: We used modified SERVQUAL questionnaire as instrument in the research. It was necessary to check validity and reliability of the new modified instrument. Results: Results show that modified Servqual instrument has excellent reliability (α=0.908), so we could say that it measures precisely Expectations, Perceptions and Motivation at patients. Factor analysis (EFA method) with Varimax rotation extracted 4 factors which together explain 52.902% variance of the results on this subscale. Bifactorial solution could be seen on Scree-plot diagram (break at second factor). Conclusion: Results in this research show that modified Servqual instrument which is created in order to measure expectations and perceptions of the patients is valid and reliable. Reliability and validity are proven indeed in additional dimension which was created originally for this research - motivation to accept insulin therapy. PMID:29670478

Evaluation of Smart Grid Technologies Employed for System Reliability Improvement: Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Experience

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Agalgaonkar, Yashodhan P.; Hammerstrom, Donald J.

2017-06-01

The Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration (PNWSGD) was a smart grid technology performance evaluation project that included multiple U.S. states and cooperation from multiple electric utilities in the northwest region. One of the local objectives for the project was to achieve improved distribution system reliability. Toward this end, some PNWSGD utilities automated their distribution systems, including the application of fault detection, isolation, and restoration and advanced metering infrastructure. In light of this investment, a major challenge was to establish a correlation between implementation of these smart grid technologies and actual improvements of distribution system reliability. This paper proposes using Welch’s t-test to objectively determine and quantify whether distribution system reliability is improving over time. The proposed methodology is generic, and it can be implemented by any utility after calculation of the standard reliability indices. The effectiveness of the proposed hypothesis testing approach is demonstrated through comprehensive practical results. It is believed that wider adoption of the proposed approach can help utilities to evaluate a realistic long-term performance of smart grid technologies.

Psychometric validation of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (SCL-90) subscales for depression, anxiety, and interpersonal sensitivity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bech, P; Bille, J; Møller, S B

2014-01-01

BACKGROUND: The psychometric validity of many subscales of the 90-item Hopkins Symptom Checklist (SCL-90) remains largely unknown. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the "Hamilton-subscales" for depression (SCL-D16), anxiety (SCL-A14), their 6......-item core-measures (SCL-D6 and SCL-A6), the anxiety symptom scale (SCL-ASS8) and the interpersonal sensitivity scale (IPS5). METHODS: The psychometric properties of the SCL-D16, SCL-A14, SCL-D6, SCL-A6, SCL-ASS8, and the IPS5 were evaluated based on SCL-90 ratings from 850 day patients from a Danish...... SCL-90 subscales were identified. Using these scales it is possible to perform a psychometrically valid evaluation of psychiatric patients regarding the severity of depression (HAM-D6), specific anxiety (SCL-ASS8) and interpersonal sensitivity (IPS5)....

Reliability and validity of the Nurse Practitioners' Roles and Competencies Scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Li-Chun; Lee, Sheuan; Ueng, Steve Wen-Neng; Tang, Woung-Ru

2016-01-01

The objective of this study was to test the reliability and construct validity of the Nurse Practitioners' Roles and Competencies Scale. The role of nurse practitioners has attracted international attention. The advanced nursing role played by nurse practitioners varies with national conditions and medical environments. To date, no suitable measurement tool has been available for assessing the roles and competencies of nurse practitioners in Asian countries. Secondary analysis of data from three studies related to nurse practitioners' role competencies. We analysed data from 563 valid questionnaires completed in three studies to identify the factor structure of the Nurse Practitioners' Roles and Competencies Scale. To this end, we performed exploratory factor analysis using principal component analysis extraction with varimax orthogonal rotation. The internal consistency reliabilities of the overall scale and its subscales were examined using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The scale had six factors: professionalism, direct care, clinical research, practical guidance, medical assistance, as well as leadership and reform. These factors explained 67·5% of the total variance in nurse practitioners' role competencies. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the overall scale was 0·98, and those of its subscales ranged from 0·83-0·97. The internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the Nurse Practitioners' Roles and Competencies Scale were good. The high internal consistency reliabilities suggest item redundancy, which should be minimised by using item response theory to enhance the applicability of this questionnaire for future academic and clinical studies. The Nurse Practitioners' Roles and Competencies Scale can be used as a tool for assessing the roles and competencies of nurse practitioners in Taiwan. Our findings can also serve as a reference for other Asian countries to develop the nurse practitioner role. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Screening Test for Emotional Problems--Teacher-Report Version (Step-T): Studies of Reliability and Validity

Science.gov (United States)

Erford, Bradley T.; Butler, Caitlin; Peacock, Elizabeth

2015-01-01

The Screening Test for Emotional Problems-Teacher Version (STEP-T) was designed to identify students aged 7-17 years with wide-ranging emotional disturbances. Coefficients alpha and test-retest reliability were adequate for all subscales except Anxiety. The hypothesized five-factor model fit the data very well and external aspects of validity were…

Reliability of the SF-36 in Japanese patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and its associations with disease activity and damage: a two-consecutive year prospective study.

Science.gov (United States)

Baba, S; Katsumata, Y; Okamoto, Y; Kawaguchi, Y; Hanaoka, M; Kawasumi, H; Yamanaka, H

2018-03-01

We aimed to validate the reliability of the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 (SF-36) among Japanese patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Japanese patients with SLE ( n = 233) completed the SF-36 and other related demographic questionnaires, and physicians simultaneously completed the SLE Disease Activity Index 2000 (SLEDAI-2K) and the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics Damage Index (SDI). Patients were prospectively followed for a repeat assessment the following year. The SF-36 subscales demonstrated acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's α of 0.85-0.89), and an overall good test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient >0.70). The average baseline SF-36 subscale/summary scores except for "bodily pain" were significantly lower than those of the Japanese general population ( p 36 subscale/summary scores except for "vitality" and "mental component summary" at baseline, whereas the SLEDAI-2K did not. In the second year, "social functioning" and "mental component summary" of the SF-36 deteriorated among patients whose SDI or SLEDAI-2K score increased (effect sizes 36 demonstrated acceptable reliability among Japanese patients with SLE. Health-related quality of life measured by the SF-36 was reduced in Japanese patients with SLE and associated with disease damage, rather than disease activity.

Chilean experimental version of the State-Trait Depression Questionnaire (ST-DEP: Trait sub-scale (T-DEP

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pablo Vera-Villarroel

2008-01-01

Full Text Available This instrumental study presents the first validity and reliability data for the Trait subscale (T-DEP of the Chilean experimental version of the State and Trait Depression Inventory (ST-DEP: Euthymia and Dysthymia. The data were obtained from a sample of 300 university students. The internal consistency values for the TDEP were high (.90. The test-retest values from eight weeks time interval (fifty six days were elevated (.78. A factorial analysis of the principal components revealed a principal factor for all of the constructed items in this experimental version of the TDEP. The last, promax rotation showed two clear main factors similar in size: negative affectivity (Dysthymia and positive affectivity (Euthymia. The convergent validity indexes for the Beck Depression Inventory and the Zung Self Rating Depression Scale, were also high, with indexes ranging from .64 to .71. The correlation between State- Trait Anxiety Inventory and the depression scales used in this study was high (between .63 and .78, once again indicating the usual overlapping between anxiety and depression seen in most depression inventories.

Levodopa responsiveness of dysphagia in advanced Parkinson's disease and reliability testing of the FEES-Levodopa-test.

Science.gov (United States)

Warnecke, Tobias; Suttrup, Inga; Schröder, Jens B; Osada, Nani; Oelenberg, Stephan; Hamacher, Christina; Suntrup, Sonja; Dziewas, Rainer

2016-07-01

It is still controversially discussed whether central dopaminergic stimulation improves swallowing ability in Parkinson's disease (PD). We evaluated the effect of oral levodopa application on dysphagia in advanced PD patients with motor fluctuations. In 15 PD patients (mean age 71.93 ± 8.29 years, mean disease duration 14.33 ± 5.94 years) with oropharyngeal dysphagia and motor fluctuations endoscopic swallowing evaluation was performed in the off state and on state condition following a specifically developed protocol (FEES-levodopa-test). The respective dysphagia score covered three salient parameters, i. e. premature spillage, penetration/aspiration events and residues, each tested with liquid as well as semisolid and solid food consistencies. An improvement of >30% in this score indicated levodopa responsiveness of dysphagia. Measures were compared between the off- and on-state condition by using the Wilcoxon Test and marginal homogeneity test. Inter- and intrarater reliability was also investigated. Severity of swallowing dysfunction in the off state varied widely. The lowest dysphagia score was 15 points (dysphagia without any aspiration risk). The highest dysphagia score was 84 points (dysphagia with aspiration of all consistencies). Seven patients showed a marked improvement of dysphagia in the on state condition. Eight PD patients did not respond. Inter- and intrarater reliability was excellent for all three subscales in the off state and on state conditions. A significant proportion of advanced PD patients with motor fluctuations and mild to moderate oropharyngeal dysphagia may demonstrate a clinically relevant improvement of swallowing after levodopa challenge. The FEES-levodopa-test is a reliable and sensitive tool to differentiate these responders from non-responders. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Self-esteem among nursing assistants: reliability and validity of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale.

Science.gov (United States)

McMullen, Tara; Resnick, Barbara

2013-01-01

To establish the reliability and validity of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) when used with nursing assistants (NAs). Testing the RSES used baseline data from a randomized controlled trial testing the Res-Care Intervention. Female NAs were recruited from nursing homes (n = 508). Validity testing for the positive and negative subscales of the RSES was based on confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using structural equation modeling and Rasch analysis. Estimates of reliability were based on Rasch analysis and the person separation index. Evidence supports the reliability and validity of the RSES in NAs although we recommend minor revisions to the measure for subsequent use. Establishing reliable and valid measures of self-esteem in NAs will facilitate testing of interventions to strengthen workplace self-esteem, job satisfaction, and retention.

Advancements in valve technology and industry lessons lead to improved plant reliability and cost savings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sharma, V.; Kalsi, M.S.

2005-01-01

Plant reliability and safety hinges on the proper functioning of several valves. Recent advancements in valve technology have resulted in new analytical and test methods for evaluating and improving valve and actuator reliability. This is especially significant in critical service applications in which the economic impact of a valve failure on production, outage schedules and consequential damages far surpasses the initial equipment purchase price. This paper presents an overview of recent advances in valve technology driven by reliability concerns and cost savings objectives without comprising safety in the Nuclear Power Industry. This overview is based on over 27 years of experience in supporting US and International nuclear power utilities, and contributing to EPRI, and NSSS Owners' Groups in developing generic models/methodologies to address industry wide issues; performing design basis reviews; and implementing plant-wide valve reliability improvement programs. Various analytical prediction software and hardware solutions and training seminars are now available to implement valve programs covering power plants' lifecycle from the construction phase through life extension and power up rate. These tools and methodologies can enhance valve-engineering activities including the selection, sizing, proper application, condition monitoring, failure analysis, and condition based maintenance optimization with a focus on potential bad actors. This paper offers two such examples, the Kalsi Valve and Actuator Program (KVAP) and Check Valve Analysis and Prioritization (CVAP) [1-3, 8, 9, 11-13]. The advanced, validated torque prediction models incorporated into KVAP software for AOVs and MOVs have improved reliability of margin predictions and enabled cost savings through elimination of unwarranted equipment modifications. CVAP models provides a basis to prioritize the population of valves recommended for preventive maintenance, inspection and/or modification, allowing

Effect of the temperature and dew point of the decarburization process on the oxide subscale of a 3% silicon steel

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cesar, Maria das Gracas M.M. E-mail: gracamelo@acesita.com.br; Mantel, Marc J

2003-01-01

The oxide subscale formed on the decarburization annealing of 3% Si-Fe was investigated using microscopy and spectroscopy techniques. It was found that the morphology as well as the molecular structure of the subscale are affected by temperature and dew point. The results suggest that there is an optimum level of internal oxidation and an optimum fayalite/silica ratio in the subscale to achieve a oriented grain silicon steel having a continuous and smooth ceramic film and low core loss.

Reliability of self-rated tinnitus distress and association with psychological symptom patterns.

Science.gov (United States)

Hiller, W; Goebel, G; Rief, W

1994-05-01

Psychological complaints were investigated in two samples of 60 and 138 in-patients suffering from chronic tinnitus. We administered the Tinnitus Questionnaire (TQ), a 52-item self-rating scale which differentiates between dimensions of emotional and cognitive distress, intrusiveness, auditory perceptual difficulties, sleep disturbances and somatic complaints. The test-retest reliability was .94 for the TQ global score and between .86 and .93 for subscales. Three independent analyses were conducted to estimate the split-half reliability (internal consistency) which was only slightly lower than the test-retest values for scales with a relatively small number of items. Reliability was sufficient also on the level of single items. Low correlation between the TQ and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R) indicate a distinct quality of tinnitus-related and general psychological disturbances.

Subscales correlations between MSSS-88 and PRISM scales in evaluation of spasticity for patients with multiple sclerosis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Knežević Tatjana

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction/Objective. Patient-reported outcomes have been recognized as an important way of assessing health and well-being of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS. The aim of the study is to determine the correlation between different subscales of Patient-Reported Impact of Spasticity Measure (PRISM and Multiple Sclerosis Spasticity Scale (MSSS-88 scales in the estimation of spasticity influence on different domains Methods. The study is a cross-sectional observational study. MSSS-88 and PRISM scales were analyzed in five domains (body-function domain, activity domain, participation domain, personal factors/wellbeing domain, and hypothesis. For statistical interpretation of the correlation we performed the Spearman’s ρ-test, concurrent validity, divergent validity, and the linear regression model. Results. We found a significant correlation between subscales of evaluated MSSS-88 and PRISM scales for body domains; the highest correlation was between the need for assistance/positioning (NA/P and walking (W. Spasticity has the weakest correlation with the need for intervention (NI. The presence of pain has a negative impact and significant positive correlation between pain discomfort and NI. In the domain of body function for males, there was a non-significant correlation between muscle spasms and NI. The same applies for social functioning and social embarrassment domains, as well as for emotional health and psychological agitation for personal factors / wellbeing domain. The differences between genders of MS patients persist in different domains; muscle spasms are strong predictors for NI, and body movement is a strong predictor versus W for NA/P. Conclusion. MSSS-88 and PRISM scales can be considered reliable in measuring different domains of disability for MS patients with spasticity. Because it is shorter, quicker, and simple to use, it is concluded that the PRISM scale can successfully compete with and replace the MSSS-88 scale in

Active Thermal Control for Reliability Improvement of MOS-gated Power Devices

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Soldati, Alessandro; Concari, Carlo; Dossena, Fabrizio

2017-01-01

reliability and lifetime. These figures can then be improved, which eases the adoption of electrification in markets, such as transportation, where they are still below target values. The proposed ATC method leaves electric load parameters untouched, while acting dynamically on gate parameters, namely voltage...... and resistance. A model-predictive control (MPC) strategy is used to determine the most suitable parameters to use. Simulations of the control scheme are presented first, to predict the potential benefits on temperature swing amplitude, and the consequent improvements in terms of device lifetime are inferred...

Improved reliability of residential heat pumps; Foerbaettrad driftsaekerhet hos villavaermepumpar

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Haglund Stignor, Caroline; Larsson, Kristin; Jensen, Sara; Larsson, Johan; Berg, Johan; Lidbom, Peter; Rolfsman, Lennart

2012-07-01

Today, heat pump heating systems are common in Swedish single-family houses. Many owners are pleased with their installation, but statistics show that a certain number of heat pumps break every year, resulting in high costs for both insurance companies and owners. On behalf of Laensfoersaekringars Forskningsfond, SP Energy Technology has studied the cause of the most common failures for residential heat pumps. The objective of the study was to suggest what measures to be taken to reduce the number of failures, i.e. improving the reliability of heat pumps. The methods used were analysis of public failure statistics and sales statistics and interviews with heat pump manufacturers, installers, service representatives and assessors at Laensfoersaekringar. In addition, heat pump manuals have been examined and literature searches for various methods for durability tests have been performed. Based on the outcome from the interviews the most common failures were categorized by if they; 1. Could have been prevented by better operation and maintenance of the heat pump. 2. Caused by a poorly performed installation. 3. Could have been prevented if certain parameters had been measured, recorded and followed up. 4. Are due to poor quality of components or systems. However, the results show that many of the common failures fall into several different categories and therefore, different types of measures must be taken to improve the operational reliability of residential heat pumps. The interviews tell that failures often are caused by poor installation, neglected maintenance and surveillance, and poor quality of standard components or that components are used outside their declared operating range. The quality of the installations could be improved by increasing installers' knowledge about heat pumps and by requiring that an installation protocol shall be filled-in. It is also important that the owner of the heat pump performs the preventive maintenance recommended by the

Improved reliability of residential heat pumps; Foerbaettrad driftsaekerhet hos villavaermepumpar

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Haglund Stignor, Caroline; Larsson, Kristin; Jensen, Sara; Larsson, Johan; Berg, Johan; Lidbom, Peter; Rolfsman, Lennart

2012-07-01

Today, heat pump heating systems are common in Swedish single-family houses. Many owners are pleased with their installation, but statistics show that a certain number of heat pumps break every year, resulting in high costs for both insurance companies and owners. On behalf of Laensfoersaekringars Forskningsfond, SP Energy Technology has studied the cause of the most common failures for residential heat pumps. The objective of the study was to suggest what measures to be taken to reduce the number of failures, i.e. improving the reliability of heat pumps. The methods used were analysis of public failure statistics and sales statistics and interviews with heat pump manufacturers, installers, service representatives and assessors at Laensfoersaekringar. In addition, heat pump manuals have been examined and literature searches for various methods for durability tests have been performed. Based on the outcome from the interviews the most common failures were categorized by if they; 1. Could have been prevented by better operation and maintenance of the heat pump. 2. Caused by a poorly performed installation. 3. Could have been prevented if certain parameters had been measured, recorded and followed up. 4. Are due to poor quality of components or systems. However, the results show that many of the common failures fall into several different categories and therefore, different types of measures must be taken to improve the operational reliability of residential heat pumps. The interviews tell that failures often are caused by poor installation, neglected maintenance and surveillance, and poor quality of standard components or that components are used outside their declared operating range. The quality of the installations could be improved by increasing installers' knowledge about heat pumps and by requiring that an installation protocol shall be filled-in. It is also important that the owner of the heat pump performs the preventive maintenance recommended by the

Reliability-Based Design Optimization of Trusses with Linked-Discrete Design Variables using the Improved Firefly Algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. M. Okasha

2016-04-01

Full Text Available In this paper, an approach for conducting a Reliability-Based Design Optimization (RBDO of truss structures with linked-discrete design variables is proposed. The sections of the truss members are selected from the AISC standard tables and thus the design variables that represent the properties of each section are linked. Latin hypercube sampling is used in the evaluation of the structural reliability. The improved firefly algorithm is used for the optimization solution process. It was found that in order to use the improved firefly algorithm for efficiently solving problems of reliability-based design optimization with linked-discrete design variables; it needs to be modified as proposed in this paper to accelerate its convergence.

Use of the ICU Nurse-Physician Questionnaire (ICU N-P-Q): testing reliability and validity in neonatal intensive care units in Japan.

Science.gov (United States)

Sasaki, Hatoko; Yonemoto, Naohiro; Mori, Rintaro; Nishida, Toshihiko; Kusuda, Satoshi; Nakayama, Takeo

2016-05-09

Although communication among health providers has become a critical part of improving quality of care, few studies on this topic have been conducted in Japan. This study aimed to examine the reliability and validity of the Intensive Care Unit Nurse-Physician Questionnaire (ICU N-P-Q) for use among nurses and physicians in neonatal ICUs (NICUs) in Japan. A Japanese translation of the ICU N-P-Q was administered to physicians and nurses working at 40 NICUs across Japan, which were participating in the Improvement of NICU Practice and Team Approach Cluster randomized controlled trial (INTACT). We used the principal components analysis to evaluate the factor structure of the instruments. Convergent validity was assessed by examining correlations between the subscales of Communication and Conflict Management of the ICU N-P-Q and the subscales and total score of the Nurse-Physician Collaboration Scale (NPCS). Correlations between the subscales of Communication and Conflict Management by correlation with scales that refer to performance, including Job Satisfaction and Unit Effectiveness, were calculated to test the criterion validity. In total, 2006 questionnaires were completed by 316 physicians and 1690 nurses. The exploratory factor analysis revealed 15 factors in the physicians' questionnaire and 12 in the nurses' questionnaire. Convergent validity was confirmed, except for 'Between-group Accuracy' and 'Cooperativeness' in the physicians' scale, and for 'Between-group Accuracy' and 'Sharing of Patient Information' in the nurses' scale. Correlations between the subscales of communication and outcomes were confirmed in the nurses' questionnaire but were not fully supported in the physicians' questionnaire. Although the psychometric property behaved somewhat differently by occupation, the present findings provide preliminary support for the utility of the common item structure with the original scale, to measure the degree and quality of communication and collaboration

Improved Reliability of SiC Pressure Sensors for Long Term High Temperature Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Okojie, R. S.; Nguyen, V.; Savrun, E.; Lukco, D.

2011-01-01

We report advancement in the reliability of silicon carbide pressure sensors operating at 600 C for extended periods. The large temporal drifts in zero pressure offset voltage at 600 C observed previously were significantly suppressed to allow improved reliable operation. This improvement was the result of further enhancement of the electrical and mechanical integrity of the bondpad/contact metallization, and the introduction of studded bump bonding on the pad. The stud bump contact promoted strong adhesion between the Au bond pad and the Au die-attach. The changes in the zero offset voltage and bridge resistance over time at temperature were explained by the microstructure and phase changes within the contact metallization, that were analyzed with Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM).

Photovoltaic module reliability improvement through application testing and failure analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Dumas, L. N.; Shumka, A.

1982-01-01

During the first four years of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Photovoltatic Program, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Low-Cost Solar Array (LSA) Project purchased about 400 kW of photovoltaic modules for test and experiments. In order to identify, report, and analyze test and operational problems with the Block Procurement modules, a problem/failure reporting and analysis system was implemented by the LSA Project with the main purpose of providing manufacturers with feedback from test and field experience needed for the improvement of product performance and reliability. A description of the more significant types of failures is presented, taking into account interconnects, cracked cells, dielectric breakdown, delamination, and corrosion. Current design practices and reliability evaluations are also discussed. The conducted evaluation indicates that current module designs incorporate damage-resistant and fault-tolerant features which address field failure mechanisms observed to date.

Improving the reliability of nuclear reprocessing by application of computers and mathematical modelling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gabowitsch, E.; Trauboth, H.

1982-01-01

After a brief survey of the present and expected future state of nuclear energy utilization, which should demonstrate the significance of nuclear reprocessing, safety and reliability aspects of nuclear reprocessing plants (NRP) are considered. Then, the principal possibilities of modern computer technology including computer systems architecture and application-oriented software for improving the reliability and availability are outlined. In this context, two information systems being developed at the Nuclear Research Center Karlsruhe (KfK) are briefly described. For design evaluation of certain areas of a large NRP mathematical methods and computer-aided tools developed, used or being designed by KfK are discussed. In conclusion, future research to be pursued in information processing and applied mathematics in support of reliable operation of NRP's is proposed. (Auth.)

Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale: Factor structure, reliability, and validity assessment in a sample of Greek breast cancer patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Kolokotroni, Philippa; Anagnostopoulos, Fotios; Missitzis, Ioannis

2017-07-01

The study and measurement of psychosocial adjustment is important for evaluating patients' well-being, and assessing the illness's course, treatment's success, and patients' recovery. In this study, internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the Greek version of the Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale-Self-Report (PAIS-SR) were examined. Demographic and psychosocial data were collected from a sample of 243 women with breast cancer, recruited from September 2011 to December 2012. With some exceptions in specific items, the original conceptually-derived PAIS-SR subscales emerged in a seven-factor solution. Social Environment, Job and Household Duties, and Psychological Distress accounted for more of the total variance than other subscales. PAIS-SR showed good internal consistency reliability, with Cronbach's alpha coefficients >0.62. Correlations of PAIS-SR domains with measures of quality of life and posttraumatic stress symptoms supported the convergent validity of the PAIS-SR and its significance for cancer research. The Greek version of the PAIS-SR has acceptable internal consistency reliability and construct validity, as well as satisfactory convergent validity. Results provide some suggestions for the development of programs to evaluate adjustment status and implement psychosocial interventions among breast cancer survivors.

Standardization of the Korean version of Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer (K-Mini-MAC) scale: factor structure, reliability and validity.

Science.gov (United States)

Kang, Jee In; Chung, Hyun Cheol; Kim, Se Joo; Choi, Hye Jin; Ahn, Joong Bae; Jeung, Hei-Cheul; Namkoong, Kee

2008-06-01

Mental adjustment and coping affect the physical outcome and survival as well as quality of life in cancer patients. The Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer (Mini-MAC) scale is a new refined, economical and reliable self-rating instrument measuring cognitive and behavioral responses to cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Mini-MAC in Korean cancer patients. A total of 208 cancer patients recruited from the Yonsei Cancer Center were assessed with the Mini-MAC and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Principal component analysis with varimax rotation for the Korean version of Mini-MAC (K-Mini-MAC) confirmed four factors. Three had psychometric properties similar to Helpless-Hopeless (HH), Anxious Preoccupation (AP) and Cognitive Avoidance (CA) of the original Mini-MAC. A novel factor, named Positive Attitude, included items of both Fatalism (FA) and Fighting Spirit (FS) from the original version. The five subscales from the original version (AP, HH, FS, FA and CA) and Positive Attitude had acceptable internal reliabilities in our sample (Cronbach's alpha coefficient 0.50-0.86; correlation coefficient of test-retest 0.68-0.88). For the validity, significant interscale correlation was observed in the original five subscales and Positive Attitude. Each subscale including Positive Attitude was also significantly related to Depression and Anxiety of HADS. As a whole, the K-Mini-MAC was a reliable, valid and acceptable tool for Korean cancer patients. These findings can provide information about the cross-cultural validity of Mini-MAC scale's factor structure. Cultural differences were also discussed.

Suncor maintenance and reliability

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Little, S. [Suncor Energy, Calgary, AB (Canada)

2006-07-01

Fleet maintenance and reliability at Suncor Energy was discussed in this presentation, with reference to Suncor Energy's primary and support equipment fleets. This paper also discussed Suncor Energy's maintenance and reliability standard involving people, processes and technology. An organizational maturity chart that graphed organizational learning against organizational performance was illustrated. The presentation also reviewed the maintenance and reliability framework; maintenance reliability model; the process overview of the maintenance and reliability standard; a process flow chart of maintenance strategies and programs; and an asset reliability improvement process flow chart. An example of an improvement initiative was included, with reference to a shovel reliability review; a dipper trip reliability investigation; bucket related failures by type and frequency; root cause analysis of the reliability process; and additional actions taken. Last, the presentation provided a graph of the results of the improvement initiative and presented the key lessons learned. tabs., figs.

Improving reliability in south Ajax with IntelliTEAM

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Starck, A.P. [Veridian Connections Inc., Ajax, ON (Canada)

2010-07-01

Veridian Connections Incorporated is a local electricity distribution company in Ontario that is faced with end of life feeder cables and an aging system. Most of the feeders are combined overhead and underground cables supplied from several substations with a limited transfer capability. The commercial activity in the utility's service area is intolerant to sustained outages. Although the initial plan was to replace the cables, capital and time constraints led the utility to chose the IntelliTEAM 2 system to improve reliability, by reducing the frequency, duration and impact of outages. The unique system is based on submersible switchgear, PulseClosing and includes the substation breakers as IntelliTEAM devices. The current plan to implement a smart grid turns sustained outages into momentary outages; reduces the number of customers affected by a sustained failure; improves the ability to transfer loads; and reduces stresses on aged cables. The self healing system restores customers in less than a minute and provides visibility to SCADA operators through a high speed SpeedNet radio system. tabs., figs.

Reliability of short form-36 in an Internet- and a pen-and-paper version

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Basnov, Maja; Kongsved, Sissel Marie; Bech, Per

2009-01-01

Use of Internet versions of questionnaires may have several advantages in clinical and epidemiological research, but we know little about if Internet versions differ with respect to validity and reliability. We aimed to compare Internet- and pen-and-paper versions of short form-36 (SF-36......) with respect to test-retest reliability and internal consistency. Women referred to mammography (n = 782) were randomised to receive either a paper version with a prepaid return envelope or a guideline on how to fill in the Internet version. A subgroup was asked to answer the questionnaire once again...... in the alternative version. Test-retest reliability was assessed by the intra-class correlation coefficient. Internal consistency was calculated as Cronbach's alpha. The between-version test-retest reliability for the eight subscales were between 0.63 and 0.92. Cronbach's alpha for the two versions were all between...

Residents’ Perceptions of Walkability Attributes in Mainland China: Reliability and Validity

Science.gov (United States)

Ye, Yang; Fei, Teng; Mei, Hongyuan

2017-12-01

To test the influence of urban built environment on walkability in mainland Chinese cities, this study developed a questionnaire to perceive the residents’ perception of walkability around their neighborhood, which was based on the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale-Abbreviated (NEWS-A), and modified to reflect the characteristics of mainland Chinese built environment and people’s behavior mode. To perceive the final version of Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale for Mainland China (NEWS-MC), We made a pilot study which include 50 samples, then interview 350 residents from 4 selected residential districts in Harbin which were different in walkability attributes and economic status. The final version of the NEWS-MC included 8 subscales and 5 single items (81 items in total). Test-retest reliability showed moderate to high except 1 subscale. In total, the NEWS-MC could illustrate residents’ perceptions of walkability attributes in mainland Chinese cities and could be use in other Chinese urban attributes studies related to walking.

Sleep and sleep disturbance in children: Reliability and validity of the Dutch version of the Child Sleep Habits Questionnaire.

Science.gov (United States)

Waumans, Ruth C; Terwee, Caroline B; Van den Berg, Gerrit; Knol, Dirk L; Van Litsenburg, Raphaële R L; Gemke, Reinoud J B J

2010-06-01

The Child Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ) was developed in the US for measuring medical and behavioral sleep disorders in school-aged children. This study was conducted to assess the reliability and structural validity of the Dutch version of the CSHQ. Population-based study. Questionnaires (n = 2385) were distributed to children in primary schools and daycare centers to be completed by the parent/guardian. An identical second questionnaire was distributed for test-retest and interobserver reliability, which were assessed using intraclass correlation, and compared with published data. Internal consistency was assessed by Cronbach alpha (per subscale). Validity was analyzed by confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis. School-aged children. None. The questionnaire was returned by 1502 (63%) parents, 47% returned the questionnaire for test-retest, and 32% for interobserver reliability. Test-retest reliability was moderate to good, ranging from 0.47 to 0.93. Interobserver reliability was moderate to good, ranging from 0.53 to 0.87, with the exception of Sleep duration. Cronbach alpha ranged from 0.47 to 0.68. In confirmatory factor analysis the domain structure of the original American CSHQ could not be confirmed. Exploratory factor analysis suggested a 4-factor structure rather than the original 8 domains. The CSHQ seems to have an adequate reliability and moderate internal consistency in a Dutch population with different sociocultural characteristics than the US population in which it was devised. Factor analysis suggests that translation, cultural background, or subscales of the original instrument may affect the performance of the CSHQ.

Orofacial pain during mastication in people with dementia : Reliability testing of the orofacial pain scale for non-verbal individuals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Vries, M.W.; Visscher, C.; Delwel, S.; van der Steen, J.T.; Pieper, M.J.C.; Scherder, E.J.A.; Achterberg, W.P.; Lobbezoo, F.

2016-01-01

Objectives. The aim of this study was to establish the reliability of the “chewing” subscale of the OPS-NVI, a novel tool designed to estimate presence and severity of orofacial pain in nonverbal patients. Methods. The OPS-NVI consists of 16 items for observed behavior, classified into four

[Reliability and validity of Driving Anger Scale in professional drivers in China].

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Z; Yang, Y M; Zhang, C; Li, Y; Hu, J; Gao, L W; Zhou, Y X; Zhang, X J

2017-11-10

Objective: To assess the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of Driving Anger Scale (DAS) in professional drivers in China and provide a scientific basis for the application of the scale in drivers in China. Methods: Professional drivers, including taxi drivers, bus drivers, truck drivers and school bus drivers, were selected to complete the questionnaire. Cronbach's α and split-half reliability were calculated to evaluate the reliability of DAS, and content, contract, discriminant and convergent validity were performed to measure the validity of the scale. Results: The overall Cronbach's α of DAS was 0.934 and the split-half reliability was 0.874. The correlation coefficient of each subscale with the total scale was 0.639-0.922. The simplified version of DAS supported a presupposed six-factor structure, explaining 56.371% of the total variance revealed by exploratory factor analysis. The DAS had good convergent and discriminant validity, with the success rate of calibration experiment of 100%. Conclusion: DAS has a good reliability and validity in professional drivers in China, and the use of DAS is worth promoting in divers.

Power electronics reliability analysis.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, Mark A.; Atcitty, Stanley

2009-12-01

This report provides the DOE and industry with a general process for analyzing power electronics reliability. The analysis can help with understanding the main causes of failures, downtime, and cost and how to reduce them. One approach is to collect field maintenance data and use it directly to calculate reliability metrics related to each cause. Another approach is to model the functional structure of the equipment using a fault tree to derive system reliability from component reliability. Analysis of a fictitious device demonstrates the latter process. Optimization can use the resulting baseline model to decide how to improve reliability and/or lower costs. It is recommended that both electric utilities and equipment manufacturers make provisions to collect and share data in order to lay the groundwork for improving reliability into the future. Reliability analysis helps guide reliability improvements in hardware and software technology including condition monitoring and prognostics and health management.

Reliability Improvement of Power Converters by Means of Condition Monitoring of IGBT Modules

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Choi, Ui Min; Blaabjerg, Frede; Jørgensen, S.

2017-01-01

Power electronic systems have gradually gained an important status in a wide range of industrial applications such as renewable generation, motor drives, automotive, and railway transportation. Accordingly, recent research makes an effort to improve the reliability of power electronic systems...

[Validity and Reliability of Korean Version of the Spiritual Care Competence Scale].

Science.gov (United States)

Chung, Mi Ja; Park, Youngrye; Eun, Young

2016-12-01

The aim of this study was to examine the validity and reliability of the Korean Version of the Spiritual Care Competence Scale (K-SCCS). A cross-sectional study design was used. The K-SCCS consisted of 26 questions to measure spiritual care competence of nurses. Participants, 228 nurses who had more than 3 years'experience as a nurse, completed the survey. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the construct validity and correlations of K-SCCS and spiritual well-being (SWB) were used to examine the criterion validity of K-SCCS. Cronbach's alpha was used to test internal consistency. The construct and the criterion-related validity of K-SCCS were supported as measures of spiritual care competence. Cronbach's alpha was .95. Factor loadings of the 26 questions ranged from .60 to .96. Construct validity of K-SCCS was verified by confirmatory factor analysis (RMSEA=.08, CFI=.90, NFI=.85). Criterion validity compared to the SWB showed significant correlation (r=.44, pspiritual care competence with validity and reliability. However, further study is needed to retest the verification of the factor analysis related to factor 2 (professionalisation and improving the quality of spiritual care) and factor 3 (personal support and patient counseling). Therefore, we recommend using the total score without distinguishing subscales.

Measuring physical activity during pregnancy - Cultural adaptation of the Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire (PPAQ) and assessment of its reliability in Polish conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Krzepota, Justyna; Sadowska, Dorota; Sempolska, Katarzyna; Pelczar, Małgorzata

2017-12-23

The assessment of physical activity during pregnancy is crucial in perinatal care and it is an important research topic. Unfortunately, in Poland there is a lack of one commonly accepted questionnaire of physical activity during pregnancy. The aim of this study was to adapt the Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire (PPAQ) to Polish conditions and assess the reliability of its Polish version (PPAQ-PL). The PPAQ was translated from English into Polish and its reliability tested. 64 correctly completed (twice, one week apart) questionnaires were qualified for analysis. Test-retest reliability was assessed using Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC). As a result of the adaptation and psychometric assessment, in the Polish version of the questionnaire the number of questions was reduced from 36 to 35 by removing the question concerning 'mowing lawn while on a riding mower'. The ICC value for total activity was 0.75, which confirms a substantial level of reliability. The ICC values for subscales of intensity ranged from 0.53 (light) - 0.86 (vigorous). For subscales of type, ICC values ranged from 0.59 (transportation) - 0.89 (household/caregiving). The PPAQ-PL can be accepted as a reliable tool for the assessing physical activity of pregnant women in Poland. Information obtained using the questionnaire might be helpful in monitoring health behaviours, preventing obesity, as well as designing and promoting physical activity programmes for pregnant women.

The genetic and environmental structure of the character sub-scales of the temperament and character inventory in adolescence.

Science.gov (United States)

Lester, Nigel; Garcia, Danilo; Lundström, Sebastian; Brändström, Sven; Råstam, Maria; Kerekes, Nóra; Nilsson, Thomas; Cloninger, C Robert; Anckarsäter, Henrik

2016-01-01

The character higher order scales (self-directedness, cooperativeness, and self-transcendence) in the temperament and character inventory are important general measures of health and well-being [Mens Sana Monograph 11:16-24 (2013)]. Recent research has found suggestive evidence of common environmental influence on the development of these character traits during adolescence. The present article expands earlier research by focusing on the internal consistency and the etiology of traits measured by the lower order sub-scales of the character traits in adolescence. The twin modeling analysis of 423 monozygotic pairs and 408 same sex dizygotic pairs estimated additive genetics (A), common environmental (C), and non-shared environmental (E) influences on twin resemblance. All twins were part of the on-going longitudinal Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden (CATSS). The twin modeling analysis suggested a common environmental contribution for two out of five self-directedness sub-scales (0.14 and 0.23), for three out of five cooperativeness sub-scales (0.07-0.17), and for all three self-transcendence sub-scales (0.10-0.12). The genetic structure at the level of the character lower order sub-scales in adolescents shows that the proportion of the shared environmental component varies in the trait of self-directedness and in the trait of cooperativeness, while it is relatively stable across the components of self-transcendence. The presence of this unique shared environmental effect in adolescence has implications for understanding the relative importance of interventions and treatment strategies aimed at promoting overall maturation of character, mental health, and well-being during this period of the life span.

Improved reliability of wind turbine towers with active tuned mass dampers (ATMDs)

Science.gov (United States)

Fitzgerald, Breiffni; Sarkar, Saptarshi; Staino, Andrea

2018-04-01

Modern multi-megawatt wind turbines are composed of slender, flexible, and lightly damped blades and towers. These components exhibit high susceptibility to wind-induced vibrations. As the size, flexibility and cost of the towers have increased in recent years, the need to protect these structures against damage induced by turbulent aerodynamic loading has become apparent. This paper combines structural dynamic models and probabilistic assessment tools to demonstrate improvements in structural reliability when modern wind turbine towers are equipped with active tuned mass dampers (ATMDs). This study proposes a multi-modal wind turbine model for wind turbine control design and analysis. This study incorporates an ATMD into the tower of this model. The model is subjected to stochastically generated wind loads of varying speeds to develop wind-induced probabilistic demand models for towers of modern multi-megawatt wind turbines under structural uncertainty. Numerical simulations have been carried out to ascertain the effectiveness of the active control system to improve the structural performance of the wind turbine and its reliability. The study constructs fragility curves, which illustrate reductions in the vulnerability of towers to wind loading owing to the inclusion of the damper. Results show that the active controller is successful in increasing the reliability of the tower responses. According to the analysis carried out in this paper, a strong reduction of the probability of exceeding a given displacement at the rated wind speed has been observed.

Comparison of Child Behavior Checklist subscales in screening for obsessive-compulsive disorder

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Pia Aaron Skovby; Bilenberg, Niels

2012-01-01

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a prevalent psychiatric disorder in children and adolescents associated with significant functional impairment. Early and correct diagnosis is essential for an optimal treatment outcome. The purpose of this study was to determine which of four subscales...... derived from the Child Behavior Checklist best discriminates OCD patients from clinical and population-based controls....

Role of recent research in improving check valve reliability at nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kalsi, M.S.; Horst, C.L.; Wang, J.K.; Sharma, V.

1990-01-01

Check valve failures at nuclear power plants in recent years have led to serious safety concerns, and caused extensive damage to other plant components which had a significant impact on plant availability. In order to understand the failure mechanism and improve the reliability of check valves, a systematic research effort was proposed by Kalsi Engineering, Inc. to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The overall goal of the research was to develop models for predicting the performance and degradation of swing check valves in nuclear power plant systems so that appropriate preventive maintenance or design modifications can be performed to improve the reliability of check valves. Under Phase I of this research, a large matrix of tests was run with instrumented swing check valves to determine the stability of the disc under a variety of upstream flow disturbances, covering a wide range of disc stop positions and flow velocities in two different valve sizes. The goals of Phase II research were to develop predictive models which quantify the anticipated degradation of swing check valves that have flow disturbances closely upstream of the valve and are operating under flow velocities that do not result in full disc opening. This research allows the inspection/maintenance activities to be focussed on those check valves that are more likely to suffer premature degradation. The quantitative wear and fatigue prediction methodology can be used to develop a sound preventive maintenance program. The results of the research also show the improvements in check valve performance/reliability that can be achieved by certain modifications in the valve design

Improvement of Steam Generator Reliability for GEN-IV SFR

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Seong O; Kim Se Yun; Kim, Seok Hoon; Eoh, Jae Hyuk; Lee, Hyeong Yeon; Choi, Byung Seon

2005-11-15

The R and D items performed in this study were selected from the R and D task of ' Reliability improvement of Steam Generator' of GEN-IV SFR Component Design and BOP. Since this project deals with one of the most important issues for a GEN-IV SFR system, it needs to enhance the domestic technical backgrounds associated with the corresponding R and D items even for a very short period by 2005. This study provides the R and D results for i) Development of assessment methodology for dissimilar metal weld and ii) Development of multi-dimensional simulation methodology for a SWR event in a SFR steam generator.

Improvement of Steam Generator Reliability for GEN-IV SFR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Seong O; Kim Se Yun; Kim, Seok Hoon; Eoh, Jae Hyuk; Lee, Hyeong Yeon; Choi, Byung Seon

2005-11-01

The R and D items performed in this study were selected from the R and D task of ' Reliability improvement of Steam Generator' of GEN-IV SFR Component Design and BOP. Since this project deals with one of the most important issues for a GEN-IV SFR system, it needs to enhance the domestic technical backgrounds associated with the corresponding R and D items even for a very short period by 2005. This study provides the R and D results for i) Development of assessment methodology for dissimilar metal weld and ii) Development of multi-dimensional simulation methodology for a SWR event in a SFR steam generator

Reliability and Validity of the Turkish Version of the Job Performance Scale Instrument.

Science.gov (United States)

Harmanci Seren, Arzu Kader; Tuna, Rujnan; Eskin Bacaksiz, Feride

2018-02-01

Objective measurement of the job performance of nursing staff using valid and reliable instruments is important in the evaluation of healthcare quality. A current, valid, and reliable instrument that specifically measures the performance of nurses is required for this purpose. The aim of this study was to determine the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Job Performance Instrument. This study used a methodological design and a sample of 240 nurses working at different units in four hospitals in Istanbul, Turkey. A descriptive data form, the Job Performance Scale, and the Employee Performance Scale were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics Version 21.0 and LISREL Version 8.51. On the basis of the data analysis, the instrument was revised. Some items were deleted, and subscales were combined. The Turkish version of the Job Performance Instrument was determined to be valid and reliable to measure the performance of nurses. The instrument is suitable for evaluating current nursing roles.

Improved reliability, maintainability and safety through elastomer upgrading

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wensel, R.; Wittich, K.C.

1995-01-01

Equipment in nuclear plants has historically contained whatever elastomer each component supplier traditionally used for corresponding non-nuclear service. The resulting proliferation of elastomer compounds, many of which are far from optimal for the service conditions (e.g., pressure, temperature, radiation, etc.), has multiplied the costs to provide station reliability, maintainability and safety. Cost-effective improvements are being achieved in CANDU plants by upgrading and standardizing on a handful of high performing elastomer compounds. These upgraded materials offer significant gains in service life over the materials they replace (often by factors of 2 or more). This rationalization of elastomer compounds also facilitates the EQ process for safety-related equipment. Detailed test data on aging is currently being generated for these specific elastomers, encompassing the conditions and media (air, water, oil) common in CANDU service. Two key elements characterize this testing. First, each result is specific to the compound used in the test, and second, it is specific to the tested failure mode (e.g., compression set, extrusion, fracture, etc.). Having fewer, but more thoroughly tested compounds, avoids the penalty (associated with poorly characterized materials) of having to replace parts prematurely because of conservatism, while maintaining safe, reliable service. This paper provides an overview of this approach covering: the benefits of compound rationalization; and the how and why of establishing relevant failure criteria; appropriate quality assurance to maintain EQ; procurement, storage and handling guidelines; and monitoring and predicting in-service degradation. (author)

Examining the Psychometric Properties of the Identify as a Professional Social Worker Subscale

Science.gov (United States)

Farmer, Antoinette Y.

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Identify as a Professional Social Worker Subscale, which assessed the Council on Social Work Education--prescribed competency "identify as a professional social worker and conduct oneself accordingly." The results of confirmatory factory analysis indicated that…

Development of Physical Activity-Related Parenting Practices Scales for Urban Chinese Parents of Preschoolers: Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Reliability.

Science.gov (United States)

Suen, Yi-Nam; Cerin, Ester; Barnett, Anthony; Huang, Wendy Y J; Mellecker, Robin R

2017-09-01

Valid instruments of parenting practices related to children's physical activity (PA) are essential to understand how parents affect preschoolers' PA. This study developed and validated a questionnaire of PA-related parenting practices for Chinese-speaking parents of preschoolers in Hong Kong. Parents (n = 394) completed a questionnaire developed using findings from formative qualitative research and literature searches. Test-retest reliability was determined on a subsample (n = 61). Factorial validity was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis. Subscale internal consistency was determined. The scale of parenting practices encouraging PA comprised 2 latent factors: Modeling, structure and participatory engagement in PA (23 items), and Provision of appropriate places for child's PA (4 items). The scale of parenting practices discouraging PA scale encompassed 4 latent factors: Safety concern/overprotection (6 items), Psychological/behavioral control (5 items), Promoting inactivity (4 items), and Promoting screen time (2 items). Test-retest reliabilities were moderate to excellent (0.58 to 0.82), and internal subscale reliabilities were acceptable (0.63 to 0.89). We developed a theory-based questionnaire for assessing PA-related parenting practices among Chinese-speaking parents of Hong Kong preschoolers. While some items were context and culture specific, many were similar to those previously found in other populations, indicating a degree of construct generalizability across cultures.

Reliability of infarct volumetry: Its relevance and the improvement by a software-assisted approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Friedländer, Felix; Bohmann, Ferdinand; Brunkhorst, Max; Chae, Ju-Hee; Devraj, Kavi; Köhler, Yvette; Kraft, Peter; Kuhn, Hannah; Lucaciu, Alexandra; Luger, Sebastian; Pfeilschifter, Waltraud; Sadler, Rebecca; Liesz, Arthur; Scholtyschik, Karolina; Stolz, Leonie; Vutukuri, Rajkumar; Brunkhorst, Robert

2017-08-01

Despite the efficacy of neuroprotective approaches in animal models of stroke, their translation has so far failed from bench to bedside. One reason is presumed to be a low quality of preclinical study design, leading to bias and a low a priori power. In this study, we propose that the key read-out of experimental stroke studies, the volume of the ischemic damage as commonly measured by free-handed planimetry of TTC-stained brain sections, is subject to an unrecognized low inter-rater and test-retest reliability with strong implications for statistical power and bias. As an alternative approach, we suggest a simple, open-source, software-assisted method, taking advantage of automatic-thresholding techniques. The validity and the improvement of reliability by an automated method to tMCAO infarct volumetry are demonstrated. In addition, we show the probable consequences of increased reliability for precision, p-values, effect inflation, and power calculation, exemplified by a systematic analysis of experimental stroke studies published in the year 2015. Our study reveals an underappreciated quality problem in translational stroke research and suggests that software-assisted infarct volumetry might help to improve reproducibility and therefore the robustness of bench to bedside translation.

Good performance in Japan is proof of continuing safety and reliability improvement practice

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sumi, Y.

1987-01-01

Nuclear power is a vital energy supply source for both security and economy for such countries as Japan whose sources of energy are dependent on imported materials. This is the very reason why Japan gives her national priority to the improvement of nuclear power safety and reliability. As of the end of 1986, total nuclear power capacity owned and operated by private utility companies in Japan amounted to 24521 MW with 32 units sharing -- 19% of the total generating capacity. Moreover, during 1986 these units scored a remarkably high capacity factor of 76.2% and shared almost 28% of the nationwide electric power production, thereby contributing to a considerable saving of imported sources of energy. This outstanding record has been achieved by the parties concerned who dedicated themselves to furthering nuclear plant safety and reliability improvement. In this connection, this paper summarizes those key factors contributing to the good nuclear power plant performance of the Kansai Electric Power Company

The impact of intrinsic motivation on session attendance and reliable cognitive improvement in cognitive remediation in schizophrenia.

Science.gov (United States)

Bryce, S D; Lee, S J; Ponsford, J L; Lawrence, R J; Tan, E J; Rossell, S L

2018-06-20

Cognitive remediation (CR) is considered a potentially effective method of improving cognitive function in people with schizophrenia. Few studies, however, have explored the role of intrinsic motivation on treatment utilization or training outcomes in CR in this population. This study explored the impact of task-specific intrinsic motivation on attendance and reliable cognitive improvement in a controlled trial comparing CR with a computer game (CG) playing control. Forty-nine participants with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, allocated to 10 weeks of group-based CR (n = 25) or CG control (n = 24), provided complete outcome data at baseline. Forty-three participants completed their assigned intervention. Cognition, psychopathology and intrinsic motivation were measured at baseline and end-treatment. Regression analyses explored the relative contribution of baseline motivation and other clinical factors to session attendance as well as the association of baseline and change in intrinsic motivation with the odds of reliable cognitive improvement (calculated using reliable change indices). Baseline reports of perceived program value were the only significant multivariable predictor of session attendance when including global cognition and psychiatric symptomatology. The odds of reliable cognitive improvement significantly increased with greater improvements in program interest and value from baseline to end-treatment. Motivational changes over time were highly variable between participants. Task-specific intrinsic motivation in schizophrenia may represent an important patient-related factor that contributes to session attendance and cognitive improvements in CR. Regular evaluation and enhancement of intrinsic motivation in cognitively enhancing interventions may optimize treatment engagement and the likelihood of meaningful training outcomes. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Scoring haemophilic arthropathy on X-rays: improving inter- and intra-observer reliability and agreement using a consensus atlas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Foppen, Wouter; Schaaf, Irene C. van der; Beek, Frederik J.A. [University Medical Center Utrecht, Department of Radiology (Netherlands); Verkooijen, Helena M. [University Medical Center Utrecht, Department of Radiology (Netherlands); University Medical Center Utrecht, Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, Utrecht (Netherlands); Fischer, Kathelijn [University Medical Center Utrecht, Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, Utrecht (Netherlands); University Medical Center Utrecht, Van Creveldkliniek, Department of Hematology, Utrecht (Netherlands)

2016-06-15

The radiological Pettersson score (PS) is widely applied for classification of arthropathy to evaluate costly haemophilia treatment. This study aims to assess and improve inter- and intra-observer reliability and agreement of the PS. Two series of X-rays (bilateral elbows, knees, and ankles) of 10 haemophilia patients (120 joints) with haemophilic arthropathy were scored by three observers according to the PS (maximum score 13/joint). Subsequently, (dis-)agreement in scoring was discussed until consensus. Example images were collected in an atlas. Thereafter, second series of 120 joints were scored using the atlas. One observer rescored the second series after three months. Reliability was assessed by intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), agreement by limits of agreement (LoA). Median Pettersson score at joint level (PS{sub joint}) of affected joints was 6 (interquartile range 3-9). Using the consensus atlas, inter-observer reliability of the PS{sub joint} improved significantly from 0.94 (95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.91-0.96) to 0.97 (CI 0.96-0.98). LoA improved from ±1.7 to ±1.1 for the PS{sub joint}. Therefore, true differences in arthropathy were differences in the PS{sub joint} of >2 points. Intra-observer reliability of the PS{sub joint} was 0.98 (CI 0.97-0.98), intra-observer LoA were ±0.9 points. Reliability and agreement of the PS improved by using a consensus atlas. (orig.)

76 FR 66057 - North American Electric Reliability Corporation; Order Approving Regional Reliability Standard

Science.gov (United States)

2011-10-25

... Reliability Standard that is necessitated by a physical difference in the Bulk-Power System.\\7\\ \\7\\ Order No... Reliability Standards for the Bulk-Power System, Order No. 693, FERC Stats. & Regs. ] 31,242, order on reh'g... electric system event analyses and thereby improve system reliability by promoting improved system design...

Improving the reliability of fuel Enusa; Mejora de la fiabilidad del combustible en Enusa

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Choithramani, S.; Quecedo, M.

2015-07-01

ENUSA is committed to providing our customers with fuel designs that meet their needs for operational efficiency, power, energy, performance and reliability. ENUSAs current fuel designs, covering BWR and PWR technologies, incorporate highest performance with proven reliability features developed along nuclear power operation history. As of January 2015, ENUSA has manufactured more than 20.000 fuel assemblies (around half BWR and half PWR), with operating conditions reflecting varying reactor power densities, cycle lengths, operating strategies and water chemistry environments. This experience brings the knowledge to model our fuel behavior and acts as the principal instrument to identify and characterize the failure mechanisms of our fuel. Based on the information obtained from all this years of operation, ENUSA has progressively developed and implemented numerous mitigating actions identified upon the knowledge on failure mechanisms, which are the bases for the fuel reliability improvement program. Contemporaneously to this implementation, a positive trend on ENUSA fuel reliability has been observed. (Author)

Complex Relationships Among Masculine Norms and Health/Well-Being Outcomes: Correlation Patterns of the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory Subscales.

Science.gov (United States)

Gerdes, Zachary T; Levant, Ronald F

2018-03-01

The Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory (CMNI) is a widely used multidimensional scale. Studies using the CMNI most often report only total scale scores, which are predominantly associated with negative outcomes. Various studies since the CMNI's inception in 2003 using subscales have reported both positive and negative outcomes. The current content analysis examined studies ( N = 17) correlating the 11 subscales with 63 criterion variables across 7 categories. Most findings were consistent with past research using total scale scores that reported negative outcomes. For example, conformity to masculine norms has been inversely related to help-seeking and positively correlated with concerning health variables, such as substance use. Nonetheless, past reliance on total scores has obscured the complexity of associations with the CMNI in that 30% of the findings in the present study reflected positive outcomes, particularly for health promotion. Subscales differed in their relationships with various outcomes: for one subscale they were predominantly positive, but six others were mostly negative. The situational and contextual implications of conformity to masculine norms and their relationships to positive and negative outcomes are discussed.

Reliability and Validity of the Persian Version of Distress Tolerance Scale

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali Reza Azizi

2010-11-01

Full Text Available "nObjectives: This study aims to assess the validity and reliability of the  Persian version of  Simons and Gaher `s Distress Tolerance scale(DTS by administering it  to nicotine dependent students of Tehran University. "nMethod:In a descriptive cross-sectional study, 317 nicotine dependent students of  Tehran  University who were selected ,using  available sampling method, completed DTS, Coping with Stress- Revised(CS-R, Positive and Negative Affect Scales(PANAS and Fagerstrom Test  for Nicotine Dependence(FTND.  Data were analyzed using descriptive statistic methods and correlation coefficient. "nResults: The alpha coefficients for Tolerance, Absorption, Appraisal and Regulation subscales were 0.75, 0.77, 0.70 and 0.75, respectively. The test-retest correlation coefficients with two months interval for Tolerance, Absorption, Appraisal  and Regulation subscales and the total scale were 0.71, 0.69, 0.77, 0,73 and 0.79, respectively; all of which were statistically significant (p<0.001. The correlation coefficient of  DTS with problem-focused, emotional-focused, less useful and insufficient coping with stress were found to be:  0.213, -0.278, -0.337 and -0.196.  In addition, the correlation coefficient of  DTS with positive emotion, negative emotion and smoking-dependency were 0.543, -0.224 and -0.653 which were also significant(p<0.05. "nConclusion: the DTS is valid and reliable and suitable to use for assessing distress tolerance.

Engineering, maintenance, and initiatives to improve LAMPF beam availability and system reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harris, H.W.; DeHaven, R.A.; Hart, V.E.; Parsons, W.M.; Sturrock, J.C.

1992-01-01

Two different requirements are driving engineering studies and hardware development to improve LAMPF. The first is concerned with component and system improvements to increase beam availability during the LAMPF production cycle. Hardware changes in RF, power supplies, and magnets are being implemented to increase mean time between failure and reduce time to replace or repair failed units. A joint LAMPF-Industry project is on-going to improve reliability of RF components. A component test stand is being refurbished to include significant development capability. The second approach includes several changes that will increase the duty factor of the existing accelerator. Major changes are being evaluated for replacing the front end of the accelerator. Other changes improving the high brightness capability could result in a new performance plateau for LAMPF. 2 refs., 2 figs

Verification of the reliability and validity of a Japanese version of the Quality of Life in Childhood Epilepsy Questionnaire (QOLCE-J).

Science.gov (United States)

Moriguchi, Eri; Ito, Mikiko; Nagai, Toshisaburo

2015-11-01

A Japanese version of the Quality of Life in Childhood Epilepsy Questionnaire (QOLCE-J) was developed using international guidelines as a QOL scale for childhood epilepsy; its reliability and validity were examined, focusing on Japanese pediatric epilepsy patients applicability. A pilot test questionnaire survey was conducted; involving parents of pediatric epilepsy patients aged 4-15 undergoing outpatient treatment. 278 responses were obtained and analyzed. Internal consistency for the 16 QOLCE-J subscales, except for , was sufficient, and a high overall coefficient α was obtained. The intraclass correlation coefficient was also high, supporting the test-retest reliability of this version. Associations among the subscales, high correlations of r>0.7 were observed among , , and , representing cognitive and behavioral aspects, and among these and . In contrast, correlations among others were moderate or weaker. Furthermore, correlations of r>0.35 were observed among the subscales of the SDQ (Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire) used as an external criterion and the QOLCE-J, confirming the criterion validity of the study version. Analysis of associations between the total QOLCE-J score and pathology of epilepsy, found significant correlation with age of onset and frequency of seizures, ADL, and antiepileptics side effects' symptoms. QOLCE has mostly been used in treatment resistant pediatric patients, the influence of interictal period presently observed, like antiepileptic side effects' symptoms; suggest usefulness for pediatric patients with seizures under control. The QOLCE-J with sufficient reliability and validity may be applicable as a QOL scale for Japanese children with epilepsy. Copyright © 2015 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Improving the reliability of fishery predictions under climate change

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brander, Keith

2015-01-01

The increasing number of publications assessing impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems and fisheries attests to rising scientific and public interest. A selection of recent papers, dealing more with biological than social and economic aspects, is reviewed here, with particular attention...... to the reliability of projections of climate impacts on future fishery yields. The 2014 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report expresses high confidence in projections that mid- and high-latitude fish catch potential will increase by 2050 and medium confidence that low-latitude catch potential...... understanding of climate impacts, such as how to improve coupled models from physics to fish and how to strengthen confidence in analysis of time series...

The Portuguese version of the Outcome Questionnaire (OQ-45): Normative data, reliability, and clinical significance cut-offs scores.

Science.gov (United States)

Machado, Paulo P P; Fassnacht, Daniel B

2015-12-01

The Outcome Questionnaire (OQ-45) is one of the most extensively used standardized self-report instruments to monitor psychotherapy outcomes. The questionnaire is designed specifically for the assessment of change during psychotherapy treatments. Therefore, it is crucial to provide norms and clinical cut-off values for clinicians and researchers. The current study aims at providing study provides norms, reliability indices, and clinical cut-off values for the Portuguese version of the scale. Data from two large non-clinical samples (high school/university, N = 1,669; community, N = 879) and one clinical sample (n = 201) were used to investigate psychometric properties and derive normative data for all OQ-45 subscales and the total score. Significant and substantial differences were found for all subscales between the clinical and non-clinical sample. The Portuguese version also showed adequate reliabilities (internal consistency, test-retest), which were comparable to the original version. To assess individual clinical change, clinical cut-off values and reliable change indices were calculated allowing clinicians and researchers to monitor and evaluate clients' individual change. The Portuguese version of the OQ-45 is a reliable instrument with comparable Portuguese norms and cut-off scores to those from the original version. This allows clinicians and researchers to use this instrument for evaluating change and outcome in psychotherapy. This study provides norms for non-clinical and clinical Portuguese samples and investigates the reliability (internal consistency and test-retest) of the OQ-45. Cut-off values and reliable change index are provided allowing clinicians to evaluate clinical change and clients' response to treatment, monitoring the quality of mental health care services. These can be used, in routine clinical practice, as benchmarks for treatment progress and to empirically base clinical decisions such as continuation of treatment or considering

Active Piezoelectric Vibration Control of Subscale Composite Fan Blades

Science.gov (United States)

Duffy, Kirsten P.; Choi, Benjamin B.; Provenza, Andrew J.; Min, James B.; Kray, Nicholas

2012-01-01

As part of the Fundamental Aeronautics program, researchers at NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) are investigating new technologies supporting the development of lighter, quieter, and more efficient fans for turbomachinery applications. High performance fan blades designed to achieve such goals will be subjected to higher levels of aerodynamic excitations which could lead to more serious and complex vibration problems. Piezoelectric materials have been proposed as a means of decreasing engine blade vibration either through a passive damping scheme, or as part of an active vibration control system. For polymer matrix fiber composite blades, the piezoelectric elements could be embedded within the blade material, protecting the brittle piezoceramic material from the airflow and from debris. To investigate this idea, spin testing was performed on two General Electric Aviation (GE) subscale composite fan blades in the NASA GRC Dynamic Spin Rig Facility. The first bending mode (1B) was targeted for vibration control. Because these subscale blades are very thin, the piezoelectric material was surface-mounted on the blades. Three thin piezoelectric patches were applied to each blade two actuator patches and one small sensor patch. These flexible macro-fiber-composite patches were placed in a location of high resonant strain for the 1B mode. The blades were tested up to 5000 rpm, with patches used as sensors, as excitation for the blade, and as part of open- and closed-loop vibration control. Results show that with a single actuator patch, active vibration control causes the damping ratio to increase from a baseline of 0.3% critical damping to about 1.0% damping at 0 RPM. As the rotor speed approaches 5000 RPM, the actively controlled blade damping ratio decreases to about 0.5% damping. This occurs primarily because of centrifugal blade stiffening, and can be observed by the decrease in the generalized electromechanical coupling with rotor speed.

Assessing motivation for work environment improvements: internal consistency, reliability and factorial structure.

Science.gov (United States)

Hedlund, Ann; Ateg, Mattias; Andersson, Ing-Marie; Rosén, Gunnar

2010-04-01

Workers' motivation to actively take part in improvements to the work environment is assumed to be important for the efficiency of investments for that purpose. That gives rise to the need for a tool to measure this motivation. A questionnaire to measure motivation for improvements to the work environment has been designed. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the domains of the questionnaire have been measured, and the factorial structure has been explored, from the answers of 113 employees. The internal consistency is high (0.94), as well as the correlation for the total score (0.84). Three factors are identified accounting for 61.6% of the total variance. The questionnaire can be a useful tool in improving intervention methods. The expectation is that the tool can be useful, particularly with the aim of improving efficiency of companies' investments for work environment improvements. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Utilizing clad piping to improve process plant piping integrity, reliability, and operations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chakravarti, B.

1996-01-01

During the past four years carbon steel piping clad with type 304L (UNS S30403) stainless steel has been used to solve the flow accelerated corrosion (FAC) problem in nuclear power plants with exceptional success. The product is designed to allow ''like for like'' replacement of damaged carbon steel components where the carbon steel remains the pressure boundary and type 304L (UNS S30403) stainless steel the corrosion allowance. More than 3000 feet of piping and 500 fittings in sizes from 6 to 36-in. NPS have been installed in the extraction steam and other lines of these power plants to improve reliability, eliminate inspection program, reduce O and M costs and provide operational benefits. This concept of utilizing clad piping in solving various corrosion problems in industrial and process plants by conservatively selecting a high alloy material as cladding can provide similar, significant benefits in controlling corrosion problems, minimizing maintenance cost, improving operation and reliability to control performance and risks in a highly cost effective manner. This paper will present various material combinations and applications that appear ideally suited for use of the clad piping components in process plants

A clinician-administered severity rating scale for illness anxiety: development, reliability, and validity of the H-YBOCS-M.

Science.gov (United States)

Skritskaya, Natalia A; Carson-Wong, Amanda R; Moeller, James R; Shen, Sa; Barsky, Arthur J; Fallon, Brian A

2012-07-01

Clinician-administered measures to assess severity of illness anxiety and response to treatment are few. The authors evaluated a modified version of the hypochondriasis-Y-BOCS (H-YBOCS-M), a 19-item, semistructured, clinician-administered instrument designed to rate severity of illness-related thoughts, behaviors, and avoidance. The scale was administered to 195 treatment-seeking adults with DSM-IV hypochondriasis. Test-retest reliability was assessed in a subsample of 20 patients. Interrater reliability was assessed by 27 interviews independently rated by four raters. Sensitivity to change was evaluated in a subsample of 149 patients. Convergent and discriminant validity was examined by comparing H-YBOCS-M scores to other measures administered. Item clustering was examined with confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses. The H-YBOCS-M demonstrated good internal consistency, interrater and test-retest reliability, and sensitivity to symptom change with treatment. Construct validity was supported by significant higher correlations with scores on other measures of hypochondriasis than with nonhypochondriacal measures. Improvement over time in response to treatment correlated with improvement both on measures of hypochondriasis and on measures of somatization, depression, anxiety, and functional status. Confirmatory factor analysis did not show adequate fit for a three-factor model. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a five-factor solution with the first two factors consistent with the separation of the H-YBOCS-M items into the subscales of illness-related avoidance and compulsions. H-YBOCS-M appears to be valid, reliable, and appropriate as an outcome measure for treatment studies of illness anxiety. Study results highlight "avoidance" as a key feature of illness anxiety-with potentially important nosologic and treatment implications. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

How Case-Based Reasoning on e-Community Knowledge Can Be Improved Thanks to Knowledge Reliability

OpenAIRE

Gaillard , Emmanuelle; Lieber , Jean; Nauer , Emmanuel; Cordier , Amélie

2014-01-01

International audience; This paper shows that performing case-based reasoning (CBR) on knowledge coming from an e-community is improved by taking into account knowledge reliability. MKM (meta-knowledge model) is a model for managing reliability of the knowledge units that are used in the reasoning process. For this, MKM uses meta-knowledge such as belief, trust and reputation, about knowledge units and users. MKM is used both to select relevant knowledge to conduct the reasoning process, and ...

Validity and reliability of the Japanese version of the Caregiver Reaction Assessment Scale (CRA-J) for community-dwelling cancer patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Misawa, Tomoyo; Miyashita, Mitsunori; Kawa, Masako; Abe, Koji; Abe, Mayumi; Nakayama, Yasuko; Given, Charles W

2009-01-01

The aim of this study was to validate the Caregiver Reaction Assessment (CRA) among caregivers of community-dwelling advanced cancer patients in Japan. A cross-sectional questionnaire was administered to advanced cancer patients and their caregivers who were cared for at day hospices and home palliative care services. We translated the CRA into Japanese, and then verified factor validity, reliability, construct validity, concurrent validity, and known groups' validity. To address construct and concurrent validity, we calculated Pearson's correlation coefficient between the Japanese version of the CRA and the Burden Index of Caregivers (BIC). To address known groups' validity, we used the t test or analysis of variance (ANOVA). A total of 57 caregivers participated in the study. Five factors were extracted (''impact on schedule,'' ''caregiver's self-esteem,'' ''lack of family support,'' ''impact on health,'' and ''impact on finances'') and reliability was good. Construct and concurrent validity among the subscales of the BIC were good. Regarding known groups validity, the subscale score of ''impact on schedule'' for the groups that cared 6 hours or more per day was higher than the other group (P = .04). The CRA-J is valid and reliable. This scale is useful for caregivers of cancer patients in Japan.

Revisiting the reliability and validity of the Entrepreneurial Attitude Orientation Scale in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Miao, Qing

2012-10-01

The Entrepreneurial Attitude Orientation (EAO) scale is a multidimensional self-report measure of attitudes toward entrepreneurship. Few studies have tested the validity and reliability of the EAO scale in different social and cultural situations. The present study examined the generalizability of the EAO scale in a Chinese context using a two-wave survey. Exploratory factor analysis with the first wave data revealed a four-factor solution consistent with the original scale with 5 items removed. Confirmatory factor analysis of the secondary wave data verified the hypothesized model with a group of parameters and an overall satisfactory fit. The analysis indicated that the Cronbach's a of the four subscales were similar to the values reported by the developers of the scale. However, the results of the test-retest r of the four subscales were lower than the original reports. The findings generally support the generalizability of the four-dimensional model of the EAO. Further research questions are discussed.

The Reliability and Validity of the Power-Load-Margin Inventory: A Rasch Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Hardigan, Patrick C; Cohen, Stanley R; Hagen, Kathleen P

2015-01-01

Margin is a function of the relationship of stress to strength. The greater the margin, the more likely students are able to successfully navigate academic structures. This study examined the psychometric properties of a newly created instrument designed to measure margin - the Power-Load-Margin Inventory (PLMI). The PLMI was created using eight domains: (A) Student's aptitude and ability, (B) Course structure, (C) External motivation, (D) Student health, (E) Instructor style, (F) Internal motivation, (G) Life opportunities, and (H) University support structure. A three-point response scale was used to measure the domains: (1) stress, (2) neither stress nor strength, and (3) strength. The PLMI was administered to 586 medical, dental, and pharmacy students. A Rasch rating scale model was used to examine the psychometric properties of the PLMI. The PLMI demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties for use with pharmacy, dental, and medical students. The PLMI's primary weakness was with the subscales' reliability. We attribute this to the small number of items per subscale.

The MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool-Criminal Adjudication: Factor structure, interrater reliability, and association with clinician opinion of competence in a forensic inpatient sample.

Science.gov (United States)

Wood, Mary E; Anderson, Jaime L; Glassmire, David M

2017-06-01

Adjudicative competence is the most frequently referred evaluation in the forensic context, and it is because of this that periodic evaluation of competence assessment instruments is imperative. Among those instruments, the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool-Criminal Adjudication (MacCAT-CA) has demonstrated adequate psychometric properties suggesting its utility in informing the forensic inquiry. The purpose of the current study was to further investigate the psychometric properties and ultimate utility of subscale scores using archival data from a sample of 103 male and female forensic patients who were hospitalized for competence restoration treatment. Results of the present study suggested adequate internal consistency and good model fit for the factor structure. Interrater reliability was evaluated by comparing the absolute agreement of scores derived from 2 independent research assistants for each of the subscales; 2 of the 3 subscales fell within the acceptable range given established interpretative benchmarks for forensic assessment. Of particular interest was that the Appreciation subscale, while heralding the lowest intraclass correlation coefficient, explained the largest proportion of variance in clinician opinion relative to the other 2 subscales. In other words, the most subjective subscale (as evidenced by the lowest intraclass correlation), explained the largest proportion of variance in ultimate opinion. The authors argue that, although these results are an important consideration in these assessments, they are neither surprising nor entirely problematic when considering the case-specific nature of the inquiries on the subscale, as well as the subjectivity of scoring criteria for each of the Appreciation items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Separating Common from Unique Variance Within Emotional Distress: An Examination of Reliability and Relations to Worry.

Science.gov (United States)

Marshall, Andrew J; Evanovich, Emma K; David, Sarah Jo; Mumma, Gregory H

2018-01-17

High comorbidity rates among emotional disorders have led researchers to examine transdiagnostic factors that may contribute to shared psychopathology. Bifactor models provide a unique method for examining transdiagnostic variables by modelling the common and unique factors within measures. Previous findings suggest that the bifactor model of the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) may provide a method for examining transdiagnostic factors within emotional disorders. This study aimed to replicate the bifactor model of the DASS, a multidimensional measure of psychological distress, within a US adult sample and provide initial estimates of the reliability of the general and domain-specific factors. Furthermore, this study hypothesized that Worry, a theorized transdiagnostic variable, would show stronger relations to general emotional distress than domain-specific subscales. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate the bifactor model structure of the DASS in 456 US adult participants (279 females and 177 males, mean age 35.9 years) recruited online. The DASS bifactor model fitted well (CFI = 0.98; RMSEA = 0.05). The General Emotional Distress factor accounted for most of the reliable variance in item scores. Domain-specific subscales accounted for modest portions of reliable variance in items after accounting for the general scale. Finally, structural equation modelling indicated that Worry was strongly predicted by the General Emotional Distress factor. The DASS bifactor model is generalizable to a US community sample and General Emotional Distress, but not domain-specific factors, strongly predict the transdiagnostic variable Worry.

Improvement of human reliability analysis method for PRA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tanji, Junichi; Fujimoto, Haruo

2013-09-01

It is required to refine human reliability analysis (HRA) method by, for example, incorporating consideration for the cognitive process of operator into the evaluation of diagnosis errors and decision-making errors, as a part of the development and improvement of methods used in probabilistic risk assessments (PRAs). JNES has been developed a HRA method based on ATHENA which is suitable to handle the structured relationship among diagnosis errors, decision-making errors and operator cognition process. This report summarizes outcomes obtained from the improvement of HRA method, in which enhancement to evaluate how the plant degraded condition affects operator cognitive process and to evaluate human error probabilities (HEPs) which correspond to the contents of operator tasks is made. In addition, this report describes the results of case studies on the representative accident sequences to investigate the applicability of HRA method developed. HEPs of the same accident sequences are also estimated using THERP method, which is most popularly used HRA method, and comparisons of the results obtained using these two methods are made to depict the differences of these methods and issues to be solved. Important conclusions obtained are as follows: (1) Improvement of HRA method using operator cognitive action model. Clarification of factors to be considered in the evaluation of human errors, incorporation of degraded plant safety condition into HRA and investigation of HEPs which are affected by the contents of operator tasks were made to improve the HRA method which can integrate operator cognitive action model into ATHENA method. In addition, the detail of procedures of the improved method was delineated in the form of flowchart. (2) Case studies and comparison with the results evaluated by THERP method. Four operator actions modeled in the PRAs of representative BWR5 and 4-loop PWR plants were selected and evaluated as case studies. These cases were also evaluated using

Technologies for improving the availability and reliability of current and future water cooled nuclear power plants. Proceedings of a technical committee meeting

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1998-11-01

One of the activities of the IAEA is to provide all Member States with an international source of balanced, objective information on advanced in technology for water cooled reactors. Since the global nuclear industry has a common interest in improving plant availability and reliability to assure specific individual plant and country perspective as well as to have an image of well managed competitive industry, the IAEA held a Technical Committee Meeting on Technologies for Improving the Availability and Reliability of Current and Future Water Cooled Nuclear Power Plants in September 1997. The basic aim to was to identify, review and exchange information on international developments in technologies for achieving high availability and reliability and to suggest areas where further technical advances could contribute to improvement of performance. Designs for future plants were presented in the context of how they can accommodate both the organizational and technical means for reaching even higher levels of performance. This proceedings contains the contributed papers presented at this Meeting each with a separate abstract. Four sessions were concerned with: policies, practices and procedures for achieving high reliability and availability; improving availability and reliability through better use of today`s technologies; recent advances in technologies for improving availability and reliability; achieving high availability for new plants Refs, figs, tabs

Technologies for improving the availability and reliability of current and future water cooled nuclear power plants. Proceedings of a technical committee meeting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1998-11-01

One of the activities of the IAEA is to provide all Member States with an international source of balanced, objective information on advanced in technology for water cooled reactors. Since the global nuclear industry has a common interest in improving plant availability and reliability to assure specific individual plant and country perspective as well as to have an image of well managed competitive industry, the IAEA held a Technical Committee Meeting on Technologies for Improving the Availability and Reliability of Current and Future Water Cooled Nuclear Power Plants in September 1997. The basic aim to was to identify, review and exchange information on international developments in technologies for achieving high availability and reliability and to suggest areas where further technical advances could contribute to improvement of performance. Designs for future plants were presented in the context of how they can accommodate both the organizational and technical means for reaching even higher levels of performance. This proceedings contains the contributed papers presented at this Meeting each with a separate abstract. Four sessions were concerned with: policies, practices and procedures for achieving high reliability and availability; improving availability and reliability through better use of today's technologies; recent advances in technologies for improving availability and reliability; achieving high availability for new plants

Human factor reliability program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Knoblochova, L.

2017-01-01

The human factor's reliability program was at Slovenske elektrarne, a.s. (SE) nuclear power plants. introduced as one of the components Initiatives of Excellent Performance in 2011. The initiative's goal was to increase the reliability of both people and facilities, in response to 3 major areas of improvement - Need for improvement of the results, Troubleshooting support, Supporting the achievement of the company's goals. The human agent's reliability program is in practice included: - Tools to prevent human error; - Managerial observation and coaching; - Human factor analysis; -Quick information about the event with a human agent; -Human reliability timeline and performance indicators; - Basic, periodic and extraordinary training in human factor reliability(authors)

The concurrent validity of the Problem Oriented Screening Instrument for Teenagers (POSIT) substance use/abuse subscale in adolescent patients in an urban federally qualified health center.

Science.gov (United States)

Kelly, Sharon M; O'Grady, Kevin E; Gryczynski, Jan; Mitchell, Shannon Gwin; Kirk, Arethusa; Schwartz, Robert P

2017-01-01

The Problem Oriented Screening Instrument for Teenagers (POSIT) substance use/abuse subscale has been validated with high school students, adolescents with criminal justice involvement, and adolescent substance use treatment samples using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-III-R and DSM-IV. This study examines the concurrent validity of the POSIT's standard 17-item substance use/abuse subscale and a revised, shorter 11-item version using DSM-5 substance use disorder diagnoses. Adolescents (N = 525; 93% African American, 55% female) 12-17 years of age awaiting primary care appointments at a Federally Qualified Health Center in Baltimore, Maryland completed the 17-item POSIT substance use/abuse subscale and items from a modified World Mental Health Composite International Diagnostic Interview corresponding to DSM-5 alcohol use disorder (AUD) and cannabis use disorder (CUD). Receiver operating characteristic curves, sensitivities, and specificities were examined with DSM-5 AUD, CUD, and a diagnosis of either or both disorders for the standard and revised subscales using risk cutoffs of either 1 or 2 POSIT "yes" responses. For the 17-item subscale, sensitivities were generally high using either cutoff (range: 0.79-1.00), although a cutoff of 1 was superior (sensitivities were 1.00 for AUD, CUD, and for either disorder). Specificities were also high using either cutoff (range: 0.81-0.95) but were higher using a cutoff of 2. For the 11-item subscale, a cutoff of 1 yielded higher sensitivities than a cutoff of 2 (ranges for 1 and 2: 0.96-1.00 and 0.79-0.86, respectively). Specificities for this subscale were higher using a cutoff of 2 (ranges for 1 and 2: 0.82-0.89 and 0.89-0.96, respectively). Findings suggest that the POSIT's substance use/abuse subscale is a potentially useful tool for screening adolescents in primary care for AUD or CUD using a cutoff of 1 or 2. The briefer, revised subscale may be preferable to the standard subscale in

Measuring illness beliefs in patients with lower extremity injuries: reliability and validity of the Dutch version of the Somatic Pre-Occupation and Coping questionnaire (SPOC-NL).

Science.gov (United States)

Reininga, Inge H F; Brouwer, Sandra; Dijkstra, Anita; Busse, Jason W; Ebrahim, Shanil; Wendt, Klaus W; El Moumni, Mostafa

2015-02-01

Positive coping strategies, illness perceptions and recovery expectations are associated with better clinical outcomes and earlier return to work after injuries. The Somatic Pre-Occupation and Coping (SPOC) questionnaire captures illness beliefs and coping towards recovery of physical function and return to work after surgical treatment of tibial shaft fractures. The aim of this study was to translate and culturally adapt the SPOC into Dutch (SPOC-NL) and evaluate its reliability and validity in patients with lower extremity injuries. The SPOC-NL contains four subscales: Somatic complaints, Coping, Energy, and Optimism. Patients treated for lower extremity injuries (N=106) completed the SPOC-NL, Short Form-36 and Short Musculoskeletal Function Assessment (SMFA-NL) questionnaire, and reported their current work status and self-perceived work ability. To assess test-retest reliability, 56 patients completed the SPOC-NL for a second time two weeks after the first administration of the SPOC-NL. We calculated Cronbach's Alpha, intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and G coefficients to measure internal consistency and overall reliability, and used the Bland and Altman method to assess bias between test and retest SPOC-NL scores. To determine construct validity, we explored 16 a priori hypotheses regarding correlations between SPOC-NL scores and subscale scores and SF-36, SMFA-NL, work status and work ability. Internal consistency was good to excellent, with Cronbach's Alpha values ranging between 0.79 and 0.94 and G coefficients ranging between 0.77 and 0.95. Test-retest reliability was also good, since high ICCs (0.72-0.91) and G coefficients (0.82-0.94) were found. Construct validity of the SPOC-NL was good, as 75% of the predefined hypotheses were confirmed. Compared to participants who were on sick leave or receiving disability benefits, participants with a paid job had significantly higher scores on the total score and the subscales Somatic complaints and

Engineering, maintenance, and new initiatives to improve LAMPF beam availability and system reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harris, H.W.; DeHaven, R.A.; Hart, V.E.; Parsons, W.M.; Sturrock, J.C.

1992-01-01

Two different requirements are driving engineering studies and hardware development to improve LAMPF. The first is concerned with component and system improvements to increase beam availability during the LAMPF production cycle. Hardware changes in RF, power supplies, and magnets are being implemented to increase mean time between failure and reduce time to replace or repair failed units. A joint LAMPF-Industry project is on-going to improve reliability of RF components. A component test stand is being refurbished to include significant development capability. The second approach includes several changes that will increase the duty factor of the existing accelerator. Major changes are being evaluated for replacing the front end of the accelerator. Other changes improving high brightness capability could result in a new performance plateau for LAMPF

Factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Levenson's Locus of Control Scale in Iranian infertile people.

Science.gov (United States)

Maroufizadeh, Saman; Omani Samani, Reza; Amini, Payam; Navid, Behnaz

2016-09-01

This study examined psychometric properties of the Levenson's Locus of Control Scale among Iranian infertile patients. In all, 312 infertile patients completed the Levenson's Locus of Control Scale and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. The confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the original three-factor model of Levenson's Locus of Control Scale was adequate ( χ 2 / df = 2.139; goodness-of-fit index = 0.88; root mean square error of approximation = 0.061; and standardized root mean square residual = 0.076). The Cronbach's alpha of the subscales ranged from 0.56 to 0.67. The Levenson's Locus of Control Scale subscales significantly correlated with anxiety and depression, showing an acceptable convergent validity. In conclusion, the Levenson's Locus of Control Scale has adequate reliability and validity and can be used to measure locus of control orientation in Iranian infertile patients.

The reliability and validity of Chinese version of SF36 v2 in aging patients with chronic heart failure.

Science.gov (United States)

Dong, Aishu; Chen, Sisi; Zhu, Lianlian; Shi, Lingmin; Cai, Yueli; Zeng, Jingni; Guo, Wenjian

2017-08-01

Chronic heart failure (CHF), a major public health problem worldwide, seriously limits health-related quality of life (HRQOL). How to evaluate HRQOL in older patients with CHF remains a problem. To evaluate the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form version 2 (SF-36v2) in CHF patients. From September 2012 to June 2014, we assessed QOL using the SF-36v2 in 171 aging participants with CHF in four cardiology departments. Convergent and discriminant validity, factorial validity, sensitivity among different NYHA classes and between different age groups, and reliability were determined using standard measurement methods. A total of 150 participants completed a structured questionnaire including general information and the Chinese SF-36v2; 132 questionnaires were considered valid, while 21 patients refused to take part. 25 of the 50 participants invited to complete the 2-week test-retest questionnaires returned completed questionnaires. The internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's α) of the total SF-36v2 was 0.92 (range 0.74-0.93). All hypothesized item-subscale correlations showed satisfactory convergent and discriminant validity. Sensitivity was measured in different NYHA classes and age groups. Comparison of different NYHA classes showed statistical significance, but there was no significant difference between age groups. We confirmed the SF-36v2 as a valid instrument for evaluating HRQOL Chinese CHF patients. Both reliability and validity were strongly satisfactory, but there was divergence in understanding subscales such as "social functioning" because of differing cultural background. The reliability, validity, and sensitivity of SF-36v2 in aging patients with CHF were acceptable.

Substation design improvement with a probabilistic reliability approach using the TOPASE program

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bulot, M.; Heroin, G.; Bergerot, J-L.; Le Du, M. [Electricite de France (France)

1997-12-31

TOPASE, (the French acronym for Probabilistic Tools and Data Processing for the Analysis of Electric Systems), developed by Electricite de France (EDF) to perform reliability studies on transmission substations, was described. TOPASE serves a dual objective of assisting in the automation of HV substation studies, as well as enabling electrical systems experts who are not necessarily specialists in reliability studies to perform such studies. The program is capable of quantifying the occurrence rate of undesirable events and of identifying critical equipment and the main incident scenarios. The program can be used to improve an existing substation, to choose an HV structure during the design stage, or to choose a system of protective devices. Data collected during 1996 and 1997 will be analyzed to identify useful experiences and to validate the basic concepts of the program. 4 figs.

software reliability: failures, consequences and improvement

African Journals Online (AJOL)

BARTH EKWUEME

2009-07-16

Jul 16, 2009 ... function of time, but it is believed that some modeling technique for software reliability is reaching propensity, by ..... February 25, 1991 during the Gulf war, the chopping ... Let us consider a few key concepts that apply to both.

Industrial application of fluidized bed combustion. Phase I, task 4: sub-scale unit testing and data analysis. Volume I. Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Goodstine, S.L.; Accortt, J.I.; Harris, R.D.; Kantersaria, P.P.; Matthews, F.T.; Jones, B.C.; Jukkola, G.D.

1979-12-01

Combustion Engineering, under contract with the Department of Energy, has developed, designed, and is constructing a 50,000 lbs steam/hr Industrial FBC Demonstration Plant. The plant will provide steam for space heating at the Great Lakes Naval Base in North Chicago, Illinois. Its operation will enable industry to objectively appraise the performance, reliability, and economics of FBC technology. A hot sub-scale unit (SSU), simulating the operating conditions of the demonstration plant, has been constructed and operated at Combustion Engineering's Kreisinger Development Laboratory in Windsor, Connecticut. The SSU facility has served as a valuable developmental tool in establishing the performance characteristics of the FBC process and equipment as used in the larger Demonstration Plant. Experience gained during more than 2000 hours of operation, including the analytical results derived from an extensive test program of 1500 hours operation, has defined problems and identified solutions in engineering the larger FBC Demonstration Plant. This report presents documentation of the results of the SSU test program.

Follow-up of CT-derived airway wall thickness: Correcting for changes in inspiration level improves reliability

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pompe, Esther, E-mail: e.pompe@umcutrecht.nl [Department of Respiratory Medicine, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht (Netherlands); Rikxoort, Eva M. van [Department of Radiology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen (Netherlands); Mets, Onno M. [Department of Radiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht (Netherlands); Charbonnier, Jean-Paul [Department of Radiology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen (Netherlands); Kuhnigk, Jan-Martin [Institute for Medical Image Computing, Fraunhofer MEVIS, Bremen (Germany); Koning, Harry J. de [Department of Public Health, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam (Netherlands); Oudkerk, Matthijs [University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, Department of Radiology (Netherlands); Vliegenthart, Rozemarijn [University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, Department of Radiology (Netherlands); University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Center for Medical Imaging-North East Netherlands, Groningen (Netherlands); Zanen, Pieter; Lammers, Jan-Willem J. [Department of Respiratory Medicine, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht (Netherlands); Ginneken, Bram van [Department of Radiology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen (Netherlands); Jong, Pim A. de; Mohamed Hoesein, Firdaus A.A. [Department of Radiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht (Netherlands)

2016-11-15

Objectives: Airway wall thickness (AWT) is affected by changes in lung volume. This study evaluated whether correcting AWT on computed tomography (CT) for differences in inspiration level improves measurement agreement, reliability, and power to detect changes over time. Methods: Participants of the Dutch-Belgian lung cancer screening trial who underwent 3-month repeat CT for an indeterminate pulmonary nodule were included. AWT on CT was calculated by the square root of the wall area at a theoretical airway with an internal perimeter of 10 mm (Pi10). The scan with the highest lung volume was labelled as the reference scan and the scan with the lowest lung volume was labelled as the comparison scan. Pi10 derived from the comparison scan was corrected by multiplying it with the ratio of CT lung volume of the comparison scan to CT lung volume on the reference scan. Agreement of uncorrected and corrected Pi10 was studied with the Bland-Altman method, reliability with intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC), and power to detect changes over time was calculated. Results: 315 male participants were included. Limit of agreement and reliability for Pi10 was −0.61 to 0.57 mm (ICC = 0.87), which improved to −0.38 to 0.37 mm (ICC = 0.94) after correction for inspiration level. To detect a 15% change over 3 months, 71 subjects are needed for Pi10 and 26 subjects for Pi10 adjusted for inspiration level. Conclusions: Correcting Pi10 for differences in inspiration level improves reliability, agreement, and power to detect changes over time.

Validity and reliability of an in-training evaluation report to measure the CanMEDS roles in emergency medicine residents.

Science.gov (United States)

Kassam, Aliya; Donnon, Tyrone; Rigby, Ian

2014-03-01

There is a question of whether a single assessment tool can assess the key competencies of residents as mandated by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada CanMEDS roles framework. The objective of the present study was to investigate the reliability and validity of an emergency medicine (EM) in-training evaluation report (ITER). ITER data from 2009 to 2011 were combined for residents across the 5 years of the EM residency training program. An exploratory factor analysis with varimax rotation was used to explore the construct validity of the ITER. A total of 172 ITERs were completed on residents across their first to fifth year of training. A combined, 24-item ITER yielded a five-factor solution measuring the CanMEDs role Medical Expert/Scholar, Communicator/Collaborator, Professional, Health Advocate and Manager subscales. The factor solution accounted for 79% of the variance, and reliability coefficients (Cronbach alpha) ranged from α  =  0.90 to 0.95 for each subscale and α  =  0.97 overall. The combined, 24-item ITER used to assess residents' competencies in the EM residency program showed strong reliability and evidence of construct validity for assessment of the CanMEDS roles. Further research is needed to develop and test ITER items that will differentiate each CanMEDS role exclusively.

2017 NREL Photovoltaic Reliability Workshop

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kurtz, Sarah [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2017-08-15

NREL's Photovoltaic (PV) Reliability Workshop (PVRW) brings together PV reliability experts to share information, leading to the improvement of PV module reliability. Such improvement reduces the cost of solar electricity and promotes investor confidence in the technology -- both critical goals for moving PV technologies deeper into the electricity marketplace.

Learning Style Scales: a valid and reliable questionnaire

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdolghani Abdollahimohammad

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Purpose: Learning-style instruments assist students in developing their own learning strategies and outcomes, in eliminating learning barriers, and in acknowledging peer diversity. Only a few psychometrically validated learning-style instruments are available. This study aimed to develop a valid and reliable learning-style instrument for nursing students. Methods: A cross-sectional survey study was conducted in two nursing schools in two countries. A purposive sample of 156 undergraduate nursing students participated in the study. Face and content validity was obtained from an expert panel. The LSS construct was established using principal axis factoring (PAF with oblimin rotation, a scree plot test, and parallel analysis (PA. The reliability of LSS was tested using Cronbach’s α, corrected item-total correlation, and test-retest. Results: Factor analysis revealed five components, confirmed by PA and a relatively clear curve on the scree plot. Component strength and interpretability were also confirmed. The factors were labeled as perceptive, solitary, analytic, competitive, and imaginative learning styles. Cronbach’s α was > 0.70 for all subscales in both study populations. The corrected item-total correlations were > 0.30 for the items in each component. Conclusion: The LSS is a valid and reliable inventory for evaluating learning style preferences in nursing students in various multicultural environments.

Learning Style Scales: a valid and reliable questionnaire.

Science.gov (United States)

Abdollahimohammad, Abdolghani; Ja'afar, Rogayah

2014-01-01

Learning-style instruments assist students in developing their own learning strategies and outcomes, in eliminating learning barriers, and in acknowledging peer diversity. Only a few psychometrically validated learning-style instruments are available. This study aimed to develop a valid and reliable learning-style instrument for nursing students. A cross-sectional survey study was conducted in two nursing schools in two countries. A purposive sample of 156 undergraduate nursing students participated in the study. Face and content validity was obtained from an expert panel. The LSS construct was established using principal axis factoring (PAF) with oblimin rotation, a scree plot test, and parallel analysis (PA). The reliability of LSS was tested using Cronbach's α, corrected item-total correlation, and test-retest. Factor analysis revealed five components, confirmed by PA and a relatively clear curve on the scree plot. Component strength and interpretability were also confirmed. The factors were labeled as perceptive, solitary, analytic, competitive, and imaginative learning styles. Cronbach's α was >0.70 for all subscales in both study populations. The corrected item-total correlations were >0.30 for the items in each component. The LSS is a valid and reliable inventory for evaluating learning style preferences in nursing students in various multicultural environments.

Assessment of reliability, validity, responsiveness and minimally important change of the German Hip dysfunction and osteoarthritis outcome score (HOOS) in patients with osteoarthritis of the hip.

Science.gov (United States)

Arbab, Dariusch; van Ochten, Johannes H M; Schnurr, Christoph; Bouillon, Bertil; König, Dietmar

2017-12-01

Patient-reported outcome measures are a critical tool in evaluating the efficacy of orthopedic procedures. The intention of this study was to evaluate reliability, validity, responsiveness and minimally important change of the German version of the Hip dysfunction and osteoarthritis outcome score (HOOS). The German HOOS was investigated in 251 consecutive patients before and 6 months after total hip arthroplasty. All patients completed HOOS, Oxford-Hip Score, Short-Form (SF-36) and numeric scales for pain and disability. Test-retest reliability, internal consistency, floor and ceiling effects, construct validity and minimal important change were analyzed. The German HOOS demonstrated excellent test-retest reliability with intraclass correlation coefficient values > 0.7. Cronbach´s alpha values demonstrated strong internal consistency. As hypothesized, HOOS subscales strongly correlated with corresponding OHS and SF-36 domains. All subscales showed excellent (effect size/standardized response means > 0.8) responsiveness between preoperative assessment and postoperative follow-up. The HOOS and all subdomains showed higher changes than the minimal detectable change which indicates true changes. The German version of the HOOS demonstrated good psychometric properties. It proved to be valid, reliable and responsive to the changes instrument for use in patients with hip osteoarthritis undergoing total hip replacement.

Use of Human Reliability Insights to Improve Decision-Making

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Julius, J. A.; Moieni, P.; Grobbelaar, J.; Kohlhepp, K.

2016-01-01

This paper describes the use of insights obtained during the development and application of human reliability analysis (HRA) as part of a probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) to support decision-making, including improvements to operations, training, and safety culture. Insights have been gained from the development and application of HRA as part of a PRA for nuclear power plants in the USA, Europe and Asia over the last two decades. These models consist of Level 1 and Level 2 PRA models of internal and external events, during full power and shutdown modes of plant operation. These insights include the use of human factors information to improve the qualitative portion of the HRA. The subsequent quantification in the HRA effectively prioritises the contributors to the unreliability of operator actions, and the process facilitates the identification of the factors that are important to the success of the operator actions. Additionally, the tools and techniques also allow for the evaluation of key assumptions and sources of uncertainty. The end results have been used to effectively support decision-making for day-to-day plant operations as well as licensing issues. HRA results have been used to provide feedback and improvements to plant procedures, operator training and other areas contributing the plant safety culture. Examples of the types of insights are presented in this paper. (author)

Reducing variability of workforce as a tool to improve plan reliability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wandahl, Søren; Yicheng, S.; Zygmunt, K. J.

Variability of flow is recognized as the greatest obstacle to production management. Since the work flow and labour flow are two dominators of work performance, it is important to manage them simultaneously. The objective of this paper is to examine whether by reducing the variance of a labour flow......, a plan reliability can be improved, therefore, three different construction labour data sets have been examined by utilizing Monte Carlo Simulation, to analyze the probability to finish simulated projects within a certain time. The research findings revealed that reducing variance in the workforce flow...... does not necessarily shorten the project length, nevertheless it increases probability to finish the tasks within a critical path duration. Additionally, it was concluded, that reducing the variance of crew allocation can improve the productivity....

Improving Electronic Sensor Reliability by Robust Outlier Screening

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Federico Cuesta

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Electronic sensors are widely used in different application areas, and in some of them, such as automotive or medical equipment, they must perform with an extremely low defect rate. Increasing reliability is paramount. Outlier detection algorithms are a key component in screening latent defects and decreasing the number of customer quality incidents (CQIs. This paper focuses on new spatial algorithms (Good Die in a Bad Cluster with Statistical Bins (GDBC SB and Bad Bin in a Bad Cluster (BBBC and an advanced outlier screening method, called Robust Dynamic Part Averaging Testing (RDPAT, as well as two practical improvements, which significantly enhance existing algorithms. Those methods have been used in production in Freescale® Semiconductor probe factories around the world for several years. Moreover, a study was conducted with production data of 289,080 dice with 26 CQIs to determine and compare the efficiency and effectiveness of all these algorithms in identifying CQIs.

Developing Predictive Maintenance Expertise to Improve Plant Equipment Reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wurzbach, Richard N.

2002-01-01

On-line equipment condition monitoring is a critical component of the world-class production and safety histories of many successful nuclear plant operators. From addressing availability and operability concerns of nuclear safety-related equipment to increasing profitability through support system reliability and reduced maintenance costs, Predictive Maintenance programs have increasingly become a vital contribution to the maintenance and operation decisions of nuclear facilities. In recent years, significant advancements have been made in the quality and portability of many of the instruments being used, and software improvements have been made as well. However, the single most influential component of the success of these programs is the impact of a trained and experienced team of personnel putting this technology to work. Changes in the nature of the power generation industry brought on by competition, mergers, and acquisitions, has taken the historically stable personnel environment of power generation and created a very dynamic situation. As a result, many facilities have seen a significant turnover in personnel in key positions, including predictive maintenance personnel. It has become the challenge for many nuclear operators to maintain the consistent contribution of quality data and information from predictive maintenance that has become important in the overall equipment decision process. These challenges can be met through the implementation of quality training to predictive maintenance personnel and regular updating and re-certification of key technology holders. The use of data management tools and services aid in the sharing of information across sites within an operating company, and with experts who can contribute value-added data management and analysis. The overall effectiveness of predictive maintenance programs can be improved through the incorporation of newly developed comprehensive technology training courses. These courses address the use of

Validity and reliability of the Traditional Chinese version of the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory in general population

Science.gov (United States)

Chuang, Li-Ling; Chuang, Yu-Fen; Hsu, Miao-Ju; Huang, Ying-Zu; Wong, Alice M. K.

2018-01-01

Background Fatigue is a common symptom in the general population and has a substantial effect on individuals’ quality of life. The Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI) has been widely used to quantify the impact of fatigue, but no Traditional Chinese translation has yet been validated. The goal of this study was to translate the MFI from English into Traditional Chinese (‘the MFI-TC’) and subsequently to examine its validity and reliability. Methods The study recruited a convenience sample of 123 people from various age groups in Taiwan. The MFI was examined using a two-step process: (1) translation and back-translation of the instrument; and (2) examination of construct validity, convergent validity, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and measurement error. The validity and reliability of the MFI-TC were assessed by factor analysis, Spearman rho correlation coefficient, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), minimal detectable change (MDC), and Bland-Altman analysis. All participants completed the Short-Form-36 Health Survey Taiwan Form (SF-36-T) and the Chinese version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) concurrently to test the convergent validity of the MFI-TC. Test-retest reliability was assessed by readministration of the MFI-TC after a 1-week interval. Results Factor analysis confirmed the four dimensions of fatigue: general/physical fatigue, reduced activity, reduced motivation, and mental fatigue. A four-factor model was extracted, combining general fatigue and physical fatigue as one factor. The results demonstrated moderate convergent validity when correlating fatigue (MFI-TC) with quality of life (SF-36-T) and sleep disturbances (PSQI) (Spearman's rho = 0.68 and 0.47, respectively). Cronbach’s alpha for the MFI-TC total scale and subscales ranged from 0.73 (mental fatigue subscale) to 0.92 (MFI-TC total scale). ICCs ranged from 0.85 (reduced motivation) to 0.94 (MFI-TC total scale), and

STUDIES ON IGBT MODULE TO IMPROVE THE RELIABILITY OF POWER ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Choi, Uimin

component level to converter level. It is divided into two main parts: the first part, which consists of Chapters 2 and 3, is reliability studies of the IGBT module regarding thermal stresses and the second part, composed of Chapters 4 and 5, discusses strategies to improve the reliability and availability...... are presented. Then, in Chapter 3, the effect of junction temperature swing duration t△Tj on the lifetime of the transfer molded Intelligent Power IGBT Module is investigated and modeled based on the power cycling test results. In addition, the physics-of-failure analysis results of the tested modules...... are presented. Finally, in Chapters 4 and 5, open-circuit fault detection and fault-tolerant control methods are proposed for two kinds of neutral-point clamped three-level inverters T-type and NPC inverters. One of main contributions in this project is the development of an apparatus and methodology...

Improved reliability of power modules

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Baker, Nick; Liserre, Marco; Dupont, Laurent

2014-01-01

Power electronic systems play an increasingly important role in providing high-efficiency power conversion for adjustable-speed drives, power-quality correction, renewable-energy systems, energy-storage systems, and electric vehicles. However, they are often presented with demanding operating...... environments that challenge the reliability aspects of power electronic techniques. For example, increasingly thermally stressful environments are seen in applications such as electric vehicles, where ambient temperatures under the hood exceed 150 °C, while some wind turbine applications can place large...

Improved Iterative Hard- and Soft-Reliability Based Majority-Logic Decoding Algorithms for Non-Binary Low-Density Parity-Check Codes

Science.gov (United States)

Xiong, Chenrong; Yan, Zhiyuan

2014-10-01

Non-binary low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes have some advantages over their binary counterparts, but unfortunately their decoding complexity is a significant challenge. The iterative hard- and soft-reliability based majority-logic decoding algorithms are attractive for non-binary LDPC codes, since they involve only finite field additions and multiplications as well as integer operations and hence have significantly lower complexity than other algorithms. In this paper, we propose two improvements to the majority-logic decoding algorithms. Instead of the accumulation of reliability information in the existing majority-logic decoding algorithms, our first improvement is a new reliability information update. The new update not only results in better error performance and fewer iterations on average, but also further reduces computational complexity. Since existing majority-logic decoding algorithms tend to have a high error floor for codes whose parity check matrices have low column weights, our second improvement is a re-selection scheme, which leads to much lower error floors, at the expense of more finite field operations and integer operations, by identifying periodic points, re-selecting intermediate hard decisions, and changing reliability information.

A study of operational and testing reliability in software reliability analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, B.; Xie, M.

2000-01-01

Software reliability is an important aspect of any complex equipment today. Software reliability is usually estimated based on reliability models such as nonhomogeneous Poisson process (NHPP) models. Software systems are improving in testing phase, while it normally does not change in operational phase. Depending on whether the reliability is to be predicted for testing phase or operation phase, different measure should be used. In this paper, two different reliability concepts, namely, the operational reliability and the testing reliability, are clarified and studied in detail. These concepts have been mixed up or even misused in some existing literature. Using different reliability concept will lead to different reliability values obtained and it will further lead to different reliability-based decisions made. The difference of the estimated reliabilities is studied and the effect on the optimal release time is investigated

Reliability Calculations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Kurt Erling

1986-01-01

Risk and reliability analysis is increasingly being used in evaluations of plant safety and plant reliability. The analysis can be performed either during the design process or during the operation time, with the purpose to improve the safety or the reliability. Due to plant complexity and safety...... and availability requirements, sophisticated tools, which are flexible and efficient, are needed. Such tools have been developed in the last 20 years and they have to be continuously refined to meet the growing requirements. Two different areas of application were analysed. In structural reliability probabilistic...... approaches have been introduced in some cases for the calculation of the reliability of structures or components. A new computer program has been developed based upon numerical integration in several variables. In systems reliability Monte Carlo simulation programs are used especially in analysis of very...

Validity and Reliability of the Questionnaire for Assessing Women’s Reproductive History in Azar Cohort Study

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Mohammad Zakaria Pezeshki

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This study was done to evaluate the validity and reliability of women’s reproductive history questionnaire which will be used in Azar Cohort study; a cohort that is conducted by Tabriz University of Medical Science in Shabestar county for identifying risk factors of no communicable diseases. Content and face validity were evaluated by ten experts in the field and quantified as content validity index (CVI and content validity ratio (CVR. To assess the reliability, using test-retest approach, kappa statistic was calculated for categorical variables and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC was used for the quantitative items. The calculated CVI and CVR were 0.91and 0.94, respectively. Reliability for all items was high. The ICC was 0.99 and kappa statistic was equal to 1. The final version of questionnaire was redesigned in 26 items with 7 subscales.

Face validity and reliability of a pictorial instrument for assessing fundamental movement skill perceived competence in young children.

Science.gov (United States)

Barnett, Lisa M; Ridgers, Nicola D; Zask, Avigdor; Salmon, Jo

2015-01-01

To determine reliability and face validity of an instrument to assess young children's perceived fundamental movement skill competence. Validation and reliability study. A pictorial instrument based on the Test Gross Motor Development-2 assessed perceived locomotor (six skills) and object control (six skills) competence using the format and item structure from the physical competence subscale of the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Acceptance for Young Children. Sample 1 completed object control items in May (n=32) and locomotor items in October 2012 (n=23) at two time points seven days apart. Children were asked at the end of the test-retest their understanding of what was happening in each picture to determine face validity. Sample 2 (n=58) completed 12 items in November 2012 on a single occasion to test internal reliability only. Sample 1 children were aged 5-7 years (M=6.0, SD=0.8) at object control assessment and 5-8 years at locomotor assessment (M=6.5, SD=0.9). Sample 2 children were aged 6-8 years (M=7.2, SD=0.73). Intra-class correlations assessed in Sample 1 children were excellent for object control (intra-class correlation=0.78), locomotor (intra-class correlation=0.82) and all 12 skills (intra-class correlations=0.83). Face validity was acceptable. Internal consistency was adequate in both samples for each subscale and all 12 skills (alpha range 0.60-0.81). This study has provided preliminary evidence for instrument reliability and face validity. This enables future alignment between the measurement of perceived and actual fundamental movement skill competence in young children. Crown Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reliability and Validity of the Child and Adolescent Functioning Impairment Scale in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Joon-Ho; Schachar, Russell J

2011-01-01

Objective The purpose of the present study was to develop reliable and valid parent and teacher scales for measurement of functional impairment in children and adolescents in order to assist the diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Methods Seventy-two children with ADHD fulfilling the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, 4th Edition criteria and forty-two normal controls were enrolled in this study. Parents and teachers of the subjects completed the parent and teacher form of the preliminary items of Child and Adolescent Functioning Impairment Scale (CAFIS) made up by the authors. Based on the reliability and factor analysis, the final parent (CAFIS-parent form) and teacher version (CAFIS-teacher form) were constructed. Scales were analyzed for reliability and validity. Relative operating characteristics curve was drawn to calculate the cutoff scores of these scales for children with ADHD. Results The CAFIS-parent and CAFIS-teacher forms consist of four and three factors, respectively. Internal consistency and test-retest correlation of the scales were satisfactory. The CAFIS and Children's Global Assessment Scale were significantly correlated. All scores of subscales of CAFIS in ADHD group were significantly higher than those of control group. The sensitivity and specificity of the subscales were mostly at an appropriate level. Conclusion The CAFIS is a brief layperson-administered scale to assess functional impairment of children and adolescents. It can be a useful tool for parents and teachers to objectively measure the functions of children at home and in school. This scale was found to be reliable and valid, and it appears to be a valuable instrument in Korean language. PMID:21852987

The Movement Imagery Questionnaire-Revised, Second Edition (MIQ-RS Is a Reliable and Valid Tool for Evaluating Motor Imagery in Stroke Populations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrew J. Butler

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Mental imagery can improve motor performance in stroke populations when combined with physical therapy. Valid and reliable instruments to evaluate the imagery ability of stroke survivors are needed to maximize the benefits of mental imagery therapy. The purposes of this study were to: examine and compare the test-retest intra-rate reliability of the Movement Imagery Questionnaire-Revised, Second Edition (MIQ-RS in stroke survivors and able-bodied controls, examine internal consistency of the visual and kinesthetic items of the MIQ-RS, determine if the MIQ-RS includes both the visual and kinesthetic dimensions of mental imagery, correlate impairment and motor imagery scores, and investigate the criterion validity of the MIQ-RS in stroke survivors by comparing the results to the KVIQ-10. Test-retest analysis indicated good levels of reliability (ICC range: .83–.99 and internal consistency (Cronbach α: .95–.98 of the visual and kinesthetic subscales in both groups. The two-factor structure of the MIQ-RS was supported by factor analysis, with the visual and kinesthetic components accounting for 88.6% and 83.4% of the total variance in the able-bodied and stroke groups, respectively. The MIQ-RS is a valid and reliable instrument in the stroke population examined and able-bodied populations and therefore useful as an outcome measure for motor imagery ability.

A dissociation between engagement and learning: Enthusiastic instructions fail to reliably improve performance on a memory task.

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Benjamin A Motz

Full Text Available Despite widespread assertions that enthusiasm is an important quality of effective teaching, empirical research on the effect of enthusiasm on learning and memory is mixed and largely inconclusive. To help resolve these inconsistencies, we conducted a carefully-controlled laboratory experiment, investigating whether enthusiastic instructions for a memory task would improve recall accuracy. Scripted videos, either enthusiastic or neutral, were used to manipulate the delivery of task instructions. We also manipulated the sequence of learning items, replicating the spacing effect, a known cognitive technique for memory improvement. Although spaced study reliably improved test performance, we found no reliable effect of enthusiasm on memory performance across two experiments. We did, however, find that enthusiastic instructions caused participants to respond to more item prompts, leaving fewer test questions blank, an outcome typically associated with increased task motivation. We find no support for the popular claim that enthusiastic instruction will improve learning, although it may still improve engagement. This dissociation between motivation and learning is discussed, as well as its implications for education and future research on student learning.

A dissociation between engagement and learning: Enthusiastic instructions fail to reliably improve performance on a memory task.

Science.gov (United States)

Motz, Benjamin A; de Leeuw, Joshua R; Carvalho, Paulo F; Liang, Kaley L; Goldstone, Robert L

2017-01-01

Despite widespread assertions that enthusiasm is an important quality of effective teaching, empirical research on the effect of enthusiasm on learning and memory is mixed and largely inconclusive. To help resolve these inconsistencies, we conducted a carefully-controlled laboratory experiment, investigating whether enthusiastic instructions for a memory task would improve recall accuracy. Scripted videos, either enthusiastic or neutral, were used to manipulate the delivery of task instructions. We also manipulated the sequence of learning items, replicating the spacing effect, a known cognitive technique for memory improvement. Although spaced study reliably improved test performance, we found no reliable effect of enthusiasm on memory performance across two experiments. We did, however, find that enthusiastic instructions caused participants to respond to more item prompts, leaving fewer test questions blank, an outcome typically associated with increased task motivation. We find no support for the popular claim that enthusiastic instruction will improve learning, although it may still improve engagement. This dissociation between motivation and learning is discussed, as well as its implications for education and future research on student learning.

The relationship between baseline Organizational Readiness to Change Assessment subscale scores and implementation of hepatitis prevention services in substance use disorders treatment clinics: a case study

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Hagedorn Hildi J

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The Organizational Readiness to Change Assessment (ORCA is a measure of organizational readiness for implementing practice change in healthcare settings that is organized based on the core elements and sub-elements of the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (PARIHS framework. General support for the reliability and factor structure of the ORCA has been reported. However, no published study has examined the utility of the ORCA in a clinical setting. The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between baseline ORCA scores and implementation of hepatitis prevention services in substance use disorders (SUD clinics. Methods Nine clinic teams from Veterans Health Administration SUD clinics across the United States participated in a six-month training program to promote evidence-based practices for hepatitis prevention. A representative from each team completed the ORCA evidence and context subscales at baseline. Results Eight of nine clinics reported implementation of at least one new hepatitis prevention practice after completing the six-month training program. Clinic teams were categorized by level of implementation-high (n = 4 versus low (n = 5-based on how many hepatitis prevention practices were integrated into their clinics after completing the training program. High implementation teams had significantly higher scores on the patient experience and leadership culture subscales of the ORCA compared to low implementation teams. While not reaching significance in this small sample, high implementation clinics also had higher scores on the research, clinical experience, staff culture, leadership behavior, and measurement subscales as compared to low implementation clinics. Conclusions The results of this study suggest that the ORCA was able to measure differences in organizational factors at baseline between clinics that reported high and low implementation of practice

Prediction method of long-term reliability in improving residual stresses by means of surface finishing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sera, Takehiko; Hirano, Shinro; Chigusa, Naoki; Okano, Shigetaka; Saida, Kazuyoshi; Mochizuki, Masahito; Nishimoto, Kazutoshi

2012-01-01

Surface finishing methods, such as Water Jet Peening (WJP), have been applied to welds in some major components of nuclear power plants as a counter measure to Primary Water Stress Corrosion Cracking (PWSCC). In addition, the methods of surface finishing (buffing treatment) is being standardized, and thus the buffing treatment has been also recognized as the well-established method of improving stress. On the other hand, the long-term stability of peening techniques has been confirmed by accelerated test. However, the effectiveness of stress improvement by surface treatment is limited to thin layers and the effect of complicated residual stress distribution in the weld metal beneath the surface is not strictly taken into account for long-term stability. This paper, therefore, describes the accelerated tests, which confirmed that the long-term stability of the layer subjected to buffing treatment was equal to that subjected to WJP. The long-term reliability of very thin stress improved layer was also confirmed through a trial evaluation by thermal elastic-plastic creep analysis, even if the effect of complicated residual stress distribution in the weld metal was excessively taken into account. Considering the above findings, an approach is proposed for constructing the prediction method of the long-term reliability of stress improvement by surface finishing. (author)

Complex method to calculate objective assessments of information systems protection to improve expert assessments reliability

Science.gov (United States)

Abdenov, A. Zh; Trushin, V. A.; Abdenova, G. A.

2018-01-01

The paper considers the questions of filling the relevant SIEM nodes based on calculations of objective assessments in order to improve the reliability of subjective expert assessments. The proposed methodology is necessary for the most accurate security risk assessment of information systems. This technique is also intended for the purpose of establishing real-time operational information protection in the enterprise information systems. Risk calculations are based on objective estimates of the adverse events implementation probabilities, predictions of the damage magnitude from information security violations. Calculations of objective assessments are necessary to increase the reliability of the proposed expert assessments.

Investigation of reliability, validity and normality Persian version of the California Critical Thinking Skills Test; Form B (CCTST

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khallli H

2003-04-01

Full Text Available Background: To evaluate the effectiveness of the present educational programs in terms of students' achieving problem solving, decision making and critical thinking skills, reliable, valid and standard instrument are needed. Purposes: To Investigate the Reliability, validity and Norm of CCTST Form.B .The California Critical Thinking Skills Test contain 34 multi-choice questions with a correct answer in the jive Critical Thinking (CT cognitive skills domain. Methods: The translated CCTST Form.B were given t0405 BSN nursing students ojNursing Faculties located in Tehran (Tehran, Iran and Shahid Beheshti Universitiesthat were selected in the through random sampling. In order to determine the face and content validity the test was translated and edited by Persian and English language professor and researchers. it was also confirmed by judgments of a panel of medical education experts and psychology professor's. CCTST reliability was determined with internal consistency and use of KR-20. The construct validity of the test was investigated with factor analysis and internal consistency and group difference. Results: The test coefficien for reliablity was 0.62. Factor Analysis indicated that CCTST has been formed from 5 factor (element namely: Analysis, Evaluation, lriference, Inductive and Deductive Reasoning. Internal consistency method shows that All subscales have been high and positive correlation with total test score. Group difference method between nursing and philosophy students (n=50 indicated that there is meaningfUl difference between nursing and philosophy students scores (t=-4.95,p=0.OOO1. Scores percentile norm also show that percentile offifty scores related to 11 raw score and 95, 5 percentiles are related to 17 and 6 raw score ordinary. Conclusions: The Results revealed that the questions test is sufficiently reliable as a research tool, and all subscales measure a single construct (Critical Thinking and are able to distinguished the

Improved Reliability of Single-Phase PV Inverters by Limiting the Maximum Feed-in Power

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yang, Yongheng; Wang, Huai; Blaabjerg, Frede

2014-01-01

Grid operation experiences have revealed the necessity to limit the maximum feed-in power from PV inverter systems under a high penetration scenario in order to avoid voltage and frequency instability issues. A Constant Power Generation (CPG) control method has been proposed at the inverter level...... devices, allowing a quantitative prediction of the power device lifetime. A study case on a 3 kW single-phase PV inverter has demonstrated the advantages of the CPG control in terms of improved reliability.......Grid operation experiences have revealed the necessity to limit the maximum feed-in power from PV inverter systems under a high penetration scenario in order to avoid voltage and frequency instability issues. A Constant Power Generation (CPG) control method has been proposed at the inverter level....... The CPG control strategy is activated only when the DC input power from PV panels exceeds a specific power limit. It enables to limit the maximum feed-in power to the electric grids and also to improve the utilization of PV inverters. As a further study, this paper investigates the reliability performance...

Physical activity within a CBT intervention improves coping with pain in traumatized refugees: results of a randomized controlled design.

Science.gov (United States)

Liedl, Alexandra; Müller, Julia; Morina, Naser; Karl, Anke; Denke, Claudia; Knaevelsrud, Christine

2011-02-01

Many traumatized refugees experience both posttraumatic stress disorder and chronic pain. Based on Mutual Maintenance Theory and the Perpetual Avoidance Model, this study examined the additional effect of physical activity within a biofeedback-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT-BF) for traumatized refugees. In a controlled design, 36 patients were randomized into one of three conditions (CBT-BF, CBT-BF with physical activity [CBT-BF+active], and a waiting list control group [WL]). Thirty patients (n=10 in each group) completed the treatment and a follow-up assessment 3 months later. Participants' coping strategies, pain and mental health status, and physiological reactivity were assessed before and after the intervention and at 3-month follow-up. Treatment effects were analyzed using analyses of variance with baseline scores as covariates (ANCOVAs) and the Reliable Change Index. The CBT-BF and CBT-BF+active groups showed improvements in all outcome measures relative to the WL group. The effect sizes for the main outcome measures were higher in the CBT-BF+active group than in the CBT-BF group. Repeated measures analyses of covariance showed significant group effects for coping strategies--in particular, for the "cognitive restructuring" and "counter-activities" subscales as well as a marginally significant group effect for "perceived self-competence"--with the CBT-BF+active group showing more favorable outcomes than the CBT-BF group. Moreover, 60% of participants in the CBT-BF+active group showed clinically reliable intraindividual change in at least one subscale of the pain coping strategies questionnaire, compared with just 30% of participants in the CBT-BF group. Findings of improved coping strategies, larger effect sizes, and higher rates of clinical improvement in the CBT-BF+active group suggest that physical activity adds value to pain management interventions for traumatized refugees. Given the small sample size, however, these preliminary results need

Test-Retest Reliability of the Short-Form Survivor Unmet Needs Survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Karen; Bulsara, Max; Monterosso, Leanne

2018-01-01

Reliable and valid needs assessment measures are important assessment tools in cancer survivorship care. A new 30-item short-form version of the Survivor Unmet Needs Survey (SF-SUNS) was developed and validated with cancer survivors, including hematology cancer survivors; however, test-retest reliability has not been established. The objective of this study was to assess the test-retest reliability of the SF-SUNS with a cohort of lymphoma survivors ( n = 40). Test-retest reliability of the SF-SUNS was conducted at two time points: baseline (time 1) and 5 days later (time 2). Test-retest data were collected from lymphoma cancer survivors ( n = 40) in a large tertiary cancer center in Western Australia. Intraclass correlation analyses compared data at time 1 (baseline) and time 2 (5 days later). Cronbach's alpha analyses were performed to assess the internal consistency at both time points. The majority (23/30, 77%) of items achieved test-retest reliability scores 0.45-0.74 (fair to good). A high degree of overall internal consistency was demonstrated (time 1 = 0.92, time 2 = 0.95), with scores 0.65-0.94 across subscales for both time points. Mixed test-retest reliability of the SF-SUNS was established. Our results indicate the SF-SUNS is responsive to the changing needs of lymphoma cancer survivors. Routine use of cancer survivorship specific needs-based assessments is required in oncology care today. Nurses are well placed to administer these assessments and provide tailored information and resources. Further assessment of test-retest reliability in hematology and other cancer cohorts is warranted.

Fuel R and D to improve fuel reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, Rosa; Cheng, Bo; Deshon, Jeff; Edsinger, Kurt; Ozer, Odelli

2006-01-01

Light water reactor fuel is operating in an increasingly challenging environment. Fuel burnup extension and cycle length increase both can increase the local duty. Reactor water chemistry modifications for the purpose of protection the plant system materials have the potential of increasing fuel surface deposition and cladding corrosion and hydriding. The status of fuel performance in US reactors is summarized and an update of the Fuel Reliability Program' established by the utility industry to ensure reliability is provided. (author)

Neurological signs and morphological cerebral changes in schizophrenia: An analysis of NSS subscales in patients with first episode psychosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Heuser, Mark; Thomann, Philipp A; Essig, Marco; Bachmann, Silke; Schröder, Johannes

2011-05-31

Neurological soft signs (NSS) comprise a broad range of minor motor and sensory deficits which are frequently found in schizophrenia. However, the cerebral changes underlying NSS are only partly understood. We therefore investigated the cerebral correlates of NSS by using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 102 patients with first episode schizophrenia. NSS were assessed after remission of acute psychotic symptoms using the Heidelberg scale (HS), which consists of five NSS subscales ("motor coordination", "complex motor tasks", "orientation", "integrative functions", and "hard signs"). Correlations between NSS scores and cerebral changes were established by optimized voxel-based morphometry. NSS total scores were significantly associated with reduced gray matter densities in the precentral and postcentral gyri, the inferior parietal lobule and the inferior occipital gyrus. Both of the NSS subscales "motor coordination" and "complex motor tasks", referred to motor strip changes but showed differential correlations with parietal, insular, cerebellar or frontal sites, respectively. The NSS subscales "orientation" and "integrative functions" were associated with left frontal, parietal, and occipital changes or bihemispheric frontal changes, respectively. The NSS subscale "hard signs" was associated with deficits in the right cerebellum and right parastriate cortex. Repeated analyses for white matter changes revealed similar results. These findings confirm the associations between NSS and cerebral changes in areas important for motor and sensory functioning. This variety of cerebral sites corresponds to the heterogeneity of NSS and are consistent with the hypothesis that NSS reflect both a rather generalized cerebral dysfunction and localized deficits specific for particular signs. 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

SPE5 Sub-Scale Test Series Summary Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vandersall, Kevin S. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Reeves, Robert V. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); DeHaven, Martin R. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Strickland, Shawn L. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2016-01-14

A series of 2 SPE5 sub-scale tests were performed to experimentally confirm that a booster system designed and evaluated in prior tests would properly initiate the PBXN-110 case charge fill. To conduct the experiments, a canister was designed to contain the nominally 50 mm diameter booster tube with an outer fill of approximately 150 mm diameter by 150 mm in length. The canisters were filled with PBXN-110 at NAWS-China Lake and shipped back to LLNL for testing in the High Explosives Applications Facility (HEAF). Piezoelectric crystal pins were placed on the outside of the booster tube before filling, and a series of piezoelectric crystal pins along with Photonic Doppler Velocimetry (PDV) probes were placed on the outer surface of the canister to measure the relative timing and magnitude of the detonation. The 2 piezoelectric crystal pins integral to the booster design were also utilized along with a series of either piezoelectric crystal pins or piezoelectric polymer pads on the top of the canister or outside case that utilized direct contact, gaps, or different thicknesses of RTV cushions to obtain time of arrival data to evaluate the response in preparation for the large-scale SPE5 test. To further quantify the margin of the booster operation, the 1st test (SPE5SS1) was functioned with both detonators and the 2nd test (SPE5SS2) was functioned with only 1 detonator. A full detonation of the material was observed in both experiments as observed by the pin timing and PDV signals. The piezoelectric pads were found to provide a greater measured signal magnitude during the testing with an RTV layer present, and the improved response is due to the larger measurement surface area of the pad. This report will detail the experiment design, canister assembly for filling, final assembly, experiment firing, presentation of the diagnostic results, and a discussion of the results.

Engineering of electrical systems of nuclear power stations for improved reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Narasinga Rao, S.N.; Ramanathan, K.; Choudhary, N.N.

1977-01-01

Operational problems experienced in electrical systems/equipment of the Tarapur Atomic Power Station (TAPS) and the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS) and their solutions are dealt in detail. This experience has led to new design concepts which are being introduced for improved reliability in design of the Madras Atomic Power Project (MAPP) and the Narora Atomic Power Project (NAPP). Saline pollution on switchyard equipments was the major problem of the TAPS due to its coastal location. Saline pollution resulted in flash over of insulators and failure of clamps. The problem was solved by suitable changes in insulators, conductors, transformers, switches and arranging portable live line washing of the switchyard equipment. In MAPP which is also located on coast, an indoor switchyard is built. NAPP is located in a seismic zone, therefore, all equipment is specified for appropriate seismic duty. Various other improvements are described. (M.G.B.)

[Validation of a scale for adolescents (EBHAD): a pilot study in Puerto Rico].

Science.gov (United States)

Hechavarría, Rosa M; Martínez, Daniel; Rodríguez, José R

2004-06-01

This investigation presents the development and validation process of a scale whose principal purpose is to identify those areas in which one is required to achieve improved functioning and adequate emotional health resulting in improved sports performance with adolescent athletes. The "Hechavarria Wellness Scale for Adolescent Athletes" (HWSAA) was developed. The concept of wellness was measured utilizing the following 4 sub-scales measuring; depressive symptomatology, trait anxiety, self-esteem and social relations. A pilot study was undertaken with a universe of 149 adolescent athletes from both sexes with an average of 15.6 years old and residing within the different municipalities of Puerto Rico. The alpha coefficient reliability of the HWSAA and its' subscales fluctuated between 0.71 and 0.82. The results suggest that the HWSAA and its' subscales possess a psychometrically adequate internal consistency. This means that the instrument is valid and reliable for the sample utilized. We suggest further research with the HWSAA.

Confirmatory factor analysis and recommendations for improvement of the Autonomy-Preference-Index (API).

Science.gov (United States)

Simon, Daniela; Kriston, Levente; Loh, Andreas; Spies, Claudia; Scheibler, Fueloep; Wills, Celia; Härter, Martin

2010-09-01

Validation of the German version of the Autonomy-Preference-Index (API), a measure of patients' preferences for decision making and information seeking. Stepwise confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on a sample of patients (n = 1592) treated in primary care for depression (n = 186), surgical and internal medicine inpatients (n = 811) and patients with minor trauma treated in an emergency department (n = 595). An initial test of the model was done on calculation and validation halves of the sample. Both local and global indexes-of-fit suggested modifications to the scale. The scale was modified and re-tested in the calculation sample and confirmed in the validation sample. Subgroup analyses for age, gender and type of treatment setting were also performed. The confirmatory analysis led to a modified version of the API with better local and global indexes-of-fit for samples of German-speaking patients. Two items of the sub-scale, 'preference for decision-making', and one item of the sub-scale, 'preference for information seeking', showed very low reliability scores and were deleted. Thus, several global indexes-of-fit clearly improved significantly. The modified scale was confirmed on the validation sample with acceptable to good indices of fit. Results of subgroup analyses indicated that no adaptations were necessary. This first confirmatory analysis for a German-speaking population showed that the API was improved by the removal of several items. There were theoretically plausible explanations for this improvement suggesting that the modifications might also be appropriate in English and other language versions.

2015 NREL Photovoltaic Module Reliability Workshops

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kurtz, Sarah [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2017-09-14

NREL's Photovoltaic (PV) Module Reliability Workshop (PVMRW) brings together PV reliability experts to share information, leading to the improvement of PV module reliability. Such improvement reduces the cost of solar electricity and promotes investor confidence in the technology--both critical goals for moving PV technologies deeper into the electricity marketplace.

2016 NREL Photovoltaic Module Reliability Workshop

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kurtz, Sarah [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2017-09-07

NREL's Photovoltaic (PV) Module Reliability Workshop (PVMRW) brings together PV reliability experts to share information, leading to the improvement of PV module reliability. Such improvement reduces the cost of solar electricity and promotes investor confidence in the technology - both critical goals for moving PV technologies deeper into the electricity marketplace.

Reliability evaluation of smart distribution grids

OpenAIRE

Kazemi, Shahram

2011-01-01

The term "Smart Grid" generally refers to a power grid equipped with the advanced technologies dedicated for purposes such as reliability improvement, ease of control and management, integrating of distributed energy resources and electricity market operations. Improving the reliability of electric power delivered to the end users is one of the main targets of employing smart grid technologies. The smart grid investments targeted for reliability improvement can be directed toward the generati...

Optimized work control process to improve safety and reliability in a risk-based and deregulated environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anderson, Jon G.; Jeffries, Jeffrey D. E.; Mairs, Todd P.; Rahn, Frank J.

1999-01-01

This paper provides an overview of strategic models to assist power generating plants to improve their work control processes. These models include mechanisms to continually keep the process up to date. Included in the work control process are elements for system cost/performance analysis, life-cycle maintenance planning, on-line scheduling and look-ahead techniques, and schedule implementation to conduct work on the asset. The paper also discusses how risk management associated with work control issues that effect the safety and reliability, as well as O and M costs, is integrated into this strategy. The work control process is a pervasive and critical element in the successful implementation of operations and work management programs. While providing a method to implement maintenance activities in a cost-effective manner, the work control process improves plant safety and system reliability

NASA Langley's AirSTAR Testbed: A Subscale Flight Test Capability for Flight Dynamics and Control System Experiments

Science.gov (United States)

Jordan, Thomas L.; Bailey, Roger M.

2008-01-01

As part of the Airborne Subscale Transport Aircraft Research (AirSTAR) project, NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) has developed a subscaled flying testbed in order to conduct research experiments in support of the goals of NASA s Aviation Safety Program. This research capability consists of three distinct components. The first of these is the research aircraft, of which there are several in the AirSTAR stable. These aircraft range from a dynamically-scaled, twin turbine vehicle to a propeller driven, off-the-shelf airframe. Each of these airframes carves out its own niche in the research test program. All of the airplanes have sophisticated on-board data acquisition and actuation systems, recording, telemetering, processing, and/or receiving data from research control systems. The second piece of the testbed is the ground facilities, which encompass the hardware and software infrastructure necessary to provide comprehensive support services for conducting flight research using the subscale aircraft, including: subsystem development, integrated testing, remote piloting of the subscale aircraft, telemetry processing, experimental flight control law implementation and evaluation, flight simulation, data recording/archiving, and communications. The ground facilities are comprised of two major components: (1) The Base Research Station (BRS), a LaRC laboratory facility for system development, testing and data analysis, and (2) The Mobile Operations Station (MOS), a self-contained, motorized vehicle serving as a mobile research command/operations center, functionally equivalent to the BRS, capable of deployment to remote sites for supporting flight tests. The third piece of the testbed is the test facility itself. Research flights carried out by the AirSTAR team are conducted at NASA Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The UAV Island runway is a 50 x 1500 paved runway that lies within restricted airspace at Wallops Flight Facility. The

Reliability and validity of academic motivation scale for sports high school students’

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Haslofça Fehime

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This study was designed to test validity and reliability of Academic Motivation Scale (AMS for sports high school students. The research conducted with 357 volunteered girls (n=117 and boys (n=240. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that Chi square (χ2, degrees of freedom (df and χ2/df ratio were 1102.90, 341 and 3.234, respectively. Goodness of Fit Index, Comparative Fit Index, Non-normed Fit Index and Incremental Fit Index were between 0.92-0.95. Additionally, Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index, An Average Errors Square Root and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation were 0.88, 0.070 and 0.079, respectively. Subscale reliability coefficients were between 0.77 and 0.86. Test-retest correlations of AMS were found between 0.79 and 0.91. Results showed that scale was suitable for determination of sports high school students’ academicals motivation levels.

The validity and reliability of the 'Cancer Caregiving Tasks, Consequences and Needs Questionnaire' (CaTCoN)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lund, Line; Ross, Lone; Petersen, Morten A

2014-01-01

and reliability of the multi-item scales in the CaTCoN using psychometric analyses as well as tests of convergent and discriminant validity with the existing instruments FAMCARE and Family Inventory of Needs (FIN). Material and methods. Based on theoretical considerations, a subscale structure in the Ca......TCoN and the existing questionnaires FAMCARE and FIN. Conclusion. Taken together the psychometric analyses and tests of convergent and discriminant validity indicate that the validity and reliability of the CaTCoN are satisfactory.......Background. Caregivers are often involved in and affected by the patient's disease. The questionnaire 'Cancer Caregiving Tasks, Consequences and Needs Questionnaire' (CaTCoN) was developed to measure caregivers' experiences. The aim of this study is to evaluate the construct validity...

A study to confirm the reliability and construct validity of an organisational citizenship behaviour measure on a South African sample

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bright Mahembe

2015-10-01

Research purpose: The primary goal of the study was to validate the Organisational Citizenship Behaviour Scale (OCBS developed by Podsakoff, Mackenzie, Moorman and Fetter (1990 on a South African sample. Motivation for the study: Organisational citizenship behaviour is one of the important workplace outcomes. A psychometrically sound instrument is therefore required. Research design, approach and method: The sample consisted of 503 employees from the educational sector in the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces of South Africa. The OCBS was used to measure organisational citizenship behaviour. Main findings: High levels of reliability were found for the OCBS sub-scales. The first and second-order measurement models of the OCBS showed good fit. A competing one-factor model did not show good model fit. In terms of discriminant validity four of the five subdimensions correlated highly. Practical/managerial implications: Although the OCBS demonstrated some sound reliability coefficients and reasonable construct validity, the discriminant validity of four of the subscales raise some questions which future studies should confirm. The use of the instrument should help to continue to measure the much-needed extra-role behaviours that mirror an employee’s interest in the success of the organisation. Contribution/value-add: The study contributes to the requirements of the Employment Equity Act (No. 55 of 1998 and the Amended Employment Equity Act of South Africa (Republic of South Africa, 1998; 2014. This promotes the use of reliable and valid instruments in South Africa by confirming the psychometric properties of the OCBS.

Validity of the mental health subscale of the SF-36 in persons with spinal cord injury

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Leeuwen, C. M. C.; van der Woude, L. H. V.; Post, M. W. M.

Study design: Cross-sectional study 5 years after discharge from inpatient rehabilitation. Objective: To examine the psychometric properties of the Mental Health subscale (MHI-5) of the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) in persons with spinal cord injury (SCI). Setting: Eight Dutch

PV Systems Reliability Final Technical Report.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lavrova, Olga [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Flicker, Jack David [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Johnson, Jay [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Armijo, Kenneth Miguel [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Gonzalez, Sigifredo [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Schindelholz, Eric John [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Sorensen, Neil R. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Yang, Benjamin Bing-Yeh [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2015-12-01

The continued exponential growth of photovoltaic technologies paves a path to a solar-powered world, but requires continued progress toward low-cost, high-reliability, high-performance photovoltaic (PV) systems. High reliability is an essential element in achieving low-cost solar electricity by reducing operation and maintenance (O&M) costs and extending system lifetime and availability, but these attributes are difficult to verify at the time of installation. Utilities, financiers, homeowners, and planners are demanding this information in order to evaluate their financial risk as a prerequisite to large investments. Reliability research and development (R&D) is needed to build market confidence by improving product reliability and by improving predictions of system availability, O&M cost, and lifetime. This project is focused on understanding, predicting, and improving the reliability of PV systems. The two areas being pursued include PV arc-fault and ground fault issues, and inverter reliability.

[Examination of safety improvement by failure record analysis that uses reliability engineering].

Science.gov (United States)

Kato, Kyoichi; Sato, Hisaya; Abe, Yoshihisa; Ishimori, Yoshiyuki; Hirano, Hiroshi; Higashimura, Kyoji; Amauchi, Hiroshi; Yanakita, Takashi; Kikuchi, Kei; Nakazawa, Yasuo

2010-08-20

How the maintenance checks of the medical treatment system, including start of work check and the ending check, was effective for preventive maintenance and the safety improvement was verified. In this research, date on the failure of devices in multiple facilities was collected, and the data of the trouble repair record was analyzed by the technique of reliability engineering. An analysis of data on the system (8 general systems, 6 Angio systems, 11 CT systems, 8 MRI systems, 8 RI systems, and the radiation therapy system 9) used in eight hospitals was performed. The data collection period assumed nine months from April to December 2008. Seven items were analyzed. (1) Mean time between failures (MTBF) (2) Mean time to repair (MTTR) (3) Mean down time (MDT) (4) Number found by check in morning (5) Failure generation time according to modality. The classification of the breakdowns per device, the incidence, and the tendency could be understood by introducing reliability engineering. Analysis, evaluation, and feedback on the failure generation history are useful to keep downtime to a minimum and to ensure safety.

Reliability and validity of the Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication among Portuguese-speaking Brazilian patients with hypertension.

Science.gov (United States)

Sauer Liberato, Ana Carolina; Cunha Matheus Rodrigues, Roberta; Kim, MyoungJin; Mallory, Caroline

2016-07-01

This study examined the reliability and validity of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication (version 1.4) among patients with hypertension. Understanding the patient experience with treatment satisfaction will contribute to improved medication adherence and control of hypertension. Hypertension is a serious problem in Brazil that is associated with chronic illness controlled, in part, by consistent adherence to medications. Patient satisfaction with medication treatment is associated with adherence to medication. The Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication (version 1.4) is a promising instrument for measuring medication; however, to date there has been no report of the reliability and validity of the instrument with Portuguese-speaking adults with hypertension in Brazil. Cross-sectional descriptive exploratory study. A convenience sample of 300 patients with hypertension in an outpatient setting in the southeast region of São Paulo state in Brazil completed the Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication (version 1.4). The instrument, comprised of four subscales, was evaluated for reliability using correlation analyses and internal consistency. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to determine factorial validity. Correlational analyses, internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) and hierarchical confirmatory factor analysis demonstrate adequate support for the four-factor dimensionality, reliability and factorial validity of the Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication (version 1.4). This study provides modest evidence for internal consistency and factorial validity of the Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication (version 1.4) in Portuguese-speaking adult Brazilians with hypertension. Future testing should focus on extending reliability testing, discriminant validity and potential translation and literacy issues in this population. Within known limitations, clinicians will

Integrated reliability condition monitoring and maintenance of equipment

CERN Document Server

Osarenren, John

2015-01-01

Consider a Viable and Cost-Effective Platform for the Industries of the Future (IOF) Benefit from improved safety, performance, and product deliveries to your customers. Achieve a higher rate of equipment availability, performance, product quality, and reliability. Integrated Reliability: Condition Monitoring and Maintenance of Equipment incorporates reliable engineering and mathematical modeling to help you move toward sustainable development in reliability condition monitoring and maintenance. This text introduces a cost-effective integrated reliability growth monitor, integrated reliability degradation monitor, technological inheritance coefficient sensors, and a maintenance tool that supplies real-time information for predicting and preventing potential failures of manufacturing processes and equipment. The author highlights five key elements that are essential to any improvement program: improving overall equipment and part effectiveness, quality, and reliability; improving process performance with maint...

Domain-specific cognitive effects of tramiprosate in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease: ADAS-cog subscale results from the Alphase Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Saumier, D; Duong, A; Haine, D; Garceau, D; Sampalis, J

2009-11-01

Tramiprosate (homotaurine, ALZHEMEDTM) was recently investigated for its efficacy, safety and disease-modification effects in a Phase III clinical study in mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients (the Alphase study). The primary cognitive endpoint measure of that study was the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-cognitive subscale (ADAS-cog). To characterize potential cognitive benefits of tramiprosate, the present study describes exploratory analyses performed on scores obtained from the specific ADAS-cog subscales in order to determine whether specific domains of cognition may be differentially affected by tramiprosate, which would not have been evident from the measure's total score. Multi-center, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. 67 investigative sites in the United States and Canada. A total of 1,052 patients were randomized. Patients were randomized to receive twice a day Placebo (n=353), tramiprosate 100 mg (n=352) and tramiprosate 150 mg (n=347). ADAS-cog assessments were conducted every three months over the 78-week study period. Exploratory analyses were performed by comparing ADAS-cog subscale scores between Placebo and each active treatment arm at each visit. The findings of this analysis revealed statistically significant differences or statistical trends in favour of tramiprosate on six ADAS-cog subscales, namely Following Commands, Language Comprehension, Ideational Praxis, Object Naming, Remembering Test Instructions, and Spoken Language Ability. Differences in favor of Placebo were only observed on the Constructional Praxis subscale. This exploratory analysis suggests that tramiprosate may have some benefit on memory, language and praxis skills in mild to moderate AD individuals. Future clinical studies of tramiprosate should include specialized neuropsychological tests to validate its effects within these cognitive domains.

Psychometric properties of the Exercise Benefits/Barriers Scale in Mexican elderly women

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

María Cristina Enríquez-Reyna

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Objective: analyze and assess the psychometric properties of the subscales in the Spanish version of the Exercise Benefits/Barriers Scale in an elderly population in the Northeast of Mexico. Method: methodological study. The sample consisted of 329 elderly associated with one of the five public centers for senior citizens in the metropolitan area of Northeast Mexico. The psychometric properties included the assessment of the Cronbach's alpha coefficient, the Kaiser Meyer Olkin coefficient, the inter-item correlation, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Results: in the principal components analysis, two components were identified based on the 43 items in the scale. The item-total correlation coefficient of the exercise benefits subscale was good. Nevertheless, the coefficient for the exercise barriers subscale revealed inconsistencies. The reliability and validity were acceptable. The confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the elimination of items improved the goodness of fit of the baseline scale, without affecting its validity or reliability. Conclusion: the Exercise Benefits/Barriers subscale presented satisfactory psychometric properties for the Mexican context. A 15-item short version is presented with factorial structure, validity and reliability similar to the complete scale.

Follow-up of CT-derived airway wall thickness : Correcting for changes in inspiration level improves reliability

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pompe, Esther; van Rikxoort, Eva M; Mets, Onno M; Charbonnier, Jean-Paul; Kuhnigk, Jan-Martin; de Koning, Harry J; Oudkerk, Matthijs; Vliegenthart, Rozemarijn; Zanen, Pieter; Lammers, Jan-Willem J; van Ginneken, Bram; de Jong, Pim A; Mohamed Hoesein, Firdaus A A

2016-01-01

OBJECTIVES: Airway wall thickness (AWT) is affected by changes in lung volume. This study evaluated whether correcting AWT on computed tomography (CT) for differences in inspiration level improves measurement agreement, reliability, and power to detect changes over time. METHODS: Participants of the

Follow-up of CT-derived airway wall thickness : Correcting for changes in inspiration level improves reliability

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pompe, Esther; van Rikxoort, Eva M.; Mets, Onno M.; Charbonnier, Jean-Paul; Kuhnigk, Jan-Martin; de Koning, Harry J.; Oudkerk, Matthijs; Vliegenthart, Rozemarijn; Zanen, Pieter; Lammers, Jan-Willem J.; van Ginneken, Bram; de Jong, Pim A.; Hoesein, Firdaus A. A. Mohamed

2016-01-01

Objectives: Airway wall thickness (AWT) is affected by changes in lung volume. This study evaluated whether correcting AWT on computed tomography (CT) for differences in inspiration level improves measurement agreement, reliability, and power to detect changes over time. Methods: Participants of the

The validity, reliability and normative scores of the parent, teacher and self report versions of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Coghill David

2008-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ has become one of the most widely used measurement tools in child and adolescent mental health work across the globe. The SDQ was originally developed and validated within the UK and whilst its reliability and validity have been replicated in several countries important cross cultural issues have been raised. We describe normative data, reliability and validity of the Chinese translation of the SDQ (parent, teacher and self report versions in a large group of children from Shanghai. Methods The SDQ was administered to the parents and teachers of students from 12 of Shanghai's 19 districts, aged between 3 and 17 years old, and to those young people aged between 11 and 17 years. Retest data was collected from parents and teachers for 45 students six weeks later. Data was analysed to describe normative scores, bandings and cut-offs for normal, borderline and abnormal scores. Reliability was assessed from analyses of internal consistency, inter-rater agreement, and temporal stability. Structural validity, convergent and discriminant validity were assessed. Results Full parent and teacher data was available for 1965 subjects and self report data for 690 subjects. Normative data for this Chinese urban population with bandings and cut-offs for borderline and abnormal scores are described. Principle components analysis indicates partial agreement with the original five factored subscale structure however this appears to hold more strongly for the Prosocial Behaviour, Hyperactivity – Inattention and Emotional Symptoms subscales than for Conduct Problems and Peer Problems. Internal consistency as measured by Cronbach's α coefficient were generally low ranging between 0.30 and 0.83 with only parent and teacher Hyperactivity – Inattention and teacher Prosocial Behaviour subscales having α > 0.7. Inter-rater correlations were similar to those reported previously (range 0.23 – 0

ERP application of real-time vdc-enabled last planner system for planning reliability improvement

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cho, S.; Sørensen, Kristian Birch; Fischer, M.

2009-01-01

The Last Planner System (LPS) has since its introduction in 1994 become a widely used method of AEC practitioners for improvement of planning reliability and tracking and monitoring of project progress. However, the observations presented in this paper indicate that the last planners...... and coordinators are in need of a new system that integrates the existing LPS with Virtual Design and Construction (VDC), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, and automatic object identification by means of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. This is because current practice of the LPS...... implementations is guesswork-driven, textual report-generated, hand-updated, and even interpersonal trust-oriented, resulting in less accurate and reliable plans. This research introduces a prototype development of the VREL (VDC + RFID + ERP + LPS) integration to generate a real-time updated cost + physical...

Development of Chinese Military Personnel Social Support Scale and tests for its reliability and validity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kai-hong TANG

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Objective 　To develop Chinese Military Personnel Social Support Scaleand verify its reliability and validity. Methods 　The Chinese Military Personnel Social Support Scalewas initiated, organized and compiled based upon open-ended questionnaire survey done in a systematic manner, and previous researches were taken as references. A total of 630 military personnel were chosen by random cluster sampling and tested with the Scale, among them 50 were tested with Social Support Rating Scale(SSRS and Chinese Military Psychosomatic Health Scale(CMPHS simultaneously, and the test was done solely a second time with CMPHS 2 weeks later. The reliability and validity were assessed and verified by exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and correlation analysis. Results 　The Chinese Military Personnel Social Support Scalecomprised three factors, namely subjective support, objective support and utility of social support. Eighteen items were left in official scale after amendment by factor analysis, and one lying subscale was added. The correlation coefficients between the public factors ranged from 0.477 to 0.589 (P<0.01, and the correlation coefficients between factors and total scale ranged from 0.721 to 0.823 (P<0.01. The test-retest correlation coefficients of total scale and subscales ranged from 0.622 to 0.803 (P<0.01, the Cronbach α coefficients ranged from 0.624 to 0.874, and the split-half correlation coefficients ranged from 0.551 to 0.828. Significant correlation existed between this Scale and two criterion scales, namely SSRS and CMPHS. Conclusion 　It is verified that the Chinese Military Personnel Social Support Scalehas excellent reliability and validity, and complying with psychometric standards, it may be used to evaluate the social support level of Chinese military personnel.

Re-validation and shortening of the Functional Assessment of Anorexia/Cachexia Therapy (FAACT) questionnaire.

Science.gov (United States)

Ribaudo, J M; Cella, D; Hahn, E A; Lloyd, S R; Tchekmedyian, N S; Von Roenn, J; Leslie, W T

2000-01-01

The original Functional Assessment of Anorexia/Cachexia Therapy (FAACT) was designed to measure general aspects of quality of life (QOL) as well as specific anorexia/cachexia-related concerns. Our primary purpose was to reduce the number of anorexia/cachexia subscale items in a manner that either retains or improves reliability, validity and precision. The FAACT was administered using an interactive computer program that allowed immediate entry of the data. A total of 213 patients were recruited. A combined empirical and conceptual approach led to the reduction of the anorexia/cachexia subscale (A/CS) from 18 to 12 items. A 26-item trial outcome index (TOI) combining physical well-being (PWB), functional well-being (FWB), and the A/CS-12 was highly reliable and sensitive to change in performance status rating (PSR). We found that PWB, FWB, and A/CS-12 subscales performed differently. Specifically, PWB and FWB scores decreased in patients whose (PSR) worsened. However, although A/CS-12 scores were responsive to change in PSR over time, average A/CS-12 scores of all patients, even those whose PSR worsened, improved over the course of treatment. Elimination of six items from the anorexia/cachexia subscale of the FAACT was accomplished without loss of internal consistency or sensitivity to change in performance status. The A/CS-12 subscale provides unique, important information not captured by a generic chronic illness questionnaire.

The Adaptation, Validation, Reliability Process of the Turkish Version Orientations to Happiness Scale

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hakan Saricam

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this research is to adapt the Scale of Happiness Orientations, which was developed by Peterson, Park, and Seligman (2005, into Turkish and examine the psychometric properties of the scale. The participants of the research consist of 489 students. The psychometric properties of the scale was examined with test methods; linguistic equivalence, descriptive factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, criterion-related validity, internal consistency, and test-retest. For criterion-related validity (concurrent validity, the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire-Short Form is used. Articles resulting from the descriptive factor analysis for structural validity of scale were summed into three factors (life of meaning, life of pleasure, life of engagement in accordance with the original form. Confirmatory factor analysis conducted yielded the value of three-factor fit indexes of 18 items: (χ2/df=1.94, RMSEA= .059, CFI= .96, GFI= .95, IFI= .95, NFI= .96, RFI= .95 and SRMR= .044. Factor load of the scale ranges from .36 to .59. During criterion-validity analysis, between Scale of Happiness Orientations and the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, positive strong relations were seen at the level of p<.01 significance level. Cronbach Alpha internal consistency coefficient was .88 for the life of meaning sub-scale, .84 for the life of pleasure sub-scale, and .81 for the life of engagement sub-scale. In addition, a corrected items total correlation ranges from .39 to .61. According to these results, it can be said that the scale is a valid and reliable assessment instrument for positive psychology, educational psychology, and other fields.

Rater Reliability of the Hardy Classification for Pituitary Adenomas in the Magnetic Resonance Imaging Era.

Science.gov (United States)

Mooney, Michael A; Hardesty, Douglas A; Sheehy, John P; Bird, C Roger; Chapple, Kristina; White, William L; Little, Andrew S

2017-10-01

Objectives  The Hardy classification is used to classify pituitary tumors for clinical and research purposes. The scale was developed using lateral skull radiographs and encephalograms, and its reliability has not been evaluated in the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) era. Design  Fifty preoperative MRI scans of biopsy-proven pituitary adenomas using the sellar invasion and suprasellar extension components of the Hardy scale were reviewed. Setting  This study was a cohort study set at a single institution. Participants  There were six independent raters. Main Outcome Measures  The main outcome measures of this study were interrater reliability, intrarater reliability, and percent agreement. Results  Overall interrater reliability of both Hardy subscales on MRI was strong. However, reliability of the intermediate scores was weak, and percent agreement among raters was poor (12-16%) using the full scales. Dichotomizing the scale into clinically useful groups maintained strong interrater reliability for the sellar invasion scale and increased the percent agreement for both scales. Conclusion  This study raises important questions about the reliability of the original Hardy classification. Editing the measure to a clinically relevant dichotomous scale simplifies the rating process and may be useful for preoperative tumor characterization in the MRI era. Future research studies should use the dichotomized Hardy scale (sellar invasion Grades 0-III versus Grade IV, suprasellar extension Types 0-C versus Type D).

Reliability calculations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Petersen, K.E.

1986-03-01

Risk and reliability analysis is increasingly being used in evaluations of plant safety and plant reliability. The analysis can be performed either during the design process or during the operation time, with the purpose to improve the safety or the reliability. Due to plant complexity and safety and availability requirements, sophisticated tools, which are flexible and efficient, are needed. Such tools have been developed in the last 20 years and they have to be continuously refined to meet the growing requirements. Two different areas of application were analysed. In structural reliability probabilistic approaches have been introduced in some cases for the calculation of the reliability of structures or components. A new computer program has been developed based upon numerical integration in several variables. In systems reliability Monte Carlo simulation programs are used especially in analysis of very complex systems. In order to increase the applicability of the programs variance reduction techniques can be applied to speed up the calculation process. Variance reduction techniques have been studied and procedures for implementation of importance sampling are suggested. (author)

Testing the reliability of the Fall Risk Screening Tool in an elderly ambulatory population.

Science.gov (United States)

Fielding, Susan J; McKay, Michael; Hyrkas, Kristiina

2013-11-01

To identify and test the reliability of a fall risk screening tool in an ambulatory outpatient clinic. The Fall Risk Screening Tool (Albert Lea Medical Center, MN, USA) was scripted for an interview format. Two interviewers separately screened a convenience sample of 111 patients (age ≥ 65 years) in an ambulatory outpatient clinic in a northeastern US city. The interviewers' scoring of fall risk categories was similar. There was good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.834-0.889) and inter-rater reliability [intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) = 0.824-0.881] for total, Risk Factor and Client's Health Status subscales. The Physical Environment scores indicated acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.742) and adequate reliability (ICC = 0.688). Two Physical Environment items (furniture and medical equipment condition) had low reliabilities [Kappa (K) = 0.323, P = 0.08; K = -0.078, P = 0.648), respectively. The scripted Fall Risk Screening Tool demonstrated good reliability in this sample. Rewording two Physical Environment items will be considered. A reliable instrument such as the scripted Fall Risk Screening Tool provides a standardised assessment for identifying high fall risk patients. This tool is especially useful because it assesses personal, behavioural and environmental factors specific to community-dwelling patients; the interview format also facilitates patient-provider interaction. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) Reliability Coordinators

Data.gov (United States)

Department of Homeland Security — ERC is an international regulatory authority that works to improve the reliability of the bulk power system in North America. NERC works with many different regional...

Video training and certification program improves reliability of postischemic neurologic deficit measurement in the rat.

Science.gov (United States)

Taninishi, Hideki; Pearlstein, Molly; Sheng, Huaxin; Izutsu, Miwa; Chaparro, Rafael E; Goldstein, Larry B; Warner, David S

2016-12-01

Scoring systems are used to measure behavioral deficits in stroke research. Video-assisted training is used to standardize stroke-related neurologic deficit scoring in humans. We hypothesized that a video-assisted training and certification program can improve inter-rater reliability in assessing neurologic function after middle cerebral artery occlusion in rats. Three expert raters scored neurologic deficits in post-middle cerebral artery occlusion rats using three published systems having different complexity levels (3, 18, or 48 points). The system having the highest point estimate for the correlation between neurologic score and infarct size was selected to create a video-assisted training and certification program. Eight trainee raters completed the video-assisted training and certification program. Inter-rater agreement ( Κ: score) and agreement with expert consensus scores were measured before and after video-assisted training and certification program completion. The 48-point system correlated best with infarct size. Video-assisted training and certification improved agreement with expert consensus scores (pretraining = 65 ± 10, posttraining = 87 ± 14, 112 possible scores, P  0.4 (pretraining = 4, posttraining = 9), and number of categories with an improvement in the Κ: score from pretraining to posttraining (n = 6). Video-assisted training and certification improved trainee inter-rater reliability and agreement with expert consensus behavioral scores in rats after middle cerebral artery occlusion. Video-assisted training and certification may be useful in multilaboratory preclinical studies. © The Author(s) 2015.

Validity and reliability of short forms of parental-caregiver perception and family impact scale in a Telugu speaking population of India.

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Santhosh; Kroon, Jeroen; Lalloo, Ratilal; Johnson, Newell W

2016-03-01

Parental-Caregiver Perception Questionnaire (P-CPQ) and Family Impact Scale (FIS) are commonly used measures to evaluate the parent's perception of the impact of children's oral health on quality of life and family respectively. Recently, shorter forms of P-CPQ and FIS have been developed. No study has sought to validate these short forms in other languages and cultures. This study aimed to evaluate the validity and reliability of FIS, 8 and 16-item P-CPQ in a Telugu speaking population of India. For this cross-sectional study, a multi-stage random sampling technique was used to recruit 11-13 year-old schoolchildren of Medak district, Telangana, India and their parents (n = 1342). Parents were approached with questionnaires through their children who underwent clinical examinations for dental caries, fluorosis and malocclusion. The translated versions underwent pilot testing (n = 40), test-retest reliability was also assessed (n = 161). The overall summary scale and subscales of the short forms of P-CPQ and FIS failed to discriminate between the categories of dental caries severity. Also, malocclusion status was not related to the domain or overall scores of both the short forms of P-CPQ. There were significant differences in subscale and overall scores of 16 and 8-item P-CPQ and FIS between the fluorosis categories. Both 16 and 8-item P-CPQ summary scales were significantly related to parent's global rating of oral health (16-item, r = 0.30, p internal consistency and reliability on repeated administrations.

Mining protein interactomes to improve their reliability and support the advancement of network medicine

KAUST Repository

Alanis Lobato, Gregorio

2015-09-23

High-throughput detection of protein interactions has had a major impact in our understanding of the intricate molecular machinery underlying the living cell, and has permitted the construction of very large protein interactomes. The protein networks that are currently available are incomplete and a significant percentage of their interactions are false positives. Fortunately, the structural properties observed in good quality social or technological networks are also present in biological systems. This has encouraged the development of tools, to improve the reliability of protein networks and predict new interactions based merely on the topological characteristics of their components. Since diseases are rarely caused by the malfunction of a single protein, having a more complete and reliable interactome is crucial in order to identify groups of inter-related proteins involved in disease etiology. These system components can then be targeted with minimal collateral damage. In this article, an important number of network mining tools is reviewed, together with resources from which reliable protein interactomes can be constructed. In addition to the review, a few representative examples of how molecular and clinical data can be integrated to deepen our understanding of pathogenesis are discussed.

Mining protein interactomes to improve their reliability and support the advancement of network medicine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gregorio eAlanis-Lobato

2015-09-01

Full Text Available High-throughput detection of protein interactions has had a major impact in our understanding of the intricate molecular machinery underlying the living cell, and has permitted the construction of very large protein interactomes. The protein networks that are currently available are incomplete and a significant percentage of their interactions are false positives. Fortunately, the structural properties observed in good quality social or technological networks are also present in biological systems. This has encouraged the development of tools, to improve the reliability of protein networks and predict new interactions based merely on the topological characteristics of their components. Since diseases are rarely caused by the malfunction of a single protein, having a more complete and reliable interactome is crucial in order to identify groups of inter-related proteins involved in disease aetiology. These system components can then be targeted with minimal collateral damage. In this article, an important number of network mining tools is reviewed, together with resources from which reliable protein interactomes can be constructed. In addition to the review, a few representative examples of how molecular and clinical data can be integrated to deepen our understanding of pathogenesis are discussed.

Improving human reliability through better nuclear power plant system design. Progress report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Golay, M.W.

1995-01-01

The project on open-quotes Development of a Theory of the Dependence of Human Reliability upon System Designs as a Means of Improving Nuclear Power Plant Performanceclose quotes has been undertaken in order to address the important problem of human error in advanced nuclear power plant designs. Most of the creativity in formulating such concepts has focused upon improving the mechanical reliability of safety related plant systems. However, the lack of a mature theory has retarded similar progress in reducing the likely frequencies of human errors. The main design mechanism used to address this class of concerns has been to reduce or eliminate the human role in plant operations and accident response. The plan of work being pursued in this project is to perform a set of experiments involving human subject who are required to operate, diagnose and respond to changes in computer-simulated systems, relevant to those encountered in nuclear power plants. In the tests the systems are made to differ in complexity in a systematic manner. The computer program used to present the problems to be solved also records the response of the operator as it unfolds. Ultimately this computer is also to be used in compiling the results of the project. The work of this project is focused upon nuclear power plant applications. However, the persuasiveness of human errors in using all sorts of electromechanical machines gives it a much greater potential importance. Because of this we are attempting to pursue our work in a fashion permitting broad generalizations

Validity and Reliability of Asbestos Knowledge and Awareness Questionnaire for Environmental Asbestos Exposure in Rural Areas

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Selma Metintaş

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Objective: There is no treatment for asbestos–related diseases, but they can be prevented. One of the first interventions is to improve the knowledge level of people in order to protect people from asbestos and asbestos–related diseases. The present study was conducted to develop a questionnaire for measuring the knowledge and awareness level of asbestos and also assess its validity and reliability in a rural population that is exposed to asbestos environmentally. Methods: A questionnaire, interviewer–administered, that included 37 items was employed on a convenient sample consisting of adult persons who attended a tertiary teaching hospital in Eskişehir where asbestos exposure is widespread in its rural areas. After assessment of validity and reliability of the results, the questionnaire was refined to 19 items and one subscale. Results: A total of 760 participants were included in this study. The mean age of participants was 53.2±15.1 years and 51.6% of them were male. The discrimination and difficulty indices of the asbestos knowledge and awareness questionnaire ranged between 20.0–60.5% and 0.39–0.98, respectively. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.951 for overall items. The median (min–max and mean (SD score of the study population were 30 (19–56 and 33.9 (11.9, respectively. The score increased correspondingly with greater knowledge levels. Conclusion: This questionnaire is a practical and easy tool to apply with acceptable reliability and validity on high-risk adults in rural areas with environmental asbestos exposure.

Improving the reliability of GUB-20000 gamma unit for large laboratory animals irradiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Videnskij, V.G.

1994-01-01

GUB-20000 gamma unit for large laboratory animals irradiation is described and results of investigation into its reliability improvement are considered. Cables of superstrength high-modular (SSHM) polymer fibre and capron fiber were tested to establish their applicability in the above unit. Samples were exposed to gamma-radiation and fast electrons and were tested for tensile properties. Application of SSHM-fiber cables to modernize the GUB-20000 unit was found to be perspective due to superhigh radiation strength. 5 refs., 1 tab

Validity and reliability of the Dutch version of the Copenhagen Hip And Groin Outcome Score (HAGOS-NL in patients with hip pathology.

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Hilde Giezen

Full Text Available The Copenhagen Hip And Groin Outcome Score (HAGOS was developed to assess disease-specific consequences in young to middle-aged, physically active hip and/or groin patients. The study aimed to determine validity and reliability of the Dutch version of the HAGOS (HAGOS-NL for middle-aged patients with hip complaints.To assess validity, 117 participants completed five questionnaires: HAGOS-NL, international Hip Outcome Tool (iHOT-12NL, Hip disability and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (HOOS, RAND-36 Health Survey and Tegner activity scale. Structural validity was determined by conducting confirmatory factor analysis. Construct validity was analyzed by formulating predefined hypotheses regarding relationships between the HAGOS-NL and subscales of the iHOT-12NL, HOOS, RAND-36 and Tegner activity scale. The HAGOS-NL was filled out again by 67 patients to explore test-retest reliability. Reliability was assessed in terms of Cronbach's alpha, Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC, Standard Error of Measurement (SEM and Minimal Detectable Change (MDC. The Bland and Altman method was used to explore absolute agreement.Factor analysis confirmed that the HAGOS-NL consists of six subscales. All hypotheses were confirmed, indicating good construct validity. Internal consistency was good, with Cronbach's alpha values ranging from 0.89 to 0.98. Test-retest reliability was considered good, with ICC values of 0.80 and higher. The SEM ranged from 6.6 to 12.3, and MDC at individual level from 18.3 to 34.1 and at group level from 2.3 to 4.4. Bland and Altman analyses showed no bias.The HAGOS-NL is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring pain, physical functioning and quality of life in middle-aged patients with hip complaints.

The effect on reliability and sensitivity to level of training of combining analytic and holistic rating scales for assessing communication skills in an internal medicine resident OSCE.

Science.gov (United States)

Daniels, Vijay John; Harley, Dwight

2017-07-01

Although previous research has compared checklists to rating scales for assessing communication, the purpose of this study was to compare the effect on reliability and sensitivity to level of training of an analytic, a holistic, and a combined analytic-holistic rating scale in assessing communication skills. The University of Alberta Internal Medicine Residency runs OSCEs for postgraduate year (PGY) 1 and 2 residents and another for PGY-4 residents. Communication stations were scored with an analytic scale (empathy, non-verbal skills, verbal skills, and coherence subscales) and a holistic scale. Authors analyzed reliability of individual and combined scales using generalizability theory and evaluated each scale's sensitivity to level of training. For analytic, holistic, and combined scales, 12, 12, and 11 stations respectively yielded a Phi of 0.8 for the PGY-1,2 cohort, and 16, 16, and 14 stations yielded a Phi of 0.8 for the PGY-4 cohort. PGY-4 residents scored higher on the combined scale, the analytic rating scale, and the non-verbal and coherence subscales. A combined analytic-holistic rating scale increased score reliability and was sensitive to level of training. Given increased validity evidence, OSCE developers should consider combining analytic and holistic scales when assessing communication skills. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Investigating the Reliability and Factor Structure of Kalichman's "Survey 2: Research Misconduct" Questionnaire: A Post Hoc Analysis Among Biomedical Doctoral Students in Scandinavia.

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Holm, Søren; Hofmann, Bjørn

2017-10-01

A precondition for reducing scientific misconduct is evidence about scientists' attitudes. We need reliable survey instruments, and this study investigates the reliability of Kalichman's "Survey 2: research misconduct" questionnaire. The study is a post hoc analysis of data from three surveys among biomedical doctoral students in Scandinavia (2010-2015). We perform reliability analysis, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis using a split-sample design as a partial validation. The results indicate that a reliable 13-item scale can be formed (Cronbach's α = .705), and factor analysis indicates that there are four reliable subscales each tapping a different construct: (a) general attitude to misconduct (α = .768), (b) attitude to personal misconduct (α = .784), (c) attitude to whistleblowing (α = .841), and (d) attitude to blameworthiness/punishment (α = .877). A full validation of the questionnaire requires further research. We, nevertheless, hope that the results will facilitate the increased use of the questionnaire in research.

Reliability and validity of the Positive Mental Health Questionnaire in a sample of Spanish university students.

Science.gov (United States)

Roldán-Merino, J; Lluch-Canut, M T; Casas, I; Sanromà-Ortíz, M; Ferré-Grau, C; Sequeira, C; Falcó-Pegueroles, A; Soares, D; Puig-Llobet, M

2017-03-01

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: In general, the current studies of positive mental health use questionnaires or parts thereof. However, while these questionnaires evaluate aspects of positive mental health, they fail to measure the construct itself. WHAT DOES THIS PAPER ADD TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: The widespread use and the lack of specific questionnaires for evaluating the positive mental health construct justify the need to measure the robustness of the Positive Mental Health Questionnaire. Also six factors are proposed to measure positive mental health. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: The availability of a good questionnaire to measure positive mental health in university students is useful not only to promote mental health but also to strengthen the curricula of future professionals. Introduction Nursing has a relevant role in managing mental health. It is important to identify and thereafter to enhance positive aspects of mental health among university nursing students. Aim The aim of the present study was to analyse the psychometric properties of the Positive Mental Health Questionnaire (PMHQ) in terms of reliability and validity using confirmatory factor analysis in a sample of university students. Method A cross-sectional study was carried out in a sample of 1091 students at 4 nursing schools in Catalonia, Spain. The reliability of the PMHQ was measured by means of Cronbach's alpha coefficient, and the test-retest stability was measured with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Confirmatory factor analysis was used to determine the validity of the factorial structure. Results Cronbach's alpha coefficient was satisfactory (>0.70) for four of the six subscales or dimensions and ranged from 0.54 to 0.79. ICC analysis was satisfactory for the six subscales or dimensions. The hypothesis was confirmed in the analysis of the correlations between subclasses and the overall scale, with the strongest correlations being found between the majority of

Reliability and Validity of the Multidimensional Scale of Life Skills in Late Childhood

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Minoru Takakura

2013-04-01

Full Text Available This study investigated the reliability and validity of the Multidimensional Scale of Life Skills in Late Childhood, an instrument designed to measure a concept similar to “zest for living” in late childhood. A total of 1,888 elementary school students in the 4th, 5th, and 6th grades residing in urban and suburban areas as well as in remote islands of 3 prefectures (Okinawa, Kagoshima, and Nagasaki were surveyed. On the basis of our analysis, 24 items and seven factors were extracted. These factors are problem-solving/synthesis, relationship with friends, personal manners, decision-making and future planning, self-learning, collecting and using information, and leadership. Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients were computed for each subscale and ranged from 0.71 to 0.87. Test-retest reliability coefficient values ranged from 0.68 to 0.79. To examine the construct validity of the scales, a goodness-of-fit model was determined by confirmatory factor analysis, and satisfactory values were found (GFI = 0.952, AGFI = 0.937, CFI = 0.966, RMSEA = 0.016. The validity of the goodness-of-fit model and the reliability of the scales indicate that the Multidimensional Scale of Life Skills in Late Childhood is an effective assessment tool.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Multiple Linear Regression of the Neck Disability Index: Assessment If Subscales Are Equally Relevant in Whiplash and Nonspecific Neck Pain.

Science.gov (United States)

Croft, Arthur C; Milam, Bryce; Meylor, Jade; Manning, Richard

2016-06-01

Because of previously published recommendations to modify the Neck Disability Index (NDI), we evaluated the responsiveness and dimensionality of the NDI within a population of adult whiplash-injured subjects. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the responsiveness and dimensionality of the NDI within a population of adult whiplash-injured subjects. Subjects who had sustained whiplash injuries of grade 2 or higher completed an NDI questionnaire. There were 123 subjects (55% female, of which 36% had recovered and 64% had chronic symptoms. NDI subscales were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis, considering only the subscales and, secondly, using sex as an 11th variable. The subscales were also tested with multiple linear regression modeling using the total score as a target variable. When considering only the 10 NDI subscales, only a single factor emerged, with an eigenvalue of 5.4, explaining 53.7% of the total variance. Strong correlation (> .55) (P factor model of the NDI is not justified based on our results, and in this population of whiplash subjects, the NDI was unidimensional, demonstrating high internal consistency and supporting the original validation study of Vernon and Mior.

A Simulation Model for Machine Efficiency Improvement Using Reliability Centered Maintenance: Case Study of Semiconductor Factory

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Srisawat Supsomboon

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to increase the quality of product by focusing on the machine efficiency improvement. The principle of the reliability centered maintenance (RCM was applied to increase the machine reliability. The objective was to create preventive maintenance plan under reliability centered maintenance method and to reduce defects. The study target was set to reduce the Lead PPM for a test machine by simulating the proposed preventive maintenance plan. The simulation optimization approach based on evolutionary algorithms was employed for the preventive maintenance technique selection process to select the PM interval that gave the best total cost and Lead PPM values. The research methodology includes procedures such as following the priority of critical components in test machine, analyzing the damage and risk level by using Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA, calculating the suitable replacement period through reliability estimation, and optimizing the preventive maintenance plan. From the result of the study it is shown that the Lead PPM of test machine can be reduced. The cost of preventive maintenance, cost of good product, and cost of lost product were decreased.

Software Considerations for Subscale Flight Testing of Experimental Control Laws

Science.gov (United States)

Murch, Austin M.; Cox, David E.; Cunningham, Kevin

2009-01-01

The NASA AirSTAR system has been designed to address the challenges associated with safe and efficient subscale flight testing of research control laws in adverse flight conditions. In this paper, software elements of this system are described, with an emphasis on components which allow for rapid prototyping and deployment of aircraft control laws. Through model-based design and automatic coding a common code-base is used for desktop analysis, piloted simulation and real-time flight control. The flight control system provides the ability to rapidly integrate and test multiple research control laws and to emulate component or sensor failures. Integrated integrity monitoring systems provide aircraft structural load protection, isolate the system from control algorithm failures, and monitor the health of telemetry streams. Finally, issues associated with software configuration management and code modularity are briefly discussed.

Equipment reliability process improvement and preventive maintenance optimization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Darragi, M.; Georges, A.; Vaillancourt, R.; Komljenovic, D.; Croteau, M.

2004-01-01

The Gentilly-2 Nuclear Power Plant wants to optimize its preventive maintenance program through an Integrated Equipment Reliability Process. All equipment reliability related activities should be reviewed and optimized in a systematic approach especially for aging plants such as G2. This new approach has to be founded on best practices methods with the purpose of the rationalization of the preventive maintenance program and the performance monitoring of on-site systems, structures and components (SSC). A rational preventive maintenance strategy is based on optimized task scopes and frequencies depending on their applicability, critical effects on system safety and plant availability as well as cost-effectiveness. Preventive maintenance strategy efficiency is systematically monitored through degradation indicators. (author)

[Reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the internalized stigma of mental illness scale].

Science.gov (United States)

Ersoy, Mehmet Akif; Varan, Azmi

2007-01-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness Scale (ISMI) in patients with psychiatric disorders. The study included 203 patients diagnosed with various psychiatric disorders in a psychiatry outpatient clinic of a university hospital. The reliability of the scale was assessed by investigation of its internal consistency and split-half reliability. The convergent validity of the scale was demonstrated by the relationship between the Turkish form of the ISMI and various criteria scales. Cronbach's alpha value was 0.93 for the entire scale and ranged between 0.63 and 0.87 for the 5 subscales of the ISMI. In terms of convergent validity, the total score of the Turkish ISMI significantly correlated with the Beck Depression Inventory, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale, Brief Symptom Inventory, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, Clinical Global Impression Scale, and Global Assessment of Functioning Scale scores. All values were in the expected direction. In the light of the findings, it was concluded that the Turkish version of ISMI could be used as a reliable and valid tool in assessing internalized stigma of the Turkish psychiatric patients.

Validity and reliability of the Portuguese-Brazilian version of the Quality of Life in Epilepsy Inventory-89.

Science.gov (United States)

Azevedo, Auro Mauro; Alonso, Neide Barreira; Vidal-Dourado, Marcos; Noffs, Maria Helena da Silva; Pascalicchio, Tatiana Frascarelli; Caboclo, Luís Otávio Sales Ferreira; Ciconelli, Rozana Mesquita; Sakamoto, Américo Ceiki; Yacubian, Elza Márcia Targas

2009-03-01

The purpose of this article was to report the translation of the Quality of Life in Epilepsy Inventory-89 (QOLIE-89) into a Portuguese-Brazilian version and evaluate its reliability and validity. This study involved 105 outpatients: 54 patients with refractory temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) with mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS) and 51 with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME). Reliability and test-retest reliability were assessed. Relationships between QOLIE-89 domains and other questionnaires (Nottingham Health Profile, Beck Depression Inventory, Adverse Event Profile, Neuropsychological Evaluation), and external measures such as demographic and clinical variables were analyzed to examine construct validity. Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha=0.73-0.92) and test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient=0.60-0.84) for individual domains were acceptable. For construct validity, we verified high correlations between the QOLIE-89 and the Nottingham Health Profile, Beck Depression Inventory, Adverse Event Profile, and Neuropsychological Evaluation. For clinical characteristics, the patients with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy had better quality-of-life scores on 11 of 17 QOLIE-89 subscales compared with patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (P<0.05). These results support the reliability and validity of the Portuguese-Brazilian translation of QOLIE-89.

Differential Item Functioning in the SF-36 Physical Functioning and Mental Health Sub-Scales: A Population-Based Investigation in the Canadian Multicentre Osteoporosis Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Lix, Lisa M; Wu, Xiuyun; Hopman, Wilma; Mayo, Nancy; Sajobi, Tolulope T; Liu, Juxin; Prior, Jerilynn C; Papaioannou, Alexandra; Josse, Robert G; Towheed, Tanveer E; Davison, K Shawn; Sawatzky, Richard

2016-01-01

Self-reported health status measures, like the Short Form 36-item Health Survey (SF-36), can provide rich information about the overall health of a population and its components, such as physical, mental, and social health. However, differential item functioning (DIF), which arises when population sub-groups with the same underlying (i.e., latent) level of health have different measured item response probabilities, may compromise the comparability of these measures. The purpose of this study was to test for DIF on the SF-36 physical functioning (PF) and mental health (MH) sub-scale items in a Canadian population-based sample. Study data were from the prospective Canadian Multicentre Osteoporosis Study (CaMos), which collected baseline data in 1996-1997. DIF was tested using a multiple indicators multiple causes (MIMIC) method. Confirmatory factor analysis defined the latent variable measurement model for the item responses and latent variable regression with demographic and health status covariates (i.e., sex, age group, body weight, self-perceived general health) produced estimates of the magnitude of DIF effects. The CaMos cohort consisted of 9423 respondents; 69.4% were female and 51.7% were less than 65 years. Eight of 10 items on the PF sub-scale and four of five items on the MH sub-scale exhibited DIF. Large DIF effects were observed on PF sub-scale items about vigorous and moderate activities, lifting and carrying groceries, walking one block, and bathing or dressing. On the MH sub-scale items, all DIF effects were small or moderate in size. SF-36 PF and MH sub-scale scores were not comparable across population sub-groups defined by demographic and health status variables due to the effects of DIF, although the magnitude of this bias was not large for most items. We recommend testing and adjusting for DIF to ensure comparability of the SF-36 in population-based investigations.

Differential Item Functioning in the SF-36 Physical Functioning and Mental Health Sub-Scales: A Population-Based Investigation in the Canadian Multicentre Osteoporosis Study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lisa M Lix

Full Text Available Self-reported health status measures, like the Short Form 36-item Health Survey (SF-36, can provide rich information about the overall health of a population and its components, such as physical, mental, and social health. However, differential item functioning (DIF, which arises when population sub-groups with the same underlying (i.e., latent level of health have different measured item response probabilities, may compromise the comparability of these measures. The purpose of this study was to test for DIF on the SF-36 physical functioning (PF and mental health (MH sub-scale items in a Canadian population-based sample.Study data were from the prospective Canadian Multicentre Osteoporosis Study (CaMos, which collected baseline data in 1996-1997. DIF was tested using a multiple indicators multiple causes (MIMIC method. Confirmatory factor analysis defined the latent variable measurement model for the item responses and latent variable regression with demographic and health status covariates (i.e., sex, age group, body weight, self-perceived general health produced estimates of the magnitude of DIF effects.The CaMos cohort consisted of 9423 respondents; 69.4% were female and 51.7% were less than 65 years. Eight of 10 items on the PF sub-scale and four of five items on the MH sub-scale exhibited DIF. Large DIF effects were observed on PF sub-scale items about vigorous and moderate activities, lifting and carrying groceries, walking one block, and bathing or dressing. On the MH sub-scale items, all DIF effects were small or moderate in size.SF-36 PF and MH sub-scale scores were not comparable across population sub-groups defined by demographic and health status variables due to the effects of DIF, although the magnitude of this bias was not large for most items. We recommend testing and adjusting for DIF to ensure comparability of the SF-36 in population-based investigations.

Space transportation main engine reliability and safety

Science.gov (United States)

Monk, Jan C.

1991-01-01

Viewgraphs are used to illustrate the reliability engineering and aerospace safety of the Space Transportation Main Engine (STME). A technology developed is called Total Quality Management (TQM). The goal is to develop a robust design. Reducing process variability produces a product with improved reliability and safety. Some engine system design characteristics are identified which improves reliability.

Comparison of behavioral activation subscales of Gray’s original reinforcement sensitivity theory in opioid and methamphetamine dependent patients

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Amir Ghaderi

2017-10-01

Results: The methamphetamine-dependents group had a higher BAS-DR subscale score than the opioid dependent group (P0.05. The BAS-RR scores of the methamphetamine-dependents group were higher than the other two groups (P

Postpartum Bonding Disorder: Factor Structure, Validity, Reliability and a Model Comparison of the Postnatal Bonding Questionnaire in Japanese Mothers of Infants

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Yukiko Ohashi

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Negative attitudes of mothers towards their infant is conceptualized as postpartum bonding disorder, which leads to serious health problems in perinatal health care. However, its measurement still remains to be standardized. Our aim was to examine and confirm the psychometric properties of the Postnatal Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ in Japanese mothers. We distributed a set of questionnaires to community mothers and studied 392 mothers who returned the questionnaires at 1 month after childbirth. Our model was compared with three other models derived from previous studies. In a randomly halved sample, an exploratory factor analysis yielded a three-factor structure: Anger and Restrictedness, Lack of Affection, and Rejection and Fear. This factor structure was cross-validated by a confirmatory factor analysis using the other halved sample. The three subscales showed satisfactory internal consistency. The three PBQ subscale scores were correlated with depression and psychological abuse scores. Their test–retest reliability between day 5 and 1 month after childbirth was measured by intraclass correlation coefficients between 0.76 and 0.83. The Akaike Information Criteria of our model was better than the original four-factor model of Brockington. The present study indicates that the PBQ is a reliable and valid measure of bonding difficulties of Japanese mothers with neonates.

Reliability and validity of Short Form 36 Version 2 to measure health perceptions in a sub-group of individuals with fatigue.

Science.gov (United States)

Davenport, Todd E; Stevens, Staci R; Baroni, Katie; Van Ness, J Mark; Snell, Christopher R

2011-01-01

To determine the validity and reliability of Short Form 36 Version 2 (SF36v2) in sub-groups of individuals with fatigue. Thirty subjects participated in this study, including n = 16 subjects who met case definition criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and n = 14 non-disabled sedentary matched control subjects. SF36v2 and Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI-20) were administered before two maximal cardiopulmonary exercise tests (CPETs) administered 24 h apart and an open-ended recovery questionnaire was administered 7 days after CPET challenge. The main outcome measures were self-reported time to recover to pre-challenge functional and symptom status, frequency of post-exertional symptoms and SF36v2 sub-scale scores. Individuals with CFS demonstrated significantly lower SF36v2 and MFI-20 sub-scale scores prior to CPET. Between-group differences remained significant post-CPET, however, there were no significant group by test interaction effects. Subjects with CFS reported significantly more total symptoms (p validity to identify subjects who recovered from CPET challenge within 1 day and 7 days (p reliability and validity for clinical and research applications. Adequacy of sensitivity to change of SF36v2 as a result of a fatiguing stressor should be the subject of additional study.

Reliability database of IEA-R1 Brazilian research reactor: Applications to the improvement of installation safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oliveira, P.S.P.; Tondin, J.B.M.; Martins, M.O.; Yovanovich, M.; Ricci Filho, W.

2010-01-01

In this paper the main features of the reliability database being developed at Ipen-Cnen/SP for IEA-R1 reactor are briefly described. Besides that, the process for collection and updating of data regarding operation, failure and maintenance of IEA-R1 reactor components is presented. These activities have been conducted by the reactor personnel under the supervision of specialists in Probabilistic Safety Analysis (PSA). The compilation of data and subsequent calculation are based on the procedures defined during an IAEA Coordinated Research Project which Brazil took part in the period from 2001 to 2004. In addition to component reliability data, the database stores data on accident initiating events and human errors. Furthermore, this work discusses the experience acquired through the development of the reliability database covering aspects like improvements in the reactor records as well as the application of the results to the optimization of operation and maintenance procedures and to the PSA carried out for IEA-R1 reactor. (author)

Validity of the Mania Subscale of the Diagnostic Assessment for the Severely Handicapped-II (DASH-II).

Science.gov (United States)

Matson, Johnny L.; Smiroldo, Brandi B.

1997-01-01

A study tested the validity of the Diagnostic Assessment for the Severely Handicapped-II (DASH-II) for determining the presence of mania (bipolar disorder) in 22 individuals with severe mental retardation. Results found the mania subscale to be internally consistent and able to be used to classify manic and control subjects accurately. (Author/CR)

Lecture 8: Data Reliability at CERN and Ideas on How to Improve it

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2013-01-01

The talk will give an overview of data management activities at CERN focusing on the ongoing research activities aiming to improve data and service reliability. Alberto Pace is a member if the IT department at CERN where he leads the Data and Storage services group ensuring a coherent development process for Physics Data management activities, strongly driven by operational and user needs. He has more than 25 years experience in computing services, infrastructure, software engineering, accelerator control and accelerator operation. He graduated in Electronic Engineering from Politecnico di Milano (Italy).

Reliability improvement for anisotropic biased compensated α/β contamination meter

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Coulon, R., E-mail: romain.coulon@cea.fr [CEA, LIST, Laboratoire Capteurs et Architectures Electroniques, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette (France); Montagu, T. [CEA, LIST, Laboratoire de Modélisation et Simulation des Systèmes, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette (France); Schoepff, V. [CEA, LIST, Laboratoire Capteurs et Architectures Electroniques, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette (France); Menaa, N.; Ulmann, A. Gallozzi; Blanc de Lanaute, N. [CANBERRA France, F-78182 St Quentin en Yvelines (France)

2016-11-21

Nuclear instruments such as alpha/beta contamination meter are frequently used in a compensated mode where the contribution of gamma radiation background is compensated by a guard detector. The signal of interest is then the subtraction of counting from both channels. In practice, the noise signal measured by the guard detector is not strictly equal to the noise contribution into the first detector due to anisotropic biases. The random error (under Poisson assumption) is taken into account to build a hypothesis test. The system is also designed to minimize the systematic error but in some cases, this bias could not be completely removed. The measurement system then shows different behavior when the surrounding environment changes exhibiting inopportune false alarms. A method allowing the false alarms to be suppressed is addressed in this study for compensated measurement. An improvement in terms of reliability has been proven.

Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) Project - N+2 Advanced Vehicle Concepts Study and Conceptual Design of Subscale Test Vehicle (STV) Final Report

Science.gov (United States)

Bonet, John T.; Schellenger, Harvey G.; Rawdon, Blaine K.; Elmer, Kevin R.; Wakayama, Sean R.; Brown, Derrell L.; Guo, Yueping

2011-01-01

NASA has set demanding goals for technology developments to meet national needs to improve fuel efficiency concurrent with improving the environment to enable air transportation growth. A figure shows NASA's subsonic transport system metrics. The results of Boeing ERA N+2 Advanced Vehicle Concept Study show that the Blended Wing Body (BWB) vehicle, with ultra high bypass propulsion systems have the potential to meet the combined NASA ERA N+2 goals. This study had 3 main activities. 1) The development of an advanced vehicle concepts that can meet the NASA system level metrics. 2) Identification of key enabling technologies and the development of technology roadmaps and maturation plans. 3) The development of a subscale test vehicle that can demonstrate and mature the key enabling technologies needed to meet the NASA system level metrics. Technology maturation plans are presented and include key performance parameters and technical performance measures. The plans describe the risks that will be reduced with technology development and the expected progression of technical maturity.

A review of manufacturing metrology for improved reliability of silicon photovoltaic modules

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Kristopher O.; Walters, Joseph; Schneller, Eric; Seigneur, Hubert; Brooker, R. Paul; Scardera, Giuseppe; Rodgers, Marianne P.; Mohajeri, Nahid; Shiradkar, Narendra; Dhere, Neelkanth G.; Wohlgemuth, John; Rudack, Andrew C.; Schoenfeld, Winston V.

2014-10-01

In this work, the use of manufacturing metrology across the supply chain to improve crystalline silicon (c-Si) photovoltaic (PV) module reliability and durability is addressed. Additionally, an overview and summary of a recent extensive literature survey of relevant measurement techniques aimed at reducing or eliminating the probability of field failures is presented. An assessment of potential gaps is also given, wherein the PV community could benefit from new research and demonstration efforts. This review is divided into three primary areas representing different parts of the c-Si PV supply chain: (1) feedstock production, crystallization and wafering; (2) cell manufacturing; and (3) module manufacturing.

Spinal Cord Independence Measure, version III: applicability to the UK spinal cord injured population.

Science.gov (United States)

Glass, Clive A; Tesio, Luigi; Itzkovich, Malka; Soni, Bakul M; Silva, Pedro; Mecci, Munawar; Chadwick, Raymond; el Masry, Waghi; Osman, Aheed; Savic, Gordana; Gardner, Brian; Bergström, Ebba; Catz, Amiram

2009-09-01

To examine the validity, reliability and usefulness of the Spinal Cord Independence Measure for the UK spinal cord injury population. Multi-centre cohort study. Four UK regional spinal cord injury centres. Eighty-six people with spinal cord injury. Spinal Cord Independence Measure and Functional Independence Measure on admission analysed using inferential statistics, and Rasch analysis of Spinal Cord Independence Measure. Internal consistency, inter-rater reliability, discriminant validity; Spinal Cord Independence Measure subscale match between distribution of item difficulty and patient ability measurements; reliability of patient ability measures; fit of data to Rasch model; unidimensionality of subscales; hierarchical ordering of categories within items; differential item functioning across patient groups. Scale reliability (kappa coefficients range 0.491-0.835; (p Spinal Cord Independence Measure subscales compatible with stringent Rasch requirements; mean infit indices high; distinct strata of abilities identified; most thresholds ordered; item hierarchy stable across clinical groups and centres. Misfit and differences in item hierarchy identified. Difficulties assessing central cord injuries highlighted. Conventional statistical and Rasch analyses justify the use of the Spinal Cord Independence Measure in clinical practice and research in the UK. Cross-cultural validity may be further improved.

A Method for Improving Reliability of Radiation Detection using Deep Learning Framework

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chang, Hojong; Kim, Tae-Ho; Han, Byunghun; Kim, Hyunduk; Kim, Ki-duk

2017-01-01

Radiation detection is essential technology for overall field of radiation and nuclear engineering. Previously, technology for radiation detection composes of preparation of the table of the input spectrum to output spectrum in advance, which requires simulation of numerous predicted output spectrum with simulation using parameters modeling the spectrum. In this paper, we propose new technique to improve the performance of radiation detector. The software in the radiation detector has been stagnant for a while with possible intrinsic error of simulation. In the proposed method, to predict the input source using output spectrum measured by radiation detector is performed using deep neural network. With highly complex model, we expect that the complex pattern between data and the label can be captured well. Furthermore, the radiation detector should be calibrated regularly and beforehand. We propose a method to calibrate radiation detector using GAN. We hope that the power of deep learning may also reach to radiation detectors and make huge improvement on the field. Using improved radiation detector, the reliability of detection would be confident, and there are many tasks remaining to solve using deep learning in nuclear engineering society.

Design reliability engineering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buden, D.; Hunt, R.N.M.

1989-01-01

Improved design techniques are needed to achieve high reliability at minimum cost. This is especially true of space systems where lifetimes of many years without maintenance are needed and severe mass limitations exist. Reliability must be designed into these systems from the start. Techniques are now being explored to structure a formal design process that will be more complete and less expensive. The intent is to integrate the best features of design, reliability analysis, and expert systems to design highly reliable systems to meet stressing needs. Taken into account are the large uncertainties that exist in materials, design models, and fabrication techniques. Expert systems are a convenient method to integrate into the design process a complete definition of all elements that should be considered and an opportunity to integrate the design process with reliability, safety, test engineering, maintenance and operator training. 1 fig

Reliability and validity of the Modified Erikson Psychosocial Stage Inventory in diverse samples.

Science.gov (United States)

Leidy, N K; Darling-Fisher, C S

1995-04-01

The Modified Erikson Psychosocial Stage Inventory (MEPSI) is a relatively simple survey measure designed to assess the strength of psychosocial attributes that arise from progression through Erikson's eight stages of development. The purpose of this study was to employ secondary analysis to evaluate the internal-consistency reliability and construct validity of the MEPSI across four diverse samples: healthy young adults, hemophilic men, healthy older adults, and older adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Special attention was given to the performance of the measure across gender, with exploratory analyses examining possible age cohort and health status effects. Internal-consistency estimates for the aggregate measure were high, whereas subscale reliability levels varied across age groups. Construct validity was supported across samples. Gender, cohort, and health effects offered interesting psychometric and theoretical insights and direction for further research. Findings indicated that the MEPSI might be a useful instrument for operationalizing and testing Eriksonian developmental theory in adults.

Validity and Reliability of the Turkish Version of the Multiple Sclerosis-Related Symptom Checklist.

Science.gov (United States)

Tülek, Zeliha; Polat, Cansu; Kürtüncü, Murat; Eraksoy, Mefkure

2017-12-01

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease that causes different symptoms in each attack and has an individual-specific course. Detailed questioning and recording of MS symptoms is important for developing a management plan for individual-specific symptoms. The present study was planned to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of "Multiple Sclerosis-Related Symptom Checklist" (MS-RS), which has been developed for patients to personally follow-up the symptoms they experience. The study was conducted in the outpatient MS clinic of the Istanbul University Istanbul Faculty of Medicine between January and October 2013 and included a sample group of 148 patients who were aged >18 years, could easily communicate, had a definite diagnosis of MS, and had no other medical problems besides MS. The data were collected using patient information forms, including sociodemographic and MS-RS forms. To assess the linguistic validity, the Likert-type scale with 26 items was first applied to a group of 30 patients. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the construct validity. Furthermore, the correlation of the scale with the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Mini-Mental Status Evaluation (MMSE) scale, and Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life Scale-54 (MSQL-54) was evaluated. The scale comprised five factors with factor loading values between 0.39 and 0.86. The item-total correlation coefficients revealed values of 0.27-0.88. The Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient for the whole scale was determined to be 0.89 and for the subscales to be 0.60-0.85. The test-retest analysis revealed no difference between the scale and its subscales in terms of invariance with time (p>0.05). Moreover, MS-RS was significantly correlated with EDSS, HADS, MMSE, and MSQL-54. The Turkish version of MS-RS is a valid and reliable scale that can be used in the Turkish population.

Reliability Improved Design for a Safety System Channel

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oh, Eung Se; Kim, Yun Goo [KHNP, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2016-05-15

Nowadays, these systems are implemented with a same platform type, such as a qualified programmable logic controller (PLC). The platform intensively uses digital communication with fiber-optic links to reduce cabling costs and to achieve effective signal isolation. These communication interface and redundancies within a channel increase the complexness of an overall system design. This paper proposes a simpler channel architecture design to reduce the complexity and to enhance overall channel reliability. Simplified safety channel configuration is proposed and the failure probabilities are compared with baseline safety channel configuration using an estimated generic value. The simplified channel configuration achieves 40 percent failure reduction compare to baseline safety channel configuration. If this configuration can be implemented within a processor module, overall safety channel reliability is increase and costs of fabrication and maintenance will be greatly reduced.

Reliability Improved Design for a Safety System Channel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oh, Eung Se; Kim, Yun Goo

2016-01-01

Nowadays, these systems are implemented with a same platform type, such as a qualified programmable logic controller (PLC). The platform intensively uses digital communication with fiber-optic links to reduce cabling costs and to achieve effective signal isolation. These communication interface and redundancies within a channel increase the complexness of an overall system design. This paper proposes a simpler channel architecture design to reduce the complexity and to enhance overall channel reliability. Simplified safety channel configuration is proposed and the failure probabilities are compared with baseline safety channel configuration using an estimated generic value. The simplified channel configuration achieves 40 percent failure reduction compare to baseline safety channel configuration. If this configuration can be implemented within a processor module, overall safety channel reliability is increase and costs of fabrication and maintenance will be greatly reduced

Study on the improvement of nuclear fuel cladding reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rheem, Karp Soon; Han, Jung Ho; Jeong, Yong Hwan; Lee, Deok Hyun

1987-12-01

In order to improve the nuclear fuel cladding reliability for high burn-up fuels, the corrosion resistance of laser beam surface treated and β-quenched zircaloys and the mechanical characteristics including fatigue, burst, and out-of-pile PCMI characteristics of heat treated zircaloys were investigated. In addition, the inadiation characteristics of Ko-Ri reactor fuel claddings was examined. It was found that the wasteside corrosion resistance of commercial zircaloys was improved remarkably by laser beam surface treatment. The out-of-pile transient cladding failures were investigated in terms of hoop stress versus time-to-failures by means of mandrel loading units at 25 deg C and 325 deg C. Fatigue characteristics of the β-quenched and as-received zircaloy cladding were investigated by using an internal oil pressurization method which can simulate the load-following operation cycle. The results were in good agreement with the existing data obtained by conventional methods for commercial zircaloys. Burst tests were performed with commercial and the β-quenched zircaloys in high pressure argon gas atmosphere as a function of burst temperature. The burst stress decreased linearly in the α phase region up to 600 deg C and hereafter the decrement of the burst stress decreased gradually with temperature in the β-phase region. For the first time, the burst characteristic of the irradiated zircaloy-4 cladding tubes released from Ko-Ri nuclear power unit 1 was investigated, and attempts were made to trace the cause of cladding failures by examining the failed structure and fret marks by debris. (Author)

An improved IEEE 802.11 protocol for reliable data transmission in power distribution fault diagnosis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Campoccia, F.; Di Silvestre, M.L.; Sanseverino, E.R.; Zizzo, G. [Palermo Univ., Palermo (Italy)

2010-10-15

In power systems, on-line transmission between local units and the central unit can be done by means of power line communications or wireless technology. During an electrical fault, the reliability of the distribution system depends on the security of the timely protective and restorative actions on the network. This paper focused on the WiFi system because of its economy and ease of installation. However, WiFi systems are typically managed by the IEEE 802.11 protocol, which is not reliable in terms of security in data communication. In WiFi networks, data is divided into packets and sent in succession to reduce errors within the radio channel. The IEEE 802.11 protocol has high probability for loss of packets or delay in their transmission. In order to ensure the reliability of data transmission times between two terminal units connected by WiFi stations, a new protocol was derived by modifying the IEEE 802.11. The improvements of the new protocol were highlighted and its capability for the diagnostic service was verified. The modified protocol eliminates the danger of collisions between packets and optimizes the transmission time for sending information. 6 refs., 7 tabs., 8 figs.

Reducing Variability of Workforce as a Tool to Improve Plan Reliability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shen, Yicheng; Zygmunt, Katarzyna Julia; Wandahl, Søren

2017-01-01

Variability of flow is recognized as one of the greatest obstacles to production management. Since the work flow and labour flow are two dominators of work performance, it is important to manage them simultaneously. The objective of this paper is to examine if an increased plan reliability could...... of the workforce flow does not necessarily shorten the project length, nevertheless it increases probability to finish the tasks within a critical path duration. Additionally, it was concluded, that reducing the variance of crew allocation can improve the productivity....... be reached by reducing the variance of a labour flow. Therefore, three different construction labour data sets have been examined by utilizing Monte Carlo Simulation, to analyze the probability to finish simulated projects within a certain time. The research findings revealed that reducing variance...

Reliability of the Dissociative Trance Disorder Interview Schedule: A preliminary report.

Science.gov (United States)

Ross, Colin A; Somer, Eli; Goode, Caitlin

2018-01-01

One hundred inpatients in a hospital-based Trauma Program in the USA were interviewed with the Dissociative Trance Disorder Interview Schedule (DTDIS). There were no significant differences for the DTDIS total score or any of the subscale scores on test-retest: all t-values comparing the two administrations of the DTDIS were below 0.7, and all p-values were above 0.5. Cronbach's alpha for the US sample was 0.966 and for the Israeli sample it was 0.971. The findings indicate that the DTDIS has good reliability and may be suitable for use in cross-cultural research; however, the results require replication by independent researchers in a variety of cultures and languages, and in both clinical and nonclinical samples.

Factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Japanese version of the Hoarding Rating Scale-Self-Report (HRS-SR-J

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tsuchiyagaito A

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Aki Tsuchiyagaito,1–3 Satoshi Horiuchi,4 Toko Igarashi,5 Yoshiya Kawanori,4 Yoshiyuki Hirano,1,3 Hirooki Yabe,2 Akiko Nakagawa1,3 1Research Center for Child Mental Development, Chiba University, Chiba, 2Department of Neuropsychiatry, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, 3United Graduate School of Child Development, Osaka University, Kanazawa University, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Chiba University and University of Fukui, Osaka, 4Faculty of Social Welfare, Iwate Prefectural University, Iwate, 5Graduate School of Education, Joetsu University of Education, Niigata, Japan Background: The Hoarding Rating Scale-Self-Report (HRS-SR is a five-item scale that assesses the symptoms of hoarding. These symptoms include excessive acquisition, difficulty in discarding, and excessive clutter that causes distress. We conducted three studies to examine the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Japanese version of the HRS-SR (HRS-SR-J. Methods: Study 1 examined its reliability; 193 college students and 320 adolescents and adults completed the HRS-SR-J and, of the college students, 32 took it again 2 weeks later. Study 2 aimed to confirm that its scores in a sample of 210 adolescents and adults are independent of social desirability. Study 3 aimed to validate the HRS-SR-J in the aspects of convergent and discriminant validity in a sample of 550 adults. Results: The HRS-SR-J showed good internal consistency and 2-week test–retest reliability. Based on the nonsignificant correlations between the HRS-SR-J and social desirability, the HRS-SR-J was not strongly affected by social desirability. In addition, it also had a good convergent validity with the Japanese version of the Saving Inventory-Revised (SI-R-J and the hoarding subscale of the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory, while having a significantly weaker correlation with the five subscales of the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory, except for the hoarding subscale. In addition, the

Some improvements on adaptive genetic algorithms for reliability-related applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ye Zhisheng, E-mail: yez@nus.edu.s [Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119 260 (Singapore); Li Zhizhong [Department of Industrial Engineering, Tsinghua University, beijing 100084 (China); Xie Min [Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119 260 (Singapore)

2010-02-15

Adaptive genetic algorithms (GAs) have been shown to be able to improve GA performance in reliability-related optimization studies. However, there are different ways to implement adaptive GAs, some of which are even in conflict with each other. In this study, a simple parameter-adjusting method using mean and variance of each generation is introduced. This method is used to compare two of such conflicting adaptive GA methods: GAs with increasing mutation rate and decreasing crossover rate and GAs with decreasing mutation rate and increasing crossover rate. The illustrative examples indicate that adaptive GAs with decreasing mutation rate and increasing crossover rate finally yield better results. Furthermore, a population disturbance method is proposed to avoid local optimum solutions. This idea is similar to exotic migration to a tribal society. To solve the problem of large solution space, a variable roughening method is also embedded into GA. Two case studies are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Some improvements on adaptive genetic algorithms for reliability-related applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ye Zhisheng; Li Zhizhong; Xie Min

2010-01-01

Adaptive genetic algorithms (GAs) have been shown to be able to improve GA performance in reliability-related optimization studies. However, there are different ways to implement adaptive GAs, some of which are even in conflict with each other. In this study, a simple parameter-adjusting method using mean and variance of each generation is introduced. This method is used to compare two of such conflicting adaptive GA methods: GAs with increasing mutation rate and decreasing crossover rate and GAs with decreasing mutation rate and increasing crossover rate. The illustrative examples indicate that adaptive GAs with decreasing mutation rate and increasing crossover rate finally yield better results. Furthermore, a population disturbance method is proposed to avoid local optimum solutions. This idea is similar to exotic migration to a tribal society. To solve the problem of large solution space, a variable roughening method is also embedded into GA. Two case studies are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

The 12-item well-being questionnaire. An evaluation of its validity and reliability in Dutch people with diabetes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pouwer, F; Van Der Ploeg, Henk M; Adér, Herman J

1999-01-01

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate the validity and reliability of the short-form 12-Item Well-Being Questionnaire (W-BQ12). The 12 items were used to construct the three 4-item subscales Negative Well-Being (NWB), Energy (ENE), and Positive Well-Being (PWB), and the 12-item...... and 701 as having type 2 diabetes. Cronbach's alpha proved to be high and stable across sex and type of diabetes for all W-BQ12 scales. Test-retest reliability ranged from 0.66 (PWB) to 0.83 (GWB), with a mean interval of 66 +/- 14 days. Convergent validity of the W-BQ12 scales was supported by high....../psychiatrist. CONCLUSIONS: The W-BQ12 appeared to be a reliable and valid measure of psychological well-being. This short instrument is easy to administer and may be considered a useful tool for both clinicians and researchers to assess the psychological well-being of patients with diabetes....

Vertical equilibrium with sub-scale analytical methods for geological CO2 sequestration

KAUST Repository

Gasda, S. E.

2009-04-23

Large-scale implementation of geological CO2 sequestration requires quantification of risk and leakage potential. One potentially important leakage pathway for the injected CO2 involves existing oil and gas wells. Wells are particularly important in North America, where more than a century of drilling has created millions of oil and gas wells. Models of CO 2 injection and leakage will involve large uncertainties in parameters associated with wells, and therefore a probabilistic framework is required. These models must be able to capture both the large-scale CO 2 plume associated with the injection and the small-scale leakage problem associated with localized flow along wells. Within a typical simulation domain, many hundreds of wells may exist. One effective modeling strategy combines both numerical and analytical models with a specific set of simplifying assumptions to produce an efficient numerical-analytical hybrid model. The model solves a set of governing equations derived by vertical averaging with assumptions of a macroscopic sharp interface and vertical equilibrium. These equations are solved numerically on a relatively coarse grid, with an analytical model embedded to solve for wellbore flow occurring at the sub-gridblock scale. This vertical equilibrium with sub-scale analytical method (VESA) combines the flexibility of a numerical method, allowing for heterogeneous and geologically complex systems, with the efficiency and accuracy of an analytical method, thereby eliminating expensive grid refinement for sub-scale features. Through a series of benchmark problems, we show that VESA compares well with traditional numerical simulations and to a semi-analytical model which applies to appropriately simple systems. We believe that the VESA model provides the necessary accuracy and efficiency for applications of risk analysis in many CO2 sequestration problems. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Short Musculoskeletal Function Assessment questionnaire in patients with skeletal muscle injury of the upper or lower extremities.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Ying; He, Zehui; Lei, Lifang; Lin, Dingkun; Li, Yajie; Wang, Gang; Zhai, Huimin; Xu, Jingli; Zhang, Guangqing; Lin, Meizhen

2015-07-07

The Short Musculoskeletal Function Assessment (SMFA) questionnaire is one of the most commonly used scales to evaluate functional status and quality of life (QOL) of patients with a broad range of musculoskeletal disorders. However, a Chinese version of the SMFA questionnaire for the psychometric properties of skeletal muscle injury patients in China is still lacking. The current study translated the SMFA into Chinese and assessed its reliability and validity among Chinese patients with skeletal muscle injury of the upper or lower extremities. The original SMFA was translated from English into Chinese and culturally adapted according to cross-cultural adaptation guidelines. A multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted, comprising 339 skeletal muscle injury patients (aged 20-75 years) from 4 hospitals. The SMFA, the health survey short form (SF-36) along with a region-specific questionnaire (including the disabilities of the arm, shoulder, and hand questionnaire (DASH), the hip disability and osteoarthritis outcome score (HOOS), the knee injury and osteoarthritis outcome score (KOOS), and the foot function index (FFI)) were completed according to the region of injury. Reliability was estimated from the internal consistency using Cronbach's α and validity was assessed via convergent validity, known-groups comparison, and construct validity. Cronbach's α coefficient was over 0.75 for two subscales and four categories of the SMFA, suggesting that the internal consistency reliability of the SMFA was satisfactory. Known-groups comparison showed that the dysfunction index and the bother index of the SMFA discriminated well between patients who differed in age, gender, injury location, and operation status rather than in subgroups based on the body mass index (BMI). The convergent validity of the SMFA was good, as moderate to excellent correlations were found between the subscales of the SMFA and the four subscales of SF-36 (physical function, role-physical, bodily

Reliability data book

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bento, J.P.; Boerje, S.; Ericsson, G.; Hasler, A.; Lyden, C.O.; Wallin, L.; Poern, K.; Aakerlund, O.

1985-01-01

The main objective for the report is to improve failure data for reliability calculations as parts of safety analyses for Swedish nuclear power plants. The work is based primarily on evaluations of failure reports as well as information provided by the operation and maintenance staff of each plant. In the report are presented charts of reliability data for: pumps, valves, control rods/rod drives, electrical components, and instruments. (L.E.)

Reliability in automotive and mechanical engineering determination of component and system reliability

CERN Document Server

Bertsche, Bernd

2008-01-01

In the present contemporary climate of global competition in every branch of engineering and manufacture it has been shown from extensive customer surveys that above every other attribute, reliability stands as the most desired feature in a finished product. To survive this relentless fight for survival any organisation, which neglect the plea of attaining to excellence in reliability, will do so at a serious cost Reliability in Automotive and Mechanical Engineering draws together a wide spectrum of diverse and relevant applications and analyses on reliability engineering. This is distilled into this attractive and well documented volume and practising engineers are challenged with the formidable task of simultaneously improving reliability and reducing the costs and down-time due to maintenance. The volume brings together eleven chapters to highlight the importance of the interrelated reliability and maintenance disciplines. They represent the development trends and progress resulting in making this book ess...

Bootstrap analysis of designed experiments for reliability improvement with a non-constant scale parameter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Guodong; He, Zhen; Xue, Li; Cui, Qingan; Lv, Shanshan; Zhou, Panpan

2017-01-01

Factors which significantly affect product reliability are of great interest to reliability practitioners. This paper proposes a bootstrap-based methodology for identifying significant factors when both location and scale parameters of the smallest extreme value distribution vary over experimental factors. An industrial thermostat experiment is presented, analyzed, and discussed as an illustrative example. The analysis results show that 1) the misspecification of a constant scale parameter may lead to misidentify spurious effects; 2) the important factors identified by different bootstrap methods (i.e., percentile bootstrapping, bias-corrected percentile bootstrapping, and bias-corrected and accelerated percentile bootstrapping) are different; 3) the number of factors affecting 10th percentile lifetime significantly is less than the number of important factors identified at 63.21th percentile. - Highlights: • Product reliability is improved by design of experiments under both scale and location parameters of smallest extreme value distribution vary with experimental factors. • A bootstrap-based methodology is proposed to identify important factors which affect 100pth lifetime percentile significantly. • Bootstrapping confidence intervals associating experimental factors are obtained by using three bootstrap methods (i.e., percentile bootstrapping, bias-corrected percentile bootstrapping, and bias-corrected and accelerated percentile bootstrapping). • The important factors identified by different bootstrap methods are different. • The number of factors affecting 10th percentile significantly is less than the number of important factors identified at 63.21th percentile.

Reliability analysis techniques in power plant design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chang, N.E.

1981-01-01

An overview of reliability analysis techniques is presented as applied to power plant design. The key terms, power plant performance, reliability, availability and maintainability are defined. Reliability modeling, methods of analysis and component reliability data are briefly reviewed. Application of reliability analysis techniques from a design engineering approach to improving power plant productivity is discussed. (author)

The Overt Behaviour Scale-Self-Report (OBS-SR) for acquired brain injury: exploratory analysis of reliability and validity.

Science.gov (United States)

Kelly, Glenn; Simpson, Grahame K; Brown, Suzanne; Kremer, Peter; Gillett, Lauren

2017-05-23

The objectives were to test the properties, via a psychometric study, of the Overt Behaviour Scale-Self-Report (OBS-SR), a version of the OBS-Adult Scale developed to provide a client perspective on challenging behaviours after acquired brain injury. Study sample 1 consisted of 37 patients with primary brain tumour (PBT) and a family-member informant. Sample 2 consisted of 34 clients with other acquired brain injury (mixed brain injury, MBI) and a service-provider informant. Participants completed the OBS-SR (at two time points), and the Awareness Questionnaire (AQ) and Mayo Portland Adaptability Inventory-III (MPAI-III) once; informants completed the OBS-Adult and AQ once only. PBT-informant dyads displayed "good" levels of agreement (ICC 2,k  = .74; OBS-SR global index). Although MBI-informant dyads displayed no agreement (ICC 2,k  = .22; OBS-SR global index), the sub-group (17/29) rated by clinicians as having moderate to good levels of awareness displayed "fair" agreement (ICC 2,k  = .58; OBS-SR global index). Convergent/divergent validity was demonstrated by significant correlations between OBS-SR subscales and MPAI-III subscales with behavioural content (coefficients in the range .36 -.61). Scores had good reliability across one week (ICC 2,k  = .69). The OBS-SR took approximately 15 minutes to complete. It was concluded that the OBS-SR demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity, providing a useful resource in understanding clients' perspectives about their behaviour.

Reliability and Validity of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS): Thai Version.

Science.gov (United States)

Wongpakaran, Tinakon; Wongpakaran, Nahathai; Ruktrakul, Ruk

2011-01-01

This study examines the Thai version of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) for its psychometric properties. In total 462 participants were recruited - 310 medical students from Chiang Mai University and 152 psychiatric patients, and they completed the Thai version of the MSPSS, the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) and the Thai Depression Inventory (TDI). Test-retest reliability was conducted over a four week period. Factor analysis produced three-factor solutions for both patient (PG) and student groups (SG), and overall the model demonstrated adequate fit indices. The mean total score and the sub-scale score for the SG were statistically higher than those in the PG, except for 'Significant Others'. The internal consistency of the scale was good, with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.91 for the SG and 0.87 for the PG. After a four week retest for reliability exercise, the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) was found to be 0.84. The Thai-MSPSS was found to have a negative correlation with the STAI and the TDI, but was positively correlated with the RSES. The Thai MSPSS is a reliable and valid instrument to use.

Reliability of COPVs Accounting for Margin of Safety on Design Burst

Science.gov (United States)

Murthy, Pappu L.N.

2012-01-01

In this paper, the stress rupture reliability of Carbon/Epoxy Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessels (COPVs) is examined utilizing the classic Phoenix model and accounting for the differences between the design and the actual burst pressure, and the liner contribution effects. Stress rupture life primarily depends upon the fiber stress ratio which is defined as the ratio of stress in fibers at the maximum expected operating pressure to actual delivered fiber strength. The actual delivered fiber strength is calculated using the actual burst pressures of vessels established through burst tests. However, during the design phase the actual burst pressure is generally not known and to estimate the reliability of the vessels calculations are usually performed based upon the design burst pressure only. Since the design burst is lower than the actual burst, this process yields a much higher value for the stress ratio and consequently a conservative estimate for the reliability. Other complications arise due to the fact that the actual burst pressure and the liner contributions have inherent variability and therefore must be treated as random variables in order to compute the stress rupture reliability. Furthermore, the model parameters, which have to be established based on stress rupture tests of subscale vessels or coupons, have significant variability as well due to limited available data and hence must be properly accounted for. In this work an assessment of reliability of COPVs including both parameter uncertainties and physical variability inherent in liner and overwrap material behavior is made and estimates are provided in terms of degree of uncertainty in the actual burst pressure and the liner load sharing.

Improvements in the consistency of fabrication and the reliability of nuclear fuels through quality assurance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sifferlen, R.

1976-01-01

By establishing correlations between rejection level and fabrication parameters, quality assurance can guide corrective action for improving the consistency of fabrication and the reliability of fuel elements. The author cites examples relating to the quality of the uranium in metallic fuels, the influence of the parent metal on the welding of zirconium alloys, the behaviour of the springs inside the cladding during the welding of plugs and the behaviour of uranium oxide pellets. (author)

Training for assessment of negative symptoms of schizophrenia across languages and cultures: comparison of the NSA-16 with the PANSS Negative Subscale and Negative Symptom factor.

Science.gov (United States)

Daniel, David G; Alphs, Larry; Cazorla, Pilar; Bartko, John J; Panagides, John

2011-07-01

The 16-item Negative Symptom Assessment scale (NSA-16) has been validated in English-speaking raters. We analyzed the level of agreement achieved among raters of different nationalities using the NSA-16 and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) negative subscale and Marder negative factor. Raters participating in two international trials were trained in the use of each instrument through lectures and feedback on their ratings of at least one videotaped interview of a schizophrenic patient. Overall and regional (North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, South/Central America, and Australia and South Africa combined) kappa values were calculated and mean total scores were compared (1-way analysis of variance) by region for each instrument. In addition, within-scales variance was calculated by item to help identify negative symptoms that were particularly challenging to obtain agreement on across cultures. In the combined group of international raters, the kappa values for ratings of the NSA-16, PANSS negative subscale, and Marder negative factors were 0.89, 0.84, and 0.82, respectively. Kappa values calculated by geographic region ranged from 0.87 to 0.94 for the NSA-16 compared with 0.82 to 0.86 for the PANSS negative subscale and 0.79 to 0.87 for the PANSS Marder negative factor. Despite cultural and linguistic differences among raters, standardizing measurement of negative symptoms in international clinical trials is possible using available rating scales: NSA-16, PANSS negative subscale, and Marder negative subscale. Agreement among raters was at least as high using the NSA-16 as using the PANSS instruments.

Reliability and validity of the Student Perceptions of School Cohesion Scale in a sample of Salvadoran secondary school students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arrivillaga Marcela

2009-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Despite a growing body of research from the United States and other industrialized countries on the inverse association between supportive social relationships in the school and youth risk behavior engagement, research on the measurement of supportive school social relationships in Central America is limited. We examined the psychometric properties of the Student Perceptions of School Cohesion (SPSC scale, a 10-item scale that asks students to rate with a 5-point Likert-type response scale their perceptions of the school social environment, in a sample of public secondary school students (mean age = 15 years living in central El Salvador. Methods Students (n = 982 completed a self-administered questionnaire that included the SPSC scale along with measures of youth health risk behaviors based on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Exploratory factor analysis was used to assess the factor structure of the scale, and two internal consistency estimates of reliability were computed. Construct validity was assessed by examining whether students who reported low school cohesion were significantly more likely to report physical fighting and illicit drug use. Results Results indicated that the SPSC scale has three latent factors, which explained 61.6% of the variance: supportive school relationships, student-school connectedness, and student-teacher connectedness. The full scale and three subscales had good internal consistency (rs = .87 and α = .84 for the full scale; rs and α between .71 and .75 for the three subscales. Significant associations were found between the full scale and all three subscales with physical fighting (p ≤ .001 and illicit drug use (p Conclusion Findings provide evidence of reliability and validity of the SPSC for the measurement of supportive school relationships in Latino adolescents living in El Salvador. These findings provide a foundation for further research on

Improving Phrap-based assembly of the rat using "reliable" overlaps.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Roberts

2008-03-01

Full Text Available The assembly methods used for whole-genome shotgun (WGS data have a major impact on the quality of resulting draft genomes. We present a novel algorithm to generate a set of "reliable" overlaps based on identifying repeat k-mers. To demonstrate the benefits of using reliable overlaps, we have created a version of the Phrap assembly program that uses only overlaps from a specific list. We call this version PhrapUMD. Integrating PhrapUMD and our "reliable-overlap" algorithm with the Baylor College of Medicine assembler, Atlas, we assemble the BACs from the Rattus norvegicus genome project. Starting with the same data as the Nov. 2002 Atlas assembly, we compare our results and the Atlas assembly to the 4.3 Mb of rat sequence in the 21 BACs that have been finished. Our version of the draft assembly of the 21 BACs increases the coverage of finished sequence from 93.4% to 96.3%, while simultaneously reducing the base error rate from 4.5 to 1.1 errors per 10,000 bases. There are a number of ways of assessing the relative merits of assemblies when the finished sequence is available. If one views the overall quality of an assembly as proportional to the inverse of the product of the error rate and sequence missed, then the assembly presented here is seven times better. The UMD Overlapper with options for reliable overlaps is available from the authors at http://www.genome.umd.edu. We also provide the changes to the Phrap source code enabling it to use only the reliable overlaps.

Measuring Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist Organizational Climate: Instrument Adaptation.

Science.gov (United States)

Boyd, Donald; Poghosyan, Lusine

2017-08-01

No tool exists measuring certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) organizational climate. The study's purpose is to adapt a validated tool to measure CRNA organizational climate. Content validity of the Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist Organizational Climate Questionnaire (CRNA-OCQ) was established. Pilot testing was conducted to determine internal reliability consistency of the subscales. Experts rated the tool as content valid. The subscales had high internal consistency reliability (with respective Cronbach's alphas): CRNA-Anesthesiologist Relations (.753), CRNA-Physician Relations (.833), CRNA-Administration Relations (.895), Independent Practice (.830), Support for CRNA Practice (.683), and Professional Visibility (.772). Further refinement of the CRNA-OCQ is necessary. Measurement and assessment of CRNA organizational climate may produce evidence needed to improve provider and patient outcomes.

Improvement of AC motor reliability from technique standardization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Muniz, P.R.; Faria, M.D.R.; Mendes, M.P.; Silva, J.N.; Dos Santos, J.D.

2005-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to explain the increase of reliability of motors serviced in the Electrical Maintenance Shop of Companhia Siderurgica de Tubarao by standardization of the technique based on Brazilian and International Standards, manufacturer's recommendations and the experience of the maintenance staff. (author)

Sheehan Suicidality Tracking Scale (S-STS): reliability, convergent and discriminative validity in young Italian adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Preti, Antonio; Sheehan, David V; Coric, Vladimir; Distinto, Marco; Pitanti, Mirko; Vacca, Irene; Siddi, Alessandra; Masala, Carmelo; Petretto, Donatella Rita

2013-10-01

The Sheehan Suicidality Tracking Scale (S-STS) is a patient self-report or clinician-administered rating scale that tracks spontaneous and treatment-emergent suicidal ideation and behaviors. This study set out to evaluate the reliability, convergent and divergent validity of the S-STS in a sample of college students, a population with a high risk of completed and attempted suicide. Cross-sectional, survey design. Participants (303 undergraduate students; males: 42%) completed several measures assessing psychological distress (General Health Questionnaire; GHQ); self-esteem (Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale; RSES); social support (Modified Social Support Survey; MOSSS); and suicidal behavior, including ideation and attempts (S-STS). Both internal consistency and test-retest stability were excellent for the S-STS-global score. The S-STS subscale on suicide ideation also showed good reliability, while the subscale on suicidal behavior showed some inconsistency at retest. Convergent and divergent validity of S-STS was confirmed. All S-STS items loaded on a single factor, which had an excellent fit for the unidimensional model, thus justifying the use of the S-STS as a screening tool. In a mediation model, self-esteem and social support explained 45% of the effects of psychological distress on suicide ideation and behavior as measured by the S-STS-global score. This study provided promising evidence on the convergent, divergent, internal consistency and test-retest stability of the Sheehan Suicidality Tracking Scale. The cross-sectional design and lack of measures of hopelessness and helplessness prevent any conclusion about the links of suicidal behavior with self-esteem and social support. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Validity, reliability, and feasibility of the German version of the Caregiver Reaction Assessment scale (G-CRA): a validation study.

Science.gov (United States)

Stephan, Astrid; Mayer, Herbert; Renom Guiteras, Anna; Meyer, Gabriele

2013-10-01

Instruments measuring caregiver reactions usually disregard positive aspects, and focus predominately on home care. The Caregiver Reaction Assessment (CRA) scale is an exception. Until now, no German version has been available. We translated the instrument to German (G-CRA) and evaluated its psychometric properties and feasibility. Face-to-face interviews with 234 informal caregivers of persons with dementia were performed. Half of the persons with dementia (n = 118) had been recently admitted to institutional long-term care (iLTC); the remainder (n = 116) lived at home. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed. Subscales were intercorrelated and further correlated with the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI), the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), and the EuroQuol (EQ-5D). Internal consistency was measured (Cronbach's α), and interviewers (n = 9) appraised feasibility. The time needed to apply the scale was measured in 20 interviews. The EFA yielded six factors (Kaiser criterion), but a scree plot supported the five dimensions of the original version that explained 56.2% of variance. Low-to-moderate subscales' inter-correlation was revealed. Highest correlation (r = 0.5) was found between impact on health and impact on daily schedule, indicating slight overlap. Criterion validity was supported by reasonable correlations between subscales and ZBI and GHQ-12 (r = -0.21-0.71). Subscale impact on health was negatively correlated with the EQ-5D. The internal consistency was sufficient (α = 0.67 − 0.78). Interviewers judged the G-CRA to be appropriate. Completion took 6.50 min (median value). Our results suggest that the G-CRA is sufficiently valid and internally reliable. The instrument is applicable in home care and iLTC as well as in the transitional phase.

Equipment Reliability Process in Krsko NPP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gluhak, M.

2016-01-01

To ensure long-term safe and reliable plant operation, equipment operability and availability must also be ensured by setting a group of processes to be established within the nuclear power plant. Equipment reliability process represents the integration and coordination of important equipment reliability activities into one process, which enables equipment performance and condition monitoring, preventive maintenance activities development, implementation and optimization, continuous improvement of the processes and long term planning. The initiative for introducing systematic approach for equipment reliability assuring came from US nuclear industry guided by INPO (Institute of Nuclear Power Operations) and by participation of several US nuclear utilities. As a result of the initiative, first edition of INPO document AP-913, 'Equipment Reliability Process Description' was issued and it became a basic document for implementation of equipment reliability process for the whole nuclear industry. The scope of equipment reliability process in Krsko NPP consists of following programs: equipment criticality classification, preventive maintenance program, corrective action program, system health reports and long-term investment plan. By implementation, supervision and continuous improvement of those programs, guided by more than thirty years of operating experience, Krsko NPP will continue to be on a track of safe and reliable operation until the end of prolonged life time. (author).

Study on the reliability of large coal-fired and nuclear power plants. Factors affecting power plant reliability. Volume I. Final report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1975-01-01

The study consisted of a comparative evaluation of 2 nuclear units (Indian Point 2 - Consolidated Edison of New York, Turkey Point 4 - Florida Power and Light Company) and 2 coal-fired units (Bull Run and Widows Creek Unit 8 - Tennessee Valley Authority). The purpose of the study was to identify and assess the underlying causes of unit reliability and the causes of the observed differences in reliability performance of the units. Recommended actions for improving the reliability of one of the study units was to be presented in a format useful to other utility companies for improving reliability of their generating units. The emphasis of the study was on the aspects of management, manning, operations, and maintenance which had a significant impact on unit reliability. Volume 1 includes a summary, a description of the major findings from the comparative evaluation, conclusions based on these findings, and recommendations for improving the reliability of the below average units

Atomoxetine Improved Attention in Children and Adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Dyslexia in a 16 Week, Acute, Randomized, Double-Blind Trial

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, David; Shaywitz, Sally; Shaywitz, Bennett; Hooper, Stephen R.; Wigal, Sharon B.; Dunn, David; McBurnett, Keith

2013-01-01

Abstract Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate atomoxetine treatment effects in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD-only), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder with comorbid dyslexia (ADHD+D), or dyslexia only on ADHD core symptoms and on sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT), working memory, life performance, and self-concept. Methods Children and adolescents (10–16 years of age) with ADHD+D (n=124), dyslexia-only (n=58), or ADHD-only (n=27) received atomoxetine (1.0–1.4 mg/kg/day) or placebo (ADHD-only subjects received atomoxetine) in a 16 week, acute, randomized, double-blind trial with a 16 week, open-label extension phase (atomoxetine treatment only). Changes from baseline were assessed to weeks 16 and 32 in ADHD Rating Scale-IV-Parent-Version:Investigator-Administered and Scored (ADHDRS-IV-Parent:Inv); ADHD Rating Scale-IV-Teacher-Version (ADHDRS-IV-Teacher-Version); Life Participation Scale—Child- or Parent-Rated Version (LPS); Kiddie-Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (K-SCT) Interview; Multidimensional Self Concept Scale (MSCS); and Working Memory Test Battery for Children (WMTB-C). Results At week 16, atomoxetine treatment resulted in significant (pDyslexia-only, atomoxetine versus placebo significantly improved K-SCT Youth subscale scores from baseline. At Week 32, atomoxetine-treated ADHD+D subjects significantly improved from baseline on all measures except MSCS Family subscale and WMTB-C Central Executive and Visuo-spatial Sketchpad component scores. The atomoxetine-treated dyslexia-only subjects significantly improved from baseline to week 32 on ADHDRS-IV-Parent:Inv Inattentive subscale, K-SCT Parent and Teacher subscales, and WMTB-C Phonological Loop and Central Executive component scores. The atomoxetine-treated ADHD-only subjects significantly improved from baseline to Week 32 on ADHDRS-Parent:Inv Total and subscales, ADHDRS-IV-Teacher-Version Hyperactive/Impulsive subscale, LPS Self-Control and Total, all K-SCT subscales, and

Reliability and validity of aggressive driving measures in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Fengzhi; Li, Changji; Long, Yunfang; Zhan, Chenglie; Hennessy, Dwight

2004-12-01

The present research was designed to examine the psychometric properties of Chinese versions of the Self Report Driver Behavior Aggression and Assertiveness subscales, the Driving Vengeance Questionnaire, and the Violent Driving Questionnaire. Study 1 found that the all scales demonstrated good internal consistency, with alphas ranging from .76 to .87 and that assertive driving was related to demerit points received over the past 12 months while driver aggression and violence were linked to collisions over the past 12 months. Study 2 found that the scales exhibited reasonable test-retest reliability, with correlations ranging from .82 to .89. Finally, Study 3 showed that each scale was predicted by other dangerous driving attitudes and behaviors, similar to the original versions. The consistency between the translated and original scales, the implications for use in a Chinese sample, and the uniformity of actions in the traffic environment across cultures are discussed.

Validity and Reliability of the Turkish Version of the Monitoring My Multiple Sclerosis Scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Polat, Cansu; Tülek, Zeliha; Kürtüncü, Murat; Eraksoy, Mefkure

2017-06-01

This research was conducted to adapt the Monitoring My Multiple Sclerosis (MMMS) scale, which is a scale used for self-evaluation by multiple sclerosis (MS) patients of their own health and quality of life, to Turkish and to determine the psychometric properties of the scale. The methodological research was conducted in the outpatient MS clinic of a university hospital between January and September 2013. The sample in this study consisted of 140 patients aged above 18 who had a diagnosis of definite MS. Patients who experienced attacks in the previous month or had any serious medical problems other than MS were not included in the group. The linguistic validity of MMMS was tested by a backward-forward translation method and an expert panel. Reliability analysis was performed using test-retest correlations, item-total correlations, and internal consistency analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis and concurrent validity were used to determine the construct validity. The Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life-54 instrument was used to determine concurrent validity and the Expanded Disability Status Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and Mini Mental State Examination were used for further determination of the construct validity. We determined that the scale consisted of four factors with loadings ranging from 0.49 to 0.79. The correlation coefficients of the scale were determined to be between 0.47 and 0.76 for item-total score and between 0.60 and 0.81 for items and subscale scores. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was determined to be 0.94 for the entire scale and between 0.64 and 0.89 for the subscales. Test-retest correlations were significant. Correlations between MMMS and other scales were also found to be significant. The Turkish MMMS provides adequate validity and reliability for assessing the impact of MS on quality of life and health status in patients.

Electrical Performance and Reliability Improvement of Amorphous-Indium-Gallium-Zinc-Oxide Thin-Film Transistors with HfO₂ Gate Dielectrics by CF₄ Plasma Treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Fan, Ching-Lin; Tseng, Fan-Ping; Tseng, Chiao-Yuan

2018-05-17

In this work, amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide thin-film transistors (a-IGZO TFTs) with a HfO₂ gate insulator and CF₄ plasma treatment was demonstrated for the first time. Through the plasma treatment, both the electrical performance and reliability of the a-IGZO TFT with HfO₂ gate dielectric were improved. The carrier mobility significantly increased by 80.8%, from 30.2 cm²/V∙s (without treatment) to 54.6 cm²/V∙s (with CF₄ plasma treatment), which is due to the incorporated fluorine not only providing an extra electron to the IGZO, but also passivating the interface trap density. In addition, the reliability of the a-IGZO TFT with HfO₂ gate dielectric has also been improved by the CF₄ plasma treatment. By applying the CF₄ plasma treatment to the a-IGZO TFT, the hysteresis effect of the device has been improved and the device's immunity against moisture from the ambient atmosphere has been enhanced. It is believed that the CF₄ plasma treatment not only significantly improves the electrical performance of a-IGZO TFT with HfO₂ gate dielectric, but also enhances the device's reliability.

Photovoltaic Module Reliability Workshop 2010: February 18-19, 2010

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kurtz, J.

2013-11-01

NREL's Photovoltaic (PV) Module Reliability Workshop (PVMRW) brings together PV reliability experts to share information, leading to the improvement of PV module reliability. Such improvement reduces the cost of solar electricity and promotes investor confidence in the technology--both critical goals for moving PV technologies deeper into the electricity marketplace.

Photovoltaic Module Reliability Workshop 2011: February 16-17, 2011

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kurtz, S.

2013-11-01

NREL's Photovoltaic (PV) Module Reliability Workshop (PVMRW) brings together PV reliability experts to share information, leading to the improvement of PV module reliability. Such improvement reduces the cost of solar electricity and promotes investor confidence in the technology--both critical goals for moving PV technologies deeper into the electricity marketplace.

Photovoltaic Module Reliability Workshop 2013: February 26-27, 2013

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kurtz, S.

2013-10-01

NREL's Photovoltaic (PV) Module Reliability Workshop (PVMRW) brings together PV reliability experts to share information, leading to the improvement of PV module reliability. Such improvement reduces the cost of solar electricity and promotes investor confidence in the technology--both critical goals for moving PV technologies deeper into the electricity marketplace.

Photovoltaic Module Reliability Workshop 2014: February 25-26, 2014

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kurtz, S.

2014-02-01

NREL's Photovoltaic (PV) Module Reliability Workshop (PVMRW) brings together PV reliability experts to share information, leading to the improvement of PV module reliability. Such improvement reduces the cost of solar electricity and promotes investor confidence in the technology--both critical goals for moving PV technologies deeper into the electricity marketplace.

Sensitivity to changes during antidepressant treatment: a comparison of unidimensional subscales of the Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (IDS-C) and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) in patients with mild major, minor or subsyndromal depression.

Science.gov (United States)

Helmreich, Isabella; Wagner, Stefanie; Mergl, Roland; Allgaier, Antje-Kathrin; Hautzinger, Martin; Henkel, Verena; Hegerl, Ulrich; Tadić, André

2012-06-01

In the efficacy evaluation of antidepressant treatments, the total score of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) is still regarded as the 'gold standard'. We previously had shown that the Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (IDS) was more sensitive to detect depressive symptom changes than the HAMD17 (Helmreich et al. 2011). Furthermore, studies suggest that the unidimensional subscales of the HAMD, which capture the core depressive symptoms, outperform the full HAMD regarding the detection of antidepressant treatment effects. The aim of the present study was to compare several unidimensional subscales of the HAMD and the IDS regarding their sensitivity to changes in depression symptoms in a sample of patients with mild major, minor or subsyndromal depression (MIND). Biweekly IDS-C28 and HAMD17 data from 287 patients of a 10-week randomised, placebo-controlled trial comparing the effectiveness of sertraline and cognitive-behavioural group therapy in patients with MIND were converted to subscale scores and analysed during the antidepressant treatment course. We investigated sensitivity to depressive change for all scales from assessment-to-assessment, in relation to depression severity level and placebo-verum differences. The subscales performed similarly during the treatment course, with slight advantages for some subscales in detecting treatment effects depending on the treatment modality and on the items included. Most changes in depressive symptomatology were detected by the IDS short scale, but regarding the effect sizes, it performed worse than most subscales. Unidimensional subscales are a time- and cost-saving option in judging drug therapy outcomes, especially in antidepressant treatment efficacy studies. However, subscales do not cover all facets of depression (e.g. atypical symptoms, sleep disturbances), which might be important for comprehensively understanding the nature of the disease depression. Therefore, the cost-to-benefit ratio must be

Borderline personality disorder subscale (Chinese version) of the structured clinical interview for DSM-IV axis II personality disorders: a validation study in Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong Chinese.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, H M; Chow, L Y

2011-06-01

Borderline personality disorder is an important but under-recognised clinical entity, for which there are only a few available diagnostic instruments in the Chinese language. None has been tested for its psychometric properties in the Cantonese-speaking population in Hong Kong. The present study aimed to assess the validity of the Chinese version of the Borderline Personality Disorder subscale of the Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Axis II Personality Disorders (SCID-II) in Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong Chinese. A convenience sampling method was used. The subjects were seen by a multidisciplinary clinical team, who arrived at a best-estimate diagnosis and then by application of the SCID-II rater using the Chinese version of the Borderline Personality Disorder subscale. The study was carried out at the psychiatric clinic of the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong. A total of 87 patients of Chinese ethnicity aged 18 to 64 years who attended the clinic in April 2007 were recruited. The aforementioned patient parameters were used to examine the internal consistency, best-estimate clinical diagnosis-SCID diagnosis agreement, sensitivity, and specificity of the Chinese version of the subscale. The Borderline Personality Disorder subscale (Chinese version) of SCID-II had an internal consistency of 0.82 (Cronbach's alpha coefficient), best-estimate clinical diagnosis-SCID diagnosis agreement of 0.82 (kappa), sensitivity of 0.92, and specificity of 0.94. The Borderline Personality Disorder subscale (Chinese version) of the SCID-II rater had reasonable validity when applied to Cantonese-speaking Chinese subjects in Hong Kong.

Researching and improving the reliability of reactor protection system of Qinshan nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jiang Zuyue; Sheng Jiannan

1997-01-01

Due to the original design defects of the Reactor Protection System (RPS) of Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant, this system has brought about a number of reactor shutdown accidents and Engineered Safety Features (ESF) mis-activation events which have seriously endangered safe and steady operation of the nuclear power plant. So over three years have been spent on research on the reform of the original design on the premise that the general wiring of the system should remain the same and that the system size should also remain small to be contained in the original cabinets. The following improvements were made: (1) Increase the system's anti-disturbance capability. The system's zero volt bus floating designs were modified to surmount the disturbance resulting from the bad isolation performance of impedance-isolated amplifier; Double grounds have been added to logical modules to surmount the disturbance resulting from zero volt floating bus during the replacement of single module with two connectors; The opto-coupling circuit in its oscillation input stage of Engineered Safety Features have been improved to increase its reliability. (2)Modify to output activation part of the system. The new type of output relays were selected and the relay activation circuits were redesigned in which switcher activation mode is used instead of amplifier activation mode so as to increase the reliability of relay operation and reduce the power consumption; CMOS buffer gates in the input and output stage of the circuit were used to match TTL circuits to CMOS circuits of the system

Daily Readiness Huddles in Radiology-Improving Communication, Coordination, and Problem-Solving Reliability.

Science.gov (United States)

Donnelly, Lane F

Deploying an intentional daily management process is a key part to create high-reliability culture. Key components described in the literature for a successfully daily management process include leadership standard work, visual controls, daily accountability processes, and the discipline to stick to the process over the long term. We believe that the institution of a daily readiness huddle has helped us better coordinate and communicate as a department and improved our ability to deliver imaging services on a daily basis. The daily readiness huddle has enabled us to more rapidly identify issues and has brought accountability to seeing solutions to those issues brought to fruition. In addition, it has helped with team building, including between the radiologists and the nonphysician staff. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Reliability and validation of the Dutch Achilles tendon Total Rupture Score.

Science.gov (United States)

Opdam, K T M; Zwiers, R; Wiegerinck, J I; Kleipool, A E B; Haverlag, R; Goslings, J C; van Dijk, C N

2018-03-01

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) have become a cornerstone for the evaluation of the effectiveness of treatment. The Achilles tendon Total Rupture Score (ATRS) is a PROM for outcome and assessment of an Achilles tendon rupture. The aim of this study was to translate the ATRS to Dutch and evaluate its reliability and validity in the Dutch population. A forward-backward translation procedure was performed according to the guidelines of cross-cultural adaptation process. The Dutch ATRS was evaluated for reliability and validity in patients treated for a total Achilles tendon rupture from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2014 in one teaching hospital and one academic hospital. Reliability was assessed by the intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), Cronbach's alpha and minimal detectable change (MDC). We assessed construct validity by calculation of Spearman's rho correlation coefficient with domains of the Foot and Ankle Outcome Score (FAOS), Victorian Institute of Sports Assessment-Achilles questionnaire (VISA-A) and Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) for pain in rest and during running. The Dutch ATRS had a good test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.852) and a high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.96). MDC was 30.2 at individual level and 3.5 at group level. Construct validity was supported by 75 % of the hypothesized correlations. The Dutch ATRS had a strong correlation with NRS for pain during running (r = -0.746) and all the five subscales of the Dutch FAOS (r = 0.724-0.867). There was a moderate correlation with the VISA-A-NL (r = 0.691) and NRS for pain in rest (r = -0.580). The Dutch ATRS shows an adequate reliability and validity and can be used in the Dutch population for measuring the outcome of treatment of a total Achilles tendon rupture and for research purposes. Diagnostic study, Level I.

Reliability and validity of the Persian lower extremity functional scale (LEFS) in a heterogeneous sample of outpatients with lower limb musculoskeletal disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Negahban, Hossein; Hessam, Masumeh; Tabatabaei, Saeid; Salehi, Reza; Sohani, Soheil Mansour; Mehravar, Mohammad

2014-01-01

The aim was to culturally translate and validate the Persian lower extremity functional scale (LEFS) in a heterogeneous sample of outpatients with lower extremity musculoskeletal disorders (n = 304). This is a prospective methodological study. After a standard forward-backward translation, psychometric properties were assessed in terms of test-retest reliability, internal consistency, construct validity, dimensionality, and ceiling or floor effects. The acceptable level of intraclass correlation coefficient >0.70 and Cronbach's alpha coefficient >0.70 was obtained for the Persian LEFS. Correlations between Persian LEFS and Short-Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) subscales of Physical Health component (rs range = 0.38-0.78) were higher than correlations between Persian LEFS and SF-36 subscales of Mental Health component (rs range = 0.15-0.39). A corrected item--total correlation of >0.40 (Spearman's rho) was obtained for all items of the Persian LEFS. Horn's parallel analysis detected a total of two factors. No ceiling or floor effects were detected for the Persian LEFS. The Persian version of the LEFS is a reliable and valid instrument that can be used to measure functional status in Persian-speaking patients with different musculoskeletal disorders of the lower extremity. Implications for Rehabilitation The Persian lower extremity functional scale (LEFS) is a reliable, internally consistent and valid instrument, with no ceiling or floor effects, to determine functional status of heterogeneous patients with musculoskeletal disorders of the lower extremity. The Persian version of the LEFS can be used in clinical and research settings to measure function in Iranian patients with different musculoskeletal disorders of the lower extremity.

Quality of life in oncological patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia: validity and reliability of the Dutch version of the MD Anderson Dysphagia Inventory and the Deglutition Handicap Index.

Science.gov (United States)

Speyer, Renée; Heijnen, Bas J; Baijens, Laura W; Vrijenhoef, Femke H; Otters, Elsemieke F; Roodenburg, Nel; Bogaardt, Hans C

2011-12-01

Quality of life is an important outcome measurement in objectifying the current health status or therapy effects in patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia. In this study, the validity and reliability of the Dutch version of the Deglutition Handicap Index (DHI) and the MD Anderson Dysphagia Inventory (MDADI) have been determined for oncological patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia. At Maastricht University Medical Center, 76 consecutive patients were selected and asked to fill in three questionnaires on quality of life related to oropharyngeal dysphagia (the SWAL-QOL, the MDADI, and the DHI) as well as a simple one-item visual analog Dysphagia Severity Scale. None of the quality-of-life questionnaires showed any floor or ceiling effect. The test-retest reliability of the MDADI and the Dysphagia Severity Scale proved to be good. The test-retest reliability of the DHI could not be determined because of insufficient data, but the intraclass correlation coefficients were rather high. The internal consistency proved to be good. However, confirmatory factor analysis could not distinguish the underlying constructs as defined by the subscales per questionnaire. When assessing criterion validity, both the MDADI and the DHI showed satisfactory associations with the SWAL-QOL (reference or gold standard) after having removed the less relevant subscales of the SWAL-QOL. In conclusion, when assessing the validity and reliability of the Dutch version of the DHI or the MDADI, not all psychometric properties have been adequately met. In general, because of difficulties in the interpretation of study results when using questionnaires lacking sufficient psychometric quality, it is recommended that researchers strive to use questionnaires with the most optimal psychometric properties.

Does a web-based feedback training program result in improved reliability in clinicians' ratings of the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale?

Science.gov (United States)

Støre-Valen, Jakob; Ryum, Truls; Pedersen, Geir A F; Pripp, Are H; Jose, Paul E; Karterud, Sigmund

2015-09-01

The Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale is used in routine clinical practice and research to estimate symptom and functional severity and longitudinal change. Concerns about poor interrater reliability have been raised, and the present study evaluated the effect of a Web-based GAF training program designed to improve interrater reliability in routine clinical practice. Clinicians rated up to 20 vignettes online, and received deviation scores as immediate feedback (i.e., own scores compared with expert raters) after each rating. Growth curves of absolute SD scores across the vignettes were modeled. A linear mixed effects model, using the clinician's deviation scores from expert raters as the dependent variable, indicated an improvement in reliability during training. Moderation by content of scale (symptoms; functioning), scale range (average; extreme), previous experience with GAF rating, profession, and postgraduate training were assessed. Training reduced deviation scores for inexperienced GAF raters, for individuals in clinical professions other than nursing and medicine, and for individuals with no postgraduate specialization. In addition, training was most beneficial for cases with average severity of symptoms compared with cases with extreme severity. The results support the use of Web-based training with feedback routines as a means to improve the reliability of GAF ratings performed by clinicians in mental health practice. These results especially pertain to clinicians in mental health practice who do not have a masters or doctoral degree. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

Improving the reliability of peer-reviewed publications: We are all in it together

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephen A. Bustin

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The current, and welcome, focus on standardization of techniques and transparency of reporting in the biomedical, peer-reviewed literature is commendable. However, that focus has been intermittent as well as lacklustre and so failed to tackle the alarming lack of reliability and reproducibly of biomedical research. Authors have access to numerous recommendations, ranging from simple standards dealing with technical issues to those regulating clinical trials, suggesting that improved reporting guidelines are not the solution. The elemental solution is for editors to require meticulous implementation of their journals’ instructions for authors and reviewers and stipulate that no paper is published without a transparent, complete and accurate materials and methods section.

INPO's role in the improvement of nuclear plant safety and reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pate, Z.T.

1985-01-01

The Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) is a nonprofit, nongovernment corporation dedicated to promoting safe and reliable operation and quality construction of nuclear power plants. The institute is supported by the US nuclear utility industry. All US utilities building or operating nuclear power plants are INPO members. INPO's many activities fall within four major program areas: (1) Evaluations: INPO conducts detailed evaluations of all US operating plants, utility corporate support of nuclear programs, and nuclear projects under active construction. Events analysis and information exchange: INPO reviews plant reports of abnormal or unusual events and reports the lessons learned to the industry. INPO also fosters improved industry communications through a worldwide telecommunications network. (3) Training and accreditation: INPO assists utilities, including international participants, in developing quality training programs; and (4) Assistance: the Institute provides various forms of assistance to members and participants. INPO places emphasis on visits to facilities to aid members and participants in various program or operational areas

Advanced control systems to improve nuclear power plant reliability and efficiency

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1997-07-01

The TECDOC is the result of a series of an advisory and consultants meetings held by the IAEA in 1995-1996 in Vienna (March 1995), in Erlangen Germany (December 1995), in Garching, Germany (June 1996) and in Vienna (November 1996). It was prepared with the participation and contributions of experts from Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, the Republic of Korea, Norway, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The publication not only describes advanced control systems for the improvement of nuclear power plant reliability and efficiency, but also provides a road map to guide interested readers to plan and execute an advanced instrumentation and control project. The subjects include: identification of needs and requirements, justification for safety and user acceptance, and the development of an engineering process. The report should be of interest to nuclear power plant staff, I and C system designers and integrators as well as regulators and researchers. Refs, figs, tabs

Advanced control systems to improve nuclear power plant reliability and efficiency

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1997-07-01

The TECDOC is the result of a series of an advisory and consultants meetings held by the IAEA in 1995-1996 in Vienna (March 1995), in Erlangen Germany (December 1995), in Garching, Germany (June 1996) and in Vienna (November 1996). It was prepared with the participation and contributions of experts from Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, the Republic of Korea, Norway, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The publication not only describes advanced control systems for the improvement of nuclear power plant reliability and efficiency, but also provides a road map to guide interested readers to plan and execute an advanced instrumentation and control project. The subjects include: identification of needs and requirements, justification for safety and user acceptance, and the development of an engineering process. The report should be of interest to nuclear power plant staff, I and C system designers and integrators as well as regulators and researchers. Refs, figs, tabs.

Modeling high-Power Accelerators Reliability-SNS LINAC (SNS-ORNL); MAX LINAC (MYRRHA)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pitigoi, A. E.; Fernandez Ramos, P.

2013-01-01

Improving reliability has recently become a very important objective in the field of particle accelerators. The particle accelerators in operation are constantly undergoing modifications, and improvements are implemented using new technologies, more reliable components or redundant schemes (to obtain more reliability, strength, more power, etc.) A reliability model of SNS (Spallation Neutron Source) LINAC has been developed within MAX project and analysis of the accelerator systems reliability has been performed within the MAX project, using the Risk Spectrum reliability analysis software. The analysis results have been evaluated by comparison with the SNS operational data. Results and conclusions are presented in this paper, oriented to identify design weaknesses and provide recommendations for improving reliability of MYRRHA linear accelerator. The SNS reliability model developed for the MAX preliminary design phase indicates possible avenues for further investigation that could be needed to improve the reliability of the high-power accelerators, in view of the future reliability targets of ADS accelerators.

Reliability of Power Electronic Converter Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

-link capacitance in power electronic converter systems; wind turbine systems; smart control strategies for improved reliability of power electronics system; lifetime modelling; power module lifetime test and state monitoring; tools for performance and reliability analysis of power electronics systems; fault...... for advancing the reliability, availability, system robustness, and maintainability of PECS at different levels of complexity. Drawing on the experience of an international team of experts, this book explores the reliability of PECS covering topics including an introduction to reliability engineering in power...... electronic converter systems; anomaly detection and remaining-life prediction for power electronics; reliability of DC-link capacitors in power electronic converters; reliability of power electronics packaging; modeling for life-time prediction of power semiconductor modules; minimization of DC...

The Hispanic Stress Inventory Version 2: Improving the assessment of acculturation stress.

Science.gov (United States)

Cervantes, Richard C; Fisher, Dennis G; Padilla, Amado M; Napper, Lucy E

2016-05-01

This article reports on a 2-phase study to revise the Hispanic Stress Inventory (HSI; Cervantes, Padilla, & Salgado de Snyder, 1991). The necessity for a revised stress-assessment instrument was determined by demographic and political shifts affecting Latin American immigrants and later-generation Hispanics in the United States in the 2 decades since the development of the HSI. The data for the revision of the HSI (termed the HSI2) was collected at 4 sites: Los Angeles, El Paso, Miami, and Boston, and included 941 immigrants and 575 U.S.-born Hispanics and a diverse population of Hispanic subgroups. The immigrant version of the HSI2 includes 10 stress subscales, whereas the U.S.-born version includes 6 stress subscales. Both versions of the HSI2 are shown to possess satisfactory Cronbach's alpha reliabilities and demonstrate expert-based content validity, as well as concurrent validity when correlated with subscales of the Brief Symptom Inventory (Derogatis, 1993) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (Kroenke, Spitzer, & Williams, 2001). The new HSI2 instruments are recommended for use by clinicians and researchers interested in assessing psychosocial stress among diverse Hispanic populations of various ethnic subgroups, age groups, and geographic location. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Developing Reliable Life Support for Mars

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Harry W.

2017-01-01

A human mission to Mars will require highly reliable life support systems. Mars life support systems may recycle water and oxygen using systems similar to those on the International Space Station (ISS). However, achieving sufficient reliability is less difficult for ISS than it will be for Mars. If an ISS system has a serious failure, it is possible to provide spare parts, or directly supply water or oxygen, or if necessary bring the crew back to Earth. Life support for Mars must be designed, tested, and improved as needed to achieve high demonstrated reliability. A quantitative reliability goal should be established and used to guide development t. The designers should select reliable components and minimize interface and integration problems. In theory a system can achieve the component-limited reliability, but testing often reveal unexpected failures due to design mistakes or flawed components. Testing should extend long enough to detect any unexpected failure modes and to verify the expected reliability. Iterated redesign and retest may be required to achieve the reliability goal. If the reliability is less than required, it may be improved by providing spare components or redundant systems. The number of spares required to achieve a given reliability goal depends on the component failure rate. If the failure rate is under estimated, the number of spares will be insufficient and the system may fail. If the design is likely to have undiscovered design or component problems, it is advisable to use dissimilar redundancy, even though this multiplies the design and development cost. In the ideal case, a human tended closed system operational test should be conducted to gain confidence in operations, maintenance, and repair. The difficulty in achieving high reliability in unproven complex systems may require the use of simpler, more mature, intrinsically higher reliability systems. The limitations of budget, schedule, and technology may suggest accepting lower and

18 CFR 39.3 - Electric Reliability Organization certification.