validate treatment applications: Topics by WorldWideScience.org

Sample records for validate treatment applications

The Treatment Validity of Autism Screening Instruments

Science.gov (United States)

Livanis, Andrew; Mouzakitis, Angela

2010-01-01

Treatment validity is a frequently neglected topic of screening instruments used to identify autism spectrum disorders. Treatment validity, however, should represent an important aspect of these instruments to link the resulting data to the selection of interventions as well as make decisions about treatment length and intensity. Research…
Roll-up of validation results to a target application.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hills, Richard Guy

2013-09-01

Suites of experiments are preformed over a validation hierarchy to test computational simulation models for complex applications. Experiments within the hierarchy can be performed at different conditions and configurations than those for an intended application, with each experiment testing only part of the physics relevant for the application. The purpose of the present work is to develop methodology to roll-up validation results to an application, and to assess the impact the validation hierarchy design has on the roll-up results. The roll-up is accomplished through the development of a meta-model that relates validation measurements throughout a hierarchy to the desired response quantities for the target application. The meta-model is developed using the computation simulation models for the experiments and the application. The meta-model approach is applied to a series of example transport problems that represent complete and incomplete coverage of the physics of the target application by the validation experiments.
Validation of the Treatment Motivation Scales for forensic outpatient treatment (TMS-F)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Drieschner, Klaus H.; Boomsma, Anne

The validity of the Treatment Motivation Scales for outpatient offender treatment (TMS-F), a self-report questionnaire with scales for the motivation of patients to engage in the treatment and six cognitive and emotional determinants of this motivation, is evaluated in two studies. In Study 1 (N =
Validation Aspects of Water Treatment Systems for Pharmaceutical ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The goal of conducting validation is to demonstrate that a process, when operated within established limits, produces a product of consistent and specified quality with a high degree of assurance. Validation of water treatment systems is necessary to obtain water with all desired quality attributes. This also provides a ...
Assessing self-determined motivation for addiction treatment: validity of the Treatment Entry Questionnaire.

Science.gov (United States)

Urbanoski, Karen A; Wild, T Cameron

2012-07-01

Although legal, formal, and informal social controls are frequently used to pressure individuals to enter treatment, motivational consequences of using these tactics have been neglected. Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful perspective for understanding client experiences of social controls and highlights the importance of self-determined motivation for long-term behavior change. This study assessed the construct validity of the Treatment Entry Questionnaire (TEQ), a brief scale derived from SDT to measure identified, introjected, and external treatment motivation. Two independent samples of clients entering Canadian residential and outpatient treatment completed TEQ items (ns = 529 and 623). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a 9-item version of the scale, with 3 factors aligning with SDT motivational subtypes. Subscales showed high internal consistency and correlated as expected with social controls and perceived coercion at treatment entry. The TEQ-9 is a valid option for assessing self-determined motivation in clinical practice and evaluating coerced addiction treatment. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Accounting for treatment use when validating a prognostic model: a simulation study.

Science.gov (United States)

Pajouheshnia, Romin; Peelen, Linda M; Moons, Karel G M; Reitsma, Johannes B; Groenwold, Rolf H H

2017-07-14

Prognostic models often show poor performance when applied to independent validation data sets. We illustrate how treatment use in a validation set can affect measures of model performance and present the uses and limitations of available analytical methods to account for this using simulated data. We outline how the use of risk-lowering treatments in a validation set can lead to an apparent overestimation of risk by a prognostic model that was developed in a treatment-naïve cohort to make predictions of risk without treatment. Potential methods to correct for the effects of treatment use when testing or validating a prognostic model are discussed from a theoretical perspective.. Subsequently, we assess, in simulated data sets, the impact of excluding treated individuals and the use of inverse probability weighting (IPW) on the estimated model discrimination (c-index) and calibration (observed:expected ratio and calibration plots) in scenarios with different patterns and effects of treatment use. Ignoring the use of effective treatments in a validation data set leads to poorer model discrimination and calibration than would be observed in the untreated target population for the model. Excluding treated individuals provided correct estimates of model performance only when treatment was randomly allocated, although this reduced the precision of the estimates. IPW followed by exclusion of the treated individuals provided correct estimates of model performance in data sets where treatment use was either random or moderately associated with an individual's risk when the assumptions of IPW were met, but yielded incorrect estimates in the presence of non-positivity or an unobserved confounder. When validating a prognostic model developed to make predictions of risk without treatment, treatment use in the validation set can bias estimates of the performance of the model in future targeted individuals, and should not be ignored. When treatment use is random, treated
Accounting for treatment use when validating a prognostic model: a simulation study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Romin Pajouheshnia

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Prognostic models often show poor performance when applied to independent validation data sets. We illustrate how treatment use in a validation set can affect measures of model performance and present the uses and limitations of available analytical methods to account for this using simulated data. Methods We outline how the use of risk-lowering treatments in a validation set can lead to an apparent overestimation of risk by a prognostic model that was developed in a treatment-naïve cohort to make predictions of risk without treatment. Potential methods to correct for the effects of treatment use when testing or validating a prognostic model are discussed from a theoretical perspective.. Subsequently, we assess, in simulated data sets, the impact of excluding treated individuals and the use of inverse probability weighting (IPW on the estimated model discrimination (c-index and calibration (observed:expected ratio and calibration plots in scenarios with different patterns and effects of treatment use. Results Ignoring the use of effective treatments in a validation data set leads to poorer model discrimination and calibration than would be observed in the untreated target population for the model. Excluding treated individuals provided correct estimates of model performance only when treatment was randomly allocated, although this reduced the precision of the estimates. IPW followed by exclusion of the treated individuals provided correct estimates of model performance in data sets where treatment use was either random or moderately associated with an individual's risk when the assumptions of IPW were met, but yielded incorrect estimates in the presence of non-positivity or an unobserved confounder. Conclusions When validating a prognostic model developed to make predictions of risk without treatment, treatment use in the validation set can bias estimates of the performance of the model in future targeted individuals, and
Validation Techniques for Sensor Data in Mobile Health Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivan Miguel Pires

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Mobile applications have become a must in every user’s smart device, and many of these applications make use of the device sensors’ to achieve its goal. Nevertheless, it remains fairly unknown to the user to which extent the data the applications use can be relied upon and, therefore, to which extent the output of a given application is trustworthy or not. To help developers and researchers and to provide a common ground of data validation algorithms and techniques, this paper presents a review of the most commonly used data validation algorithms, along with its usage scenarios, and proposes a classification for these algorithms. This paper also discusses the process of achieving statistical significance and trust for the desired output.
Application of validity theory and methodology to patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs): building an argument for validity.

Science.gov (United States)

Hawkins, Melanie; Elsworth, Gerald R; Osborne, Richard H

2018-07-01

Data from subjective patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are now being used in the health sector to make or support decisions about individuals, groups and populations. Contemporary validity theorists define validity not as a statistical property of the test but as the extent to which empirical evidence supports the interpretation of test scores for an intended use. However, validity testing theory and methodology are rarely evident in the PROM validation literature. Application of this theory and methodology would provide structure for comprehensive validation planning to support improved PROM development and sound arguments for the validity of PROM score interpretation and use in each new context. This paper proposes the application of contemporary validity theory and methodology to PROM validity testing. The validity testing principles will be applied to a hypothetical case study with a focus on the interpretation and use of scores from a translated PROM that measures health literacy (the Health Literacy Questionnaire or HLQ). Although robust psychometric properties of a PROM are a pre-condition to its use, a PROM's validity lies in the sound argument that a network of empirical evidence supports the intended interpretation and use of PROM scores for decision making in a particular context. The health sector is yet to apply contemporary theory and methodology to PROM development and validation. The theoretical and methodological processes in this paper are offered as an advancement of the theory and practice of PROM validity testing in the health sector.
Assessing mental health clinicians' intentions to adopt evidence-based treatments: reliability and validity testing of the evidence-based treatment intentions scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Nathaniel J

2016-05-05

Intentions play a central role in numerous empirically supported theories of behavior and behavior change and have been identified as a potentially important antecedent to successful evidence-based treatment (EBT) implementation. Despite this, few measures of mental health clinicians' EBT intentions exist and available measures have not been subject to thorough psychometric evaluation or testing. This paper evaluates the psychometric properties of the evidence-based treatment intentions (EBTI) scale, a new measure of mental health clinicians' intentions to adopt EBTs. The study evaluates the reliability and validity of inferences made with the EBTI using multi-method, multi-informant criterion variables collected over 12 months from a sample of 197 mental health clinicians delivering services in 13 mental health agencies. Structural, predictive, and discriminant validity evidence is assessed. Findings support the EBTI's factor structure (χ (2) = 3.96, df = 5, p = .556) and internal consistency reliability (α = .80). Predictive validity evidence was provided by robust and significant associations between EBTI scores and clinicians' observer-reported attendance at a voluntary EBT workshop at a 1-month follow-up (OR = 1.92, p adoption at a 12-month follow-up (R (2) = .17, p adopt EBTs. Discussion focuses on research and practice applications.
Instrument validation system of general application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Filshtein, E.L.

1990-01-01

This paper describes the Instrument Validation System (IVS) as a software system which has the capability of evaluating the performance of a set of functionally related instrument channels to identify failed instruments and to quantify instrument drift. Under funding from Combustion Engineering (C-E), the IVS has been developed to the extent that a computer program exists whose use has been demonstrated. The initial development work shows promise for success and for wide application, not only to power plants, but also to industrial manufacturing and process control. Applications in the aerospace and military sector are also likely
Scoring and psychometric validation of the Perception of Anticoagulant Treatment Questionnaire (PACT-Q©

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Essers B

2009-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The 'Perception of Anti-Coagulant Treatment Questionnaire' (PACT-Q was developed to assess patients' expectations of, and satisfaction with their anticoagulant treatment. This questionnaire needs to be finalised and psychometrically validated. Methods The PACT-Q was included in the United States, the Netherlands and France into three phase III multinational clinical trials conducted to evaluate efficacy and safety of a new long-acting anticoagulant drug (idraparinux compared to vitamin K antagonist (VKA. PACT-Q was administered to patients with deep venous thrombosis (DVT, atrial fibrillation (AF or pulmonary embolism (PE at Day 1, to assess patients' expectations, and at 3 and 6 months to assess patients' satisfaction and treatment convenience and burden. The final structure of the PACT-Q (Principal Component Analysis – PCA – with Varimax Rotation was first determined and its psychometric properties were then measured with validity of the structure (Multitrait analysis, internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha coefficients and known-group validity. Results PCA and multitrait analyses showed the multidimensionality of the "Treatment Expectations" dimension, comprising 7 items that had to be scored independently. The "Convenience" and "Burden of Disease and Treatment" dimensions of the hypothesised original structure of the questionnaire were combined, thus resulting in 13 items grouped into the single dimension "Convenience". The "Anticoagulant Treatment Satisfaction" dimension remained unchanged and included 7 items. All items of the "Convenience" and "Anticoagulant Treatment Satisfaction" dimensions displayed good convergent and discriminant validity. The internal consistency reliability was good, with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.84 for the "Convenience" dimension, and 0.76 for the "Anticoagulant Treatment Satisfaction" dimension. Known-group validity was good, especially with regard to occurrence of
Verification, validation and application of NEPTUNE-CFD to two-phase Pressurized Thermal Shocks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mérigoux, N., E-mail: nicolas.merigoux@edf.fr [Electricité de France, R& D Division, 6 Quai Watier, 78401 Chatou (France); Laviéville, J.; Mimouni, S.; Guingo, M.; Baudry, C. [Electricité de France, R& D Division, 6 Quai Watier, 78401 Chatou (France); Bellet, S., E-mail: serge.bellet@edf.fr [Electricité de France, Thermal & Nuclear Studies and Projects Division, 12-14 Avenue Dutriévoz, 69628 Villeurbanne (France)

2017-02-15

Nuclear Power Plants are subjected to a variety of ageing mechanisms and, at the same time, exposed to potential Pressurized Thermal Shock (PTS) – characterized by a rapid cooling of the Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) wall. In this context, NEPTUNE-CFD is developed and used to model two-phase PTS in an industrial configuration, providing temperature and pressure fields required to assess the integrity of the RPV. Furthermore, when using CFD for nuclear safety demonstration purposes, EDF applies a methodology based on physical analysis, verification, validation and application to industrial scale (V&V), to demonstrate the quality of, and the confidence in results obtained. By following this methodology, each step must be proved to be consistent with the others, and with the final goal of the calculations. To this effect, a chart demonstrating how far the validation step of NEPTUNE-CFD is covering the PTS application will be drawn. A selection of the code verification and validation cases against different experiments will be described. For results consistency, a single and mature set of models – resulting from the knowledge acquired during the code development over the last decade – has been used. From these development and validation feedbacks, a methodology has been set up to perform industrial computations. Finally, the guidelines of this methodology based on NEPTUNE-CFD and SYRTHES coupling – to take into account the conjugate heat transfer between liquid and solid – will be presented. A short overview of the engineering approach will be given – starting from the meshing process, up to the results post-treatment and analysis.
Validation plays the role of a "bridge" in connecting remote sensing research and applications

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Zhiqiang; Deng, Ying; Fan, Yida

2018-07-01

Remote sensing products contribute to improving earth observations over space and time. Uncertainties exist in products of different levels; thus, validation of these products before and during their applications is critical. This study discusses the meaning of validation in depth and proposes a new definition of reliability for use with such products. In this context, validation should include three aspects: a description of the relevant uncertainties, quantitative measurement results and a qualitative judgment that considers the needs of users. A literature overview is then presented evidencing improvements in the concepts associated with validation. It shows that the root mean squared error (RMSE) is widely used to express accuracy; increasing numbers of remote sensing products have been validated; research institutes contribute most validation efforts; and sufficient validation studies encourage the application of remote sensing products. Validation plays a connecting role in the distribution and application of remote sensing products. Validation connects simple remote sensing subjects with other disciplines, and it connects primary research with practical applications. Based on the above findings, it is suggested that validation efforts that include wider cooperation among research institutes and full consideration of the needs of users should be promoted.
Validation of nuclear models used in space radiation shielding applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Norman, Ryan B.; Blattnig, Steve R.

2013-01-01

A program of verification and validation has been undertaken to assess the applicability of models to space radiation shielding applications and to track progress as these models are developed over time. In this work, simple validation metrics applicable to testing both model accuracy and consistency with experimental data are developed. The developed metrics treat experimental measurement uncertainty as an interval and are therefore applicable to cases in which epistemic uncertainty dominates the experimental data. To demonstrate the applicability of the metrics, nuclear physics models used by NASA for space radiation shielding applications are compared to an experimental database consisting of over 3600 experimental cross sections. A cumulative uncertainty metric is applied to the question of overall model accuracy, while a metric based on the median uncertainty is used to analyze the models from the perspective of model development by examining subsets of the model parameter space.
Identification of validated questionnaires to measure adherence to pharmacological antihypertensive treatments

Science.gov (United States)

Pérez-Escamilla, Beatriz; Franco-Trigo, Lucía; Moullin, Joanna C; Martínez-Martínez, Fernando; García-Corpas, José P

2015-01-01

Background Low adherence to pharmacological treatments is one of the factors associated with poor blood pressure control. Questionnaires are an indirect measurement method that is both economic and easy to use. However, questionnaires should meet specific criteria, to minimize error and ensure reproducibility of results. Numerous studies have been conducted to design questionnaires that quantify adherence to pharmacological antihypertensive treatments. Nevertheless, it is unknown whether questionnaires fulfil the minimum requirements of validity and reliability. The aim of this study was to compile validated questionnaires measuring adherence to pharmacological antihypertensive treatments that had at least one measure of validity and one measure of reliability. Methods A literature search was undertaken in PubMed, the Excerpta Medica Database (EMBASE), and the Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature database (Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde [LILACS]). References from included articles were hand-searched. The included papers were all that were published in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish from the beginning of the database’s indexing until July 8, 2013, where a validation of a questionnaire (at least one demonstration of the validity and at least one of reliability) was performed to measure adherence to antihypertensive pharmacological treatments. Results A total of 234 potential papers were identified in the electronic database search; of these, 12 met the eligibility criteria. Within these 12 papers, six questionnaires were validated: the Morisky–Green–Levine; Brief Medication Questionnaire; Hill-Bone Compliance to High Blood Pressure Therapy Scale; Morisky Medication Adherence Scale; Treatment Adherence Questionnaire for Patients with Hypertension (TAQPH); and Martín–Bayarre–Grau. Questionnaire length ranged from four to 28 items. Internal consistency, assessed by Cronbach’s α, varied from 0
Validation of an UHPLC-MS/MS Method for Screening of Antimicrobial Residues in Eggs and Their Application to Analyses of Eggs from Laying Hens Subjected to Pharmacological Treatment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Letícia Gomes Magnago Caldeira

2017-01-01

Full Text Available A multiresidue method by UHPLC/MS-MS was optimized and validated for the screening and semiquantitative detection of antimicrobials residues from tetracyclines, aminoglycosides, quinolones, lincosamides, β-lactams, sulfonamides, and macrolides families in eggs. A qualitative approach was used to ensure adequate sensitivity to detect residues at the level of interest, defined as maximum residue limit (MRL, or less. The applicability of the methods was assessed by analyzing egg samples from hens that had been subjected to pharmacological treatment with neomycin, enrofloxacin, lincomycin, oxytetracycline, and doxycycline during five days and after discontinuation of medication (10 days. The method was adequate for screening all studied analytes in eggs, since the performance parameters ensured a false-compliant rate below or equal to 5%, except for flumequine. In the analyses of eggs from laying hens subjected to pharmacological treatment, all antimicrobial residues were detected throughout the experimental period, even after discontinuation of medication, except for neomycin, demonstrating the applicability of the method for analyses of antimicrobial residues in eggs.
Validation of the Implementation Leadership Scale (ILS) in Substance use Disorder Treatment Organizations.

Science.gov (United States)

Aarons, Gregory A; Ehrhart, Mark G; Torres, Elisa M; Finn, Natalie K; Roesch, Scott C

2016-09-01

There have been recent calls for pragmatic measures to assess factors that influence evidence-based practice (EBP) implementation processes and outcomes. The Implementation Leadership Scale (ILS) is a brief and efficient measure that can be used for research or organizational development purposes to assess leader behaviors and actions that actively support effective EBP implementation. The ILS was developed and validated in mental health settings. This study validates the ILS factor structure with providers in alcohol and other drug (AOD) use treatment agencies. Participants were 323 service providers working in 72 workgroups from three AOD use treatment agencies. Confirmatory factor analyses and reliability analyses were conducted to examine the psychometric properties of the ILS. Convergent and discriminant validity were also assessed. Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated good fit to the hypothesized first and second order factor structure. Internal consistency reliability was excellent. Convergent and discriminant validity was supported. The ILS psychometric characteristics, reliability, and validity were supported in AOD use treatment agencies. The ILS is a brief and pragmatic measure that can be used for research and practice to assess leadership for EBP implementation in AOD use treatment agencies. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Validation of the Implementation Leadership Scale (ILS) in Substance Use Disorder Treatment Organizations

Science.gov (United States)

Ehrhart, Mark G.; Torres, Elisa M.; Finn, Natalie K.; Roesch, Scott C.

2016-01-01

There have been recent calls for pragmatic measures to assess factors that influence evidence-based practice (EBP) implementation processes and outcomes. The Implementation Leadership Scale (ILS) is a brief and efficient measure that can be used for research or organizational development purposes to assess leader behaviors and actions that actively support effective EBP implementation. The ILS was developed and validated in mental health settings. This study validates the ILS factor structure with providers in alcohol and other drug (AOD) use treatment agencies. Participants were 323 service providers working in 72 workgroups from three AOD use treatment agencies. Confirmatory factor analyses and reliability analyses were conducted to examine the psychometric properties of the ILS. Convergent and discriminant validity were also assessed. Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated good fit to the hypothesized first and second order factor structure. Internal consistency reliability was excellent. Convergent and discriminant validity was supported. The ILS psychometric characteristics, reliability, and validity were supported in AOD use treatment agencies. The ILS is a brief and pragmatic measure that can be used for research and practice to assess leadership for EBP implementation in AOD use treatment agencies. PMID:27431044
Dependability validation by means of fault injection: method, implementation, application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arlat, Jean

1990-01-01

This dissertation presents theoretical and practical results concerning the use of fault injection as a means for testing fault tolerance in the framework of the experimental dependability validation of computer systems. The dissertation first presents the state-of-the-art of published work on fault injection, encompassing both hardware (fault simulation, physical fault Injection) and software (mutation testing) issues. Next, the major attributes of fault injection (faults and their activation, experimental readouts and measures, are characterized taking into account: i) the abstraction levels used to represent the system during the various phases of its development (analytical, empirical and physical models), and Il) the validation objectives (verification and evaluation). An evaluation method is subsequently proposed that combines the analytical modeling approaches (Monte Carlo Simulations, closed-form expressions. Markov chains) used for the representation of the fault occurrence process and the experimental fault Injection approaches (fault Simulation and physical injection); characterizing the error processing and fault treatment provided by the fault tolerance mechanisms. An experimental tool - MESSALINE - is then defined and presented. This tool enables physical faults to be Injected In an hardware and software prototype of the system to be validated. Finally, the application of MESSALINE for testing two fault-tolerant systems possessing very dissimilar features and the utilization of the experimental results obtained - both as design feedbacks and for dependability measures evaluation - are used to illustrate the relevance of the method. (author) [fr

Identification of validated questionnaires to measure adherence to pharmacological antihypertensive treatments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pérez-Escamilla B

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Beatriz Pérez-Escamilla,1 Lucía Franco-Trigo,1 Joanna C Moullin,2 Fernando Martínez-Martínez,1 José P García-Corpas1 1Academic Centre in Pharmaceutical Care, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Granada, Granada, Spain; 2Graduate School of Health, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia Background: Low adherence to pharmacological treatments is one of the factors associated with poor blood pressure control. Questionnaires are an indirect measurement method that is both economic and easy to use. However, questionnaires should meet specific criteria, to minimize error and ensure reproducibility of results. Numerous studies have been conducted to design questionnaires that quantify adherence to pharmacological antihypertensive treatments. Nevertheless, it is unknown whether questionnaires fulfil the minimum requirements of validity and reliability. The aim of this study was to compile validated questionnaires measuring adherence to pharmacological antihypertensive treatments that had at least one measure of validity and one measure of reliability. Methods: A literature search was undertaken in PubMed, the Excerpta Medica Database (EMBASE, and the Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature database (Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde [LILACS]. References from included articles were hand-searched. The included papers were all that were published in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish from the beginning of the database’s indexing until July 8, 2013, where a validation of a questionnaire (at least one demonstration of the validity and at least one of reliability was performed to measure adherence to antihypertensive pharmacological treatments. Results: A total of 234 potential papers were identified in the electronic database search; of these, 12 met the eligibility criteria. Within these 12 papers, six questionnaires were validated: the Morisky�
Preliminary data on validity of the Drug Addiction Treatment Efficacy Questionnaire.

Science.gov (United States)

Kastelic, Andrej; Mlakar, Janez; Pregelj, Peter

2013-09-01

This study describes the validation process for the Slovenian version of the Drug Addiction Treatment Efficacy Questionnaire (DATEQ). DATEQ was constructed from the questionnaires used at the Centre for the Treatment of Drug Addiction, Ljubljana University Psychiatric Hospital, and within the network of Centres for the Prevention and Treatment of Drug Addiction in Slovenia during the past 14 years. The Slovenian version of the DATEQ was translated to English using the 'forward-backward' procedure by its authors and their co-workers. The validation process included 100 male and female patients with established addiction to illicit drugs who had been prescribed opioid substitution therapy. The DATEQ questionnaire was used in the study, together with clinical evaluation to measure psychological state and to evaluate the efficacy of treatment in the last year. To determinate the validity of DATEQ the correlation with the clinical assessments of the outcome was calculated using one-way ANOVA. The F value was 44.4, p<0.001 (sum of squares: between groups 210.4, df=2, within groups 229.7, df=97, total 440.1, df=99). At the cut-off 4 the sensitivity is 81% and specificity 83%. The validation process for the Slovenian DATEQ version shows metric properties similar to those found in international studies of similar questionnaires, suggesting that it measures the same constructs, in the same way and as similar questionnaires. However, the relatively low sensitivity and specificity suggests caution when using DATEQ as the only measure of outcome.
Validation of Internet Application: Study, Analysis and Evaluation

OpenAIRE

Dinesh Kumar

2012-01-01

Today, testing applications for Internet (web sites and other applications) is being verified using proprietary test solutions. The Internet Security became a very important and complex field of researches in our present time, especially if we apply this to the discussion of Internet protocols as basic interfaces for exchanging sensitive data over the Internet and finding appropriate and trustworthy algorithms for their validation. Test Competence Centre at Ericsson AB has expertise on tes...
Statistical Validation of a Web-Based GIS Application and Its Applicability to Cardiovascular-Related Studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Jae Eun; Sung, Jung Hye; Malouhi, Mohamad

2015-12-22

There is abundant evidence that neighborhood characteristics are significantly linked to the health of the inhabitants of a given space within a given time frame. This study is to statistically validate a web-based GIS application designed to support cardiovascular-related research developed by the NIH funded Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) Translational Research Network (RTRN) Data Coordinating Center (DCC) and discuss its applicability to cardiovascular studies. Geo-referencing, geocoding and geospatial analyses were conducted for 500 randomly selected home addresses in a U.S. southeastern Metropolitan area. The correlation coefficient, factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha (α) were estimated to quantify measures of the internal consistency, reliability and construct/criterion/discriminant validity of the cardiovascular-related geospatial variables (walk score, number of hospitals, fast food restaurants, parks and sidewalks). Cronbach's α for CVD GEOSPATIAL variables was 95.5%, implying successful internal consistency. Walk scores were significantly correlated with number of hospitals (r = 0.715; p restaurants (r = 0.729; p application were internally consistent and demonstrated satisfactory validity. Therefore, the GIS application may be useful to apply to cardiovascular-related studies aimed to investigate potential impact of geospatial factors on diseases and/or the long-term effect of clinical trials.
77 FR 25469 - Applications for New Awards; Investing in Innovation Fund, Validation

Science.gov (United States)

2012-04-30

... DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Applications for New Awards; Investing in Innovation Fund, Validation Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 84.411B (Validation grants). AGENCY: Office of... fiscal year 2012 for the Investing in Innovation (i3) Validation grant competition (March 27 i3...
Expert system verification and validation for nuclear power industry applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Naser, J.A.

1990-01-01

The potential for the use of expert systems in the nuclear power industry is widely recognized. The benefits of such systems include consistency of reasoning during off-normal situations when humans are under great stress, the reduction of times required to perform certain functions, the prevention of equipment failures through predictive diagnostics, and the retention of human expertise in performing specialized functions. The increased use of expert systems brings with it concerns about their reliability. Difficulties arising from software problems can affect plant safety, reliability, and availability. A joint project between EPRI and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is being initiated to develop a methodology for verification and validation of expert systems for nuclear power applications. This methodology will be tested on existing and developing expert systems. This effort will explore the applicability of conventional verification and validation methodologies to expert systems. The major area of concern will be certification of the knowledge base. This is expected to require new types of verification and validation techniques. A methodology for developing validation scenarios will also be studied
Validation of a HT-PEMFC stack for CHP applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pasupathi, S.; Ulleberg, Oe. [Western Cape Univ. (South Africa). HySA Systems, SAIAMC; Bujlo, P. [Western Cape Univ. (South Africa). HySA Systems, SAIAMC; Electrotechnical Institute Wroclaw Division (Poland); Scholta, J. [Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research (ZSW) (Germany)

2010-07-01

Fuel cell systems are very attractive for stationary co-generation applications as they can produce heat and electricity efficiently in a decentralized and environmentally friendly manner. PEMFC stacks operating at temperatures above 120 C, specifically in the range of 140-180 C, are ideal for co-generation purposes. In this study, preliminary results from a HTPEMFC stack designed for CHP applications is presented and discussed. A short, five-cell, HT-PEMFC stack was assembled with Celtec- P-2100 MEAs and validated in terms of electrical performance. The stack was operated with hydrogen and air at 160 C and the utilization curves for anode and cathode were recorded for a wide range of gas utilization at a current density of 0.52 A/cm{sup 2}. The current voltage characteristic was measured at optimal utilization values at 160 C. A 1kW stack is assembled and is currently being validated for its performance under various operating conditions for use in CHP applications. (orig.)
Content validation of the dimensions constituting non-adherence to treatment of arterial hypertension

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jose Wicto Pereira Borges

2013-10-01

Full Text Available The objective of the study was to validate the content of the dimensions that constituted nonadherence to treatment of arterial systemic hypertension. It was a methodological study of content validation. Initially an integrative review was conducted that demonstrated four dimensions of nonadherence: person, disease/treatment, health service, and environment. Definitions of these dimensions were evaluated by 17 professionals, who were specialists in the area, including: nurses, pharmacists and physicians. The Content Validity Index was calculated for each dimension (IVCi and the set of the dimensions (IVCt, and the binomial test was conducted. The results permitted the validation of the dimensions with an IVCt of 0.88, demonstrating reasonable systematic comprehension of the phenomena of nonadherence.
Standards and guidelines applicable for the validation of programmable automation systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haapanen, P.; Maskuniitty, M.

1993-02-01

The validation of programmable automation system for an application important to safety in a nuclear power plant requires a comprehensive view about the system quality and reliability. One central point is to get assured that proper international guidelines and standards have been followed in the design, construction and maintenance of the system. The study was directed to locate international standards and guidelines which can support the validation of programmable systems and to evaluate their applicability for the validation of systems on different levels of requirement during their life cycle. The publication reviews the most important international standards (IAEA, ISO, IEC, IEEE) and their basic principles both for system and application program. Several nuclear standards, which have drawn the main attention, and some general programmable automation standards have been examined. In addition one practical automation system has been examined in order to find essential questions. Based on these studies a set of important items for the qualification have been identified
Applications of NTCP calculations to treatment planning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kutcher, G.J.

1995-01-01

A fundamental step in the treatment decision process is the evaluation of a treatment plan. Most often treatment plans are judged by tradition using guidelines like target homogeneity and maximum dose to non-target tissues. While such judgments implicitly assume a relationship between dose distribution parameters and patient response, the judgment process is essentially supported by clinical outcomes from previous treatments. With the development of conformal therapy, new and unusual dose distributions and escalated doses are possible, while the clinical consequences are unknown. this situation has instigated attempts to place plan evaluation on a more systematic platform. One such endeavor has centered around attempts to calculate normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) and its sibling, tumor control probability (TCP). This lecture will be composed of two parts. The first will begin with a review of two categories of NTCP models: (1) an 'empirical' approach, based upon a power-law relationship between partial organ tolerance and irradiated volume, and histogram reduction to account for inhomogeneous irradiation: (2) a 'statistical' approach in which local responses are combined according to the underlying tissue architecture. Since both rely upon clinical data - often of limited and questionable validity - we will review some examples from the clinical and biological literature. The second part of the lecture will review clinical applications of biological-index based models: ranking competing treatment plans; design of dose escalation protocols; optimization of treatment plans with intensity modulation. We will also demonstrate how biological indices can be used to derive dose-volume histograms which account for treatment uncertainty
Reliability, validity and treatment sensitivity of the Schizophrenia Cognition Rating Scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Keefe, Richard S E; Davis, Vicki G; Spagnola, Nathan B; Hilt, Dana; Dgetluck, Nancy; Ruse, Stacy; Patterson, Thomas D; Narasimhan, Meera; Harvey, Philip D

2015-02-01

Cognitive functioning can be assessed with performance-based assessments such as neuropsychological tests and with interview-based assessments. Both assessment methods have the potential to assess whether treatments for schizophrenia improve clinically relevant aspects of cognitive impairment. However, little is known about the reliability, validity and treatment responsiveness of interview-based measures, especially in the context of clinical trials. Data from two studies were utilized to assess these features of the Schizophrenia Cognition Rating Scale (SCoRS). One of the studies was a validation study involving 79 patients with schizophrenia assessed at 3 academic research centers in the US. The other study was a 32-site clinical trial conducted in the US and Europe comparing the effects of encenicline, an alpha-7 nicotine agonist, to placebo in 319 patients with schizophrenia. The SCoRS interviewer ratings demonstrated excellent test-retest reliability in several different circumstances, including those that did not involve treatment (ICC> 0.90), and during treatment (ICC>0.80). SCoRS interviewer ratings were related to cognitive performance as measured by the MCCB (r=-0.35), and demonstrated significant sensitivity to treatment with encenicline compared to placebo (Pcognition in schizophrenia, and may be useful for clinical practice. The weaknesses of the SCoRS include its reliance on informant information, which is not available for some patients, and reduced validity when patient's self-report is the sole information source. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.
Rater reliability and construct validity of a mobile application for posture analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Szucs, Kimberly A; Brown, Elena V Donoso

2018-01-01

[Purpose] Measurement of posture is important for those with a clinical diagnosis as well as researchers aiming to understand the impact of faulty postures on the development of musculoskeletal disorders. A reliable, cost-effective and low tech posture measure may be beneficial for research and clinical applications. The purpose of this study was to determine rater reliability and construct validity of a posture screening mobile application in healthy young adults. [Subjects and Methods] Pictures of subjects were taken in three standing positions. Two raters independently digitized the static standing posture image twice. The app calculated posture variables, including sagittal and coronal plane translations and angulations. Intra- and inter-rater reliability were calculated using the appropriate ICC models for complete agreement. Construct validity was determined through comparison of known groups using repeated measures ANOVA. [Results] Intra-rater reliability ranged from 0.71 to 0.99. Inter-rater reliability was good to excellent for all translations. ICCs were stronger for translations versus angulations. The construct validity analysis found that the app was able to detect the change in the four variables selected. [Conclusion] The posture mobile application has demonstrated strong rater reliability and preliminary evidence of construct validity. This application may have utility in clinical and research settings.
Validation of SCALE-4 for burnup credit applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bowman, S.M.; DeHart, M.D.; Parks, C.V.

1995-01-01

In the past, a criticality analysis of PWR fuel stored in racks and casks has assumed that the fuel is fresh with the maximum allowable initial enrichment. If credit is allowed for fuel burnup in the design of casks that are used in the transport of spent light water reactor fuel to a repository, the increase in payload can lead to a significant reduction in the cost of transport and a potential reduction in the risk to the public. A portion of the work has been performed at ORNL in support of the US DOE efforts to demonstrate a validation approach for criticality safety methods to be used in burnup credit cask design. To date, the SCALE code system developed at ORNL has been the primary computational tool used by DOE to investigate technical issues related to burnup credit. The ANSI/ANS-8.1 criticality safety standard requires validation and benchmarking of the calculational methods used in evaluating criticality safety limits for applications outside reactors by correlation against critical experiments that are applicable. Numerous critical experiments for fresh PWR-type fuel in storage and transport configurations exist and can be used as part of a validation database. However, there are no critical experiments with burned PWR-type fuel in storage and transport configurations. As an alternative, commercial reactors offer an excellent source of measured critical configurations. The results reported demonstrate the ability of the ORNL SCALE-4 methodology to predict a value of k eff very close to the known value of 1.0, both for fresh fuel criticals and for the more complex reactor criticals. Beyond these results, additional work in the determination of biases and uncertainties is necessary prior to use in burnup credit applications
Validation and application of a physics database for fast reactor fuel cycle analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McKnight, R.D.; Stillman, J.A.; Toppel, B.J.; Khalil, H.S.

1994-01-01

An effort has been made to automate the execution of fast reactor fuel cycle analysis, using EBR-II as a demonstration vehicle, and to validate the analysis results for application to the IFR closed fuel cycle demonstration at EBR-II and its fuel cycle facility. This effort has included: (1) the application of the standard ANL depletion codes to perform core-follow analyses for an extensive series of EBR-II runs, (2) incorporation of the EBR-II data into a physics database, (3) development and verification of software to update, maintain and verify the database files, (4) development and validation of fuel cycle models and methodology, (5) development and verification of software which utilizes this physics database to automate the application of the ANL depletion codes, methods and models to perform the core-follow analysis, and (6) validation studies of the ANL depletion codes and of their application in support of anticipated near-term operations in EBR-II and the Fuel Cycle Facility. Results of the validation tests indicate the physics database and associated analysis codes and procedures are adequate to predict required quantities in support of early phases of FCF operations
Methodologies for pre-validation of biofilters and wetlands for stormwater treatment.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kefeng Zhang

Full Text Available Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD systems are frequently used as part of a stormwater harvesting treatment trains (e.g. biofilters (bio-retentions and rain-gardens and wetlands. However, validation frameworks for such systems do not exist, limiting their adoption for end-uses such as drinking water. The first stage in the validation framework is pre-validation, which prepares information for further validation monitoring.A pre-validation roadmap, consisting of five steps, is suggested in this paper. Detailed methods for investigating target micropollutants in stormwater, and determining challenge conditions for biofilters and wetlands, are provided.A literature review was undertaken to identify and quantify micropollutants in stormwater. MUSIC V5.1 was utilized to simulate the behaviour of the systems based on 30-year rainfall data in three distinct climate zones; outputs were evaluated to identify the threshold of operational variables, including length of dry periods (LDPs and volume of water treated per event.The paper highlights that a number of micropollutants were found in stormwater at levels above various worldwide drinking water guidelines (eight pesticides, benzene, benzo(apyrene, pentachlorophenol, di-(2-ethylhexyl-phthalate and a total of polychlorinated biphenyls. The 95th percentile LDPs was exponentially related to system design area while the 5th percentile length of dry periods remained within short durations (i.e. 2-8 hours. 95th percentile volume of water treated per event was exponentially related to system design area as a percentage of an impervious catchment area.The out-comings of this study show that pre-validation could be completed through a roadmap consisting of a series of steps; this will help in the validation of stormwater treatment systems.
Automated reasoning applications to design validation and sneak function analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stratton, R.C.

1984-01-01

Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) is actively involved in the LMFBR Man-Machine Integration (MMI) Safety Program. The objective of this program is to enhance the operational safety and reliability of fast-breeder reactors by optimum integration of men and machines through the application of human factors principles and control engineering to the design, operation, and the control environment. ANL is developing methods to apply automated reasoning and computerization in the validation and sneak function analysis process. This project provides the element definitions and relations necessary for an automated reasoner (AR) to reason about design validation and sneak function analysis. This project also provides a demonstration of this AR application on an Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) system, the Argonne Cooling System
Development and validation of the Treatment Related Impact Measure of Weight (TRIM-Weight

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lessard Suzanne

2010-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The use of prescription anti-obesity medication (AOM is becoming increasingly common as treatment options grow and become more accessible. However, AOM may not be without a wide range of potentially negative impacts on patient functioning and well being. The Treatment Related Impact Measure (TRIM-Weight is an obesity treatment-specific patient reported outcomes (PRO measure designed to assess the key impacts of prescription anti-obesity medication. This paper will present the validation findings for the TRIM-Weight. Methods The online validation battery survey was administered in four countries (the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Canada. Eligible subjects were over age eighteen, currently taking a prescription AOM and were currently or had been obese during their life. Validation analyses were conducted according to an a priori statistical analysis plan. Item level psychometric and conceptual criteria were used to refine and reduce the preliminary item pool and factor analysis to identify structural domains was performed. Reliability and validity testing was then performed and the minimally importance difference (MID explored. Results Two hundred and eight subjects completed the survey. Twenty-one of the 43 items were dropped and a five-factor structure was achieved: Daily Life, Weight Management, Treatment Burden, Experience of Side Effects, and Psychological Health. A-priori criteria for internal consistency and test-retest coefficients for the total score and all five subscales were met. All pre-specified hypotheses for convergent and known group validity were also met with the exception of the domain of Daily Life (proven in an ad hoc analysis as well as the 1/2 standard deviation threshold for the MID. Conclusion The development and validation of the TRIM-Weight has been conducted according to well-defined principles for the creation of a PRO measure. Based on the evidence to date, the TRIM-Weight can be considered a brief
[Spanish validation of the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Treatment interview to assess patients competence to consent treatment].

Science.gov (United States)

Alvarez Marrodán, Ignacio; Baón Pérez, Beatriz; Navío Acosta, Mercedes; López-Antón, Raul; Lobo Escolar, Elena; Ventura Faci, Tirso

2014-09-09

To validate the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Treatment (MacCAT-T) Spanish version, which assesses the mental capacity of patients to consent treatment, by examining 4 areas (Understanding, Appreciation, Reasoning and Expressing a choice). 160 subjects (80 Internal Medicine inpatients, 40 Psychiatric inpatients and 40 healthy controls). MacCAT-T, Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE). Feasibility study, reliability and validity calculations (against to gold standard of clinical expert). Mean duration of the MacCAT-T interview was 18min. Inter-rater reliability: Intraclass correlation coefficient for Understanding=0.98, Appreciation=0.97, Reasoning=0.98, Expressing a choice=0.91. Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha): Understanding=0.87, for Appreciation=0.76, for Reasoning=0.86. Patients considered to be incapable (gold standard) scored lower in all the MacCAT-T areas. Poor performance on the MacCAT-T was related to cognitive impairment assessed by MMSE. Spanish version of the MacCAT-T is feasible, reliable, and valid for assessing the capacity of patients to consent treatment. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved.
Statistical Validation of a Web-Based GIS Application and Its Applicability to Cardiovascular-Related Studies

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Jae Eun Lee

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Purpose: There is abundant evidence that neighborhood characteristics are significantly linked to the health of the inhabitants of a given space within a given time frame. This study is to statistically validate a web-based GIS application designed to support cardiovascular-related research developed by the NIH funded Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI Translational Research Network (RTRN Data Coordinating Center (DCC and discuss its applicability to cardiovascular studies. Methods: Geo-referencing, geocoding and geospatial analyses were conducted for 500 randomly selected home addresses in a U.S. southeastern Metropolitan area. The correlation coefficient, factor analysis and Cronbach’s alpha (α were estimated to quantify measures of the internal consistency, reliability and construct/criterion/discriminant validity of the cardiovascular-related geospatial variables (walk score, number of hospitals, fast food restaurants, parks and sidewalks. Results: Cronbach’s α for CVD GEOSPATIAL variables was 95.5%, implying successful internal consistency. Walk scores were significantly correlated with number of hospitals (r = 0.715; p < 0.0001, fast food restaurants (r = 0.729; p < 0.0001, parks (r = 0.773; p < 0.0001 and sidewalks (r = 0.648; p < 0.0001 within a mile from homes. It was also significantly associated with diversity index (r = 0.138, p = 0.0023, median household incomes (r = −0.181; p < 0.0001, and owner occupied rates (r = −0.440; p < 0.0001. However, its non-significant correlation was found with median age, vulnerability, unemployment rate, labor force, and population growth rate. Conclusion: Our data demonstrates that geospatial data generated by the web-based application were internally consistent and demonstrated satisfactory validity. Therefore, the GIS application may be useful to apply to cardiovascular-related studies aimed to investigate potential impact of geospatial factors on diseases and/or the long
Validating the Patient Experience with Treatment and Self-Management (PETS), a patient-reported measure of treatment burden, in people with diabetes.

Science.gov (United States)

Rogers, Elizabeth A; Yost, Kathleen J; Rosedahl, Jordan K; Linzer, Mark; Boehm, Deborah H; Thakur, Azra; Poplau, Sara; Anderson, Roger T; Eton, David T

2017-01-01

To validate a comprehensive general measure of treatment burden, the Patient Experience with Treatment and Self-Management (PETS), in people with diabetes. We conducted a secondary analysis of a cross-sectional survey study with 120 people diagnosed with type 1 or type 2 diabetes and at least one additional chronic illness. Surveys included established patient-reported outcome measures and a 48-item version of the PETS, a new measure comprised of multi-item scales assessing the burden of chronic illness treatment and self-care as it relates to nine domains: medical information, medications, medical appointments, monitoring health, interpersonal challenges, health care expenses, difficulty with health care services, role activity limitations, and physical/mental exhaustion from self-management. Internal reliability of PETS scales was determined using Cronbach's alpha. Construct validity was determined through correlation of PETS scores with established measures (measures of chronic condition distress, medication satisfaction, self-efficacy, and global well-being), and known-groups validity through comparisons of PETS scores across clinically distinct groups. In an exploratory test of predictive validity, step-wise regressions were used to determine which PETS scales were most associated with outcomes of chronic condition distress, overall physical and mental health, and medication adherence. Respondents were 37-88 years old, 59% female, 29% non-white, and 67% college-educated. PETS scales showed good reliability (Cronbach's alphas ≥0.74). Higher PETS scale scores (greater treatment burden) were correlated with more chronic condition distress, less medication convenience, lower self-efficacy, and worse general physical and mental health. Participants less (versus more) adherent to medications and those with more (versus fewer) health care financial difficulties had higher mean PETS scores. Medication burden was the scale that was most consistently associated with

Perceptually Valid Facial Expressions for Character-Based Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali Arya

2009-01-01

Full Text Available This paper addresses the problem of creating facial expression of mixed emotions in a perceptually valid way. The research has been done in the context of a “game-like” health and education applications aimed at studying social competency and facial expression awareness in autistic children as well as native language learning, but the results can be applied to many other applications such as games with need for dynamic facial expressions or tools for automating the creation of facial animations. Most existing methods for creating facial expressions of mixed emotions use operations like averaging to create the combined effect of two universal emotions. Such methods may be mathematically justifiable but are not necessarily valid from a perceptual point of view. The research reported here starts by user experiments aiming at understanding how people combine facial actions to express mixed emotions, and how the viewers perceive a set of facial actions in terms of underlying emotions. Using the results of these experiments and a three-dimensional emotion model, we associate facial actions to dimensions and regions in the emotion space, and create a facial expression based on the location of the mixed emotion in the three-dimensional space. We call these regionalized facial actions “facial expression units.”
Development and validation of a smartphone heart rate acquisition application for health promotion and wellness telehealth applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Gregoski, Mathew J; Mueller, Martina; Vertegel, Alexey; Shaporev, Aleksey; Jackson, Brenda B; Frenzel, Ronja M; Sprehn, Sara M; Treiber, Frank A

2012-01-01

Objective. Current generation smartphones' video camera technologies enable photoplethysmographic (PPG) acquisition and heart rate (HR) measurement. The study objective was to develop an Android application and compare HRs derived from a Motorola Droid to electrocardiograph (ECG) and Nonin 9560BT pulse oximeter readings during various movement-free tasks. Materials and Methods. HRs were collected simultaneously from 14 subjects, ages 20 to 58, healthy or with clinical conditions, using the 3 devices during 5-minute periods while at rest, reading aloud under observation, and playing a video game. Correlation between the 3 devices was determined, and Bland-Altman plots for all possible pairs of devices across all conditions assessed agreement. Results. Across conditions, all device pairs showed high correlations. Bland-Altman plots further revealed the Droid as a valid measure for HR acquisition. Across all conditions, the Droid compared to ECG, 95% of the data points (differences between devices) fell within the limits of agreement. Conclusion. The Android application provides valid HRs at varying levels of movement free mental/perceptual motor exertion. Lack of electrode patches or wireless sensor telemetric straps make it advantageous for use in mobile-cell-phone-delivered health promotion and wellness programs. Further validation is needed to determine its applicability while engaging in physical movement-related activities.
Development and Validation of a Smartphone Heart Rate Acquisition Application for Health Promotion and Wellness Telehealth Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mathew J. Gregoski

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Objective. Current generation smartphones' video camera technologies enable photoplethysmographic (PPG acquisition and heart rate (HR measurement. The study objective was to develop an Android application and compare HRs derived from a Motorola Droid to electrocardiograph (ECG and Nonin 9560BT pulse oximeter readings during various movement-free tasks. Materials and Methods. HRs were collected simultaneously from 14 subjects, ages 20 to 58, healthy or with clinical conditions, using the 3 devices during 5-minute periods while at rest, reading aloud under observation, and playing a video game. Correlation between the 3 devices was determined, and Bland-Altman plots for all possible pairs of devices across all conditions assessed agreement. Results. Across conditions, all device pairs showed high correlations. Bland-Altman plots further revealed the Droid as a valid measure for HR acquisition. Across all conditions, the Droid compared to ECG, 95% of the data points (differences between devices fell within the limits of agreement. Conclusion. The Android application provides valid HRs at varying levels of movement free mental/perceptual motor exertion. Lack of electrode patches or wireless sensor telemetric straps make it advantageous for use in mobile-cell-phone-delivered health promotion and wellness programs. Further validation is needed to determine its applicability while engaging in physical movement-related activities.
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
The application of self-validation to wireless sensor networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Collett, Michael A; Cox, Maurice G; Esward, Trevor J; Harris, Peter M; Duta, Mihaela; Henry, Manus P

2008-01-01

Self-validation is a valuable tool for extending the operating range of sensing systems and making them more robust. Wireless sensor networks suffer many limitations meaning that their efficacy could be greatly improved by self-validation techniques. We present two independently developed data analysis techniques and demonstrate that they can be applied to a wireless sensor network. Using an acoustic ranging application we demonstrate an improvement of more than ten-fold in the uncertainty of a single measurement where multiple sensor readings are appropriately combined. We also demonstrate that of the two methods for determining a largest consistent subset one is more rigorous in dealing with correlation, and the other more suited to time-series data
Development and validation of an algorithm for laser application in wound treatment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diequison Rite da Cunha

2017-12-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Objective: To develop and validate an algorithm for laser wound therapy. Method: Methodological study and literature review. For the development of the algorithm, a review was performed in the Health Sciences databases of the past ten years. The algorithm evaluation was performed by 24 participants, nurses, physiotherapists, and physicians. For data analysis, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and the chi-square test for independence was used. The level of significance of the statistical test was established at 5% (p<0.05. Results: The professionals’ responses regarding the facility to read the algorithm indicated: 41.70%, great; 41.70%, good; 16.70%, regular. With regard the algorithm being sufficient for supporting decisions related to wound evaluation and wound cleaning, 87.5% said yes to both questions. Regarding the participants’ opinion that the algorithm contained enough information to support their decision regarding the choice of laser parameters, 91.7% said yes. The questionnaire presented reliability using the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient test (α = 0.962. Conclusion: The developed and validated algorithm showed reliability for evaluation, wound cleaning, and use of laser therapy in wounds.
The significance of motivation in periodontal treatment: validity and reliability of the motivation assessment scale among patients undergoing periodontal treatment.

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Pac, A; Oruba, Z; Olszewska-Czyż, I; Chomyszyn-Gajewska, M

2014-03-01

The individual evaluation of patients' motivation should be introduced to the protocol of periodontal treatment, as it could impact positively on effective treatment planning and treatment outcomes. However, a standardised tool measuring the extent of periodontal patients' motivation has not yet been proposed in the literature. Thus, the objective of the present study was to determine the validity and reliability of the Zychlińscy motivation scale adjusted to the needs of periodontology. Cross sectional study. Department of Periodontology and Oral Medicine, Dental University Clinic, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland. 199 adult periodontal patients, aged 20-78. 14-item questionnaire. The items were adopted from the original Zychlińscy motivation assessment scale. Validity and reliability of the proposed motivation assessment instrument. The assessed Cronbach's alpha of 0.79 indicates the scale is a reliable tool. Principal component analysis revealed a model with three factors, which explained half of the total variance. Those factors represented: the patient's attitude towards treatment and oral hygiene practice; previous experiences during treatment; and the influence of external conditions on the patient's attitude towards treatment. The proposed scale proved to be a reliable and accurate tool for the evaluation of periodontal patients' motivation.
Validating data quality during wet weather monitoring of wastewater treatment plant influents

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Alferes, Janelcy; Lynggaard-Jensen, Anders; Munk-Nielsen, Thomas

Efficient monitoring of water systems and proper use of the collected data in further applications such as modelling, forecasting influent water quality and real-time control depends on careful data quality control. Given the size of the data sets produced nowadays in online water quality...... monitoring schemes, automated data validation is the only feasible option. In this paper, software tools for automatic data quality assessment with a practical orientation are presented. The developments from three organizations ranging from simple to more complex methods for automated data validation...
DBS-LC-MS/MS assay for caffeine: validation and neonatal application.

Science.gov (United States)

Bruschettini, Matteo; Barco, Sebastiano; Romantsik, Olga; Risso, Francesco; Gennai, Iulian; Chinea, Benito; Ramenghi, Luca A; Tripodi, Gino; Cangemi, Giuliana

2016-09-01

DBS might be an appropriate microsampling technique for therapeutic drug monitoring of caffeine in infants. Nevertheless, its application presents several issues that still limit its use. This paper describes a validated DBS-LC-MS/MS method for caffeine. The results of the method validation showed an hematocrit dependence. In the analysis of 96 paired plasma and DBS clinical samples, caffeine levels measured in DBS were statistically significantly lower than in plasma but the observed differences were independent from hematocrit. These results clearly showed the need for extensive validation with real-life samples for DBS-based methods. DBS-LC-MS/MS can be considered to be a good alternative to traditional methods for therapeutic drug monitoring or PK studies in preterm infants.
Applications of autoassociative neural networks for signal validation in accident management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fantoni, P.; Mazzola, A.

1994-01-01

The OECD Halden Reactor Project has been working for several years with computer based systems for determination on plant status including early fault detection and signal validation. The method here presented explores the possibility to use a neural network approach to validate important process signals during normal and abnormal plant conditions. In BWR plants, signal validation has two important applications: reliable thermal limits calculation and reliable inputs to other computerized systems that support the operator during accident scenarious. This work shows how a properly trained autoassociative neural network can promptly detect faulty process signal measurements and produce a best estimate of the actual process value. Noise has been artificially added to the input to evaluate the network ability to respond in a very low signal to noise ratio environment. Training and test datasets have been simulated by the real time transient simulator code APROS. Future development addresses the validation of the model through the use of real data from the plant. (author). 5 refs, 17 figs
Grid workflow validation using ontology-based tacit knowledge: A case study for quantitative remote sensing applications

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Liu, Jia; Liu, Longli; Xue, Yong; Dong, Jing; Hu, Yingcui; Hill, Richard; Guang, Jie; Li, Chi

2017-01-01

Workflow for remote sensing quantitative retrieval is the ;bridge; between Grid services and Grid-enabled application of remote sensing quantitative retrieval. Workflow averts low-level implementation details of the Grid and hence enables users to focus on higher levels of application. The workflow for remote sensing quantitative retrieval plays an important role in remote sensing Grid and Cloud computing services, which can support the modelling, construction and implementation of large-scale complicated applications of remote sensing science. The validation of workflow is important in order to support the large-scale sophisticated scientific computation processes with enhanced performance and to minimize potential waste of time and resources. To research the semantic correctness of user-defined workflows, in this paper, we propose a workflow validation method based on tacit knowledge research in the remote sensing domain. We first discuss the remote sensing model and metadata. Through detailed analysis, we then discuss the method of extracting the domain tacit knowledge and expressing the knowledge with ontology. Additionally, we construct the domain ontology with Protégé. Through our experimental study, we verify the validity of this method in two ways, namely data source consistency error validation and parameters matching error validation.
Evidence-based cross validation for acoustic power transmission for a novel treatment system.

Science.gov (United States)

Mihcin, Senay; Strehlow, Jan; Demedts, Daniel; Schwenke, Michael; Levy, Yoav; Melzer, Andreas

2017-06-01

The novel Trans-Fusimo Treatment System (TTS) is designed to control Magnetic Resonance guided Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS) therapy to ablate liver tumours under respiratory motion. It is crucial to deliver the acoustic power within tolerance limits for effective liver tumour treatment via MRgFUS. Before application in a clinical setting, evidence of reproducibility and reliability is a must for safe practice. The TTS software delivers the acoustic power via ExAblate-2100 Conformal Bone System (CBS) transducer. A built-in quality assurance application was developed to measure the force values, using a novel protocol to measure the efficiency for the electrical power values of 100 and 150W for 6s of sonication. This procedure was repeated 30 times by two independent users against the clinically approved ExAblate-2100 CBS for cross-validation. Both systems proved to deliver the power within the accepted efficiency levels (70-90%). Two sample t-tests were used to assess the differences in force values between the ExAblate-2100 CBS and the TTS (p > 0.05). Bland-Altman plots were used to demonstrate the limits of agreement between the two systems falling within the 10% limits of agreement. Two sample t-tests indicated that TTS does not have user dependency (p > 0.05). The TTS software proved to deliver the acoustic power without exceeding the safety levels. Results provide evidence as a part of ISO13485 regulations for CE marking purposes. The developed methodology could be utilised as a part of quality assurance system in clinical settings; when the TTS is used in clinical practice.
Application of parameters space analysis tools for empirical model validation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Paloma del Barrio, E. [LEPT-ENSAM UMR 8508, Talence (France); Guyon, G. [Electricite de France, Moret-sur-Loing (France)

2004-01-01

A new methodology for empirical model validation has been proposed in the framework of the Task 22 (Building Energy Analysis Tools) of the International Energy Agency. It involves two main steps: checking model validity and diagnosis. Both steps, as well as the underlying methods, have been presented in the first part of the paper. In this part, they are applied for testing modelling hypothesis in the framework of the thermal analysis of an actual building. Sensitivity analysis tools have been first used to identify the parts of the model that can be really tested on the available data. A preliminary diagnosis is then supplied by principal components analysis. Useful information for model behaviour improvement has been finally obtained by optimisation techniques. This example of application shows how model parameters space analysis is a powerful tool for empirical validation. In particular, diagnosis possibilities are largely increased in comparison with residuals analysis techniques. (author)
Validation of an Arabic version of the Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire in Qatar.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilbur, Kerry; Al Hammaq, Abdulla O

2016-03-01

Several instruments evaluate patient-reported outcomes in diabetes mellitus (DM), but almost none are validated for use in Arabic language. The aim of this study is to test the psychometric properties and responsiveness of the Arabic version of the Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire (DTSQs) in Qatar. Ambulatory Arabic speaking DM patients were interviewed at two consecutive time points in Doha, Qatar. The 8-item DTSQs was administered in conjunction with the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Measure (WHOQOL-Bref) to assess convergent validity. Reliability was evaluated by internal consistency and item analysis. Construct validity was evaluated using "known groups" comparisons (including gender, insulin use, and HbA1c). Sensitivity of DTSQs scores to the subject's metabolic conditions was determined. One hundred subjects (mean age 50.7) participated. Half (54%) were female. The majority (93%) had Type 2 DM, but 39 (42%) were using insulin. Results revealed satisfactory internal consistency. Metabolic measures (fasting blood glucose and AIC) had significant inverse correlations with DTSQs scores (interview 1, Pearson's r=-0.333 and r=-0.401, respectively, pQatar Arabic DTSQs version was found to be a reliable and valid instrument for the assessment of treatment satisfaction in Arabic diabetes mellitus patients in the country. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
Statistical validation of normal tissue complication probability models.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Cheng-Jian; van der Schaaf, Arjen; Van't Veld, Aart A; Langendijk, Johannes A; Schilstra, Cornelis

2012-09-01

To investigate the applicability and value of double cross-validation and permutation tests as established statistical approaches in the validation of normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) models. A penalized regression method, LASSO (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator), was used to build NTCP models for xerostomia after radiation therapy treatment of head-and-neck cancer. Model assessment was based on the likelihood function and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. Repeated double cross-validation showed the uncertainty and instability of the NTCP models and indicated that the statistical significance of model performance can be obtained by permutation testing. Repeated double cross-validation and permutation tests are recommended to validate NTCP models before clinical use. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Statistical Validation of Normal Tissue Complication Probability Models

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Xu Chengjian, E-mail: c.j.xu@umcg.nl [Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen (Netherlands); Schaaf, Arjen van der; Veld, Aart A. van' t; Langendijk, Johannes A. [Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen (Netherlands); Schilstra, Cornelis [Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen (Netherlands); Radiotherapy Institute Friesland, Leeuwarden (Netherlands)

2012-09-01

Purpose: To investigate the applicability and value of double cross-validation and permutation tests as established statistical approaches in the validation of normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) models. Methods and Materials: A penalized regression method, LASSO (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator), was used to build NTCP models for xerostomia after radiation therapy treatment of head-and-neck cancer. Model assessment was based on the likelihood function and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. Results: Repeated double cross-validation showed the uncertainty and instability of the NTCP models and indicated that the statistical significance of model performance can be obtained by permutation testing. Conclusion: Repeated double cross-validation and permutation tests are recommended to validate NTCP models before clinical use.
Adherence to treatment for diabetes mellitus: validation of instruments for oral antidiabetics and insulin.

Science.gov (United States)

Boas, Lilian Cristiane Gomes-Villas; Lima, Maria Luisa Soares Almeida Pedroso de; Pace, Ana Emilia

2014-01-01

to verify the face validity, criterion-related validity and the reliability of two distinct forms of presentation of the instrument Measurement of Adherence to Treatment, one being for ascertaining the adherence to the use of oral antidiabetics and the other for adherence to the use of insulin, as well as to assess differences in adherence between these two modes of drug therapy. a methodological study undertaken with 90 adults with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. The criterion-related validity was verified using the Receiver Operating Characteristic curves; and for the reliability, the researchers calculated the Cronbach alpha coefficient, the item-total correlation, and the Pearson correlation coefficient. the oral antidiabetics and the other showed sensitivity of 0.84, specificity of 0.35 and a Cronbach correlation coefficient of 0.84. For the adherence to the use of insulin, the values found were, respectively, 0.60, 0.21 and 0.68. A statistically significant difference was found between the final scores of the two forms of the instrument, indicating greater adherence to the use of insulin than to oral antidiabetics. it is concluded that the two forms of the Measurement of Adherence to Treatment instrument are reliable and should be used to evaluate adherence to drug treatment among people with diabetes mellitus.
Validation of MCNP and WIMS-AECL/DRAGON/RFSP for ACR-1000 applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bromley, Blair P.; Adams, Fred P.; Zeller, Michael B.; Watts, David G.; Shukhman, Boris V.; Pencer, Jeremy

2008-01-01

This paper gives a summary of the validation of the reactor physics codes WIMS-AECL, DRAGON, RFSP and MCNP5, which are being used in the design, operation, and safety analysis of the ACR-1000 R . The standards and guidelines being followed for code validation of the suite are established in CSA Standard N286.7-99 and ANS Standard ANS-19.3-2005. These codes are being validated for the calculation of key output parameters associated with various reactor physics phenomena of importance during normal operations and postulated accident conditions in an ACR-1000 reactor. Experimental data from a variety of sources are being used for validation. The bulk of the validation data is from critical experiments in the ZED-2 research reactor with ACR-type lattices. To supplement and complement ZED-2 data, qualified and applicable data are being taken from other power and research reactors, such as existing CANDU R units, FUGEN, NRU and SPERT research reactors, and the DCA critical facility. MCNP simulations of the ACR-1000 are also being used for validating WIMS-AECL/ DRAGON/RFSP, which involves extending the validation results for MCNP through the assistance of TSUNAMI analyses. Code validation against commissioning data in the first-build ACR-1000 will be confirmatory. The code validation is establishing the biases and uncertainties in the calculations of the WIMS-AECL/DRAGON/RFSP suite for the evaluation of various key parameters of importance in the reactor physics analysis of the ACR-1000. (authors)
Reliability and Validity of a Treatment Barriers Scale for Individuals With Alcohol Use Disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Possemato, Kyle; Funderburk, Jennifer; Spinola, Suzanne; Hutchison, Dezarie; Maisto, Stephen A; Lantinga, Larry J; Oslin, David W

2016-01-01

Few studies have measured addiction-specific barriers to treatment. A measurement of barriers with psychometric support that has been tested in diverse samples and that assesses multiple components of addiction treatment barriers is needed to inform providers and treatment programs. This paper aims to provide an initial psychometric investigation of a measure of barriers to seeking addictions treatment. Data were collected from 196 Veterans Affairs primary care patients with Alcohol Use Disorder that participated in a randomized clinical trial. A Principal Components Analysis revealed that the 32-item Treatment Barriers Scale (TBS) can be reduced to 14 items, measuring 4 factors: stigma, dislike of the treatment process, alcohol problem identification, and logistical concerns. Acceptable internal consistent reliability (α = .64-.76) and excellent precision of alpha (α = 0.001-0.009) was found for each subscale. Support for the measure's concurrent validity was found, for example, participants who reported more motivation to reduce their drinking perceived significantly fewer barriers to care. Support for the measure's predictive validity was also found, including that more barriers were related to future drinking among all participants and less mental health and addictions treatment visits among participants in one treatment condition. Conclusions/ Importance: Our results provide initial support for the utility of the TBS-14 among primary care patients with Alcohol Use Disorder. Use of the TBS-14 could enable healthcare providers to better understand patient-specific treatment barriers, provide corrective information on treatment misconceptions, and inform individualized treatment plans that increase patient engagement in addiction services.
Validating the Patient Experience with Treatment and Self-Management (PETS, a patient-reported measure of treatment burden, in people with diabetes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rogers EA

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Elizabeth A Rogers,1,2 Kathleen J Yost,3 Jordan K Rosedahl,3 Mark Linzer,4 Deborah H Boehm,5 Azra Thakur,5 Sara Poplau,5 Roger T Anderson,6 David T Eton3 1Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, USA; 2Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, USA; 3Department of Health Services Research, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA; 4Department of Medicine, Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA; 5Minneapolis Medical Research Foundation, Minneapolis, MN, USA; 6University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, USA Aims: To validate a comprehensive general measure of treatment burden, the Patient Experience with Treatment and Self-Management (PETS, in people with diabetes. Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of a cross-sectional survey study with 120 people diagnosed with type 1 or type 2 diabetes and at least one additional chronic illness. Surveys included established patient-reported outcome measures and a 48-item version of the PETS, a new measure comprised of multi-item scales assessing the burden of chronic illness treatment and self-care as it relates to nine domains: medical information, medications, medical appointments, monitoring health, interpersonal challenges, health care expenses, difficulty with health care services, role activity limitations, and physical/mental exhaustion from self-management. Internal reliability of PETS scales was determined using Cronbach’s alpha. Construct validity was determined through correlation of PETS scores with established measures (measures of chronic condition distress, medication satisfaction, self-efficacy, and global well-being, and known-groups validity through comparisons of PETS scores across clinically distinct groups. In an exploratory test of predictive validity, step-wise regressions were used to determine which PETS scales were most associated with outcomes of chronic condition

Validation of recent Geant4 physics models for application in carbon ion therapy

CERN Document Server

Lechner, A; Ivanchenko, V N

2010-01-01

Cancer treatment with energetic carbon ions has distinct advantages over proton or photon irradiation. In this paper we present a simulation model integrated into the Geant4 Monte Carlo toolkit (version 9.3) which enables the use of ICRU 73 stopping powers for ion transport calculations. For a few materials, revised ICRU 73 stopping power tables recently published by ICRU (P. Sigmund, A. Schinner, H. Paul, Errata and Addenda: ICRU Report 73 (Stopping of Ions Heavier than Helium), International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements, 2009) were incorporated into Geant4, also covering media like water which are of importance in radiotherapeutical applications. We examine, with particular attention paid to the recent developments, the accuracy of current Geant4 models for simulating Bragg peak profiles of C-12 ions incident on water and polyethylene targets. Simulated dose distributions are validated against experimental data available in the literature, where the focus is on beam energies relevant to io...
Use of CT scans and treatment planning software for validation of the dose component of food irradiation protocols

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Borsa, Joseph; Chu, Rod; Sun Jiansheng; Linton, Nick; Hunter, Craig

2002-01-01

The challenging problem of estimating the dose delivered to heterogeneous products by radiation modalities of limited penetration can be readily handled by using technologies developed for, and widely used in, radiation therapy applications. In particular, combining CT scanning with radiation treatment planning programs can simulate radiation processing with either photons or electrons, and can provide detailed, high resolution and accurate dose maps for any arbitrary product and package configuration. Such dose maps are an essential part of process validation. Comparison of the simulated dose distributions with measured dose maps verifies the soundness of this approach. The present communication presents results obtained with the simulation technique for a variety of common food items which are likely candidates for radiation processing
Development, validation, and administration of a treatment-satisfaction questionnaire for caregivers of dependent type 2 diabetic patients.

Science.gov (United States)

García-Aparicio, Judit; Herrero-Herrero, José-Ignacio

2015-01-01

Satisfaction with treatment is considered a relevant factor for assessing results in clinical practice. However, when assessing satisfaction in dependent patients, the opinion of their caregivers becomes crucial, since implicit in satisfaction is the degree of caregiver involvement, of adherence to treatment, and lastly of better care of these patients. The purpose of this study was to develop, validate, and administer two versions of a specific questionnaire to assess satisfaction with blood glucose-lowering treatment in caregivers of dependent type 2 diabetic patients. This was an observational, descriptive, epidemiological study conducted in the Los Montalvos Internal Medicine Department at the University Hospital of Salamanca (Spain). Two versions of the questionnaire to assess caregivers' satisfaction with current treatment and after introducing changes in therapy were created and validated according to model procedures. Once validated, the questionnaires were implemented in 219 cases. Cronbach's α-coefficient, correlation between all the items, intraclass correlation coefficient, and correlation between the obtained scores and satisfaction with blood glucose levels all satisfied the standard for validation. Significant levels of correlation were observed between the degree of satisfaction and the number of daily administrations of the blood glucose-lowering medication (Spearman's r=-0.21, Ppatients receiving more frequent administration of their antidiabetic medication prior to the change were more satisfied with the change (r=0.24, Psatisfaction (r=-0.43, Psatisfaction was validated. When applied to our cohort of cases, the obtained data suggest that simplicity in antidiabetic therapy should be considered in the management of dependent type 2 diabetic patients when caregivers' satisfaction is an additional objective.
Validation of treatment escalation as a definition of atopic eczema flares.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kim S Thomas

Full Text Available Atopic eczema (AE is a chronic disease with flares and remissions. Long-term control of AE flares has been identified as a core outcome domain for AE trials. However, it is unclear how flares should be defined and measured.To validate two concepts of AE flares based on daily reports of topical medication use: (i escalation of treatment and (ii days of topical anti-inflammatory medication use (topical corticosteroids and/or calcineurin inhibitors.Data from two published AE studies (studies A (n=336 and B (n=60 were analysed separately. Validity and feasibility of flare definitions were assessed using daily global bother (scale 0 to 10 as the reference standard. Intra-class correlations were reported for continuous variables, and odds ratios and area under the receiver operator characteristic (ROC curve for binary outcome measures.Good agreement was found between both AE flare definitions and change in global bother: area under the ROC curve for treatment escalation of 0.70 and 0.73 in studies A and B respectively, and area under the ROC curve of 0.69 for topical anti-inflammatory medication use (Study A only. Significant positive relationships were found between validated severity scales (POEM, SASSAD, TIS and the duration of AE flares occurring in the previous week - POEM and SASSAD rose by half a point for each unit increase in number of days in flare. Smaller increases were observed on the TIS scale. Completeness of daily diaries was 95% for Study A and 60% for Study B over 16 weeks.Both definitions were good proxy indicators of AE flares. We found no evidence that 'escalation of treatment' was a better measure of AE flares than 'use of topical anti-inflammatory medications'. Capturing disease flares in AE trials through daily recording of medication use is feasible and appears to be a good indicator of long-term control.Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN71423189 (Study A.
Development and validation of the Patient Experience with Treatment and Self-management (PETS): a patient-reported measure of treatment burden.

Science.gov (United States)

Eton, David T; Yost, Kathleen J; Lai, Jin-Shei; Ridgeway, Jennifer L; Egginton, Jason S; Rosedahl, Jordan K; Linzer, Mark; Boehm, Deborah H; Thakur, Azra; Poplau, Sara; Odell, Laura; Montori, Victor M; May, Carl R; Anderson, Roger T

2017-02-01

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a new comprehensive patient-reported measure of treatment burden-the Patient Experience with Treatment and Self-management (PETS). A conceptual framework was used to derive the PETS with items reviewed and cognitively tested with patients. A survey battery, including a pilot version of the PETS, was mailed to 838 multi-morbid patients from two healthcare institutions for validation. A total of 332 multi-morbid patients returned completed surveys. Diagnostics supported deletion and consolidation of some items and domains. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a domain model for scaling comprised of 9 factors: medical information, medications, medical appointments, monitoring health, interpersonal challenges, medical/healthcare expenses, difficulty with healthcare services, role/social activity limitations, and physical/mental exhaustion. Scales showed good internal consistency (α range 0.79-0.95). Higher PETS scores, indicative of greater treatment burden, were correlated with more distress, less satisfaction with medications, lower self-efficacy, worse physical and mental health, and lower convenience of healthcare (Ps health literacy, less adherence to medications, and more financial difficulties reported higher PETS scores (Ps < 0.01). A comprehensive patient-reported measure of treatment burden can help to better characterize the impact of treatment and self-management burden on patient well-being and guide care toward minimally disruptive medicine.
Validation and application of the system code ATHLET-CD for BWR severe accident analyses

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Di Marcello, Valentino, E-mail: valentino.marcello@kit.edu; Imke, Uwe; Sanchez, Victor

2016-10-15

Highlights: • We present the application of the system code ATHLET-CD code for BWR safety analyses. • Validation of core in-vessel models is performed based on KIT CORA experiments. • A SB-LOCA scenario is simulated on a generic German BWR plant up to vessel failure. • Different core reflooding possibilities are investigated to mitigate the accident consequences. • ATHLET-CD modelling features reflect the current state of the art of severe accident codes. - Abstract: This paper is aimed at the validation and application of the system code ATHLET-CD for the simulation of severe accident phenomena in Boiling Water Reactors (BWR). The corresponding models for core degradation behaviour e.g., oxidation, melting and relocation of core structural components are validated against experimental data available from the CORA-16 and -17 bundle tests. Model weaknesses are discussed along with needs for further code improvements. With the validated ATHLET-CD code, calculations are performed to assess the code capabilities for the prediction of in-vessel late phase core behaviour and reflooding of damaged fuel rods. For this purpose, a small break LOCA scenario for a generic German BWR with postulated multiple failures of the safety systems was selected. In the analysis, accident management measures represented by cold water injection into the damaged reactor core are addressed to investigate the efficacy in avoiding or delaying the failure of the reactor pressure vessel. Results show that ATHLET-CD is applicable to the description of BWR plant behaviour with reliable physical models and numerical methods adopted for the description of key in-vessel phenomena.
Assessing the application and downstream effects of pulsed mode ultrasound as a pre-treatment for alum coagulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Juboori, Raed A; Aravinthan, Vasantha; Yusaf, Talal; Bowtell, Leslie

2016-07-01

The application of pulsed mode ultrasound (PMU) as a pre-treatment for alum coagulation was investigated at various alum dosages and pH levels. The effects of the treatments on turbidity and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) removal and residual Al were evaluated. Response surface methodology (RSM) was utilized to optimize the operating conditions of the applied treatments. The results showed that PMU pre-treatment increased turbidity and DOC removal percentages from maximum of 96.6% and 43% to 98.8% and 52%, respectively. It also helped decrease the minimum residual Al from 0.100 to 0.094 ppm. The multiple response optimization was carried out using the desirability function. A desirability value of >0.97 estimated respective turbidity removal, DOC removal and Al residual of 89.24%, 45.66% and ∼ 0.1 ppm for coagulation (control) and 90.61%, >55% and ∼ 0 for coagulation preceded by PMU. These figures were validated via confirmatory experiments. PMU pre-treatment increased total coliform removal from 80% to >98% and decreased trihalomethane formation potential (THMFP) from 250 to 200 ppb CH3Cl. Additionally, PMU application prior to coagulation improved the settleability of sludge due to the degassing effects. The results of this study confirms that PMU pre-treatment can significantly improve coagulation performance. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Dosimetric properties of a novel brachytherapy balloon applicator for the treatment of malignant brain-tumor resection-cavity margins

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dempsey, James F.; Williams, Jeffery A.; Stubbs, James B.; Patrick, Timothy J.; Williamson, Jeffrey F.

1998-01-01

Purpose: This paper characterizes the dosimetric properties of a novel balloon brachytherapy applicator for the treatment of the tissue surrounding the resection cavity of a malignant brain tumor. Methods and Materials: The applicator consists of an inflatable silicone balloon reservoir attached to a positionable catheter that is intraoperatively implanted into the resection cavity and postoperatively filled with a liquid radionuclide solution. A simple dosimetric model, valid in homogeneous media and based on results from Monte Carlo photon-transport simulations, was used to determine the dosimetric characteristics of spherical geometry balloons filled with photon-emitting radionuclide solutions. Fractional depth-dose (FDD) profiles, along with activity densities, and total activities needed to achieve specified dose rates were studied as a function of photon energy and source-containment geometry. Dose-volume histograms (DVHs) were calculated to compare idealized balloon-applicator treatments to conventional 125 I seed volume implants. Results: For achievable activity densities and total activities, classical low dose rate (LDR) treatments of residual disease at distances of up to 1 cm from the resection cavity wall are possible with balloon applicators having radii between 0.5 cm and 2.5 cm. The dose penetration of these applicators increases approximately linearly with balloon radius. The FDD profile can be made significantly more or less penetrating by combining selection of radionuclide with source-geometry manipulation. Comparisons with 125 I seed-implant DVHs show that the applicator can provide a more conformal therapy with no target tissue underdosing, less target tissue overdosing, and no healthy tissue ''hot spots;'' however, more healthy tissue volume receives a dose of the prescribed dosage or less. Conclusions: This device, when filled with 125 I solution, is suitable for classical LDR treatments and may be preferable to 125 I interstitial
Bacteriophages-potential for application in wastewater treatment processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Withey, S.; Cartmell, E.; Avery, L.M.; Stephenson, T.

2005-01-01

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect and lyse bacteria. Interest in the ability of phages to control bacterial populations has extended from medical applications into the fields of agriculture, aquaculture and the food industry. Here, the potential application of phage techniques in wastewater treatment systems to improve effluent and sludge emissions into the environment is discussed. Phage-mediated bacterial mortality has the potential to influence treatment performance by controlling the abundance of key functional groups. Phage treatments have the potential to control environmental wastewater process problems such as: foaming in activated sludge plants; sludge dewaterability and digestibility; pathogenic bacteria; and to reduce competition between nuisance bacteria and functionally important microbial populations. Successful application of phage therapy to wastewater treatment does though require a fuller understanding of wastewater microbial community dynamics and interactions. Strategies to counter host specificity and host cell resistance must also be developed, as should safety considerations regarding pathogen emergence through transduction
Application of the GRAPPA psoriatic arthritis treatment recommendations in clinical practice.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Mumtaz, Aizad

2012-02-01

Psoriatic disease presents with a complex array of clinical features, including peripheral synovitis and skin psoriasis, but there is also variable involvement of the nail, dactylitis, enthesitis, and spinal disease. Composite assessment of disease activity and response taking into account the impact of the disease as a whole on an individual\\'s health and quality of life is of vital importance. Following an extensive literature review, discussions, and consensus, the Group for Research in Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) published guidelines to help clinicians make treatment decisions. The utility of these guidelines in routine clinical practice is further enhanced by incorporating them into a Composite Psoriatic Disease Activity Index (CPDAI). The potential application of the CPDAI in typical psoriatic disease patients is presented and discussed. Validation and possible modification of a composite disease activity and responder index is currently being undertaken by GRAPPA.
Fish age validation by radiometric analysis of otoliths

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fenton, G.E.

1992-01-01

Radiochemical analysis of aragonitic fish otoliths provides a useful approach to validating ages obtained by more common methods. The history of applications of radiometry using short-lived natural isotopes to clams, Nautilus, living corals and fish otoliths is briefly reviewed. The biogeochemical assumptions required for successful use of these techniques are discussed, and the appropriate mathematical treatments required for data analysis are outlined. Novel normalization techniques designed to widen the validity of this approach are proposed. Desirable lines of further research are also briefly discussed. 38 refs., 1 tab
Rapid assessment of Schistosoma mansoni: the validity, applicability and cost-effectiveness of the Lot Quality Assurance Sampling method in Uganda.

Science.gov (United States)

Brooker, Simon; Kabatereine, Narcis B; Myatt, Mark; Russell Stothard, J; Fenwick, Alan

2005-07-01

Rapid and accurate identification of communities at highest risk of morbidity from schistosomiasis is key for sustainable control. Although school questionnaires can effectively and inexpensively identify communities with a high prevalence of Schistosoma haematobium, parasitological screening remains the preferred option for S. mansoni. To help reduce screening costs, we investigated the validity of Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) in classifying schools according to categories of S. mansoni prevalence in Uganda, and explored its applicability and cost-effectiveness. First, we evaluated several sampling plans using computer simulation and then field tested one sampling plan in 34 schools in Uganda. Finally, cost-effectiveness of different screening and control strategies (including mass treatment without prior screening) was determined, and sensitivity analysis undertaken to assess the effect of infection levels and treatment costs. In identifying schools with prevalences > or =50%, computer simulations showed that LQAS had high levels of sensitivity and specificity (>90%) at sample sizes LQAS where 15 children were sampled had excellent diagnostic performance (sensitivity: 100%, specificity: 96.4%, positive predictive value: 85.7% and negative predictive value: 92.3%). Screening using LQAS was more cost-effective than mass treating all schools (US$218 vs. US$482/high prevalence school treated). Threshold analysis indicated that parasitological screening and mass treatment would become equivalent for settings where prevalence > or =50% in 75% of schools and for treatment costs of US$0.19 per schoolchild. We conclude that, in Uganda, LQAS provides a rapid, valid and cost-effective method for guiding decision makers in allocating finite resources for the control of schistosomiasis.
Lessons learned in the verification, validation and application of a coupled heat and fluid flow code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsang, C.F.

1986-01-01

A summary is given of the authors recent studies in the verification, validation and application of a coupled heat and fluid flow code. Verification has been done against eight analytic and semi-analytic solutions. These solutions include those involving thermal buoyancy flow and fracture flow. Comprehensive field validation studies over a period of four years are discussed. The studies are divided into three stages: (1) history matching, (2) double-blind prediction and confirmation, (3) design optimization. At each stage, parameter sensitivity studies are performed. To study the applications of mathematical models, a problem proposed by the International Energy Agency (IEA) is solved using this verified and validated numerical model as well as two simpler models. One of the simpler models is a semi-analytic method assuming the uncoupling of the heat and fluid flow processes. The other is a graphical method based on a large number of approximations. Variations are added to the basic IEA problem to point out the limits of ranges of applications of each model. A number of lessons are learned from the above investigations. These are listed and discussed
LAnd surface remote sensing Products VAlidation System (LAPVAS) and its preliminary application

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Xingwen; Wen, Jianguang; Tang, Yong; Ma, Mingguo; Dou, Baocheng; Wu, Xiaodan; Meng, Lumin

2014-11-01

The long term record of remote sensing product shows the land surface parameters with spatial and temporal change to support regional and global scientific research widely. Remote sensing product with different sensors and different algorithms is necessary to be validated to ensure the high quality remote sensing product. Investigation about the remote sensing product validation shows that it is a complex processing both the quality of in-situ data requirement and method of precision assessment. A comprehensive validation should be needed with long time series and multiple land surface types. So a system named as land surface remote sensing product is designed in this paper to assess the uncertainty information of the remote sensing products based on a amount of in situ data and the validation techniques. The designed validation system platform consists of three parts: Validation databases Precision analysis subsystem, Inter-external interface of system. These three parts are built by some essential service modules, such as Data-Read service modules, Data-Insert service modules, Data-Associated service modules, Precision-Analysis service modules, Scale-Change service modules and so on. To run the validation system platform, users could order these service modules and choreograph them by the user interactive and then compete the validation tasks of remote sensing products (such as LAI ,ALBEDO ,VI etc.) . Taking SOA-based architecture as the framework of this system. The benefit of this architecture is the good service modules which could be independent of any development environment by standards such as the Web-Service Description Language(WSDL). The standard language: C++ and java will used as the primary programming language to create service modules. One of the key land surface parameter, albedo, is selected as an example of the system application. It is illustrated that the LAPVAS has a good performance to implement the land surface remote sensing product
Validation of multisource electronic health record data: an application to blood transfusion data.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoeven, Loan R van; Bruijne, Martine C de; Kemper, Peter F; Koopman, Maria M W; Rondeel, Jan M M; Leyte, Anja; Koffijberg, Hendrik; Janssen, Mart P; Roes, Kit C B

2017-07-14

Although data from electronic health records (EHR) are often used for research purposes, systematic validation of these data prior to their use is not standard practice. Existing validation frameworks discuss validity concepts without translating these into practical implementation steps or addressing the potential influence of linking multiple sources. Therefore we developed a practical approach for validating routinely collected data from multiple sources and to apply it to a blood transfusion data warehouse to evaluate the usability in practice. The approach consists of identifying existing validation frameworks for EHR data or linked data, selecting validity concepts from these frameworks and establishing quantifiable validity outcomes for each concept. The approach distinguishes external validation concepts (e.g. concordance with external reports, previous literature and expert feedback) and internal consistency concepts which use expected associations within the dataset itself (e.g. completeness, uniformity and plausibility). In an example case, the selected concepts were applied to a transfusion dataset and specified in more detail. Application of the approach to a transfusion dataset resulted in a structured overview of data validity aspects. This allowed improvement of these aspects through further processing of the data and in some cases adjustment of the data extraction. For example, the proportion of transfused products that could not be linked to the corresponding issued products initially was 2.2% but could be improved by adjusting data extraction criteria to 0.17%. This stepwise approach for validating linked multisource data provides a basis for evaluating data quality and enhancing interpretation. When the process of data validation is adopted more broadly, this contributes to increased transparency and greater reliability of research based on routinely collected electronic health records.
Validity of the Elite HRV Smartphone Application for Examining Heart Rate Variability in a Field-Based Setting.

Science.gov (United States)

Perrotta, Andrew S; Jeklin, Andrew T; Hives, Ben A; Meanwell, Leah E; Warburton, Darren E R

2017-08-01

Perrotta, AS, Jeklin, AT, Hives, BA, Meanwell, LE, and Warburton, DER. Validity of the elite HRV smartphone application for examining heart rate variability in a field-based setting. J Strength Cond Res 31(8): 2296-2302, 2017-The introduction of smartphone applications has allowed athletes and practitioners to record and store R-R intervals on smartphones for immediate heart rate variability (HRV) analysis. This user-friendly option should be validated in the effort to provide practitioners confidence when monitoring their athletes before implementing such equipment. The objective of this investigation was to examine the relationship and validity between a vagal-related HRV index, rMSSD, when derived from a smartphone application accessible with most operating systems against a frequently used computer software program, Kubios HRV 2.2. R-R intervals were recorded immediately upon awakening over 14 consecutive days using the Elite HRV smartphone application. R-R recordings were then exported into Kubios HRV 2.2 for analysis. The relationship and levels of agreement between rMSSDln derived from Elite HRV and Kubios HRV 2.2 was examined using a Pearson product-moment correlation and a Bland-Altman Plot. An extremely large relationship was identified (r = 0.92; p smartphone HRV application may offer a reliable platform when assessing parasympathetic modulation.
Validation and Application of a Dried Blood Spot Assay for Biofilm-Active Antibiotics Commonly Used for Treatment of Prosthetic Implant Infections

Science.gov (United States)

Knippenberg, Ben; Page-Sharp, Madhu; Clark, Ben; Dyer, John; Batty, Kevin T.; Davis, Timothy M. E.

2016-01-01

Dried blood spot (DBS) antibiotic assays can facilitate pharmacokinetic (PK)/pharmacodynamic (PD) studies in situations where venous blood sampling is logistically difficult. We sought to develop, validate, and apply a DBS assay for rifampin (RIF), fusidic acid (FUS), and ciprofloxacin (CIP). These antibiotics are considered active against organisms in biofilms and are therefore commonly used for the treatment of infections associated with prosthetic implants. A liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy DBS assay was developed and validated, including red cell partitioning and thermal stability for each drug and the rifampin metabolite desacetyl rifampin (Des-RIF). Plasma and DBS concentrations in 10 healthy adults were compared, and the concentration-time profiles were incorporated into population PK models. The limits of quantification for RIF, Des-RIF, CIP, and FUS in DBS were 15 μg/liter, 14 μg/liter, 25 μg/liter, and 153 μg/liter, respectively. Adjusting for hematocrit, red cell partitioning, and relative recovery, DBS-predicted plasma concentrations were comparable to measured plasma concentrations for each antibiotic (r > 0.95; P < 0.0001), and Bland-Altman plots showed no significant bias. The final population PK estimates of clearance, volume of distribution, and time above threshold MICs for measured and DBS-predicted plasma concentrations were comparable. These drugs were stable in DBSs for at least 10 days at room temperature and 1 month at 4°C. The present DBS antibiotic assays are robust and can be used as surrogates for plasma concentrations to provide valid PK and PK/PD data in a variety of clinical situations, including therapeutic drug monitoring or studies of implant infections. PMID:27270283
Low fertility awareness in United States reproductive-aged women and medical trainees: creation and validation of the Fertility & Infertility Treatment Knowledge Score (FIT-KS).

Science.gov (United States)

Kudesia, Rashmi; Chernyak, Elizabeth; McAvey, Beth

2017-10-01

To create, validate, and use a fertility awareness survey based on current U.S. Cross-sectional study. Not applicable. Phase 1 included U.S. women ages 18-45; phase 2 included female medical students and obstetrics and gynecology trainees at two urban academic programs. Survey including demographics, the Fertility & Infertility Treatment Knowledge Score (FIT-KS) instrument, and General Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire. Knowledge of natural fertility and infertility treatments. The FIT-KS was validated through detailed item and validity analyses. In phase 1, 127 women participated; their median age was 31 years, and 43.7% had children. Their mean FIT-KS score was 16.2 ± 3.5 (55.9% correct). In phase 2, 118 medical trainees participated; their median age was 25 years, and 12.4% had children. Their mean FIT-KS score was 18.8 ± 2.1 (64.9% correct), with year of training correlating to a higher score (r=0.40). Participant awareness regarding lifestyle factors varied, but it was particularly low regarding the effects of lubricants. The majority underestimated the spontaneous miscarriage rate and overestimated the fecundability of 40-year-old women. There was general overestimation of success rates for assisted reproductive technologies, particularly among medical trainees. The FIT-KS is validated to current U.S. data for use in both general and medical populations as a quick assessment of fertility knowledge. The knowledge gaps demonstrated in this study correlate with national trends in delayed childbearing and time to initiate treatment. For medical trainees, these results raise concerns about the quality of fertility counseling they may be able to offer patients. Greater educational outreach must be undertaken to enhance fertility awareness. Copyright © 2017 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Nanofiltration technology in water treatment and reuse: applications and costs.

Science.gov (United States)

Shahmansouri, Arash; Bellona, Christopher

2015-01-01

Nanofiltration (NF) is a relatively recent development in membrane technology with characteristics that fall between ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis (RO). While RO membranes dominate the seawater desalination industry, NF is employed in a variety of water and wastewater treatment and industrial applications for the selective removal of ions and organic substances, as well as certain niche seawater desalination applications. The purpose of this study was to review the application of NF membranes in the water and wastewater industry including water softening and color removal, industrial wastewater treatment, water reuse, and desalination. Basic economic analyses were also performed to compare the profitability of using NF membranes over alternative processes. Although any detailed cost estimation is hampered by some uncertainty (e.g. applicability of estimation methods to large-scale systems, labor costs in different areas of the world), NF was found to be a cost-effective technology for certain investigated applications. The selection of NF over other treatment technologies, however, is dependent on several factors including pretreatment requirements, influent water quality, treatment facility capacity, and treatment goals.
Performance Validity Testing in Neuropsychology: Scientific Basis and Clinical Application-A Brief Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Greher, Michael R; Wodushek, Thomas R

2017-03-01

Performance validity testing refers to neuropsychologists' methodology for determining whether neuropsychological test performances completed in the course of an evaluation are valid (ie, the results of true neurocognitive function) or invalid (ie, overly impacted by the patient's effort/engagement in testing). This determination relies upon the use of either standalone tests designed for this sole purpose, or specific scores/indicators embedded within traditional neuropsychological measures that have demonstrated this utility. In response to a greater appreciation for the critical role that performance validity issues play in neuropsychological testing and the need to measure this variable to the best of our ability, the scientific base for performance validity testing has expanded greatly over the last 20 to 30 years. As such, the majority of current day neuropsychologists in the United States use a variety of measures for the purpose of performance validity testing as part of everyday forensic and clinical practice and address this issue directly in their evaluations. The following is the first article of a 2-part series that will address the evolution of performance validity testing in the field of neuropsychology, both in terms of the science as well as the clinical application of this measurement technique. The second article of this series will review performance validity tests in terms of methods for development of these measures, and maximizing of diagnostic accuracy.

Validity and Reliability of 2 Goniometric Mobile Apps: Device, Application, and Examiner Factors.

Science.gov (United States)

Wellmon, Robert H; Gulick, Dawn T; Paterson, Mark L; Gulick, Colleen N

2016-12-01

Smartphones are being used in a variety of practice settings to measure joint range of motion (ROM). A number of factors can affect the validity of the measurements generated. However, there are no studies examining smartphone-based goniometer applications focusing on measurement variability and error arising from the electromechanical properties of the device being used. To examine the concurrent validity and interrater reliability of 2 goniometric mobile applications (Goniometer Records, Goniometer Pro), an inclinometer, and a universal goniometer (UG). Nonexperimental, descriptive validation study. University laboratory. 3 physical therapists having an average of 25 y of experience. Three standardized angles (acute, right, obtuse) were constructed to replicate the movement of a hinge joint in the human body. Angular changes were measured and compared across 3 raters who used 3 different devices (UG, inclinometer, and 2 goniometric apps installed on 3 different smartphones: Apple iPhone 5, LG Android, and Samsung SIII Android). Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and Bland-Altman plots were used to examine interrater reliability and concurrent validity. Interrater reliability for each of the smartphone apps, inclinometer and UG were excellent (ICC = .995-1.000). Concurrent validity was also good (ICC = .998-.999). Based on the Bland-Altman plots, the means of the differences between the devices were low (range = -0.4° to 1.2°). This study identifies the error inherent in measurement that is independent of patient factors and due to the smartphone, the installed apps, and examiner skill. Less than 2° of measurement variability was attributable to those factors alone. The data suggest that 3 smartphones with the 2 installed apps are a viable substitute for using a UG or an inclinometer when measuring angular changes that typically occur when examining ROM and demonstrate the capacity of multiple examiners to accurately use smartphone-based goniometers.
Development and validation of the functional assessment of chronic illness therapy treatment satisfaction (FACIT TS) measures.

Science.gov (United States)

Peipert, John D; Beaumont, Jennifer L; Bode, Rita; Cella, Dave; Garcia, Sofia F; Hahn, Elizabeth A

2014-04-01

To develop and validate a new functional assessment of chronic illness therapy (FACIT) measure of satisfaction with treatment for chronic illnesses such as cancer and HIV/AIDS. To define domains and generate items, a literature review informed creation of semi-structured interview guides for patients and an international expert panel of clinicians and researchers. Patients and experts also rated 15 areas of satisfaction for relevance. The final list of items underwent further refinement by the original expert panel and a new group of clinical experts. Items were tested in four studies (primarily lung cancer) and data were pooled for analysis. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA), and item response theory modeling were conducted to evaluate dimensionality. Internal consistency reliability and test-retest reliability were both evaluated. Validity was evaluated by correlating the FACIT subscale scores and measures of comparable concepts and by testing the scales' ability to distinguish people according to their overall treatment satisfaction. Two instruments were created: the FACIT TS-general (G), an overall evaluation of current treatment, and the FACIT TS-patient satisfaction (PS), a measure of patient satisfaction. CFA results were not optimal for a five-factor solution for PS. Internal consistency reliability met psychometric standards (≥0.70) for all PS subscales. Construct validity was established for the PS subscales: Physician Communication, Treatment Staff Communication, Technical Competence, Confidence and Trust, and Nurse Communication. The two instruments generated here offer a new way to assess several key dimensions of patient satisfaction with treatment, especially for people with lung cancer.
Application of graphene oxide in water treatment

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Yongchen

2017-11-01

Graphene oxide has good hydrophilicity and has been tried to use it into thin films for water treatment in recent years. In this paper, the preparation methods of graphene oxide membrane are reviewed, including vacuum suction filtration, spray coating, spin coating, dip coating and the layer by layer method. Secondly, the mechanism of mass transfer of graphene membrane is introduced in detail. The application of the graphene oxide membrane, modified graphene oxide membrane and graphene hybrid membranes were discussed in RO, vaporization, nanofiltration and other aspects. Finally, the development and application of graphene membrane in water treatment were discussed.
Verification and validation of the decision analysis model for assessment of TWRS waste treatment strategies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Awadalla, N.G.; Eaton, S.C.F.

1996-01-01

This document is the verification and validation final report for the Decision Analysis Model for Assessment of Tank Waste Remediation System Waste Treatment Strategies. This model is also known as the INSIGHT Model
Validation of the VERITAS-Pro treatment adherence scale in a Spanish sample population with hemophilia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cuesta-Barriuso R

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Rubén Cuesta-Barriuso,1–3 Ana Torres-Ortuño,4 Pilar Galindo-Piñana,4 Joaquín Nieto-Munuera,4 Natalie Duncan,5 José Antonio López-Pina6 1Department of Physiotherapy, School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, European University of Madrid, 2Fishemo, Centro Especial de Empleo, Spanish Federation of Hemophilia, 3Royal Foundation Victoria Eugenia, Madrid, 4Department of Psychiatry and Social Psychology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain; 5Indiana Hemophilia & Thrombosis Center, Indianapolis, IN, USA; 6Department of Basic Psychology and Methodology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain Purpose: We aimed to conduct a validation in Spanish of the Validated Hemophilia Regimen Treatment Adherence Scale – Prophylaxis (VERITAS-Pro questionnaire for use in patients with hemophilia under prophylactic treatment.Patients and methods: The VERITAS-Pro scale was adapted through a process of back translation from English to Spanish. A bilingual native Spanish translator translated the scale from English to Spanish. Subsequently, a bilingual native English translator translated the scale from Spanish to English. The disagreements were resolved by agreement between the research team and translators. Seventy-three patients with hemophilia, aged 13–62 years, were enrolled in the study. The scale was applied twice (2 months apart to evaluate the test–retest reliability.Results: Internal consistency reliability was lower on the Spanish VERITAS-Pro than on the English version. Test–retest reliability was high, ranging from 0.83 to 0.92. No significant differences (P>0.05 were found between test and retest scores in subscales of VERITAS-Pro. In general, Spanish patients showed higher rates of nonadherence than American patients in all subscales.Conclusion: The Spanish version of the VERITAS-Pro has high levels of consistency and empirical validity. This scale can be administered to assess the degree of
A GPU-accelerated Monte Carlo dose calculation platform and its application toward validating an MRI-guided radiation therapy beam model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Yuhe; Mazur, Thomas R.; Green, Olga; Hu, Yanle; Li, Hua; Rodriguez, Vivian; Wooten, H. Omar; Yang, Deshan; Zhao, Tianyu; Mutic, Sasa; Li, H. Harold

2016-01-01

Purpose: The clinical commissioning of IMRT subject to a magnetic field is challenging. The purpose of this work is to develop a GPU-accelerated Monte Carlo dose calculation platform based on PENELOPE and then use the platform to validate a vendor-provided MRIdian head model toward quality assurance of clinical IMRT treatment plans subject to a 0.35 T magnetic field. Methods: PENELOPE was first translated from FORTRAN to C++ and the result was confirmed to produce equivalent results to the original code. The C++ code was then adapted to CUDA in a workflow optimized for GPU architecture. The original code was expanded to include voxelized transport with Woodcock tracking, faster electron/positron propagation in a magnetic field, and several features that make gPENELOPE highly user-friendly. Moreover, the vendor-provided MRIdian head model was incorporated into the code in an effort to apply gPENELOPE as both an accurate and rapid dose validation system. A set of experimental measurements were performed on the MRIdian system to examine the accuracy of both the head model and gPENELOPE. Ultimately, gPENELOPE was applied toward independent validation of patient doses calculated by MRIdian’s KMC. Results: An acceleration factor of 152 was achieved in comparison to the original single-thread FORTRAN implementation with the original accuracy being preserved. For 16 treatment plans including stomach (4), lung (2), liver (3), adrenal gland (2), pancreas (2), spleen(1), mediastinum (1), and breast (1), the MRIdian dose calculation engine agrees with gPENELOPE with a mean gamma passing rate of 99.1% ± 0.6% (2%/2 mm). Conclusions: A Monte Carlo simulation platform was developed based on a GPU- accelerated version of PENELOPE. This platform was used to validate that both the vendor-provided head model and fast Monte Carlo engine used by the MRIdian system are accurate in modeling radiation transport in a patient using 2%/2 mm gamma criteria. Future applications of this
A GPU-accelerated Monte Carlo dose calculation platform and its application toward validating an MRI-guided radiation therapy beam model.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yuhe; Mazur, Thomas R; Green, Olga; Hu, Yanle; Li, Hua; Rodriguez, Vivian; Wooten, H Omar; Yang, Deshan; Zhao, Tianyu; Mutic, Sasa; Li, H Harold

2016-07-01

The clinical commissioning of IMRT subject to a magnetic field is challenging. The purpose of this work is to develop a GPU-accelerated Monte Carlo dose calculation platform based on penelope and then use the platform to validate a vendor-provided MRIdian head model toward quality assurance of clinical IMRT treatment plans subject to a 0.35 T magnetic field. penelope was first translated from fortran to c++ and the result was confirmed to produce equivalent results to the original code. The c++ code was then adapted to cuda in a workflow optimized for GPU architecture. The original code was expanded to include voxelized transport with Woodcock tracking, faster electron/positron propagation in a magnetic field, and several features that make gpenelope highly user-friendly. Moreover, the vendor-provided MRIdian head model was incorporated into the code in an effort to apply gpenelope as both an accurate and rapid dose validation system. A set of experimental measurements were performed on the MRIdian system to examine the accuracy of both the head model and gpenelope. Ultimately, gpenelope was applied toward independent validation of patient doses calculated by MRIdian's kmc. An acceleration factor of 152 was achieved in comparison to the original single-thread fortran implementation with the original accuracy being preserved. For 16 treatment plans including stomach (4), lung (2), liver (3), adrenal gland (2), pancreas (2), spleen(1), mediastinum (1), and breast (1), the MRIdian dose calculation engine agrees with gpenelope with a mean gamma passing rate of 99.1% ± 0.6% (2%/2 mm). A Monte Carlo simulation platform was developed based on a GPU- accelerated version of penelope. This platform was used to validate that both the vendor-provided head model and fast Monte Carlo engine used by the MRIdian system are accurate in modeling radiation transport in a patient using 2%/2 mm gamma criteria. Future applications of this platform will include dose validation and
A GPU-accelerated Monte Carlo dose calculation platform and its application toward validating an MRI-guided radiation therapy beam model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Yuhe; Mazur, Thomas R.; Green, Olga; Hu, Yanle; Li, Hua; Rodriguez, Vivian; Wooten, H. Omar; Yang, Deshan; Zhao, Tianyu; Mutic, Sasa; Li, H. Harold, E-mail: hli@radonc.wustl.edu [Department of Radiation Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine, 4921 Parkview Place, Campus Box 8224, St. Louis, Missouri 63110 (United States)

2016-07-15

Purpose: The clinical commissioning of IMRT subject to a magnetic field is challenging. The purpose of this work is to develop a GPU-accelerated Monte Carlo dose calculation platform based on PENELOPE and then use the platform to validate a vendor-provided MRIdian head model toward quality assurance of clinical IMRT treatment plans subject to a 0.35 T magnetic field. Methods: PENELOPE was first translated from FORTRAN to C++ and the result was confirmed to produce equivalent results to the original code. The C++ code was then adapted to CUDA in a workflow optimized for GPU architecture. The original code was expanded to include voxelized transport with Woodcock tracking, faster electron/positron propagation in a magnetic field, and several features that make gPENELOPE highly user-friendly. Moreover, the vendor-provided MRIdian head model was incorporated into the code in an effort to apply gPENELOPE as both an accurate and rapid dose validation system. A set of experimental measurements were performed on the MRIdian system to examine the accuracy of both the head model and gPENELOPE. Ultimately, gPENELOPE was applied toward independent validation of patient doses calculated by MRIdian’s KMC. Results: An acceleration factor of 152 was achieved in comparison to the original single-thread FORTRAN implementation with the original accuracy being preserved. For 16 treatment plans including stomach (4), lung (2), liver (3), adrenal gland (2), pancreas (2), spleen(1), mediastinum (1), and breast (1), the MRIdian dose calculation engine agrees with gPENELOPE with a mean gamma passing rate of 99.1% ± 0.6% (2%/2 mm). Conclusions: A Monte Carlo simulation platform was developed based on a GPU- accelerated version of PENELOPE. This platform was used to validate that both the vendor-provided head model and fast Monte Carlo engine used by the MRIdian system are accurate in modeling radiation transport in a patient using 2%/2 mm gamma criteria. Future applications of this
On various metrics used for validation of predictive QSAR models with applications in virtual screening and focused library design.

Science.gov (United States)

Roy, Kunal; Mitra, Indrani

2011-07-01

Quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs) have important applications in drug discovery research, environmental fate modeling, property prediction, etc. Validation has been recognized as a very important step for QSAR model development. As one of the important objectives of QSAR modeling is to predict activity/property/toxicity of new chemicals falling within the domain of applicability of the developed models and QSARs are being used for regulatory decisions, checking reliability of the models and confidence of their predictions is a very important aspect, which can be judged during the validation process. One prime application of a statistically significant QSAR model is virtual screening for molecules with improved potency based on the pharmacophoric features and the descriptors appearing in the QSAR model. Validated QSAR models may also be utilized for design of focused libraries which may be subsequently screened for the selection of hits. The present review focuses on various metrics used for validation of predictive QSAR models together with an overview of the application of QSAR models in the fields of virtual screening and focused library design for diverse series of compounds with citation of some recent examples.
77 FR 25152 - Applications for New Awards; Investing in Innovation Fund, Validation Grants

Science.gov (United States)

2012-04-27

... DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Applications for New Awards; Investing in Innovation Fund, Validation Grants Correction In notice document 2012-7365 appearing on pages 18229-18242 in the issue of Tuesday, March 27, 2012 make the following corrections: 1. On page 18238 in the second column, in the second...
Prevalence of diabetes treatment effect modifiers: the external validity of trials to older adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Weiss, Carlos O; Boyd, Cynthia M; Wolff, Jennifer L; Leff, Bruce

2012-08-01

Potential treatment effect modifiers (TEMs) are specific diseases or conditions with a well-described mechanism for treatment effect modification. The prevalence of TEMs in older adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) is unknown. Objectives were to 1) determine the prevalence of pre-specified potential TEMs; 2) demonstrate the potential impact of TEMs in the older adult population using a simulated trial; 3) identify TEM combinations associated with number of hospitalizations to test construct validity. Data are from the nationally-representative United States National Health and Examination Survey, 1999-2004: 8646 Civilian, non-institutionalized adults aged 45-64 or 65+ years, including 1443 with DM. TEMs were anemia, congestive heart failure, liver inflammation, polypharmacy, renal insufficiency, cognitive impairment, dizziness, frequent mental distress, mobility difficulty, and visual impairment. A trial was simulated to examine prevalence of potential TEM impact. The cross-sectional association between TEM patterns and number of hospitalizations was estimated to assess construct validity. The prevalence of TEMs was substantial such that 19.0% (95% CI 14.8-23.2) of middle-aged adults and 38.0% (95% CI 33.4-42.5) of older adults had any two. A simulated trial with modest levels of interaction suggested the prevalence of TEMs could nullify treatment benefit in 3.9-27.2% of older adults with DM. Compared to having DM alone, hospitalization rate was increased by several combinations of TEMs with substantial prevalence. We provide national benchmarks that can be used to evaluate TEM prevalence reported by clinical trials of DM, and correspondingly their external validity to older adults.
An approach to verification and validation of MHD codes for fusion applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smolentsev, S., E-mail: sergey@fusion.ucla.edu [University of California, Los Angeles (United States); Badia, S. [Centre Internacional de Mètodes Numèrics en Enginyeria, Barcelona (Spain); Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – Barcelona Tech (Spain); Bhattacharyay, R. [Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar, Gujarat (India); Bühler, L. [Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany); Chen, L. [University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China); Huang, Q. [Institute of Nuclear Energy Safety Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui (China); Jin, H.-G. [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Krasnov, D. [Technische Universität Ilmenau (Germany); Lee, D.-W. [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Mas de les Valls, E. [Centre Internacional de Mètodes Numèrics en Enginyeria, Barcelona (Spain); Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – Barcelona Tech (Spain); Mistrangelo, C. [Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany); Munipalli, R. [HyPerComp, Westlake Village (United States); Ni, M.-J. [University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China); Pashkevich, D. [St. Petersburg State Polytechnical University (Russian Federation); Patel, A. [Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – Barcelona Tech (Spain); Pulugundla, G. [University of California, Los Angeles (United States); Satyamurthy, P. [Bhabha Atomic Research Center (India); Snegirev, A. [St. Petersburg State Polytechnical University (Russian Federation); Sviridov, V. [Moscow Power Engineering Institute (Russian Federation); Swain, P. [Bhabha Atomic Research Center (India); and others

2015-11-15

Highlights: • Review of status of MHD codes for fusion applications. • Selection of five benchmark problems. • Guidance for verification and validation of MHD codes for fusion applications. - Abstract: We propose a new activity on verification and validation (V&V) of MHD codes presently employed by the fusion community as a predictive capability tool for liquid metal cooling applications, such as liquid metal blankets. The important steps in the development of MHD codes starting from the 1970s are outlined first and then basic MHD codes, which are currently in use by designers of liquid breeder blankets, are reviewed. A benchmark database of five problems has been proposed to cover a wide range of MHD flows from laminar fully developed to turbulent flows, which are of interest for fusion applications: (A) 2D fully developed laminar steady MHD flow, (B) 3D laminar, steady developing MHD flow in a non-uniform magnetic field, (C) quasi-two-dimensional MHD turbulent flow, (D) 3D turbulent MHD flow, and (E) MHD flow with heat transfer (buoyant convection). Finally, we introduce important details of the proposed activities, such as basic V&V rules and schedule. The main goal of the present paper is to help in establishing an efficient V&V framework and to initiate benchmarking among interested parties. The comparison results computed by the codes against analytical solutions and trusted experimental and numerical data as well as code-to-code comparisons will be presented and analyzed in companion paper/papers.
Validation and uncertainty analysis of a pre-treatment 2D dose prediction model

Science.gov (United States)

Baeza, Jose A.; Wolfs, Cecile J. A.; Nijsten, Sebastiaan M. J. J. G.; Verhaegen, Frank

2018-02-01

Independent verification of complex treatment delivery with megavolt photon beam radiotherapy (RT) has been effectively used to detect and prevent errors. This work presents the validation and uncertainty analysis of a model that predicts 2D portal dose images (PDIs) without a patient or phantom in the beam. The prediction model is based on an exponential point dose model with separable primary and secondary photon fluence components. The model includes a scatter kernel, off-axis ratio map, transmission values and penumbra kernels for beam-delimiting components. These parameters were derived through a model fitting procedure supplied with point dose and dose profile measurements of radiation fields. The model was validated against a treatment planning system (TPS; Eclipse) and radiochromic film measurements for complex clinical scenarios, including volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT). Confidence limits on fitted model parameters were calculated based on simulated measurements. A sensitivity analysis was performed to evaluate the effect of the parameter uncertainties on the model output. For the maximum uncertainty, the maximum deviating measurement sets were propagated through the fitting procedure and the model. The overall uncertainty was assessed using all simulated measurements. The validation of the prediction model against the TPS and the film showed a good agreement, with on average 90.8% and 90.5% of pixels passing a (2%,2 mm) global gamma analysis respectively, with a low dose threshold of 10%. The maximum and overall uncertainty of the model is dependent on the type of clinical plan used as input. The results can be used to study the robustness of the model. A model for predicting accurate 2D pre-treatment PDIs in complex RT scenarios can be used clinically and its uncertainties can be taken into account.
Modeling and experimental validation of a Hybridized Energy Storage System for automotive applications

Science.gov (United States)

Fiorenti, Simone; Guanetti, Jacopo; Guezennec, Yann; Onori, Simona

2013-11-01

This paper presents the development and experimental validation of a dynamic model of a Hybridized Energy Storage System (HESS) consisting of a parallel connection of a lead acid (PbA) battery and double layer capacitors (DLCs), for automotive applications. The dynamic modeling of both the PbA battery and the DLC has been tackled via the equivalent electric circuit based approach. Experimental tests are designed for identification purposes. Parameters of the PbA battery model are identified as a function of state of charge and current direction, whereas parameters of the DLC model are identified for different temperatures. A physical HESS has been assembled at the Center for Automotive Research The Ohio State University and used as a test-bench to validate the model against a typical current profile generated for Start&Stop applications. The HESS model is then integrated into a vehicle simulator to assess the effects of the battery hybridization on the vehicle fuel economy and mitigation of the battery stress.
Multiscale GPS tomography during COPS: validation and applications

Science.gov (United States)

Champollion, Cédric; Flamant, Cyrille; Masson, Frédéric; Gégout, Pascal; Boniface, Karen; Richard, Evelyne

2010-05-01

Accurate 3D description of the water vapour field is of interest for process studies such as convection initiation. None of the current techniques (LIDAR, satellite, radio soundings, GPS) can provide an all weather continuous 3D field of moisture. The combination of GPS tomography with radio-soundings (and/or LIDAR) has been used for such process studies using both advantages of vertically resolved soundings and high temporal density of GPS measurements. GPS tomography has been used at short scale (10 km horizontal resolution but in a 50 km² area) for process studies such as the ESCOMPTE experiment (Bastin et al., 2005) and at larger scale (50 km horizontal resolution) during IHOP_2002. But no extensive statistical validation has been done so far. The overarching goal of the COPS field experiment is to advance the quality of forecasts of orographically induced convective precipitation by four-dimensional observations and modeling of its life cycle for identifying the physical and chemical processes responsible for deficiencies in QPF over low-mountain regions. During the COPS field experiment, a GPS network of about 100 GPS stations has been continuously operating during three months in an area of 500 km² in the East of France (Vosges Mountains) and West of Germany (Black Forest). If the mean spacing between the GPS is about 50 km, an East-West GPS profile with a density of about 10 km is dedicated to high resolution tomography. One major goal of the GPS COPS experiment is to validate the GPS tomography with different spatial resolutions. Validation is based on additional radio-soundings and airborne / ground-based LIDAR measurement. The number and the high quality of vertically resolved water vapor observations give an unique data set for GPS tomography validation. Numerous tests have been done on real data to show the type water vapor structures that can be imaging by GPS tomography depending of the assimilation of additional data (radio soundings), the
Validation of a questionnaire to monitor symptoms in HIV-infected patients during hepatitis C treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Cachay, Edward R; Ballard, Craig; Colwell, Bradford; Torriani, Francesca; Hicks, Charles; Mathews, Wm Christopher

2017-09-20

Clinicians are incorporating patient-reported outcomes in the management of HIV-infected persons co-infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV), but there are no validated inventories to monitor symptoms of patients during HCV therapy. Five-year retrospective cohort analysis of persons living with HIV (PLWH) treated for HCV. The HCV symptom-inventory (HCV-SI) was administered before, during, and after HCV treatment. Discriminant validity was assessed, separately, in mixed model linear regression of HCV-SI T-scores on treatment regimens (pegylated-interferon and ribavirin; pegylated-interferon, ribavirin, and telaprevir; and interferon-free antivirals); and side effect-related premature treatment discontinuation (SE-DC). From the 103 patients who completed the HCV-SI, 7% were female, 26% non-white, 32% cirrhotics and 91% had undetectable HIV viral loads. Most had genotype 1 (83%) and were HCV treatment-naïve (78%). We treated 19% of patients with pegylated-interferon and ribavirin, 22% with pegylated-interferon, ribavirin, and telaprevir and 59% received interferon-free antivirals. Overall, 77% achieved a sustained virologic response, and 6% discontinued HCV treatment due to side effects. In the treatment discrimination model, compared to the no treatment period, HCV-SI scores were significantly (p < 0.01) lower for interferon-free antivirals and higher for interferon-containing regimens. In the SE-DC model, the total HCV-SI, somatic and neuropsychiatric scores significantly predicted those patients who prematurely discontinued HCV treatment (P < 0.05). The HCV-SI effectively differentiated among treatment regimens known to vary by side effect profiles and between patients with and without treatment discontinuation due to side effects. The HCV-SI may have value as a patient-reported outcome instrument predicting the risk of HCV treatment discontinuation.
Translation and validation of the Persian version of the treatment adherence ‎questionnaire for patients with hypertension

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mahlagha Dehghan

2016-03-01

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Hypertension is a global public health crisis. Poorly controlled high blood pressure is one of the major factors contributed to this crisis. As lack of treatment adherence is often considered the main reason for this failure, the Treatment Adherence Questionnaire for Patient with Hypertension (TAQPH was developed. Since this questionnaire should be reliable and strongly valid to be used in clinics and research, this study was performed to test the reliability and validity of the TAQPH. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted to validate the Persian version of TAQPH after using a modified forward/backward translation procedure. A total of 330 hypertensive patients were participated in this study. Construct and criterion validity, Cronbach¢s alpha, and test-retest reliability were used to validate the Persian scale. RESULTS: Data analysis showed that the scale had excellent stability (intraclass correlation = 0.95 and good acceptability of internal consistency (α = 0.80. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA was meaningful but was not confirmed with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA. The scale score was correlated with Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS score (Ρ = 0.27. CONCLUSION: In total, most of the psychometric properties of the 25-item P-TAQHP achieved the standard level and were sufficient to recommend for general use.
Mathematical treatment of seismologic data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gama, C.A.J.V.D. da

The principle methods of seismologic data treatment with application in engineering design, emphasizing the need for the utilization of reliable data, appropriate algorithims and rigorous calculations so that correct results and valid conclusions be achieved, are examined. (E.G.) [pt
Cultural adaptation and validation of a peninsular Spanish version of the MSTCQ© (Multiple Sclerosis Treatment Concerns Questionnaire).

Science.gov (United States)

Muntéis Olivas, E; Navarro Mascarell, G; Meca Lallana, J; Maestre Martínez, A; Pérez Sempere, Á; Gracia Gil, J; Pato Pato, A

Although subcutaneous treatments for multiple sclerosis (MS) have been shown to be effective, adverse reactions and pain may adversely affect treatment satisfaction and adherence. This study presents an adapted and validated Spanish version of the Multiple Sclerosis Treatment Concerns Questionnaire © (MSTCQ), which evaluates satisfaction with the injection device (ID) across 4 domains: injection system (A), side effects (B) (flu-like symptoms, reactions, and satisfaction), experience with treatment (C) and benefits (D). Two study phases: 1) Cultural adaptation process with input from experts (n=6) and patients (n=30). 2) Validation obtained by means of an observational, cross-sectional, multi-centre study evaluating 143 adult MS patients using an ID. Tools employed: MSTCQ © , Patient-Reported Indices for Multiple Sclerosis (PRIMUS © ), and Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication (TSQM © ). Psychometric properties: Feasibility (percentage of valid cases and floor/ceiling effects); Reliability (Cronbach α) and test-retest correlation (n=41, intraclass correlation coefficient, ICC); and construct validity (factor analysis of domains A and B) and convergent validity (Spearman rank-order correlation for MSTCQ © vs TSQM © ). Mean age (SD) was 41.94 (10.47) years, 63% of the group were women, and 88.11% presented relapsing-remitting MS. Mean (SD) EDSS score was 2.68 (1.82) points. MSTCQ © completion was high (0%-2.80% missing data). Internal consistency was high at α=0.89 for the total score (A+B) and α=0.76, 0.89, and 0.92 for domains A, B, and C, respectively. The version demonstrated excellent test-retest reliability for the total (ICC=0.98) and for domains A, B, and C: ICC=0.82, 0.97, and 0.89, respectively. Factor analysis corroborated the internal structure of the original questionnaire. The association between total and domain scores on both the MSTCQ © and the TSQM © was moderately strong (Rho=0.42-0.74) and significant (P<.05 and P<.01
Validating self-reported mobile phone use in adults using a newly developed smartphone application

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Goedhart, Geertje; Kromhout, Hans; Wiart, Joe; Vermeulen, Roel

2015-01-01

OBJECTIVE: Interpretation of epidemiological studies on health effects from mobile phone use is hindered by uncertainties in the exposure assessment. We used a newly developed smartphone application (app) to validate self-reported mobile phone use and behaviour among adults. METHODS: 107

Applications of nanotechnology in wastewater treatment--a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Bora, Tanujjal; Dutta, Joydeep

2014-01-01

Water on Earth is a precious and finite resource, which is endlessly recycled in the water cycle. Water, whose physical, chemical, or biological properties have been altered due to the addition of contaminants such as organic/inorganic materials, pathogens, heavy metals or other toxins making it unsafe for the ecosystem, can be termed as wastewater. Various schemes have been adopted by industries across the world to treat wastewater prior to its release to the ecosystem, and several new concepts and technologies are fast replacing the traditional methods. This article briefly reviews the recent advances and application of nanotechnology for wastewater treatment. Nanomaterials typically have high reactivity and a high degree of functionalization, large specific surface area, size-dependent properties etc., which makes them suitable for applications in wastewater treatment and for water purification. In this article, the application of various nanomaterials such as metal nanoparticles, metal oxides, carbon compounds, zeolite, filtration membranes, etc., in the field of wastewater treatment is discussed.
Plasma treatment: A Novel Medical Application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boonyawan, Dheerawan

2015-01-01

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) for the medical treatment is a new field in plasma application, called plasma medicine. CAP contrains mix of excited atoms and molecules, UV photons, charged particles as well as reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS). Typical species in air CAPs are O 3 , OH, N x , and HNO x . Two cold atomospheric plasma devices were utiized (either in an indirect or a direct way) for the treatment of physiologically healthy volunterrs, The results show that CAP is effective againts chronic wound infections and/ or for skin treatment in clinical trials. The current developments in this field have fuelled the hope that CAP could be, and interesting new therapeutic apptoach in the treatment of cancer.
The side-effects to CPAP treatment inventory: the development and initial validation of a new tool for the measurement of side-effects to CPAP treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Broström, Anders; Arestedt, Kristofer Franzén; Nilsen, Per; Strömberg, Anna; Ulander, Martin; Svanborg, Eva

2010-12-01

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the treatment of choice for obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS), but side-effects are common. No validated self-rating scale measuring side-effects to CPAP treatment exists today. The aim was to develop the side-effects to CPAP treatment inventory (SECI), and investigate the validity and reliability of the instrument among patients with OSAS. SECI was developed on the basis of: (1) in-depth interviews with 23 patients; (2) examination of the scientific literature and (3) consensus agreement of a multi-professional expert panel. This yielded 15 different types of side-effects related to CPAP treatment. Each side-effect has three sub-questions (scales): perceived frequency (a) and magnitude (b) of the side-effect, as well as its perceived impact on CPAP use (c). A cross-sectional descriptive design was used. A total of 329 patients with OSAS with an average use of CPAP treatment for 39 months (2 weeks to 182 months) were recruited. Data were collected with SECI, and obtained from medical records (clinical variables and data related to CPAP treatment). Construct validity was confirmed with factor analysis (principal component analysis with orthogonal rotation). A logical two-factor solution, the device subscale and symptom subscale, emerged across all three scales. The symptom subscale describing physical and psychological side-effects and the device subscale described mask and device-related side-effects. Internal consistency reliability of the three scales was good (Cronbach's α = 0.74-0.86) and acceptable for the subscales (Cronbach's α = 0.62-0.86). The satisfactory measurement properties of this new instrument are promising and indicate that SECI can be used to measure side-effects to CPAP treatment. © 2010 European Sleep Research Society.
Application of reverse osmosis in radioactive wastewater treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kong Jinsong; Guo Weiqun

2012-01-01

Considering the disadvantages of the conventional evaporation and ion exchange process for radioactive wastewater treatment, the reverse osmosis is used to treat the low level radioactive wastewater. The paper summarizes the research and application progress of the reverse osmosis in the radioactive wastewater treatment and indicates that the reverse osmosis in the radioactive wastewater treatment is very important. (authors)
Accelerating cross-validation with total variation and its application to super-resolution imaging.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tomoyuki Obuchi

Full Text Available We develop an approximation formula for the cross-validation error (CVE of a sparse linear regression penalized by ℓ1-norm and total variation terms, which is based on a perturbative expansion utilizing the largeness of both the data dimensionality and the model. The developed formula allows us to reduce the necessary computational cost of the CVE evaluation significantly. The practicality of the formula is tested through application to simulated black-hole image reconstruction on the event-horizon scale with super resolution. The results demonstrate that our approximation reproduces the CVE values obtained via literally conducted cross-validation with reasonably good precision.
Multibeam radiation therapy treatment application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Manens, J.P.; Le Gall, G.; Chenal, C.; Ben Hassel, M.; Fresne, F.; Barillot, C.; Gibaud, B.; Lemoine, D.; Bouliou, A.; Scarabin, J.M.

1991-01-01

A software package has been developed for multibeam radiation therapy treatment application. We present in this study a computer-assisted dosimetric planning procedure which includes: i), an analytical stage for setting up the large volume via 2D and 3D displays; ii), a planning stage for issue of a treatment strategy including dosimetric simulations; and iii), a treatment stage to drive the target volume to the radiation unit isocenter. The combined use of stereotactic methods and multimodality imagery ensures spatial coherence and makes target definition and cognition of structure environment more accurate. The dosimetric planning suited to the spatial reference (the stereotactic frame) guarantees optimal distribution of the dose, computed by the original 3D volumetric algorithm. A computer-driven chair-framework cluster was designed to position the target volume at the radiation unit isocenter [fr
Computational Dosimetry and Treatment Planning Considerations for Neutron Capture Therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nigg, David Waler

2003-01-01

Specialized treatment planning software systems are generally required for neutron capture therapy (NCT) research and clinical applications. The standard simplifying approximations that work well for treatment planning computations in the case of many other modalities are usually not appropriate for application to neutron transport. One generally must obtain an explicit three-dimensional numerical solution of the governing transport equation, with energy-dependent neutron scattering completely taken into account. Treatment planning systems that have been successfully introduced for NCT applications over the past 15 years rely on the Monte Carlo stochastic simulation method for the necessary computations, primarily because of the geometric complexity of human anatomy. However, historically, there has also been interest in the application of deterministic methods, and there have been some practical developments in this area. Most recently, interest has turned toward the creation of treatment planning software that is not limited to any specific therapy modality, with NCT as only one of several applications. A key issue with NCT treatment planning has to do with boron quantification, and whether improved information concerning the spatial biodistribution of boron can be effectively used to improve the treatment planning process. Validation and benchmarking of computations for NCT are also of current developmental interest. Various institutions have their own procedures, but standard validation models are not yet in wide use
Validation of the Avoidance and Inflexibility Scale (AIS) among treatment-seeking smokers.

Science.gov (United States)

Farris, Samantha G; Zvolensky, Michael J; DiBello, Angelo M; Schmidt, Norman B

2015-06-01

The Avoidance and Inflexibility Scale (AIS; Gifford et al., 2004) was derived as a smoking-specific measure of experiential avoidance. However, there has been little investigation of the psychometric proprieties of the AIS and no published work on the topic. The current study aimed to test the reliability and validity of the AIS among a sample of adult treatment-seeking daily smokers (n = 465; 48.2% female, 17.8 [SD = 9.60] cigarettes per day). The AIS was administered at 3 time points (baseline, quit-day, and 1 month postquit) as part of a larger smoking cessation trial. An exploratory factor analysis indicated a 2-factor solution, described by inflexibility and avoidance because of smoking related "thoughts/feelings" (9 items) and "somatic sensations" (4 items). Results revealed that the AIS-total and factor scores demonstrated high internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The AIS total and factor scores also displayed high convergent, discriminant, and incremental predictive validity with theoretically relevant smoking and affective variables. The present data suggest that the AIS measure appears to be a valid and reliable smoking-specific index of experiential avoidance. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).
Validation of the Avoidance and Inflexibility Scale (AIS) among Treatment-Seeking Smoker

Science.gov (United States)

Farris, Samantha G.; Zvolensky, Michael J.; DiBello, Angelo M.; Schmidt, Norman B.

2015-01-01

The Avoidance and Inflexibility Scale (AIS; Gifford et al., 2004) was derived as smoking-specific measure of experiential avoidance. However, there has been little investigation of the psychometric proprieties of the AIS and no published work on the topic. The current study aimed to test the reliability and validity of the AIS among a sample of adult treatment-seeking daily smokers (n = 465; 48.1% female, 17.8 [SD = 9.60] cigarettes per day). The AIS was administered at three time points (Baseline, Quit day, 1 month post-quit) as part of a larger smoking cessation trial. An exploratory factor analysis indicated a two-factor solution, described by inflexibility and avoidance due to smoking related “thoughts/feelings” (9 items) and “somatic sensations” (4 items). Results revealed that the AIS-total and factor scores demonstrated high internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The AIS total and factor scores also displayed high convergent, discriminant, and incremental predictive validity with theoretically-relevant smoking and affective variables. The present data suggest that the AIS measure appears to be a valid and reliable smoking-specific index of experiential avoidance. PMID:25642937
Preclinical validation of electrochemotherapy as an effective treatment for brain tumors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Agerholm-Larsen, Birgit; Iversen, Helle K; Ibsen, Per

2011-01-01

treatment. Bleomycin was injected intracranially into male rats inoculated with rat glia-derived tumor cells 2 weeks before the application of the electrical field (32 pulses, 100 V, 0.1 ms, and 1 Hz). In this model, where presence of tumor was confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) before treatment...... to the treated area, which MRI and histology showed to contain a fluid-filled cavity. In a long-range survival study, treatment side effects seemed to be minimal, with normal rat behavior observed after electrochemotherapy. Our findings suggest that electrochemotherapy may offer a safe and effective new tool...
Integration of data validation and user interface concerns in a DSL for web applications

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Groenewegen, D.M.; Visser, E.

2009-01-01

This paper is a pre-print of: Danny M. Groenewegen, Eelco Visser. Integration of Data Validation and User Interface Concerns in a DSL for Web Applications. In Mark G. J. van den Brand, Jeff Gray, editors, Software Language Engineering, Second International Conference, SLE 2009, Denver, USA, October,
FACTAR validation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Middleton, P.B.; Wadsworth, S.L.; Rock, R.C.; Sills, H.E.; Langman, V.J.

1995-01-01

A detailed strategy to validate fuel channel thermal mechanical behaviour codes for use of current power reactor safety analysis is presented. The strategy is derived from a validation process that has been recently adopted industry wide. Focus of the discussion is on the validation plan for a code, FACTAR, for application in assessing fuel channel integrity safety concerns during a large break loss of coolant accident (LOCA). (author)
Validation of the Avoidance and Inflexibility Scale (AIS) among Treatment-Seeking Smoker

OpenAIRE

Farris, Samantha G.; Zvolensky, Michael J.; DiBello, Angelo M.; Schmidt, Norman B.

2015-01-01

The Avoidance and Inflexibility Scale (AIS; Gifford et al., 2004) was derived as smoking-specific measure of experiential avoidance. However, there has been little investigation of the psychometric proprieties of the AIS and no published work on the topic. The current study aimed to test the reliability and validity of the AIS among a sample of adult treatment-seeking daily smokers (n = 465; 48.1% female, 17.8 [SD = 9.60] cigarettes per day). The AIS was administered at three time points (Bas...
Description of the resonance treatment in WIMS-AECL

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Donnelly, J V

1993-05-01

The Stamm`ler resonance treatment as applied within the WIMS-AECL lattice cell code is described. The validation work demonstrating the accuracy of the resonance treatment is reviewed and indicates that the methods used will be accurate for the current range of application within AECL. (author). 22 refs., 6 tabs.
Quality data validation: Comprehensive approach to environmental data validation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matejka, L.A. Jr.

1993-01-01

Environmental data validation consists of an assessment of three major areas: analytical method validation; field procedures and documentation review; evaluation of the level of achievement of data quality objectives based in part on PARCC parameters analysis and expected applications of data. A program utilizing matrix association of required levels of validation effort and analytical levels versus applications of this environmental data was developed in conjunction with DOE-ID guidance documents to implement actions under the Federal Facilities Agreement and Consent Order in effect at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. This was an effort to bring consistent quality to the INEL-wide Environmental Restoration Program and database in an efficient and cost-effective manner. This program, documenting all phases of the review process, is described here
Testing instrument validity for LATE identification based on inequality moment constraints

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Huber, Martin; Mellace, Giovanni

2015-01-01

We derive testable implications of instrument validity in just identified treatment effect models with endogeneity and consider several tests. The identifying assumptions of the local average treatment effect allow us to both point identify and bound the mean potential outcomes (i) of the always...... takers under treatment and (ii) of the never takers under non-treatment. The point identified means must lie within their respective bounds, which provides us with four testable inequality moment constraints. Finally, we adapt our testing framework to the identification of distributional features....... A brief simulation study and an application to labor market data are also provided....
SOLAR ENERGY APPLICATION IN WASTE TREATMENT- A REVIEW

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This review is an exposure on the various ways that solar energy can be harnessed for numerous waste treatment processes. Almost all forms of waste treatment require energy which is scarcely available considering the global energy crisis. The objective of this study is to enumerate the solar energy applications in waste ...
Hanford Facility Dangerous Waste Permit Application, 200 Area Effluent Treatment Facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1993-08-01

The 200 Area Effluent Treatment Facility Dangerous Waste Permit Application documentation consists of both Part A and a Part B permit application documentation. An explanation of the Part A revisions associated with this treatment and storage unit, including the current revision, is provided at the beginning of the Part A section. Once the initial Hanford Facility Dangerous Waste Permit is issued, the following process will be used. As final, certified treatment, storage, and/or disposal unit-specific documents are developed, and completeness notifications are made by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington State Department of Ecology, additional unit-specific permit conditions will be incorporated into the Hanford Facility Dangerous Waste Permit through the permit modification process. All treatment, storage, and/or disposal units that are included in the Hanford Facility Dangerous Waste Permit Application will operate under interim status until final status conditions for these units are incorporated into the Hanford Facility Dangerous Waste Permit. The Hanford Facility Dangerous Waste Permit Application, 200 Area Effluent Treatment Facility contains information current as of May 1, 1993
Hanford Facility Dangerous Waste Permit Application, 200 Area Effluent Treatment Facility

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1993-08-01

The 200 Area Effluent Treatment Facility Dangerous Waste Permit Application documentation consists of both Part A and a Part B permit application documentation. An explanation of the Part A revisions associated with this treatment and storage unit, including the current revision, is provided at the beginning of the Part A section. Once the initial Hanford Facility Dangerous Waste Permit is issued, the following process will be used. As final, certified treatment, storage, and/or disposal unit-specific documents are developed, and completeness notifications are made by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington State Department of Ecology, additional unit-specific permit conditions will be incorporated into the Hanford Facility Dangerous Waste Permit through the permit modification process. All treatment, storage, and/or disposal units that are included in the Hanford Facility Dangerous Waste Permit Application will operate under interim status until final status conditions for these units are incorporated into the Hanford Facility Dangerous Waste Permit. The Hanford Facility Dangerous Waste Permit Application, 200 Area Effluent Treatment Facility contains information current as of May 1, 1993.
Biological Treatment of Drinking Water: Applications, Advantages and Disadvantages

Science.gov (United States)

The fundamentals of biological treatment are presented to an audience of state drinking water regulators. The presentation covers definitions, applications, the basics of bacterial metabolism, a discussion of treatment options, and the impact that implementation of these options...

Quantitative real-time PCR approaches for microbial community studies in wastewater treatment systems: applications and considerations.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Jaai; Lim, Juntaek; Lee, Changsoo

2013-12-01

Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) has been widely used in recent environmental microbial ecology studies as a tool for detecting and quantifying microorganisms of interest, which aids in better understandings of the complexity of wastewater microbial communities. Although qPCR can be used to provide more specific and accurate quantification than other molecular techniques, it does have limitations that must be considered when applying it in practice. This article reviews the principle of qPCR quantification and its applications to microbial ecology studies in various wastewater treatment environments. Here we also address several limitations of qPCR-based approaches that can affect the validity of quantification data: template nucleic acid quality, nucleic acid extraction efficiency, specificity of group-specific primers and probes, amplification of nonviable DNA, gene copy number variation, and limited number of sequences in the database. Even with such limitations, qPCR is reportedly among the best methods for quantitatively investigating environmental microbial communities. The application of qPCR is and will continue to be increasingly common in studies of wastewater treatment systems. To obtain reliable analyses, however, the limitations that have often been overlooked must be carefully considered when interpreting the results. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Feasibility, reliability, and validity of a smartphone based application for the assessment of cognitive function in the elderly.

Science.gov (United States)

Brouillette, Robert M; Foil, Heather; Fontenot, Stephanie; Correro, Anthony; Allen, Ray; Martin, Corby K; Bruce-Keller, Annadora J; Keller, Jeffrey N

2013-01-01

While considerable knowledge has been gained through the use of established cognitive and motor assessment tools, there is a considerable interest and need for the development of a battery of reliable and validated assessment tools that provide real-time and remote analysis of cognitive and motor function in the elderly. Smartphones appear to be an obvious choice for the development of these "next-generation" assessment tools for geriatric research, although to date no studies have reported on the use of smartphone-based applications for the study of cognition in the elderly. The primary focus of the current study was to assess the feasibility, reliability, and validity of a smartphone-based application for the assessment of cognitive function in the elderly. A total of 57 non-demented elderly individuals were administered a newly developed smartphone application-based Color-Shape Test (CST) in order to determine its utility in measuring cognitive processing speed in the elderly. Validity of this novel cognitive task was assessed by correlating performance on the CST with scores on widely accepted assessments of cognitive function. Scores on the CST were significantly correlated with global cognition (Mini-Mental State Exam: r = 0.515, psmartphone-based application for the purpose of assessing cognitive function in the elderly. The importance of these findings for the establishment of smartphone-based assessment batteries of cognitive and motor function in the elderly is discussed.
Design for validation: An approach to systems validation

Science.gov (United States)

Carter, William C.; Dunham, Janet R.; Laprie, Jean-Claude; Williams, Thomas; Howden, William; Smith, Brian; Lewis, Carl M. (Editor)

1989-01-01

Every complex system built is validated in some manner. Computer validation begins with review of the system design. As systems became too complicated for one person to review, validation began to rely on the application of adhoc methods by many individuals. As the cost of the changes mounted and the expense of failure increased, more organized procedures became essential. Attempts at devising and carrying out those procedures showed that validation is indeed a difficult technical problem. The successful transformation of the validation process into a systematic series of formally sound, integrated steps is necessary if the liability inherent in the future digita-system-based avionic and space systems is to be minimized. A suggested framework and timetable for the transformtion are presented. Basic working definitions of two pivotal ideas (validation and system life-cyle) are provided and show how the two concepts interact. Many examples are given of past and present validation activities by NASA and others. A conceptual framework is presented for the validation process. Finally, important areas are listed for ongoing development of the validation process at NASA Langley Research Center.
Treatment of TBI with Hormonal and Pharmacological Support, Preclinical Validation Using Diffuse and Mechanical TBI Animal Models

Science.gov (United States)

2016-05-01

Award Number: PT075653 (grant) W81XWH-08-2-0153 (contract) TITLE: Treatment of TBI with Hormonal and Pharmacological Support, Preclinical...TITLE AND SUBTITLE 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER W81XWH-08-2-0153 Treatment of TBI with Hormonal and Pharmacological Support, Preclinical Validation Using...rats. Our in vivo tests also included MRI imaging, focusing on edema resolution and reduction of diffuse axonal damage (fractional anisotropy
Application of hydrodynamic cavitation in ballast water treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Cvetković, Martina; Kompare, Boris; Klemenčič, Aleksandra Krivograd

2015-05-01

Ballast water is, together with hull fouling and aquaculture, considered the most important factor of the worldwide transfer of invasive non-indigenous organisms in aquatic ecosystems and the most important factor in European Union. With the aim of preventing and halting the spread of the transfer of invasive organisms in aquatic ecosystems and also in accordance with IMO's International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships Ballast Water and Sediments, the systems for ballast water treatment, whose work includes, e.g. chemical treatment, ozonation and filtration, are used. Although hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) is used in many different areas, such as science and engineering, implied acoustics, biomedicine, botany, chemistry and hydraulics, the application of HC in ballast water treatment area remains insufficiently researched. This paper presents the first literature review that studies lab- and large-scale setups for ballast water treatment together with the type-approved systems currently available on the market that use HC as a step in their operation. This paper deals with the possible advantages and disadvantages of such systems, as well as their influence on the crew and marine environment. It also analyses perspectives on the further development and application of HC in ballast water treatment.
Development and validation of a new questionnaire measuring treatment satisfaction in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation: SAFUCA®.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruiz, Miguel A; González-Porras, José Ramón; Aranguren, José Luis; Franco, Eduardo; Villasante, Fernando; Tuñón, José; González-López, Tomás José; de Salas-Cansado, Marina; Soto, Javier

2017-03-01

To develop a new questionnaire with good psychometric properties to measure satisfaction with medical care in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation. The initial instrument was composed of 37 items, arranged in 6 dimensions: efficacy, ease and convenience, impact on daily activities, satisfaction with medical care, undesired effects of medication, and overall satisfaction. Items and dimensions were extracted from reviewing existing instruments, 3 focus groups with chronic patients, and a panel of 8 experts. Additionally, 3 visual analog scales measuring quality of life, effectiveness, and overall satisfaction were administered. A convenience sample of 119 patients was used for item reduction. Classic psychometric theory and item analysis techniques were used (exploratory factor and confirmatory factor analysis, test-retest, and correlation with visual scales). A validation sample of 230 patients was used to assess convergent validity, and an additional 220 patients sample was used to discriminate between treatment and compliance groups. The questionnaire was reduced in length to 25 items, but the impact dimension had split in treatment inconvenience and treatment control. Overall reliability was high (α = 0.861) with acceptable dimensional reliabilities (α = 0.764-0.908). Individual dimensions correlated to varying degrees. Test-retest correlations were high (r = 0.784-0.965), and correlations with visual and already validated scales were substantial. Differences were detected between antivitamin K and new-oral-anticoagulant treatments in several dimensions (p satisfaction was related with compliance. This new 25-item questionnaire has good psychometric properties for measuring satisfaction with medical care in patients with this condition. It is capable of detecting differences between different treatments.
Psychometric validation of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-Endometrial Cancer Module (EORTC QLQ-EN24)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Greimel, Elfriede; Nordin, Andy; Lanceley, Anne

2011-01-01

A validation study was conducted to evaluate the psychometric properties of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire-Endometrial Cancer Module (EORTC QLQ-EN24). This module was designed to assess disease and treatment specific aspects of...... of the quality of life (QoL) of patients with endometrial cancer.......A validation study was conducted to evaluate the psychometric properties of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire-Endometrial Cancer Module (EORTC QLQ-EN24). This module was designed to assess disease and treatment specific aspects...
Validation of the Large Interface Method of NEPTUNE{sub C}FD 1.0.8 for Pressurized Thermal Shock (PTS) applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Coste, P., E-mail: pierre.coste@cea.fr [CEA, DEN, DER/SSTH, F-38054 Grenoble (France); Lavieville, J. [Electricite de France, Chatou (France); Pouvreau, J. [CEA, DEN, DER/SSTH, F-38054 Grenoble (France); Baudry, C.; Guingo, M.; Douce, A. [Electricite de France, Chatou (France)

2012-12-15

Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The two-phase Pressurized Thermal Shock (PTS) is a key thermohydraulics issue for PWR safety. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The dynamic and condensation models are firstly validated separately. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Then the global validation is done with the COSI experiment. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer All the calculations performed with the same set of models both in the Large Interface Method and in the k-{epsilon} approach for turbulence substantiate the application of the tool to PTS. - Abstract: NEPTUNE{sub C}FD is a code based on a 3D transient Eulerian two-fluid model. One of the main application targets is the two-phase Pressurized Thermal Shock (PTS), which is related to PWR Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) lifetime safety studies, when sub-cooled water from Emergency Core Cooling (ECC) system is injected into the possibly uncovered cold leg and penetrates into the RPV downcomer. Five experiments were selected for the validation, a selection reviewed by a panel of European experts. The dynamic models are validated with a co-current smooth and wavy air-water stratified flow in a rectangular channel with detailed measurements of turbulence and velocities. The condensation models are validated with a co-current smooth and wavy steam-water stratified flow in a rectangular channel with measurements of the steam flow rates. The dynamic models are validated in the situation of a jet impinging a pool free surface with two experiments dealing with a water jet impingement on a water pool free surface in air environment. Finally, all the models involved in the reactor conditions are validated with the COSI experiment. The calculations are done with the same set of Large Interface Method models and a RANS (k-{epsilon}) approach for turbulence. They substantiate the application of the tool to PTS studies.
Industrial waste treatment and application in rubber production

Science.gov (United States)

Pugacheva, I. N.; Popova, L. V.; Repin, P. S.; Molokanova, L. V.

2018-03-01

The paper provides for the relevance of various industrial waste treatment and application, as well as their secondary commercialization. It considers treatment of secondary polymer materials turning to additives applied in rubber production, in particular, in production of conveyor and V-type belts used in mechanical engineering. It is found that oligomers obtained from petroleum by-products can be used as an impregnating compound for fiber materials. Such adhesive treatment prior to introduction of impregnating compounds into elastomeric materials improves adhesion and complements performance of obtained composites.
Partial Treatment Requests and Underlying Motives of Applicants for Gender Affirming Interventions.

Science.gov (United States)

Beek, Titia F; Kreukels, Baudewijntje P C; Cohen-Kettenis, Peggy T; Steensma, Thomas D

2015-11-01

Historically, only individuals with a cross-gender identity who wanted to receive a full treatment, were eligible for "complete sex reassignment" consisting of feminizing/masculinizing hormone treatment and several surgical interventions including genital surgery (full treatment). Currently, it is unclear what motives underlie a request for hormones only or surgery only or a combination of hormones and surgery (e.g., a mastectomy), but no genital surgery (partial treatment). The aims of this study were (i) to describe treatment requests of applicants at a specialized gender identity clinic in the Netherlands; and (ii) to explore the motives underlying a partial treatment request, including the role of (non-binary) gender identity. Information was collected on all 386 adults who applied for treatment at the Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria of the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in the year 2013. Treatment requests were available for 360 individuals: 233 natal men (64.7%) and 127 natal women (35.3%). Treatment requests were systematically collected during assessment. Individuals were classified as either desiring a full or partial treatment. The motives behind a partial treatment request were collected and categorized as well. The majority of applicants at our gender identity clinic requested full treatment. Among those who requested partial treatment, the most reported underlying motive was surgical risks/outcomes. Only a small number of applicants requested partial treatment to bring their body into alignment with their non-binary gender identity. It becomes clear that partial treatment is requested by a substantial number of applicants. This emphasizes the need for gender identity clinics to provide information about the medical possibilities and limitations, and careful introduction and evaluation of non-standard treatment options. © 2015 International Society for Sexual Medicine.
Efficacy and tolerance of the topical application of potassium hydroxide (10% and 15%) in the treatment of molluscum contagiosum: randomized clinical trial: research protocol.

Science.gov (United States)

Marsal, Josep R; Cruz, Ines; Teixido, Concepcio; Diez, Olga; Martinez, Mireia; Galindo, Gisela; Real, Jordi; Schoenenberger, Joan A; Pera, Helena

2011-10-19

Molluscum contagiosum is a non-severe pediatric viral infection. Because it is highly contagious and current treatments have negative aesthetic and psychological effects, we want to test an alternative treatment in the primary care setting, consisting of two different concentrations of potassium hydroxide solution. The study design is a double-blind, randomized clinical trial, using three types of topical treatment. The treatment consist of daily applications of potassium hydroxide (KOH) in aqueous solution at 10% and 15% concentration, and a placebo administered in the control group. Four follow-up visits (at 15, 30, 45 and 60 days) are planned to evaluate treatment effectiveness and patient tolerance. The main outcome measure of the trial will be the healing rate, defined as lesion disappearance in the affected zones after the topic application of the experimental treatment. Secondary measures will be the principal characteristics and evolution of the affected zone (surface area, number of lesions, size and density of lesions), treatment tolerance (hyperpigmentation, itching, burning, pain), recurrence rate and the natural evolution of lesions in the control group. KOH can potentially be an effective and safe treatment for MC in primary care, and can also reduce referrals to dermatologists and hospital pediatric departments. In addition, KOH may be a valid and less expensive alternative to current invasive treatments (surgical excision).
Materials surface treatments by concentrated solar light: a renewable energy option

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martinez, D.; Rodriguez, J.

1998-01-01

The possible applications of solar furnaces to materials surface treatment are explained in an illustrative manner. A brief description of these systems is exposed, as well as an overview of the feasible industrial or testing applications for which their validity has been proven. (Author) 5 refs
Nonthermal effects in thermal treatment applications of nonionizing irradiation

Science.gov (United States)

Thomsen, Sharon

2005-04-01

Several non-thermal factors influence the primary and secondary effects of interstitial thermal treatments using various types of non-ionizing irradiation. Recognition and understanding of the influences of these various factors are important in choice of energy source, the configuration of the application instrument and the design of treatments.
Optimization, validation and application of UV-Vis spectrophotometric-colorimetric methods for determination of trimethoprim in different medicinal products

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Goran Stojković

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Two simple, sensitive, selective, precise, and accurate methods for determination of trimethoprim in different sulfonamide formulations intended for use in human and veterinary medicine were optimized and validated. The methods are based on the trimethoprim reaction with bromcresol green (BCG and 2,4-dinitro-1-fluorobenzene (DNFB. As extraction solvents we used 10 % N,N-dimethylacetamide in methanol and acetone for both methods, respectively. The colored products are quantified applying visible spectrophotometry at their corresponding absorption maxima. The methods were validated for linearity, sensitivity, accuracy, and precision. We tested the method applicability on four different medicinal products in tablet and powder forms containing sulfametrole and sulfamethoxazole in combination with trimethoprim. The results revealed that both methods are equally accurate with recoveries within the range 95-105 %. The obtained between-day precision for both methods, when applied on four different medicinal products, was within in the range 1.08-3.20 %. By applying the F-statistical test (P<0.05, it was concluded that for three medicinal products tested both methods are applicable with statistically insignificant difference in precision. The optimized and validated BCG and DNFB methods could find application in routine quality control of trimethoprim in various formulation forms, at different concentration levels, and in combination with different sulfonamides.
The Development and Full-Scale Experimental Validation of an Optimal Water Treatment Solution in Improving Chiller Performances

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Chen-Yu Chiang

2016-06-01

Full Text Available An optimal solution, in combining physical and chemical water treatment methods, has been developed. This method uses a high voltage capacitance based (HVCB electrodes, coupled with biocides to form a sustainable solution in improving chiller plant performances. In this study, the industrial full-scale tests, instead of laboratory tests, have been conducted on chiller plants at the size of 5000 RT to 10,000 RT cooling capacities under commercial operation for more than two years. The experimental results indicated that the condenser approach temperatures can be maintained at below 1 °C for over two years. It has been validated that the coefficient of performance (COP of a chiller can be improved by over 5% by implementing this solution. Every 1 °C reduction in condenser approach temperature can yield approximately 3% increase on chiller COP, which warrants its future application potential in the HVAC industry, where Ta can degrade by 1 °C every three to six months. The solution developed in this study could also reduce chemical dosages and conserve makeup water substantially and is more environment friendly.
Calibration and validation of coarse-grained models of atomic systems: application to semiconductor manufacturing

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Farrell, Kathryn; Oden, J. Tinsley

2014-07-01

Coarse-grained models of atomic systems, created by aggregating groups of atoms into molecules to reduce the number of degrees of freedom, have been used for decades in important scientific and technological applications. In recent years, interest in developing a more rigorous theory for coarse graining and in assessing the predictivity of coarse-grained models has arisen. In this work, Bayesian methods for the calibration and validation of coarse-grained models of atomistic systems in thermodynamic equilibrium are developed. For specificity, only configurational models of systems in canonical ensembles are considered. Among major challenges in validating coarse-grained models are (1) the development of validation processes that lead to information essential in establishing confidence in the model's ability predict key quantities of interest and (2), above all, the determination of the coarse-grained model itself; that is, the characterization of the molecular architecture, the choice of interaction potentials and thus parameters, which best fit available data. The all-atom model is treated as the "ground truth," and it provides the basis with respect to which properties of the coarse-grained model are compared. This base all-atom model is characterized by an appropriate statistical mechanics framework in this work by canonical ensembles involving only configurational energies. The all-atom model thus supplies data for Bayesian calibration and validation methods for the molecular model. To address the first challenge, we develop priors based on the maximum entropy principle and likelihood functions based on Gaussian approximations of the uncertainties in the parameter-to-observation error. To address challenge (2), we introduce the notion of model plausibilities as a means for model selection. This methodology provides a powerful approach toward constructing coarse-grained models which are most plausible for given all-atom data. We demonstrate the theory and
Positive Response Distortion by Police Officer Applicants: Association of Paulhus Deception Scales with MMPI-2 and Inwald Personality Inventory Validity Scales

Science.gov (United States)

Detrick, Paul; Chibnall, John T.

2008-01-01

Interpretation of positive response distortion (socially desirable responding) in employment evaluations is an important validity issue. This study of police officer applicants examined the construct validity of the Paulhus Deception Scales (PDS)--Moralistic Bias (MB; exaggerated adjustment/agreeableness) and Egoistic Bias (EB; exaggerated…
Grout Treatment Facility dangerous waste permit application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1992-07-01

The Grout Treatment Facility (GTF) is an existing treatment, storage, and/or disposal (TSD) unit located in the 200 East Area and the adjacent 600 Area of the Hanford Site. The GTF mixes dry cementitious solids with liquid mixed waste (containing both dangerous and radioactive constituents) produced by Hanford Site operations. The GTF consists of the following: The 241-AP-02D and 241-AP-04D waste pump pits and transfer piping; Dry Materials Facility (DMF); Grout Disposal Facility (GDF), consisting of the disposal vault and support and monitoring equipment; and Grout Processing Facility (GPF) and Westinghouse Hanford Company on the draft Hanford Facility Dangerous Waste Permit and may not be read to conflict with those comments. The Grout Treatment Facility Dangerous Waste Permit Application consists of both a Part A and a Part B permit application. An explanation of the Part A revisions associated with this TSD unit, including the current revision, is provided at the beginning of the Part A section. The Part B consists of 15 chapters addressing the organization and content of the Part B checklist prepared by the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology 1987). For ease of reference, the checklist section numbers, in brackets, follow chapter headings and subheadings
Using digital photography in a clinical setting: a valid, accurate, and applicable method to assess food intake.

Science.gov (United States)

Winzer, Eva; Luger, Maria; Schindler, Karin

2018-06-01

Regular monitoring of food intake is hardly integrated in clinical routine. Therefore, the aim was to examine the validity, accuracy, and applicability of an appropriate and also quick and easy-to-use tool for recording food intake in a clinical setting. Two digital photography methods, the postMeal method with a picture after the meal, the pre-postMeal method with a picture before and after the meal, and the visual estimation method (plate diagram; PD) were compared against the reference method (weighed food records; WFR). A total of 420 dishes from lunch (7 weeks) were estimated with both photography methods and the visual method. Validity, applicability, accuracy, and precision of the estimation methods, and additionally food waste, macronutrient composition, and energy content were examined. Tests of validity revealed stronger correlations for photography methods (postMeal: r = 0.971, p < 0.001; pre-postMeal: r = 0.995, p < 0.001) compared to the visual estimation method (r = 0.810; p < 0.001). The pre-postMeal method showed smaller variability (bias < 1 g) and also smaller overestimation and underestimation. This method accurately and precisely estimated portion sizes in all food items. Furthermore, the total food waste was 22% for lunch over the study period. The highest food waste was observed in salads and the lowest in desserts. The pre-postMeal digital photography method is valid, accurate, and applicable in monitoring food intake in clinical setting, which enables a quantitative and qualitative dietary assessment. Thus, nutritional care might be initiated earlier. This method might be also advantageous for quantitative and qualitative evaluation of food waste, with a resultantly reduction in costs.
Implementation of the validation testing in MPPG 5.a "Commissioning and QA of treatment planning dose calculations-megavoltage photon and electron beams".

Science.gov (United States)

Jacqmin, Dustin J; Bredfeldt, Jeremy S; Frigo, Sean P; Smilowitz, Jennifer B

2017-01-01

The AAPM Medical Physics Practice Guideline (MPPG) 5.a provides concise guidance on the commissioning and QA of beam modeling and dose calculation in radiotherapy treatment planning systems. This work discusses the implementation of the validation testing recommended in MPPG 5.a at two institutions. The two institutions worked collaboratively to create a common set of treatment fields and analysis tools to deliver and analyze the validation tests. This included the development of a novel, open-source software tool to compare scanning water tank measurements to 3D DICOM-RT Dose distributions. Dose calculation algorithms in both Pinnacle and Eclipse were tested with MPPG 5.a to validate the modeling of Varian TrueBeam linear accelerators. The validation process resulted in more than 200 water tank scans and more than 50 point measurements per institution, each of which was compared to a dose calculation from the institution's treatment planning system (TPS). Overall, the validation testing recommended in MPPG 5.a took approximately 79 person-hours for a machine with four photon and five electron energies for a single TPS. Of the 79 person-hours, 26 person-hours required time on the machine, and the remainder involved preparation and analysis. The basic photon, electron, and heterogeneity correction tests were evaluated with the tolerances in MPPG 5.a, and the tolerances were met for all tests. The MPPG 5.a evaluation criteria were used to assess the small field and IMRT/VMAT validation tests. Both institutions found the use of MPPG 5.a to be a valuable resource during the commissioning process. The validation testing in MPPG 5.a showed the strengths and limitations of the TPS models. In addition, the data collected during the validation testing is useful for routine QA of the TPS, validation of software upgrades, and commissioning of new algorithms. © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of

Withholding and withdrawing treatment: practical applications of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Withholding and withdrawing treatment: practical applications of ethical principles in end-of-life care. L Gwyther. Abstract. No Abstract South African Journal of Bioethics and Law Vol. 1 (1) 2008: pp. 24-26. Full Text: EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT · DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT.
Validation of CFD models for hydrogen safety application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nikolaeva, Anna; Skibin, Alexander; Krutikov, Alexey; Golibrodo, Luka; Volkov, Vasiliy; Nechaev, Artem; Nadinskiy, Yuriy

2015-01-01

Most accidents involving hydrogen begin with its leakage and spreading in the air and spontaneous detonation, which is accompanied by fire or deflagration of hydrogen mixture with heat and /or shocks, which may cause harm to life and equipment. Outflow of hydrogen in a confined volume and its propagation in the volume is the worst option because of the impact of the insularity on the process of detonation. According to the safety requirements for handling hydrogen specialized systems (ventilation, sprinklers, burners etc.) are required for maintaining the hydrogen concentration less than the critical value, to eliminate the possibility of detonation and flame propagation. In this study, a simulation of helium propagation in a confined space with different methods of injection and ventilation of helium is presented, which is used as a safe replacement of hydrogen in experimental studies. Five experiments were simulated in the range from laminar to developed turbulent with different Froude numbers, which determine the regime of the helium outflow in the air. The processes of stratification and erosion of helium stratified layer were investigated. The study includes some results of OECD/NEA-PSI PANDA benchmark and some results of Gamelan project. An analysis of applicability of various turbulence models, which are used to close the system of equations of momentum transport, implemented in the commercial codes STAR CD, STAR CCM+, ANSYS CFX, was conducted for different mesh types (polyhedral and hexahedral). A comparison of computational studies results with experimental data showed a good agreement. In particular, for transition and turbulent regimes the error of the numerical results lies in the range from 5 to 15% for all turbulence models considered. This indicates applicability of the methods considered for some hydrogen safety problems. However, it should be noted that more validation research should be made to use CFD in Hydrogen safety applications with a wide
SU-E-T-611: Effective Treatment Volume of the Small Size IORT Applicators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krechetov, A.S.; Goer, D.A.

2014-01-01

Purpose Mobile electron linear accelerators are gaining more attention recently, providing a lower cost and simpler way to perform intraoperative treatment. However, the simplicity of the treatment process does not eliminate the need for proper attention to the technical aspects of the treatment. One of the potential pitfalls is incorrect selection of the appropriate applicator size to adequately cover the tumor bed to the prescription dose. When treating tumor beds in the pelvis, the largest applicator that fits into the pelvis is usually selected as there is concern about microscopic extension of the disease along the sidewalls of the pelvis. But when treating early stage breast tumors, there is a natural tendency to select an applicator as small as possible so as not to jeopardize cosmesis. Methods This investigation questions how much of the typical breast treatment volume gets adequate exposure and what is the correct strategy in selecting the proper applicator size. Actual data from isodose scans were analyzed. Results We found that typical treatment dose prescriptions can cover as much as 80% and as little as 20% of the nominal treatment volume depending on the applicator size and energy of the beam and whether the dose is prescribed to the 80 or 90% isodose level. Treatment volume is defined as a cylinder with diameter equal to applicator and height equal to the corresponding D80 or D90 depth. Conclusion If mobile linear accelerators are used, there can be significant amount of “cold volume” depending on the applicator size and this should be taken into account when selecting the applicator that is needed. Using too small of an applicator could result in significant under-dosing to the tissue at risk. Long-term clinical data demonstrates that selecting an adequate field size results in good ontological control as well as excellent cosmesis. Intraop Medical Corp was providing facilities and equipment for this research
NCTPlan. The new PC version of MacNCTPlan improvements and validation of the treatment planning system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gonzalez, S.J.; Santa Cruz, Gustavo A.; Yam, C.S.

2003-01-01

Full text: The treatment planning system that has been used routinely in phase-I clinical trials of BNCT at Harvard/MIT consists of the MacNCTPlan interactive planning software coupled to the MCNP 4B Monte Carlo radiation transport code. The physical and mathematical principles of MacNCTPlan as well as its architecture, operation and application have been previously described elsewhere. The use of this software in clinical trials together with a detailed analysis of the code led to the identification of some limitations and deficiencies. The motivation for this PC version, Neutron Capture Therapy Planning, relies basically in two major reasons: the need to integrate the different steps for making a plan and the need to improve some features of the Macintosh version. NCTPlan aims to reproduce all the features and capabilities present in the Macintosh version. Working on this, some deficiencies were corrected and several changes in the interface were performed in order to provide a more friendly and reliable program. Among the changes intended to facilitate the treatment planning process, the most important are the integration of the auxiliary program MPREP to NCTPlan and a great improvement in the visualization of isodose contours. NCTPlan has the ability to show the isodose distributions superimposed on two orthogonal planes of the CT volume, these planes being updated in real time as the orientation of the planes is changed. The major modifications to the mathematical algorithms concerned the material assignment in the geometric model, dose distribution calculations and three-dimensional dose-volume histogram (DVH) derivation. Therefore, NCTPlan provides a user-friendly interface thanks to the integration of the different steps involved in treatment planning. Complete control of the MCNP radiation transport code is under study. Cross-validation of NCTPlan against reference calculations made apparent the improvements performed on the mathematical algorithms
Heterogeneous Photocatalysis: Fundamentals and Application for Treatment of Polluted Air

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Tomašić, V.

2011-07-01

the photocatalytic degradation of organic compounds is generally more efficient in the gas phase than in the liquid phase, and the fact that the treatment cost may be significantly lower than that of the water phase photocatalytic treatment, the scientific interest has shifted towards the application of photocatalysis for air treatment. This paper describes the basics of heterogeneous photocatalysis, mainly on TiO2 and the application of photocatalytic processes for air treatment purposes. Review of more interesting practical application of heterogeneous photocatalysis for the treatment of polluted air is presented. Special efforts are made to describe the technical aspects of the photocatalytic processes and to characterize different photocatalytic reactors in use for air treatment.
PRE-FEASIBILITY STUDY FOR TREATMENT WETLAND APPLICATION FOR WASTEWATER TREATMENT IN DISPERSED DEVELOPMENT

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Magdalena Gajewska

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The aim of the paper is to present the conducted analyses of pre-feasibility study of different approaches for wastewater management in a settlement of 180 persons. In the assessment both technical and economic aspects were analyzed. The costs were calculated for three different and, at the same time, most popular as well as possible technical solutions like: (i construction of local wastewater treatment plant with gravitational and pressurized networks, (ii construction of single family wastewater treatment plants, (iii construction of sealed septic tanks. Carried out analyses of investment and maintenance costs revealed that at the stage of construction the most expensive is local sewer network with treatment plant, while the construction of a single family treatment plant has similar cost regardless of the technology used. When the long term operation and investment cost are accounted the most economical reasonable solution is the application of wetland treatment for household wastewater treatment.
Automated identification of wound information in clinical notes of patients with heart diseases: Developing and validating a natural language processing application.

Science.gov (United States)

Topaz, Maxim; Lai, Kenneth; Dowding, Dawn; Lei, Victor J; Zisberg, Anna; Bowles, Kathryn H; Zhou, Li

2016-12-01

Electronic health records are being increasingly used by nurses with up to 80% of the health data recorded as free text. However, only a few studies have developed nursing-relevant tools that help busy clinicians to identify information they need at the point of care. This study developed and validated one of the first automated natural language processing applications to extract wound information (wound type, pressure ulcer stage, wound size, anatomic location, and wound treatment) from free text clinical notes. First, two human annotators manually reviewed a purposeful training sample (n=360) and random test sample (n=1100) of clinical notes (including 50% discharge summaries and 50% outpatient notes), identified wound cases, and created a gold standard dataset. We then trained and tested our natural language processing system (known as MTERMS) to process the wound information. Finally, we assessed our automated approach by comparing system-generated findings against the gold standard. We also compared the prevalence of wound cases identified from free-text data with coded diagnoses in the structured data. The testing dataset included 101 notes (9.2%) with wound information. The overall system performance was good (F-measure is a compiled measure of system's accuracy=92.7%), with best results for wound treatment (F-measure=95.7%) and poorest results for wound size (F-measure=81.9%). Only 46.5% of wound notes had a structured code for a wound diagnosis. The natural language processing system achieved good performance on a subset of randomly selected discharge summaries and outpatient notes. In more than half of the wound notes, there were no coded wound diagnoses, which highlight the significance of using natural language processing to enrich clinical decision making. Our future steps will include expansion of the application's information coverage to other relevant wound factors and validation of the model with external data. Copyright Â© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All
Validation of physics and thermalhydraulic computer codes for advanced Candu reactor applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wren, D.J.; Popov, N.; Snell, V.G.

2004-01-01

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) is developing an Advanced Candu Reactor (ACR) that is an evolutionary advancement of the currently operating Candu 6 reactors. The ACR is being designed to produce electrical power for a capital cost and at a unit-energy cost significantly less than that of the current reactor designs. The ACR retains the modular Candu concept of horizontal fuel channels surrounded by a heavy water moderator. However, ACR uses slightly enriched uranium fuel compared to the natural uranium used in Candu 6. This achieves the twin goals of improved economics (via large reductions in the heavy water moderator volume and replacement of the heavy water coolant with light water coolant) and improved safety. AECL has developed and implemented a software quality assurance program to ensure that its analytical, scientific and design computer codes meet the required standards for software used in safety analyses. Since the basic design of the ACR is equivalent to that of the Candu 6, most of the key phenomena associated with the safety analyses of ACR are common, and the Candu industry standard tool-set of safety analysis codes can be applied to the analysis of the ACR. A systematic assessment of computer code applicability addressing the unique features of the ACR design was performed covering the important aspects of the computer code structure, models, constitutive correlations, and validation database. Arising from this assessment, limited additional requirements for code modifications and extensions to the validation databases have been identified. This paper provides an outline of the AECL software quality assurance program process for the validation of computer codes used to perform physics and thermal-hydraulics safety analyses of the ACR. It describes the additional validation work that has been identified for these codes and the planned, and ongoing, experimental programs to extend the code validation as required to address specific ACR design
Validation and application of help code used for design and review of cover of low and intermediate level radioactive waste disposal in near-surface facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fan Zhiwen; Gu Cunli; Zhang Jinsheng; Liu Xiuzhen

1996-01-01

The authors describes validation and application of HELP code used by the United States Environmental Protective Agency for design and review of cover of low and intermediate level radioactive waste disposal in near-surface facilities. The HELP code was validated using data of field aerated moisture movement test by China Institute for Radiation Protection. The results show that simulation of HELP code is reasonable. Effects of surface layer thickness and surface treatment on moisture distribution in a cover was simulated with HELP code in the conditions of south-west China. The simulation results demonstrated that surface plantation of a cover plays very important role in moisture distribution in the cover. Special attention should be paid in cover design. In humid area, radioactive waste disposal safety should take full consideration with functions of chemical barrier. It was recommended that engineering economy should be added in future cover research so as to achieve optimization of cover design
Beliefs about surgery: Development and validation of an instrument to assess cognitive representations about surgery, in the context of a chronic illness.

Science.gov (United States)

Francis, Jillian J; Wileman, Samantha M; Bekker, Hilary; Barton, Garry R; Ramsay, Craig R

2009-12-01

Within a trial of medical and surgical treatments for gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GORD), involving randomised arms and preference arms, we tested the applicability of the Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ) and developed and tested the validity of a new Beliefs about Surgery Questionnaire (BSQ). Patients with GORD (N = 43) were interviewed to elicit their beliefs about medical and surgical treatments. These contributed to the development of BSQ items. The BMQ and BSQ were completed by trial participants at baseline (randomised trial: N = 325; preference trial: N = 414). Factor analysis and discriminant function analysis were used to assess validity. Principal components analysis (PCA) largely replicated the four-factor BMQ structure. PCA of the combined BMQ/BSQ yielded six factors explaining 54.5% variance. BSQ items loaded onto distinct factors, demonstrating divergence from BMQ. As predicted, BMQ/BSQ scores enabled correct classification of 78.5% of participants to medication and surgery groups in the preference trial (chi(2)(6) = 205.9, p valid measure of perceptions about surgical treatments for GORD. With the BMQ, it provides information that may guide patients' choices about treatment. This measure may be applicable to other conditions.
Cell Uptake and Validation of Novel PECs for Biomedical Applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Palamà, Ilaria E; Musarò, Mariarosaria; Coluccia, Addolorata M L; D'Amone, Stefania; Gigli, Giuseppe

2011-01-01

This pilot study provides the proof of principle for biomedical application of novel polyelectrolyte complexes (PECs) obtained via electrostatic interactions between dextran sulphate (DXS) and poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) showed that DXS/PAH polyelectrolyte complexes were Monodispersed with regular rounded-shape features and average diameters of 250 nm at 2 : 1 weight ratios of DXS/PAH. Fluorescently labelled DXS and fluorescein-isothiocyanate- (FITC-)conjugate DXS were used to follow cell uptake efficiency of PECs and biodegradability of their enzymatically degradable DXS-layers by using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). Moreover, quantitative MTT and Trypan Blue assays were employed to validate PECs as feasible and safe nanoscaled carriers at single-cell level without adverse effects on metabolism and viability.
Cell Uptake and Validation of Novel PECs for Biomedical Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ilaria E. Palamà

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This pilot study provides the proof of principle for biomedical application of novel polyelectrolyte complexes (PECs obtained via electrostatic interactions between dextran sulphate (DXS and poly(allylamine hydrochloride (PAH. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM and atomic force microscopy (AFM showed that DXS/PAH polyelectrolyte complexes were Monodispersed with regular rounded-shape features and average diameters of 250 nm at 2 : 1 weight ratios of DXS/PAH. Fluorescently labelled DXS and fluorescein-isothiocyanate- (FITC-conjugate DXS were used to follow cell uptake efficiency of PECs and biodegradability of their enzymatically degradable DXS-layers by using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM. Moreover, quantitative MTT and Trypan Blue assays were employed to validate PECs as feasible and safe nanoscaled carriers at single-cell level without adverse effects on metabolism and viability.
TU-D-201-05: Validation of Treatment Planning Dose Calculations: Experience Working with MPPG 5.a

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Xue, J; Park, J; Kim, L; Wang, C [MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper, Camden, NJ (United States); Balter, P; Ohrt, J; Kirsner, S; Ibbott, G [UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX (United States)

2016-06-15

Purpose: Newly published medical physics practice guideline (MPPG 5.a.) has set the minimum requirements for commissioning and QA of treatment planning dose calculations. We present our experience in the validation of a commercial treatment planning system based on MPPG 5.a. Methods: In addition to tests traditionally performed to commission a model-based dose calculation algorithm, extensive tests were carried out at short and extended SSDs, various depths, oblique gantry angles and off-axis conditions to verify the robustness and limitations of a dose calculation algorithm. A comparison between measured and calculated dose was performed based on validation tests and evaluation criteria recommended by MPPG 5.a. An ion chamber was used for the measurement of dose at points of interest, and diodes were used for photon IMRT/VMAT validations. Dose profiles were measured with a three-dimensional scanning system and calculated in the TPS using a virtual water phantom. Results: Calculated and measured absolute dose profiles were compared at each specified SSD and depth for open fields. The disagreement is easily identifiable with the difference curve. Subtle discrepancy has revealed the limitation of the measurement, e.g., a spike at the high dose region and an asymmetrical penumbra observed on the tests with an oblique MLC beam. The excellent results we had (> 98% pass rate on 3%/3mm gamma index) on the end-to-end tests for both IMRT and VMAT are attributed to the quality beam data and the good understanding of the modeling. The limitation of the model and the uncertainty of measurement were considered when comparing the results. Conclusion: The extensive tests recommended by the MPPG encourage us to understand the accuracy and limitations of a dose algorithm as well as the uncertainty of measurement. Our experience has shown how the suggested tests can be performed effectively to validate dose calculation models.
Efficacy and tolerance of the topical application of potassium hydroxide (10% and 15% in the treatment of molluscum contagiosum: Randomized clinical trial: Research protocol

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Galindo Gisela

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Molluscum contagiosum is a non-severe pediatric viral infection. Because it is highly contagious and current treatments have negative aesthetic and psychological effects, we want to test an alternative treatment in the primary care setting, consisting of two different concentrations of potassium hydroxide solution. Methods/design The study design is a double-blind, randomized clinical trial, using three types of topical treatment. The treatment consist of daily applications of potassium hydroxide (KOH in aqueous solution at 10% and 15% concentration, and a placebo administered in the control group. Four follow-up visits (at 15, 30, 45 and 60 days are planned to evaluate treatment effectiveness and patient tolerance. The main outcome measure of the trial will be the healing rate, defined as lesion disappearance in the affected zones after the topic application of the experimental treatment. Secondary measures will be the principal characteristics and evolution of the affected zone (surface area, number of lesions, size and density of lesions, treatment tolerance (hyperpigmentation, itching, burning, pain, recurrence rate and the natural evolution of lesions in the control group. Discussion KOH can potentially be an effective and safe treatment for MC in primary care, and can also reduce referrals to dermatologists and hospital pediatric departments. In addition, KOH may be a valid and less expensive alternative to current invasive treatments (surgical excision. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01348386
Feasibility, reliability, and validity of a smartphone based application for the assessment of cognitive function in the elderly.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robert M Brouillette

Full Text Available While considerable knowledge has been gained through the use of established cognitive and motor assessment tools, there is a considerable interest and need for the development of a battery of reliable and validated assessment tools that provide real-time and remote analysis of cognitive and motor function in the elderly. Smartphones appear to be an obvious choice for the development of these "next-generation" assessment tools for geriatric research, although to date no studies have reported on the use of smartphone-based applications for the study of cognition in the elderly. The primary focus of the current study was to assess the feasibility, reliability, and validity of a smartphone-based application for the assessment of cognitive function in the elderly. A total of 57 non-demented elderly individuals were administered a newly developed smartphone application-based Color-Shape Test (CST in order to determine its utility in measuring cognitive processing speed in the elderly. Validity of this novel cognitive task was assessed by correlating performance on the CST with scores on widely accepted assessments of cognitive function. Scores on the CST were significantly correlated with global cognition (Mini-Mental State Exam: r = 0.515, p<0.0001 and multiple measures of processing speed and attention (Digit Span: r = 0.427, p<0.0001; Trail Making Test: r = -0.651, p<0.00001; Digit Symbol Test: r = 0.508, p<0.0001. The CST was not correlated with naming and verbal fluency tasks (Boston Naming Test, Vegetable/Animal Naming or memory tasks (Logical Memory Test. Test re-test reliability was observed to be significant (r = 0.726; p = 0.02. Together, these data are the first to demonstrate the feasibility, reliability, and validity of using a smartphone-based application for the purpose of assessing cognitive function in the elderly. The importance of these findings for the establishment of smartphone-based assessment batteries
Inorganic Membranes: Preparation and Application for Water Treatment and Desalination

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmad Kayvani Fard

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Inorganic membrane science and technology is an attractive field of membrane separation technology, which has been dominated by polymer membranes. Recently, the inorganic membrane has been undergoing rapid development and innovation. Inorganic membranes have the advantage of resisting harsh chemical cleaning, high temperature and wear resistance, high chemical stability, long lifetime, and autoclavable. All of these outstanding properties made inorganic membranes good candidates to be used for water treatment and desalination applications. This paper is a state of the art review on the synthesis, development, and application of different inorganic membranes for water and wastewater treatment. The inorganic membranes reviewed in this paper include liquid membranes, dynamic membranes, various ceramic membranes, carbon based membranes, silica membranes, and zeolite membranes. A brief description of the different synthesis routes for the development of inorganic membranes for application in water industry is given and each synthesis rout is critically reviewed and compared. Thereafter, the recent studies on different application of inorganic membrane and their properties for water treatment and desalination in literature are critically summarized. It was reported that inorganic membranes despite their high synthesis cost, showed very promising results with high flux, full salt rejection, and very low or no fouling.
Inorganic Membranes: Preparation and Application for Water Treatment and Desalination

Science.gov (United States)

McKay, Gordon; Buekenhoudt, Anita; Motmans, Filip; Khraisheh, Marwan; Atieh, Muataz

2018-01-01

Inorganic membrane science and technology is an attractive field of membrane separation technology, which has been dominated by polymer membranes. Recently, the inorganic membrane has been undergoing rapid development and innovation. Inorganic membranes have the advantage of resisting harsh chemical cleaning, high temperature and wear resistance, high chemical stability, long lifetime, and autoclavable. All of these outstanding properties made inorganic membranes good candidates to be used for water treatment and desalination applications. This paper is a state of the art review on the synthesis, development, and application of different inorganic membranes for water and wastewater treatment. The inorganic membranes reviewed in this paper include liquid membranes, dynamic membranes, various ceramic membranes, carbon based membranes, silica membranes, and zeolite membranes. A brief description of the different synthesis routes for the development of inorganic membranes for application in water industry is given and each synthesis rout is critically reviewed and compared. Thereafter, the recent studies on different application of inorganic membrane and their properties for water treatment and desalination in literature are critically summarized. It was reported that inorganic membranes despite their high synthesis cost, showed very promising results with high flux, full salt rejection, and very low or no fouling. PMID:29304024
Validation suite for MCNP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mosteller, Russell D.

2002-01-01

Two validation suites, one for criticality and another for radiation shielding, have been defined and tested for the MCNP Monte Carlo code. All of the cases in the validation suites are based on experiments so that calculated and measured results can be compared in a meaningful way. The cases in the validation suites are described, and results from those cases are discussed. For several years, the distribution package for the MCNP Monte Carlo code1 has included an installation test suite to verify that MCNP has been installed correctly. However, the cases in that suite have been constructed primarily to test options within the code and to execute quickly. Consequently, they do not produce well-converged answers, and many of them are physically unrealistic. To remedy these deficiencies, sets of validation suites are being defined and tested for specific types of applications. All of the cases in the validation suites are based on benchmark experiments. Consequently, the results from the measurements are reliable and quantifiable, and calculated results can be compared with them in a meaningful way. Currently, validation suites exist for criticality and radiation-shielding applications.
Nonparametric model validations for hidden Markov models with applications in financial econometrics.

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Zhao, Zhibiao

2011-06-01

We address the nonparametric model validation problem for hidden Markov models with partially observable variables and hidden states. We achieve this goal by constructing a nonparametric simultaneous confidence envelope for transition density function of the observable variables and checking whether the parametric density estimate is contained within such an envelope. Our specification test procedure is motivated by a functional connection between the transition density of the observable variables and the Markov transition kernel of the hidden states. Our approach is applicable for continuous time diffusion models, stochastic volatility models, nonlinear time series models, and models with market microstructure noise.
Applicability of Solid Solution Heat Treatments to Aluminum Foams

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miguel Rodríguez-Pérez

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Present research work evaluates the influence of both density and size on the treatability of Aluminum-based (6000 series foam-parts subjected to a typical solid solution heat treatment (water quenching. The results are compared with those obtained for the bulk alloy, evaluating the fulfilment of cooling requirements. Density of the foams was modeled by tomography analysis and the thermal properties calculated, based on validated density-scaled models. With this basis, cooling velocity maps during water quenching were predicted by finite element modeling (FEM in which boundary conditions were obtained by solving the inverse heat conduction problem. Simulations under such conditions have been validated experimentally. Obtained results address incomplete matrix hardening for foam-parts bigger than 70 mm in diameter with a density below 650 kg/m3. An excellent agreement has been found in between the predicted cooling maps and final measured microhardness profiles.

Engineered nanomaterials for water treatment and remediation: Costs, benefits, and applicability

OpenAIRE

Adeleye, AS; Conway, JR; Garner, K; Huang, Y; Su, Y; Keller, AA

2016-01-01

© 2015 Elsevier B.V. The application of nanotechnology in drinking water treatment and pollution cleanup is promising, as demonstrated by a number of field-based (pilot and full scale) and bench scale studies. A number of reviews exist for these nanotechnology-based applications; but to better illustrate its importance and guide its development, a direct comparison between traditional treatment technologies and emerging approaches using nanotechnology is needed. In this review, the performanc...
Fractional ablative carbon dioxide laser followed by topical sodium stibogluconate application: A treatment option for pediatric cutaneous leishmaniasis.

Science.gov (United States)

Hilerowicz, Yuval; Koren, Amir; Mashiah, Jacob; Katz, Oren; Sprecher, Eli; Artzi, Ofir

2018-05-01

Leishmaniasis is a protozoan zoonotic parasitic infection with cutaneous, mucocutaneous, and visceral manifestations. Israel is endemic for cutaneous leishmaniasis, which is a self-limited disease but is associated with scarring, which is often a source of psychological and social burden for patients. Scars can be especially devastating for children and teenagers. A wide range of physical and medical approaches is used to treat cutaneous leishmaniasis, among which intralesional injections of sodium stibogluconate rank among the most frequently used. Unfortunately, despite being effective, this therapeutic modality can be very painful. Fractional ablative laser creates a controlled mesh-like pattern of tissue ablation in the skin that promotes dermal remodeling and collagen production while at the same time facilitating enhanced delivery of topically applied medications. Patients were treated with fractional ablative carbon dioxide laser followed by immediate topical application of sodium stibogluconate. All children were diagnosed with cutaneous leishmaniasis prior to treatment initiation.. Ten children were treated. One leishmania tropica-positive girl failed to respond. The other nine patients achieved clinical cure and demonstrated good to excellent final cosmesis. Self-rated patient satisfaction and tolerance were high No adverse effects were observed or reported during treatment. Fractional ablative carbon dioxide laser followed by topical sodium stibogluconate application appears to be a safe and promising treatment for cutaneous leishmaniasis infection in children. Future controlled studies are required to validate these findings and compare this technique with traditional approaches. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Predicting environmental aspects of CCSR leachates through the application of scientifically valid leaching protocols

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hassett, D.J.

1993-01-01

The disposal of solid wastes from energy production, particularly solid wastes from coal conversion processes, requires a thorough understanding of the waste material as well as the disposal environment. Many coal conversion solid residues (CCSRs) have chemical, mineralogical, and physical properties advantageous for use as engineering construction materials and in other industrial applications. If disposal is to be the final disposition of CCSRs from any source, the very properties that can make ash useful also contribute to behavior that must be understood for scientifically logical and environmentally responsible disposal. This paper describes the application of scientifically valid leaching and characterization tests designed to predict field phenomena. The key to proper characterization of these unique materials is the recognition of and compensation for the hydration reactions that can occur during long-term leaching. Many of these reactions, such as the formation of the mineral ettringite, can have a profound effect on the concentration of potentially problematic trace elements such as boron, chromium, and selenium. The mobility of these elements, which may be concentrated in CCSRs due to the conversion process, must be properly evaluated for the formation of informed and scientifically sound decisions regarding safe disposal. Groundwater is an extremely important and relatively scarce resource. Contamination of this resource is a threat to life, which is highly dependent on it, so management of materials that can impact groundwater must be carefully planned and executed. The application of scientifically valid leaching protocols and complete testing are critical to proper waste management
Enhancing Heat Treatment Efficacy for Insect Pest Control: A Case Study of a CFD Application to Improve the Design and Structure of a Flour Mill

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesca Valenti

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Heat treatment of the indoor environment of flour mills is an alternative technique to chemical fumigation for controlling insect pests. The aim of this research was to assess temperature distribution inside a flour mill during a heat treatment for insect pest control by computational fluid dynamics (CFD modelling and simulation. The model was validated by using the average values of experimental data acquired during a heat treatment carried out in a flour mill, which is representative of the building materials and techniques used in the milling industry of South Italy. Simulations were carried out in steady-state conditions, and simulated data were validated by the average values of air and wall temperature measurements. Since the modelled temperature distribution in the mill fit the real one with a good accuracy (maximum error equal to 2.57 °C, the CFD model was considered reliable to simulate other operating conditions. Since it was observed that the internal surface temperatures of the mill were much lower than the value required for the success of the heat treatment, equal to 45 °C, the CFD model could be used for improving the effectiveness of heat treatments in the flour mill. Application of the proposed CFD model in the simulation of specific interventions could be aimed at improving both building performance and fan heaters’ localisatio,n in order to find the best configuration.
Validated biomarkers: The key to precision treatment in patients with breast cancer.

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Duffy, Michael J; O'Donovan, Norma; McDermott, Enda; Crown, John

2016-10-01

Recent DNA sequencing and gene expression studies have shown that at a molecular level, almost every case of breast cancer is unique and different from other breast cancers. For optimum management therefore, every patient should receive treatment that is guided by the molecular composition of their tumor, i.e., precision treatment. While such a scenario is still some distance into the future, biomarkers are beginning to play an important role in preparing the way for precision treatment. In particular, biomarkers are increasingly being used for predicting patient outcome and informing as to the most appropriate type of systemic therapy to be administered. Mandatory biomarkers for every newly diagnosed case of breast cancer are estrogen receptors and progesterone receptors in selecting patients for endocrine treatment and HER2 for identifying patients likely to benefit from anti-HER2 therapy. Amongst the best validated prognostic biomarker tests are uPA/PAI-1, MammaPrint and Oncotype DX. Although currently, there are no biomarkers available for predicting response to specific forms of chemotherapy, uPA/PAI-1 and Oncotype DX can aid the identification of lymph node-negative patients that are most likely to benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy, in general. In order to accelerate progress towards precision treatment for women with breast cancer, we need additional predictive biomarkers, especially for enhancing the positive predictive value for endocrine and anti-HER2 therapies, as well as biomarkers for predicting response to specific forms of chemotherapy. The ultimate biomarker test for achieving the goal of precision treatment for patients with breast cancer will likely require a combination of gene sequencing and transcriptomic analysis of every patient's tumor. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Validation of the AGDISP model for predicting airborne atrazine spray drift: a South African ground application case study

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Nsibande, SA

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Air dispersion software models for evaluating pesticide spray drift during application have been developed that can potentially serve as a cheaper convenient alternative to field monitoring campaigns. Such models require validation against field...
A comprehensive validation toolbox for regional ocean models - Outline, implementation and application to the Baltic Sea

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Jandt, Simon; Laagemaa, Priidik; Janssen, Frank

2014-05-01

The systematic and objective comparison between output from a numerical ocean model and a set of observations, called validation in the context of this presentation, is a beneficial activity at several stages, starting from early steps in model development and ending at the quality control of model based products delivered to customers. Even though the importance of this kind of validation work is widely acknowledged it is often not among the most popular tasks in ocean modelling. In order to ease the validation work a comprehensive toolbox has been developed in the framework of the MyOcean-2 project. The objective of this toolbox is to carry out validation integrating different data sources, e.g. time-series at stations, vertical profiles, surface fields or along track satellite data, with one single program call. The validation toolbox, implemented in MATLAB, features all parts of the validation process - ranging from read-in procedures of datasets to the graphical and numerical output of statistical metrics of the comparison. The basic idea is to have only one well-defined validation schedule for all applications, in which all parts of the validation process are executed. Each part, e.g. read-in procedures, forms a module in which all available functions of this particular part are collected. The interface between the functions, the module and the validation schedule is highly standardized. Functions of a module are set up for certain validation tasks, new functions can be implemented into the appropriate module without affecting the functionality of the toolbox. The functions are assigned for each validation task in user specific settings, which are externally stored in so-called namelists and gather all information of the used datasets as well as paths and metadata. In the framework of the MyOcean-2 project the toolbox is frequently used to validate the forecast products of the Baltic Sea Marine Forecasting Centre. Hereby the performance of any new product
A smartphone application of alcohol resilience treatment for behavioral self-control training.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Fei; Albers, Jörg; Gao, Tian; Wang, Minghao; Bilberg, Arne; Stenager, Elsebeth

2012-01-01

High relapse rate is one of the most prominent problems in addiction treatment. Alcohol Resilience Treatment (ART), an alcohol addiction therapy, is based on Cue Exposure Treatment, which has shown promising results in preliminary studies. ART aims at optimizing the core area of relapse prevention, and intends to improve patients' capability to withstand craving of alcohol. This method emphasizes the interplay of resilience and resourcefulness. It contains 6 sessions with different topics according to the stage of treatment circuit, and each session consists of 6 steps. Due to the purity and structure of the treatment rationale, it is realistic, reasonable and manageable to transform the method into a smartphone application. An ART app in Android system and an accessory of bilateral tactile stimulation were developed and will be used in a study with behavioral self-control training. This paper presents the design and realization of the smartphone based ART application. The design of a pilot study, which is to examine the benefits of a smartphone application providing behavioral self-control training, is also reported in this paper.
TH-CD-BRA-11: Implementation and Evaluation of a New 3D Dosimetry Protocol for Validating MRI Guided Radiation Therapy Treatments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mein, S; Rankine, L; Adamovics, J; Li, H; Oldham, M

2016-01-01

Purpose: To develop, evaluate and apply a novel high-resolution 3D remote dosimetry protocol for validation of MRI guided radiation therapy treatments (MRIdian by ViewRay™). We demonstrate the first application of the protocol (including two small but required new correction terms) utilizing radiochromic 3D plastic PRESAGE™ with optical-CT readout. Methods: A detailed study of PRESAGE™ dosimeters (2kg) was conducted to investigate the temporal and spatial stability of radiation induced optical density change (ΔOD) over 8 days. Temporal stability was investigated on 3 dosimeters irradiated with four equally-spaced square 6MV fields delivering doses between 10cGy and 300cGy. Doses were imaged (read-out) by optical-CT at multiple intervals. Spatial stability of ΔOD response was investigated on 3 other dosimeters irradiated uniformly with 15MV extended-SSD fields with doses of 15cGy, 30cGy and 60cGy. Temporal and spatial (radial) changes were investigated using CERR and MATLAB’s Curve Fitting Tool-box. A protocol was developed to extrapolate measured ΔOD readings at t=48hr (the typical shipment time in remote dosimetry) to time t=1hr. Results: All dosimeters were observed to gradually darken with time (<5% per day). Consistent intra-batch sensitivity (0.0930±0.002 ΔOD/cm/Gy) and linearity (R2=0.9996) was observed at t=1hr. A small radial effect (<3%) was observed, attributed to curing thermodynamics during manufacture. The refined remote dosimetry protocol (including polynomial correction terms for temporal and spatial effects, CT and CR) was then applied to independent dosimeters irradiated with MR-IGRT treatments. Excellent line profile agreement and 3D-gamma results for 3%/3mm, 10% threshold were observed, with an average passing rate 96.5%± 3.43%. Conclusion: A novel 3D remote dosimetry protocol is presented capable of validation of advanced radiation treatments (including MR-IGRT). The protocol uses 2kg radiochromic plastic dosimeters read-out by
TH-CD-BRA-11: Implementation and Evaluation of a New 3D Dosimetry Protocol for Validating MRI Guided Radiation Therapy Treatments

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mein, S [Duke University Medical Physics Graduate Program (United States); Rankine, L [Department of Radiation Oncology, University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill (United States); Department of Radiation Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine (United States); Adamovics, J [Department of Chemistry and Biology, Rider University, Lawrenceville, NJ (United States); Li, H [Department of Radiation Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine (United States); Oldham, M [Department of Radiation Oncology, Duke University Medical Center (United States)

2016-06-15

Purpose: To develop, evaluate and apply a novel high-resolution 3D remote dosimetry protocol for validation of MRI guided radiation therapy treatments (MRIdian by ViewRay™). We demonstrate the first application of the protocol (including two small but required new correction terms) utilizing radiochromic 3D plastic PRESAGE™ with optical-CT readout. Methods: A detailed study of PRESAGE™ dosimeters (2kg) was conducted to investigate the temporal and spatial stability of radiation induced optical density change (ΔOD) over 8 days. Temporal stability was investigated on 3 dosimeters irradiated with four equally-spaced square 6MV fields delivering doses between 10cGy and 300cGy. Doses were imaged (read-out) by optical-CT at multiple intervals. Spatial stability of ΔOD response was investigated on 3 other dosimeters irradiated uniformly with 15MV extended-SSD fields with doses of 15cGy, 30cGy and 60cGy. Temporal and spatial (radial) changes were investigated using CERR and MATLAB’s Curve Fitting Tool-box. A protocol was developed to extrapolate measured ΔOD readings at t=48hr (the typical shipment time in remote dosimetry) to time t=1hr. Results: All dosimeters were observed to gradually darken with time (<5% per day). Consistent intra-batch sensitivity (0.0930±0.002 ΔOD/cm/Gy) and linearity (R2=0.9996) was observed at t=1hr. A small radial effect (<3%) was observed, attributed to curing thermodynamics during manufacture. The refined remote dosimetry protocol (including polynomial correction terms for temporal and spatial effects, CT and CR) was then applied to independent dosimeters irradiated with MR-IGRT treatments. Excellent line profile agreement and 3D-gamma results for 3%/3mm, 10% threshold were observed, with an average passing rate 96.5%± 3.43%. Conclusion: A novel 3D remote dosimetry protocol is presented capable of validation of advanced radiation treatments (including MR-IGRT). The protocol uses 2kg radiochromic plastic dosimeters read-out by
Validation of the American Board of Orthodontics Objective Grading System for assessing the treatment outcomes of Chinese patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Guang-Ying; Baumrind, Sheldon; Zhao, Zhi-He; Ding, Yin; Bai, Yu-Xing; Wang, Lin; He, Hong; Shen, Gang; Li, Wei-Ran; Wu, Wei-Zi; Ren, Chong; Weng, Xuan-Rong; Geng, Zhi; Xu, Tian-Min

2013-09-01

Orthodontics in China has developed rapidly, but there is no standard index of treatment outcomes. We assessed the validity of the American Board of Orthodontics Objective Grading System (ABO-OGS) for the classification of treatment outcomes in Chinese patients. We randomly selected 108 patients who completed treatment between July 2005 and September 2008 in 6 orthodontic treatment centers across China. Sixty-nine experienced Chinese orthodontists made subjective assessments of the end-of-treatment casts for each patient. Three examiners then used the ABO-OGS to measure the casts. Pearson correlation analysis and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis were conducted to evaluate the correspondence between the ABO-OGS cast measurements and the orthodontists' subjective assessments. The average subjective grading scores were highly correlated with the ABO-OGS scores (r = 0.7042). Four of the 7 study cast components of the ABO-OGS score-occlusal relationship, overjet, interproximal contact, and alignment-were statistically significantly correlated with the judges' subjective assessments. Together, these 4 accounted for 58% of the variability in the average subjective grading scores. The ABO-OGS cutoff score for cases that the judges deemed satisfactory was 16 points; the corresponding cutoff score for cases that the judges considered acceptable was 21 points. The ABO-OGS is a valid index for the assessment of treatment outcomes in Chinese patients. By comparing the objective scores on this modification of the ABO-OGS with the mean subjective assessment of a panel of highly qualified Chinese orthodontists, a cutoff point for satisfactory treatment outcome was defined as 16 points or fewer, with scores of 16 to 21 points denoting less than satisfactory but still acceptable treatment. Cases that scored greater than 21 points were considered unacceptable. Copyright © 2013 American Association of Orthodontists. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.
Validating Satellite-Retrieved Cloud Properties for Weather and Climate Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Minnis, P.; Bedka, K. M.; Smith, W., Jr.; Yost, C. R.; Bedka, S. T.; Palikonda, R.; Spangenberg, D.; Sun-Mack, S.; Trepte, Q.; Dong, X.; Xi, B.

2014-12-01

Cloud properties determined from satellite imager radiances are increasingly used in weather and climate applications, particularly in nowcasting, model assimilation and validation, trend monitoring, and precipitation and radiation analyses. The value of using the satellite-derived cloud parameters is determined by the accuracy of the particular parameter for a given set of conditions, such as viewing and illumination angles, surface background, and cloud type and structure. Because of the great variety of those conditions and of the sensors used to monitor clouds, determining the accuracy or uncertainties in the retrieved cloud parameters is a daunting task. Sensitivity studies of the retrieved parameters to the various inputs for a particular cloud type are helpful for understanding the errors associated with the retrieval algorithm relative to the plane-parallel world assumed in most of the model clouds that serve as the basis for the retrievals. Real world clouds, however, rarely fit the plane-parallel mold and generate radiances that likely produce much greater errors in the retrieved parameter than can be inferred from sensitivity analyses. Thus, independent, empirical methods are used to provide a more reliable uncertainty analysis. At NASA Langley, cloud properties are being retrieved from both geostationary (GEO) and low-earth orbiting (LEO) satellite imagers for climate monitoring and model validation as part of the NASA CERES project since 2000 and from AVHRR data since 1978 as part of the NOAA CDR program. Cloud properties are also being retrieved in near-real time globally from both GEO and LEO satellites for weather model assimilation and nowcasting for hazards such as aircraft icing. This paper discusses the various independent datasets and approaches that are used to assessing the imager-based satellite cloud retrievals. These include, but are not limited to data from ARM sites, CloudSat, and CALIPSO. This paper discusses the use of the various
External validation of the ability of the DRAGON score to predict outcome after thrombolysis treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Ovesen, C; Christensen, A; Nielsen, J K; Christensen, H

2013-11-01

Easy-to-perform and valid assessment scales for the effect of thrombolysis are essential in hyperacute stroke settings. Because of this we performed an external validation of the DRAGON scale proposed by Strbian et al. in a Danish cohort. All patients treated with intravenous recombinant plasminogen activator between 2009 and 2011 were included. Upon admission all patients underwent physical and neurological examination using the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale along with non-contrast CT scans and CT angiography. Patients were followed up through the Outpatient Clinic and their modified Rankin Scale (mRS) was assessed after 3 months. Three hundred and three patients were included in the analysis. The DRAGON scale proved to have a good discriminative ability for predicting highly unfavourable outcome (mRS 5-6) (area under the curve-receiver operating characteristic [AUC-ROC]: 0.89; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.81-0.96; pDRAGON scale provided good discriminative capability (AUC-ROC: 0.89; 95% CI 0.78-1.0; p=0.003) for highly unfavourable outcome. We confirmed the validity of the DRAGON scale in predicting outcome after thrombolysis treatment. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Role and liabilities of the medical physicist in the validation of oncologic treatments in internal vectorized radiation therapy. S.F.P.M. report nr 31, June 2015

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Farman, Bardia; Defez, Didier; Martineau, Antoine; Vrigneaud, Jean-Marc; Dieudonne, Arnaud; Giraud, Fabienne; Divry, Guillaume; Bardies, Manuel; Laffont, Sophie; Santoro, Lore; Ferrer, Ludovic; Guilhem, Marie-Therese; Meyer, Philippe; Simon, Luc

2015-06-01

According to legal arrangements and decrees, the medical physicist must validate the preparation of each treatment based on the use of radio-elements in non-sealed sources. As the medical physicist is therefore liable of this validation, this report addresses the approach to be followed to comply with the law. The authors first outline that this report only concerns oncologic internal vectorized radiation therapy, and does not address the dosimetric aspect of these treatments. After having recalled the principles of internal vectorized radiography, they describe the role of the different actors: nuclear physician, medical physicist, radio-pharmacist, radio-pharmacy dispenser, medical electro-radiology operator, state nurse. They address the various aspects of the process of validation of a treatment preparation: technical prerequisites, organisational prerequisite, validation process, traceability, dosimetry. Several examples are proposed in appendix regarding traceability, dosimetry software, examples of PRM files
Validity and intra-rater reliability of an android phone application to measure cervical range-of-motion.

Science.gov (United States)

Quek, June; Brauer, Sandra G; Treleaven, Julia; Pua, Yong-Hao; Mentiplay, Benjamin; Clark, Ross Allan

2014-04-17

Concurrent validity and intra-rater reliability using a customized Android phone application to measure cervical-spine range-of-motion (ROM) has not been previously validated against a gold-standard three-dimensional motion analysis (3DMA) system. Twenty-one healthy individuals (age:31 ± 9.1 years, male:11) participated, with 16 re-examined for intra-rater reliability 1-7 days later. An Android phone was fixed on a helmet, which was then securely fastened on the participant's head. Cervical-spine ROM in flexion, extension, lateral flexion and rotation were performed in sitting with concurrent measurements obtained from both a 3DMA system and the phone.The phone demonstrated moderate to excellent (ICC = 0.53-0.98, Spearman ρ = 0.52-0.98) concurrent validity for ROM measurements in cervical flexion, extension, lateral-flexion and rotation. However, cervical rotation demonstrated both proportional and fixed bias. Excellent intra-rater reliability was demonstrated for cervical flexion, extension and lateral flexion (ICC = 0.82-0.90), but poor for right- and left-rotation (ICC = 0.05-0.33) using the phone. Possible reasons for the outcome are that flexion, extension and lateral-flexion measurements are detected by gravity-dependent accelerometers while rotation measurements are detected by the magnetometer which can be adversely affected by surrounding magnetic fields. The results of this study demonstrate that the tested Android phone application is valid and reliable to measure ROM of the cervical-spine in flexion, extension and lateral-flexion but not in rotation likely due to magnetic interference. The clinical implication of this study is that therapists should be mindful of the plane of measurement when using the Android phone to measure ROM of the cervical-spine.
Validation of an abbreviated Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication (TSQM-9 among patients on antihypertensive medications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Desrosiers Marie-Pierre

2009-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The 14-item Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication (TSQM Version 1.4 is a reliable and valid instrument to assess patients' satisfaction with medication, providing scores on four scales – side effects, effectiveness, convenience and global satisfaction. In naturalistic studies, administering the TSQM with the side effects domain could provoke the physician to assess the presence or absence of adverse events in a way that is clinically atypical, carrying the potential to interfere with routine medical care. As a result, an abbreviated 9-item TSQM (TSQM-9, derived from the TSQM Version 1.4 but without the five items of the side effects domain was created. In this study, an interactive voice response system (IVRS-administered TSQM-9 was psychometrically evaluated among patients taking antihypertensive medication. Methods A total of 3,387 subjects were invited to participate in the study from an online panel who self-reported taking a prescribed antihypertensive medication. The subjects were asked to complete the IVRS-administered TSQM-9 at the start of the study, along with the modified Morisky scale, and again within 7 to 14 days. Standard psychometric analyses were conducted; including Cronbach's alpha, intraclass correlation coefficients, structural equation modeling, Spearman correlation coefficients and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA. Results A total of 396 subjects completed all the study procedures. Approximately 50% subjects were male with a good racial/ethnic mix: 58.3% white, 18.9% black, 17.7% Hispanic and 5.1% either Asian or other. There was evidence of construct validity of the TSQM-9 based on the structural equation modeling findings of the observed data fitting the Decisional Balance Model of Treatment Satisfaction even without the side effects domain. TSQM-9 domains had high internal consistency as evident from Cronbach's alpha values of 0.84 and greater. TSQM-9 domains also demonstrated good test
Adaptation, validation and application of the chemo-thermal oxidation method to quantify black carbon in soils

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Agarwal, Tripti; Bucheli, Thomas D.

2011-01-01

The chemo-thermal oxidation method at 375 o C (CTO-375) has been widely used to quantify black carbon (BC) in sediments. In the present study, CTO-375 was tested and adapted for application to soil, accounting for some matrix specific properties like high organic carbon (≤39%) and carbonate (≤37%) content. Average recoveries of standard reference material SRM-2975 ranged from 25 to 86% for nine representative Swiss and Indian samples, which is similar to literature data for sediments. The adapted method was applied to selected samples of the Swiss soil monitoring network (NABO). BC content exhibited different patterns in three soil profiles while contribution of BC to TOC was found maximum below the topsoil at all three sites, however at different depths (60-130 cm). Six different NABO sites exhibited largely constant BC concentrations over the last 25 years, with short-term (6 months) prevailing over long-term (5 years) temporal fluctuations. - Research highlights: → The CTO-375 method was adapted and validated for BC analysis in soils. → Method validation figures of merit proofed satisfactory. → Application is shown with soil cores and topsoil temporal variability. → BC content can be elevated in subsurface soils. → BC contents in surface soils were largely constant over the last 25 years. - Although widely used also for soils, the chemo-thermal oxidation method at 375 o C to quantify black carbon has never been properly validated for this matrix before.
Discriminant content validity: a quantitative methodology for assessing content of theory-based measures, with illustrative applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnston, Marie; Dixon, Diane; Hart, Jo; Glidewell, Liz; Schröder, Carin; Pollard, Beth

2014-05-01

In studies involving theoretical constructs, it is important that measures have good content validity and that there is not contamination of measures by content from other constructs. While reliability and construct validity are routinely reported, to date, there has not been a satisfactory, transparent, and systematic method of assessing and reporting content validity. In this paper, we describe a methodology of discriminant content validity (DCV) and illustrate its application in three studies. Discriminant content validity involves six steps: construct definition, item selection, judge identification, judgement format, single-sample test of content validity, and assessment of discriminant items. In three studies, these steps were applied to a measure of illness perceptions (IPQ-R) and control cognitions. The IPQ-R performed well with most items being purely related to their target construct, although timeline and consequences had small problems. By contrast, the study of control cognitions identified problems in measuring constructs independently. In the final study, direct estimation response formats for theory of planned behaviour constructs were found to have as good DCV as Likert format. The DCV method allowed quantitative assessment of each item and can therefore inform the content validity of the measures assessed. The methods can be applied to assess content validity before or after collecting data to select the appropriate items to measure theoretical constructs. Further, the data reported for each item in Appendix S1 can be used in item or measure selection. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? There are agreed methods of assessing and reporting construct validity of measures of theoretical constructs, but not their content validity. Content validity is rarely reported in a systematic and transparent manner. What does this study add? The paper proposes discriminant content validity (DCV), a systematic and transparent method
Contribution of Interpersonal Problems to Eating Disorder Psychopathology via Negative Affect in Treatment-seeking Men and Women: Testing the Validity of the Interpersonal Model in an Understudied Population.

Science.gov (United States)

Ivanova, Iryna V; Tasca, Giorgio A; Proulx, Geneviève; Bissasda, Hany

2017-07-01

Research on the psychosocial correlates and theoretical frameworks of men presenting with eating disorders (ED) psychopathology is limited. This study compared treatment-seeking men and women in terms of their levels of interpersonal functioning (affiliation and dominance), regulation of negative emotions (negative affect and instability) and ED psychopathology. The study also investigated the validity of the interpersonal model of ED in men. Results from the cross-sectional data of 388 participants (137 men and 251 women) demonstrated that the structural models fit and that paths were invariant across men and women. There were significant indirect effects of interpersonal functioning on ED psychopathology, mediated through negative affect and instability, for both men and women. Negative affect and instability partially explain the relationship between interpersonal problems and ED psychopathology in treatment-seeking men and women. Current findings highlight the need to evaluate the validity of the model using longitudinal designs to test whether men and women are likely to benefit equally from interpersonal therapies for ED. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Negative affect and instability mediated the relationship between interpersonal problems and eating disorder psychopathology for treatment-seeking men and women. There were no gender differences between levels of negative affect, emotional instability and interpersonal dysfunction, but women reported slightly higher eating concerns than men. Interpersonal model is a framework that is applicable to understanding and potentially treating men with eating disorders. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Recent advances in modeling and validation of nuclear thermal-hydraulics applications with NEPTUNE CFD - 15471

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guingo, M.; Baudry, C.; Hassanaly, M.; Lavieville, J.; Mechitouna, N.; Merigoux, N.; Mimouni, S.; Bestion, D.; Coste, P.; Morel, C.

2015-01-01

NEPTUNE CFD is a Computational Multi-(Fluid) Dynamics code dedicated to the simulation of multiphase flows, primarily targeting nuclear thermo-hydraulics applications, such as the departure from nuclear boiling (DNB) or the two-phase Pressurized Thermal Shock (PTS). It is co-developed within the joint research/development project NEPTUNE (AREVA, CEA, EDF, IRSN) since 2001. Over the years, to address the aforementioned applications, dedicated physical models and numerical methods have been developed and implemented in the code, including specific sets of models for turbulent boiling flows and two-phase non-adiabatic stratified flows. This paper aims at summarizing the current main modeling capabilities of the code, and gives an overview of the associated validation database. A brief summary of emerging applications of the code, such as containment simulation during a potential severe accident or in-vessel retention, is also provided. (authors)

Validation and qualification of surface-applied fibre optic strain sensors using application-independent optical techniques

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schukar, Vivien G; Kadoke, Daniel; Kusche, Nadine; Münzenberger, Sven; Gründer, Klaus-Peter; Habel, Wolfgang R

2012-01-01

Surface-applied fibre optic strain sensors were investigated using a unique validation facility equipped with application-independent optical reference systems. First, different adhesives for the sensor's application were analysed regarding their material properties. Measurements resulting from conventional measurement techniques, such as thermo-mechanical analysis and dynamic mechanical analysis, were compared with measurements resulting from digital image correlation, which has the advantage of being a non-contact technique. Second, fibre optic strain sensors were applied to test specimens with the selected adhesives. Their strain-transfer mechanism was analysed in comparison with conventional strain gauges. Relative movements between the applied sensor and the test specimen were visualized easily using optical reference methods, digital image correlation and electronic speckle pattern interferometry. Conventional strain gauges showed limited opportunities for an objective strain-transfer analysis because they are also affected by application conditions. (paper)
Complex Systems Models and Their Applications: Towards a New Science of Verification, Validation & Uncertainty Quantification

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tsao, Jeffrey Y. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Trucano, Timothy G. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Kleban, Stephen D. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Naugle, Asmeret Bier [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Verzi, Stephen Joseph [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Swiler, Laura Painton [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Johnson, Curtis M. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Smith, Mark A. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Flanagan, Tatiana Paz [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Vugrin, Eric D. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Gabert, Kasimir Georg [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Lave, Matthew Samuel [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Chen, Wei [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States); DeLaurentis, Daniel [Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States); Hubler, Alfred [Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, IL (United States); Oberkampf, Bill [WLO Consulting, Austin, TX (United States)

2016-08-01

This report contains the written footprint of a Sandia-hosted workshop held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, June 22-23, 2016 on “Complex Systems Models and Their Applications: Towards a New Science of Verification, Validation and Uncertainty Quantification,” as well as of pre-work that fed into the workshop. The workshop’s intent was to explore and begin articulating research opportunities at the intersection between two important Sandia communities: the complex systems (CS) modeling community, and the verification, validation and uncertainty quantification (VVUQ) community The overarching research opportunity (and challenge) that we ultimately hope to address is: how can we quantify the credibility of knowledge gained from complex systems models, knowledge that is often incomplete and interim, but will nonetheless be used, sometimes in real-time, by decision makers?
Interlaboratory study for the validation of an ecotoxicological procedure to monitor the quality of septic sludge received at a wastewater treatment plant.

Science.gov (United States)

Robidoux, P Y; Choucri, A; Bastien, C; Sunahara, G I; López-Gastey, J

2001-01-01

Septic tank sludge is regularly hauled to the Montreal Urban Community (MUC) wastewater treatment plant. It is then discharged and mixed with the wastewater inflow before entering the primary chemical treatment process. An ecotoxicological procedure integrating chemical and toxicological analyses has been recently developed and applied to screen for the illicit discharge of toxic substances in septic sludge. The toxicity tests used were the Microtox, the bacterial-respiration, and the lettuce (Lactuca sativa) root elongation tests. In order to validate the applicability of the proposed procedure, a two-year interlaboratory study was carried out. In general, the results obtained by two independent laboratories (MUC and the Centre d'expertise en analyse environnementale du Quebec) were comparable and reproducible. Some differences were found using the Microtox test. Organic (e.g., phenol and formaldehyde) and inorganic (e.g., nickel and cyanide) spiked septic sludge were detected with good reliability and high efficiency. The relative efficiency to detect spiked substances was > 70% and confirms the results of previous studies. In addition, the respiration test was the most efficient toxicological tool to detect spiked substances, whereas the Microtox was the least efficient (septic sludge.
Discriminant validity, diagnostic utility, and parent-child agreement on the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) in treatment- and non-treatment-seeking youth.

Science.gov (United States)

Rappaport, B I; Pagliaccio, D; Pine, D S; Klein, D N; Jarcho, J M

2017-10-01

The Screen for Child Anxiety and Related Emotional Disorder (SCARED) may be differentially sensitive to detecting specific or comorbid anxiety diagnoses in treatment-seeking and non-treatment-seeking youth. We assessed the SCARED's discriminant validity, diagnostic utility, and informant agreement using parent- and self-report from healthy and treatment-seeking anxious youth (Study 1, N=585) and from non-treatment-seeking anxious youth (Study 2, N=331) diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), or comorbid GAD+SAD. Among treatment-seeking youth, the SCARED showed good diagnostic utility and specificity, differentiating healthy, comorbid, and non-comorbid anxious youth. Child-parent agreement was modest: healthy child self-reports were higher than parent-reports whereas anxious child self-reports were similar or lower than parent-reports. Less consistent results emerged for diagnostic utility, specificity, and informant agreement among non-treatment-seeking youth. Given the number of non-treatment seeking anxious youth (N=33), generalizability of these findings may be limited. Together, results suggest informants may provide distinct information about children's anxiety symptoms. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
The nature thickness pipe element testing method to validate the application of LBB conception

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vasilchenko, G.S.; Artemyev, V.I.; Merinov, G.N. [and others

1997-04-01

To validate the application of leak before break analysis to the VVER-1000 reactor, a procedure for testing a large-scale specimen on electrohydraulic machinery was developed. Steel pipe with a circular weld and stainless cladding inside was manufactured and large-scale longitudinal cross-sections were cut. The remaining parts of the weld after cut out were used to determination standard tensile mechanical properties, critical temperature of brittlness and for manufacture of compact specimens. Experimental mechanical properties of the weld are summarized.
The nature thickness pipe element testing method to validate the application of LBB conception

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vasilchenko, G.S.; Artemyev, V.I.; Merinov, G.N.

1997-01-01

To validate the application of leak before break analysis to the VVER-1000 reactor, a procedure for testing a large-scale specimen on electrohydraulic machinery was developed. Steel pipe with a circular weld and stainless cladding inside was manufactured and large-scale longitudinal cross-sections were cut. The remaining parts of the weld after cut out were used to determination standard tensile mechanical properties, critical temperature of brittlness and for manufacture of compact specimens. Experimental mechanical properties of the weld are summarized
The predictive validity of the Drinking-Related Cognitions Scale in alcohol-dependent patients under abstinence-oriented treatment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sawayama Toru

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Cognitive factors associated with drinking behavior such as positive alcohol expectancies, self-efficacy, perception of impaired control over drinking and perception of drinking problems are considered to have a significant influence on treatment effects and outcome in alcohol-dependent patients. However, the development of a rating scale on lack of perception or denial of drinking problems and impaired control over drinking has not been substantial, even though these are important factors in patients under abstinence-oriented treatment as well as participants in self-help groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA. The Drinking-Related Cognitions Scale (DRCS is a new self-reported rating scale developed to briefly measure cognitive factors associated with drinking behavior in alcohol-dependent patients under abstinence-oriented treatment, including positive alcohol expectancies, abstinence self-efficacy, perception of impaired control over drinking, and perception of drinking problems. Here, we conducted a prospective cohort study to explore the predictive validity of DRCS. Methods Participants in this study were 175 middle-aged and elderly Japanese male patients who met the DSM-IV Diagnostic Criteria for Alcohol Dependence. DRCS scores were recorded before and after the inpatient abstinence-oriented treatment program, and treatment outcome was evaluated one year after discharge. Results Of the 175 participants, 30 were not available for follow-up; thus the number of subjects for analysis in this study was 145. When the total DRCS score and subscale scores were compared before and after inpatient treatment, a significant increase was seen for both scores. Both the total DRCS score and each subscale score were significantly related to total abstinence, percentage of abstinent days, and the first drinking occasion during the one-year post-treatment period. Therefore, good treatment outcome was significantly predicted by low
Development and validation of the Gambling Follow-up Scale, Self-Report version: an outcome measure in the treatment of pathological gambling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana M. Galetti

Full Text Available Objective: To validate the Gambling Follow-up Scale, Self-Report version (GFS-SR, a 10-item scale designed to assess gambling frequency, time and money spent on gambling, gambling craving, debts, emotional distress, family relationships, autonomy, and frequency of and satisfaction with leisure activities in individuals diagnosed with gambling disorder according to the DSM-5 criteria. Methods: One hundred and twenty treatment-seeking gamblers were evaluated, 84 of whom proceeded to treatment. Fifty-two relatives provided collateral informant reports at baseline. Six months later, the 50 patients who completed the program were reassessed. Results: The GFS-SR showed good inter-rater agreement and internal consistency. Factor analysis presented a three-factor solution: gambling behavior (factor 1; social life (factor 2; and personal hardship (factor 3. There was a high degree of convergence between GFS-SR scores and those of reference scales. The GFS-SR scores showed excellent sensitivity to change (factor 1, predictive validity for treatment response (factor 2, and ability to distinguish recovered from unrecovered patients after treatment (factor 3. A cutoff score of 33 was found to have 87% sensitivity and 80% specificity for gambling recovery. Conclusion: The GFS-SR is well suited to providing reliable follow-up of gamblers under treatment and assessing the efficacy of their treatment.
Application of Apium Graveolens in treatment of hypertension

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarkarati AR

2000-08-01

Full Text Available Apium graveolence has an small brown olyptical seed with pharmacological activity. To evaluate it's application in treatment of hypertension, 37 hypertensive patients (20 female, 17 male with the age range of 45-65 were given 6 grams of powder of Apium graveolence seed and then the blood pressures before and after the remedy were compared. Before treatment, the mean systolic blood pressure was 171.35 mlHg and the mean diastolic blood pressure was 94 mlHg. After they became 154.3 mlHg and 89.6 mlHg respectively. The difference of blood pressure before and after treatment was statistically significant (P<0.05, so we concluded that Apium graveolence seed can be used as is a safe and effective treatment for high blood pressure. Further controlled studies should be done to compare it with available anti-hypertensive drugs.
Validation of differential gene expression algorithms: Application comparing fold-change estimation to hypothesis testing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bickel David R

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Sustained research on the problem of determining which genes are differentially expressed on the basis of microarray data has yielded a plethora of statistical algorithms, each justified by theory, simulation, or ad hoc validation and yet differing in practical results from equally justified algorithms. Recently, a concordance method that measures agreement among gene lists have been introduced to assess various aspects of differential gene expression detection. This method has the advantage of basing its assessment solely on the results of real data analyses, but as it requires examining gene lists of given sizes, it may be unstable. Results Two methodologies for assessing predictive error are described: a cross-validation method and a posterior predictive method. As a nonparametric method of estimating prediction error from observed expression levels, cross validation provides an empirical approach to assessing algorithms for detecting differential gene expression that is fully justified for large numbers of biological replicates. Because it leverages the knowledge that only a small portion of genes are differentially expressed, the posterior predictive method is expected to provide more reliable estimates of algorithm performance, allaying concerns about limited biological replication. In practice, the posterior predictive method can assess when its approximations are valid and when they are inaccurate. Under conditions in which its approximations are valid, it corroborates the results of cross validation. Both comparison methodologies are applicable to both single-channel and dual-channel microarrays. For the data sets considered, estimating prediction error by cross validation demonstrates that empirical Bayes methods based on hierarchical models tend to outperform algorithms based on selecting genes by their fold changes or by non-hierarchical model-selection criteria. (The latter two approaches have comparable
The validation of an infrared simulation system

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

De Waal, A

2013-08-01

Full Text Available theoretical validation framework. This paper briefly describes the procedure used to validate software models in an infrared system simulation, and provides application examples of this process. The discussion includes practical validation techniques...
Applications of artificial intelligence technology to wastewater treatment fields in China

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

QING Xiao-xia; WANG Bo; MENG De-tao

2005-01-01

Current applications of artificial intelligence technology to wastewater treatment in China are summarized. Wastewater treatment plants use expert system mainly in the operation decision-making and fault diagnosis of system operation, use artificial neuron network for system modeling, water quality forecast and soft measure, and use fuzzy control technology for the intelligence control of wastewater treatment process. Finally, the main problems in applying artificial intelligence technology to wastewater treatment in China are analyzed.
Validation of a treatment satisfaction questionnaire in non-Hodgkin lymphoma: assessing the change from intravenous to subcutaneous administration of rituximab.

Science.gov (United States)

Theodore-Oklota, Christina; Humphrey, Louise; Wiesner, Christof; Schnetzler, Gabriel; Hudgens, Stacie; Campbell, Alicyn

2016-01-01

A subcutaneous (SC) formulation of rituximab (MabThera ® /Rituxan ® ) has been developed that could reduce administration time and improve patient satisfaction with treatment. The Rituximab Administration Satisfaction Questionnaire (RASQ) was created to assess patients' perceptions and satisfaction with rituximab SC (RASQ-SC) or rituximab intravenous (RASQ-IV). We assessed the content validity and psychometric properties of RASQ in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Face and content validity of RASQ-SC and RASQ-IV were qualitatively assessed using 60-minute combined concept elicitation and cognitive debriefing interviews. Psychometric validation of RASQ (item performance and reliability) was assessed quantitatively against the established Cancer Therapy Satisfaction Questionnaire (CTSQ), using questionnaire data from the PrefMab (NCT01724021) and MabCute (NCT01461928) clinical studies. RASQ-IV demonstrated excellent coverage of concepts relevant to patients' (n=10) own treatment experiences and no new concepts were identified. Patients' expectations of rituximab SC were conceptually consistent with items included in the RASQ-SC, suggesting that the tool is also conceptually adequate. In 1,051 patients from PrefMab and MabCute, correlations with domains such as "RASQ: Physical Impacts" and "CTSQ: Feelings About Side Effects", "RASQ: Physical Impacts" and "CTSQ: Satisfaction With Therapy", and "RASQ: Satisfaction" and "CTSQ: Satisfaction With Therapy", achieved moderate-to-high correlations (>0.4) for convergent domains and <0.3 for divergent domains. This study supports the qualitative face and content validity and psychometric validity of RASQ-IV and RASQ-SC. Minor revisions were made to the questionnaires to enhance clarity and aid consistent reporting.
Workplace nutrition knowledge questionnaire: psychometric validation and application.

Science.gov (United States)

Guadagnin, Simone C; Nakano, Eduardo Y; Dutra, Eliane S; de Carvalho, Kênia M B; Ito, Marina K

2016-11-01

Workplace dietary intervention studies in low- and middle-income countries using psychometrically sound measures are scarce. This study aimed to validate a nutrition knowledge questionnaire (NQ) and its utility in evaluating the changes in knowledge among participants of a Nutrition Education Program (NEP) conducted at the workplace. A NQ was tested for construct validity, internal consistency and discriminant validity. It was applied in a NEP conducted at six workplaces, in order to evaluate the effect of an interactive or a lecture-based education programme on nutrition knowledge. Four knowledge domains comprising twenty-three items were extracted in the final version of the NQ. Internal consistency of each domain was significant, with Kuder-Richardson formula values>0·60. These four domains presented a good fit in the confirmatory factor analysis. In the discriminant validity test, both the Expert and Lay groups scored>0·52, but the Expert group scores were significantly higher than those of the Lay group in all domains. When the NQ was applied in the NEP, the overall questionnaire scores increased significantly because of the NEP intervention, in both groups (Pnutrition knowledge among participants of NEP at the workplace. According to the NQ, an interactive nutrition education had a higher impact on nutrition knowledge than a lecture programme.
Smartphone and Mobile Application Utilization Prior to and Following Treatment Among Individuals Enrolled in Residential Substance Use Treatment

Science.gov (United States)

Dahne, Jennifer; Lejuez, C. W.

2015-01-01

Background Following completion of substance use treatment, it is crucial for patients to continue to utilize skills learned in treatment for optimal treatment outcomes. Mobile applications (apps) on smartphones offer a unique platform to promote utilization of evidence-based skills following completion of substance use treatment. Despite the promise of mobile apps and smartphones for treatment delivery, it remains unknown whether patients in substance use treatment in the United States have access to smartphones and utilize mobile apps on smartphones. The present study sought to determine smartphone utilization among individuals enrolled in one residential substance use treatment center in the U.S catering specifically to low-income adults. Methods Participants included 251 individuals at a residential substance use treatment center in Washington DC admitted to the center between March, 2014 and January, 2015. During the intake process, participants completed interviewer-administered demographics and psychiatric questionnaires as well as a self-report of technology utilization. Results Results indicated that the majority of patients in this residential substance use treatment center owned mobile phones prior to treatment entry (86.9%) and expected to own mobile phones after leaving treatment (92.6%). Moreover, the majority of these phones were (68.5%) or will be smartphones (72.4%) on which patients reported utilizing mobile applications (Prior to treatment: 61.3%; Post treatment: 64.3%) and accessing the internet (Prior to treatment: 61.3%; Post treatment: 65.9%). Conclusions Mobile phone and smartphone ownership among this sample were comparable to ownership among U.S. adults broadly. Findings suggest that smartphones and mobile apps may hold clinical utility for fostering continued use of treatment skills following substance use treatment completion. PMID:26231698
Reliability and validity of a smartphone pulse rate application for the assessment of resting and elevated pulse rate.

Science.gov (United States)

Mitchell, Katy; Graff, Megan; Hedt, Corbin; Simmons, James

2016-08-01

Purpose/hypothesis: This study was designed to investigate the test-retest reliability, concurrent validity, and the standard error of measurement (SEm) of a pulse rate assessment application (Azumio®'s Instant Heart Rate) on both Android® and iOS® (iphone operating system) smartphones as compared to a FT7 Polar® Heart Rate monitor. Number of subjects: 111. Resting (sitting) pulse rate was assessed twice and then the participants were asked to complete a 1-min standing step test and then immediately re-assessed. The smartphone assessors were blinded to their measurements. Test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC 2,1] and 95% confidence interval) for the three tools at rest (time 1/time 2): iOS® (0.76 [0.67-0.83]); Polar® (0.84 [0.78-0.89]); and Android® (0.82 [0.75-0.88]). Concurrent validity at rest time 2 (ICC 2,1) with the Polar® device: IOS® (0.92 [0.88-0.94]) and Android® (0.95 [0.92-0.96]). Concurrent validity post-exercise (time 3) (ICC) with the Polar® device: iOS® (0.90 [0.86-0.93]) and Android® (0.94 [0.91-0.96]). The SEm values for the three devices at rest: iOS® (5.77 beats per minute [BPM]), Polar® (4.56 BPM) and Android® (4.96 BPM). The Android®, iOS®, and Polar® devices showed acceptable test-retest reliability at rest and post-exercise. Both the smartphone platforms demonstrated concurrent validity with the Polar® at rest and post-exercise. The Azumio® Instant Heart Rate application when used by either platform appears to be a reliable and valid tool to assess pulse rate in healthy individuals.
Psychometric validation of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-Endometrial Cancer Module (EORTC QLQ-EN24).

Science.gov (United States)

Greimel, Elfriede; Nordin, Andy; Lanceley, Anne; Creutzberg, Carien L; van de Poll-Franse, Lonneke V; Radisic, Vesna Bjelic; Galalae, Razvan; Schmalz, Claudia; Barlow, Ellen; Jensen, Pernille T; Waldenström, Ann-Charlotte; Bergmark, Karin; Chie, Wei-Chu; Kuljanic, Karin; Costantini, Anna; Singer, Susanne; Koensgen, Dominique; Menon, Usha; Daghofer, Fedor

2011-01-01

A validation study was conducted to evaluate the psychometric properties of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire-Endometrial Cancer Module (EORTC QLQ-EN24). This module was designed to assess disease and treatment specific aspects of the quality of life (QoL) of patients with endometrial cancer. Two hundred and sixty-eight women with endometrial cancer were recruited in different phases of treatment: after pelvic surgery (Group 1); during adjuvant chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy (Group 2); after completion of treatment (Group 3). Patients completed the EORTC QLQ-C30, the endometrial cancer module and a short debriefing questionnaire. Multi-trait scaling analyses confirmed the hypothesised scale structure of the QLQ-EN24. Internal consistency reliability was good with Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranging from 0.74 to 0.86 (lymphoedema 0.80, urological symptoms 0.75, gastrointestinal symptoms 0.74, body image problems 0.86 and sexual/vaginal problems 0.86). Convergent and discriminant validity did not show any scaling errors for the subscales. The QLQ-EN24 module discriminated well between clinically different groups of patients. All items exhibited a high completion rate with less than 2% missing values except for the sexuality items (19%). The validation study supports the reliability, the convergent and divergent validity of the EORTC QLQ-EN24. This newly developed QLQ-EN24 module is a useful instrument for the assessment of the QoL in patients treated for endometrial cancer in clinical trials. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Barriers to Implementing Treatment Integrity Procedures: Survey of Treatment Outcome Researchers

Science.gov (United States)

Perepletchikova, Francheska; Hilt, Lori M.; Chereji, Elizabeth; Kazdin, Alan E.

2009-01-01

Treatment integrity refers to implementing interventions as intended. Treatment integrity is critically important for experimental validity and for drawing valid inferences regarding the relationship between treatment and outcome. Yet, it is rarely adequately addressed in psychotherapy research. The authors examined barriers to treatment integrity…
Review of biotechnology applications to nuclear waste treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ashley, N.V.; Roach, D.J.W.

1990-01-01

This paper gives an overview of the feasibility of the application of biotechnology to nuclear waste treatment. Many living and dead organisms accumulate heavy metals and radionuclides. The controlled use of this phenomenon forms the basis for the application of biotechnology to the removal of radionuclides from nuclear waste streams. An overview of biotechnology areas, namely the use of biopolymers and biosorption using biomass applicable to the removal of radionuclides from industrial nuclear effluents is given. The potential of biomagnetic separation technology, genetic engineering and monoclonal antibody technology is also to be examined. The most appropriate technologies to develop for radionuclide removal in the short term appear to be those based on biosorption of radionuclides by biomass and the use of modified and unmodified biopolymers in the medium term. (author)
Applicability of U.S. Army tracer test data to model validation needs of ERDA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shearer, D.L.; Minott, D.H.

1976-06-01

This report covers the first phase of an atmospheric dispersion model validation project sponsored by the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA). The project will employ dispersion data generated during an extensive series of field tracer experiments that were part of a meteorological research program which was conducted by the U. S. Army Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, from the late 1950's to the early 1970's. The tests were conducted at several locations in the U. S., South America, Germany, and Norway chosen to typify the effects of certain environmental factors on atmospheric dispersion. The purpose of the Phase I work of this project was to identify applicable portions of the Army data, obtain and review that data, and make recommendations for its uses for atmospheric dispersion model validations. This report presents key information in three formats. The first is a tabular listing of the Army dispersion test reports summarizing the test data contained in each report. This listing is presented in six separate tables with each tabular list representing a different topical area that is based on model validation requirements and the nature of the Army data base. The second format for presenting key information is a series of discussions of the Army test information assigned to each of the six topical areas. These discussions relate the extent and quality of the available data, as well as its prospective use for model validation. The third format is a series of synopses for each Army test report

Validation of COG10 and ENDFB6R7 on the Auk Workstation for General Application to Highly Enriched Uranium Systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Percher, Catherine G. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2011-08-08

The COG 10 code package1 on the Auk workstation is now validated with the ENBFB6R7 neutron cross section library for general application to highly enriched uranium (HEU) systems by comparison of the calculated keffective to the expected keffective of several relevant experimental benchmarks. This validation is supplemental to the installation and verification of COG 10 on the Auk workstation2.
Validation and Reliability of a Smartphone Application for the International Prostate Symptom Score Questionnaire: A Randomized Repeated Measures Crossover Study

Science.gov (United States)

Shim, Sung Ryul; Sun, Hwa Yeon; Ko, Young Myoung; Chun, Dong-Il; Yang, Won Jae

2014-01-01

Background Smartphone-based assessment may be a useful diagnostic and monitoring tool for patients. There have been many attempts to create a smartphone diagnostic tool for clinical use in various medical fields but few have demonstrated scientific validity. Objective The purpose of this study was to develop a smartphone application of the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) and to demonstrate its validity and reliability. Methods From June 2012 to May 2013, a total of 1581 male participants (≥40 years old), with or without lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), visited our urology clinic via the health improvement center at Soonchunhyang University Hospital (Republic of Korea) and were enrolled in this study. A randomized repeated measures crossover design was employed using a smartphone application of the IPSS and the conventional paper form of the IPSS. Paired t test under a hypothesis of non-inferior trial was conducted. For the reliability test, the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was measured. Results The total score of the IPSS (P=.289) and each item of the IPSS (P=.157-1.000) showed no differences between the paper version and the smartphone version of the IPSS. The mild, moderate, and severe LUTS groups showed no differences between the two versions of the IPSS. A significant correlation was noted in the total group (ICC=.935, Psmartphones could participate. Conclusions The validity and reliability of the smartphone application version were comparable to the conventional paper version of the IPSS. The smartphone application of the IPSS could be an effective method for measuring lower urinary tract symptoms. PMID:24513507
Validation of the translation of an instrument to measure reliability of written information on treatment choices: a study on attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Science.gov (United States)

Montoya, A; Llopis, N; Gilaberte, I

2011-12-01

DISCERN is an instrument designed to help patients assess the reliability of written information on treatment choices. Originally created in English, there is no validated Spanish version of this instrument. This study seeks to validate the Spanish translation of the DISCERN instrument used as a primary measure on a multicenter study aimed to assess the reliability of web-based information on treatment choices for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We used a modified version of a method for validating translated instruments in which the original source-language version is formally compared with the back-translated source-language version. Each item was ranked in terms of comparability of language, similarity of interpretability, and degree of understandability. Responses used Likert scales ranging from 1 to 7, where 1 indicates the best interpretability, language and understandability, and 7 indicates the worst. Assessments were performed by 20 raters fluent in the source language. The Spanish translation of DISCERN, based on ratings of comparability, interpretability and degree of understandability (mean score (SD): 1.8 (1.1), 1.4 (0.9) and 1.6 (1.1), respectively), was considered extremely comparable. All items received a score of less than three, therefore no further revision of the translation was needed. The validation process showed that the quality of DISCERN translation was high, validating the comparable language of the tool translated on assessing written information on treatment choices for ADHD.
Methodology for validating technical tools to assess customer Demand Response: Application to a commercial customer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alcazar-Ortega, Manuel; Escriva-Escriva, Guillermo; Segura-Heras, Isidoro

2011-01-01

The authors present a methodology, which is demonstrated with some applications to the commercial sector, in order to validate a Demand Response (DR) evaluation method previously developed and applied to a wide range of industrial and commercial segments, whose flexibility was evaluated by modeling. DR is playing a more and more important role in the framework of electricity systems management for the effective integration of other distributed energy resources. Consequently, customers must identify what they are using the energy for in order to use their flexible loads for management purposes. Modeling tools are used to predict the impact of flexibility on the behavior of customers, but this result needs to be validated since both customers and grid operators have to be confident in these flexibility predictions. An easy-to-use two-steps method to achieve this goal is presented in this paper.
Reliability and validity of a treatment fidelity assessment for motivational interviewing targeting sexual risk behaviors in people living with HIV/AIDS.

Science.gov (United States)

Seng, Elizabeth K; Lovejoy, Travis I

2013-12-01

This study psychometrically evaluates the Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity Code (MITI) to assess fidelity to motivational interviewing to reduce sexual risk behaviors in people living with HIV/AIDS. 74 sessions from a pilot randomized controlled trial of motivational interviewing to reduce sexual risk behaviors in people living with HIV were coded with the MITI. Participants reported sexual behavior at baseline, 3-month, and 6-months. Regarding reliability, excellent inter-rater reliability was achieved for measures of behavior frequency across the 12 sessions coded by both coders; global scales demonstrated poor intraclass correlations, but adequate percent agreement. Regarding validity, principle components analyses indicated that a two-factor model accounted for an adequate amount of variance in the data. These factors were associated with decreases in sexual risk behaviors after treatment. The MITI is a reliable and valid measurement of treatment fidelity for motivational interviewing targeting sexual risk behaviors in people living with HIV/AIDS.
Is the Oswestry Disability Index a valid measure of response to sacroiliac joint treatment?

Science.gov (United States)

Copay, Anne G; Cher, Daniel J

2016-02-01

Disease-specific measures of the impact of sacroiliac (SI) joint pain on back/pelvis function are not available. The Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) is a validated functional measure for lower back pain, but its responsiveness to SI joint treatment has yet to be established. We sought to assess the validity of ODI to capture disability caused by SI joint pain and the minimum clinically important difference (MCID) after SI joint treatment. Patients (n = 155) participating in a prospective clinical trial of minimally invasive SI joint fusion underwent baseline and follow-up assessments using ODI, visual analog scale (VAS) pain assessment, Short Form 36 (SF-36), EuroQoL-5D, and questions (at follow-up only) regarding satisfaction with the SI joint fusion and whether the patient would have the fusion surgery again. All outcomes were compared from baseline to 12 months postsurgery. The health transition item of the SF-36 and the satisfaction scale were used as external anchors to calculate MCID. MCID was estimated for ODI using four calculation methods: (1) minimum detectable change, (2) average ODI change of patients' subsets, (3) change difference between patients' subsets, and (4) receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. After SI fusion, patients improved significantly (p disability caused by SI pain. We estimated the MCID for ODI to be 13-15 points, which falls within the range of that previously reported for lumbar back pain and indicates that an improvement in disability should be at least 15 % to be beyond random variation.
Development and validation of a Markov microsimulation model for the economic evaluation of treatments in osteoporosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Hiligsmann, Mickaël; Ethgen, Olivier; Bruyère, Olivier; Richy, Florent; Gathon, Henry-Jean; Reginster, Jean-Yves

2009-01-01

Markov models are increasingly used in economic evaluations of treatments for osteoporosis. Most of the existing evaluations are cohort-based Markov models missing comprehensive memory management and versatility. In this article, we describe and validate an original Markov microsimulation model to accurately assess the cost-effectiveness of prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. We developed a Markov microsimulation model with a lifetime horizon and a direct health-care cost perspective. The patient history was recorded and was used in calculations of transition probabilities, utilities, and costs. To test the internal consistency of the model, we carried out an example calculation for alendronate therapy. Then, external consistency was investigated by comparing absolute lifetime risk of fracture estimates with epidemiologic data. For women at age 70 years, with a twofold increase in the fracture risk of the average population, the costs per quality-adjusted life-year gained for alendronate therapy versus no treatment were estimated at €9105 and €15,325, respectively, under full and realistic adherence assumptions. All the sensitivity analyses in terms of model parameters and modeling assumptions were coherent with expected conclusions and absolute lifetime risk of fracture estimates were within the range of previous estimates, which confirmed both internal and external consistency of the model. Microsimulation models present some major advantages over cohort-based models, increasing the reliability of the results and being largely compatible with the existing state of the art, evidence-based literature. The developed model appears to be a valid model for use in economic evaluations in osteoporosis.
Neuroinflammatory targets and treatments for epilepsy validated in experimental models.

Science.gov (United States)

Aronica, Eleonora; Bauer, Sebastian; Bozzi, Yuri; Caleo, Matteo; Dingledine, Raymond; Gorter, Jan A; Henshall, David C; Kaufer, Daniela; Koh, Sookyong; Löscher, Wolfgang; Louboutin, Jean-Pierre; Mishto, Michele; Norwood, Braxton A; Palma, Eleonora; Poulter, Michael O; Terrone, Gaetano; Vezzani, Annamaria; Kaminski, Rafal M

2017-07-01

A large body of evidence that has accumulated over the past decade strongly supports the role of inflammation in the pathophysiology of human epilepsy. Specific inflammatory molecules and pathways have been identified that influence various pathologic outcomes in different experimental models of epilepsy. Most importantly, the same inflammatory pathways have also been found in surgically resected brain tissue from patients with treatment-resistant epilepsy. New antiseizure therapies may be derived from these novel potential targets. An essential and crucial question is whether targeting these molecules and pathways may result in anti-ictogenesis, antiepileptogenesis, and/or disease-modification effects. Therefore, preclinical testing in models mimicking relevant aspects of epileptogenesis is needed to guide integrated experimental and clinical trial designs. We discuss the most recent preclinical proof-of-concept studies validating a number of therapeutic approaches against inflammatory mechanisms in animal models that could represent novel avenues for drug development in epilepsy. Finally, we suggest future directions to accelerate preclinical to clinical translation of these recent discoveries. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 International League Against Epilepsy.
Application of environmental isotopes to validate a model of regional groundwater flow and transport (Carrizo Aquifer)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pearson, F.J.

1999-01-01

It is asserted that models cannot be validated. This seems obvious if one identifies validation as the process of testing a model against absolute truth, and accepts that absolute truth is less a scientific than a philosophic or religious concept. What is here called model validation has a more modest goal - to develop confidence in the conceptual and mathematical models used to describe a groundwater system by illustrating that measured radiochemical properties of the groundwater match those predicted by the model. The system described is the Carrizo sand in the Gulf Coastal Plain of south Texas. Each element of the modelling chain describing the movement of 14 C is confirmed independently and, thus, can be said to be validated. The groundwater ages, and the 14 C measurements and carbonate geochemical model underlying them, are confirmed by the noble gas measurements, while the flow and transport model is confirmed by the 14 C results. Agreement between the modelled and measured 234 U/ 238 U ratios supports the description of U transport used in the modelling, while the need to use an unexpectedly low K D value for U raises questions about the applicability of laboratory K D data to the Carrizo groundwater system. (author)
The application of mindfulness to eating disorders treatment: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Wanden-Berghe, Rocío Guardiola; Sanz-Valero, Javier; Wanden-Berghe, Carmina

2011-01-01

The present study is an exploratory examination of the efficacy of the application of mindfulness-based interventions to the treatment of eating disorders. It employs a systematic review technique in which terms from the Psychological Index Terms of the American Psychological Association (APA) were chosen and analyzed in conjunction with Boolean operators. Using data obtained by the online consultation of references from 12 different bibliographical databases, 8 studies were included in the systematic review. Each study reported satisfactory results, although trial qualities were variable and sample sizes were small. Nonetheless, the current study found initial evidence supporting the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions to the treatment of eating disorders. The application of mindfulness-based interventions to the treatment of eating disorders remains a promising approach worthy of further research.
Artificial intelligence applications to design validation and sneak function analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stratton, R.C.

1985-01-01

An objective of the US space reactor program is to design systems with high reliability and safety of control over long operating lifetimes. Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) is a participant in the National Man-Machine Integration (MMI) program for Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactors (LMFBR). A purpose of this program is to promote the development of concepts and technologies that enhance the operational safety and reliability of fast-breeder reactors. Much of the work is directly applicable to the space reactor program. This paper reports on one of the MMI projects being developed by ANL. The project reported pertains to an automated system that demonstrates the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for design validation (DA) and sneak function analysis (SFA). The AI system models the design specification and the physical design of the cooling process assigned to the Argon Cooling System (ACS) at Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II). The models are developed using heuristic knowledge and natural laws. 13 refs
Parallel Resolved Open Source CFD-DEM: Method, Validation and Application

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Hager

2014-03-01

Full Text Available In the following paper the authors present a fully parallelized Open Source method for calculating the interaction of immersed bodies and surrounding fluid. A combination of computational fluid dynamics (CFD and a discrete element method (DEM accounts for the physics of both the fluid and the particles. The objects considered are relatively big compared to the cells of the fluid mesh, i.e. they cover several cells each. Thus this fictitious domain method (FDM is called resolved. The implementation is realized within the Open Source framework CFDEMcOupling (www.cfdem.com, which provides an interface between OpenFOAM® based CFD-solvers and the DEM software LIGGGHTS (www.liggghts.com. While both LIGGGHTS and OpenFOAM® were already parallelized, only a recent improvement of the algorithm permits the fully parallel computation of resolved problems. Alongside with a detailed description of the method, its implementation and recent improvements, a number of application and validation examples is presented in the scope of this paper.
Validation of Magnetic Reconstruction Codes for Real-Time Applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mazon, D.; Murari, A.; Boulbe, C.; Faugeras, B.; Blum, J.; Svensson, J.; Quilichini, T.; Gelfusa, M.

2010-01-01

The real-time reconstruction of the plasma magnetic equilibrium in a tokamak is a key point to access high-performance regimes. Indeed, the shape of the plasma current density profile is a direct output of the reconstruction and has a leading effect for reaching a steady-state high-performance regime of operation. The challenge is thus to develop real-time methods and algorithms that reconstruct the magnetic equilibrium from the perspective of using these outputs for feedback control purposes. In this paper the validation of the JET real-time equilibrium reconstruction codes using both a Bayesian approach and a full equilibrium solver named Equinox will be detailed, the comparison being performed with the off-line equilibrium code EFIT (equilibrium fitting) or the real-time boundary reconstruction code XLOC (X-point local expansion). In this way a significant database, a methodology, and a strategy for the validation are presented. The validation of the results has been performed using a validated database of 130 JET discharges with a large variety of magnetic configurations. Internal measurements like polarimetry and motional Stark effect have been also used for the Equinox validation including some magnetohydrodynamic signatures for the assessment of the reconstructed safety profile and current density. (authors)
Mycotoxin and fungicide residues in wheat grains from fungicide-treated plants measured by a validated LC-MS method.

Science.gov (United States)

da Luz, Suzane Rickes; Pazdiora, Paulo Cesar; Dallagnol, Leandro José; Dors, Giniani Carla; Chaves, Fábio Clasen

2017-04-01

Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is an annual crop, cultivated in the winter and spring and susceptible to several pathogens, especially fungi, which are managed with fungicides. It is also one of the most consumed cereals, and can be contaminated by mycotoxins and fungicides. The objective of this study was to validate an analytical method by LC-MS for simultaneous determination of mycotoxins and fungicide residues in wheat grains susceptible to fusarium head blight treated with fungicides, and to evaluate the relationship between fungicide application and mycotoxin production. All parameters of the validated analytical method were within AOAC and ANVISA limits. Deoxynivalenol was the prevalent mycotoxin in wheat grain and epoxiconazole was the fungicide residue found in the highest concentration. All fungicidal treatments induced an increase in AFB2 production when compared to the control (without application). AFB1 and deoxynivalenol, on the contrary, were reduced in all fungicide treatments compared to the control. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Psychometric validation of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-Endometrial Cancer Module (EORTC QLQ-EN24)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Greimel, Elfriede; Nordin, Andy; Lanceley, Anne

2011-01-01

A validation study was conducted to evaluate the psychometric properties of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire-Endometrial Cancer Module (EORTC QLQ-EN24). This module was designed to assess disease and treatment specific aspects of...
Full scale validation of helminth ova (Ascaris suum) inactivation by different sludge treatment processes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Paulsrud, B.; Gjerde, B.; Lundar, A.

2003-07-01

The Norwegian sewage sludge regulation requires disinfection (hygienisation) of all sludges for land application, and one of the criteria is that disinfected sludge should not contain viable helminth ova. All disinfection processes have to be designed and operated in order to comply with this criteria, and four processes employed in Norway (thermophilic aerobic pre-treatment, pre-pasteurisation, thermal vacuum drying in membrane filter presses and lime treatment) have been tested in full scale by inserting semipermeable bags of Ascaris suum eggs into the processes for certain limes. For lime treatment supplementary laboratory tests have been conducted. The paper presents the results of the experiments, and it could be concluded that all processes, except lime treatment, could be operated at less stringent time-temperature regimes than commonly experienced at Norwegian plants today. (author)
Potential for beneficial application of sulfate reducing bacteria in sulfate containing domestic wastewater treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

van den Brand, T P H; Roest, K; Chen, G H; Brdjanovic, D; van Loosdrecht, M C M

2015-11-01

The activity of sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) in domestic wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) is often considered as a problem due to H2S formation and potential related odour and corrosion of materials. However, when controlled well, these bacteria can be effectively used in a positive manner for the treatment of wastewater. The main advantages of using SRB in wastewater treatment are: (1) minimal sludge production, (2) reduction of potential pathogens presence, (3) removal of heavy metals and (4) as pre-treatment of anaerobic digestion. These advantages are accessory to efficient and stable COD removal by SRB. Though only a few studies have been conducted on SRB treatment of domestic wastewater, the many studies performed on industrial wastewater provide information on the potential of SRB in domestic wastewater treatment. A key-parameter analyses literature study comprising pH, organic substrates, sulfate, salt, temperature and oxygen revealed that the conditions are well suited for the application of SRB in domestic wastewater treatment. Since the application of SRB in WWTP has environmental benefits its application is worth considering for wastewater treatment, when sulfate is present in the influent.
Application of Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis Methods to a Validation Study for Weapons-Grade Mixed-Oxide Fuel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dunn, M.E.

2001-01-01

At the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), sensitivity and uncertainty (S/U) analysis methods and a Generalized Linear Least-Squares Methodology (GLLSM) have been developed to quantitatively determine the similarity or lack thereof between critical benchmark experiments and an application of interest. The S/U and GLLSM methods provide a mathematical approach, which is less judgment based relative to traditional validation procedures, to assess system similarity and estimate the calculational bias and uncertainty for an application of interest. The objective of this paper is to gain experience with the S/U and GLLSM methods by revisiting a criticality safety evaluation and associated traditional validation for the shipment of weapons-grade (WG) MOX fuel in the MO-1 transportation package. In the original validation, critical experiments were selected based on a qualitative assessment of the MO-1 and MOX contents relative to the available experiments. Subsequently, traditional trending analyses were used to estimate the Δk bias and associated uncertainty. In this paper, the S/U and GLLSM procedures are used to re-evaluate the suite of critical experiments associated with the original MO-1 evaluation. Using the S/U procedures developed at ORNL, critical experiments that are similar to the undamaged and damaged MO-1 package are identified based on sensitivity and uncertainty analyses of the criticals and the MO-1 package configurations. Based on the trending analyses developed for the S/U and GLLSM procedures, the Δk bias and uncertainty for the most reactive MO-1 package configurations are estimated and used to calculate an upper subcritical limit (USL) for the MO-1 evaluation. The calculated bias and uncertainty from the S/U and GLLSM analyses lead to a calculational USL that supports the original validation study for the MO-1
CATHARE 2 V2.5 : a fully validated CATHARE version for various applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Robert, M.; Farvacque, M.; Parent, M.; Faydide, B.

2003-01-01

The CATHARE code is devoted to best estimate calculations of thermal-hydraulic transients in nuclear reactors. The code is based on a 2-fluid 6-equation model including non-condensable gases equations and additional equations for radio-chemical components transport. It allows the coolant circuits of any reactor to be represented by assembling 1D, 0D and 3D modules. The outcome of more than 20 years of joint development effort by CEA, EDF, FRAMATOME-ANP and IRSN, is the CATHARE 2 V2.5 version, to be released at the end of 2003. The development strategy of this version was to include in one single version the functionalities and the models needed for all the various applications the CATHARE partners have to deal with, in the scope of thermal-hydraulic nuclear safety analysis. Physical assessment is a highly time consuming activity for this kind of code. The 'single version' strategy results in putting together the validation efforts required for each application, thus significantly reducing the global validation effort. It also makes the maintenance process more efficient. The main objective of CATHARE 2 V2.5 is to perform safety analyses for Pressurized Water Reactors postulated accidents or other incidents, such as primary LOCAs, SGTR, loss of RHR, secondary breaks, loss of feed-water, etc. The 3D module of CATHARE has been developed in connection with the future safety methodologies based on the 3D modelling of the vessel. The main application is the large break LOCA where significant 3D effects take place, and in particular the phenomena related to the core radial temperature profile, the 3D core quenching pattern, the bypass of the accumulator water to the break and CCFL phenomena in the down-comer during the refill phase. These effects are exemplified with a PWR large break LOCA calculation using a 3D modeling of the vessel. Another major application of this version of CATHARE is to be used without modification in the SIPA French reactor simulator. This
Cleaning Validation of Fermentation Tanks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Salo, Satu; Friis, Alan; Wirtanen, Gun

2008-01-01

Reliable test methods for checking cleanliness are needed to evaluate and validate the cleaning process of fermentation tanks. Pilot scale tanks were used to test the applicability of various methods for this purpose. The methods found to be suitable for validation of the clenlinees were visula...

Construction, internal validation and implementation in a mobile application of a scoring system to predict nonadherence to proton pump inhibitors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emma Mares-García

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Background Other studies have assessed nonadherence to proton pump inhibitors (PPIs, but none has developed a screening test for its detection. Objectives To construct and internally validate a predictive model for nonadherence to PPIs. Methods This prospective observational study with a one-month follow-up was carried out in 2013 in Spain, and included 302 patients with a prescription for PPIs. The primary variable was nonadherence to PPIs (pill count. Secondary variables were gender, age, antidepressants, type of PPI, non-guideline-recommended prescription (NGRP of PPIs, and total number of drugs. With the secondary variables, a binary logistic regression model to predict nonadherence was constructed and adapted to a points system. The ROC curve, with its area (AUC, was calculated and the optimal cut-off point was established. The points system was internally validated through 1,000 bootstrap samples and implemented in a mobile application (Android. Results The points system had three prognostic variables: total number of drugs, NGRP of PPIs, and antidepressants. The AUC was 0.87 (95% CI [0.83–0.91], p < 0.001. The test yielded a sensitivity of 0.80 (95% CI [0.70–0.87] and a specificity of 0.82 (95% CI [0.76–0.87]. The three parameters were very similar in the bootstrap validation. Conclusions A points system to predict nonadherence to PPIs has been constructed, internally validated and implemented in a mobile application. Provided similar results are obtained in external validation studies, we will have a screening tool to detect nonadherence to PPIs.
Empirical Validation and Application of the Computing Attitudes Survey

Science.gov (United States)

Dorn, Brian; Elliott Tew, Allison

2015-01-01

Student attitudes play an important role in shaping learning experiences. However, few validated instruments exist for measuring student attitude development in a discipline-specific way. In this paper, we present the design, development, and validation of the computing attitudes survey (CAS). The CAS is an extension of the Colorado Learning…
Automated high-dose rate brachytherapy treatment planning for a single-channel vaginal cylinder applicator

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Yuhong; Klages, Peter; Tan, Jun; Chi, Yujie; Stojadinovic, Strahinja; Yang, Ming; Hrycushko, Brian; Medin, Paul; Pompos, Arnold; Jiang, Steve; Albuquerque, Kevin; Jia, Xun

2017-06-01

High dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy treatment planning is conventionally performed manually and/or with aids of preplanned templates. In general, the standard of care would be elevated by conducting an automated process to improve treatment planning efficiency, eliminate human error, and reduce plan quality variations. Thus, our group is developing AutoBrachy, an automated HDR brachytherapy planning suite of modules used to augment a clinical treatment planning system. This paper describes our proof-of-concept module for vaginal cylinder HDR planning that has been fully developed. After a patient CT scan is acquired, the cylinder applicator is automatically segmented using image-processing techniques. The target CTV is generated based on physician-specified treatment depth and length. Locations of the dose calculation point, apex point and vaginal surface point, as well as the central applicator channel coordinates, and the corresponding dwell positions are determined according to their geometric relationship with the applicator and written to a structure file. Dwell times are computed through iterative quadratic optimization techniques. The planning information is then transferred to the treatment planning system through a DICOM-RT interface. The entire process was tested for nine patients. The AutoBrachy cylindrical applicator module was able to generate treatment plans for these cases with clinical grade quality. Computation times varied between 1 and 3 min on an Intel Xeon CPU E3-1226 v3 processor. All geometric components in the automated treatment plans were generated accurately. The applicator channel tip positions agreed with the manually identified positions with submillimeter deviations and the channel orientations between the plans agreed within less than 1 degree. The automatically generated plans obtained clinically acceptable quality.
Validated simulator for space debris removal with nets and other flexible tethers applications

Science.gov (United States)

Gołębiowski, Wojciech; Michalczyk, Rafał; Dyrek, Michał; Battista, Umberto; Wormnes, Kjetil

2016-12-01

In the context of active debris removal technologies and preparation activities for the e.Deorbit mission, a simulator for net-shaped elastic bodies dynamics and their interactions with rigid bodies, has been developed. Its main application is to aid net design and test scenarios for space debris deorbitation. The simulator can model all the phases of the debris capturing process: net launch, flight and wrapping around the target. It handles coupled simulation of rigid and flexible bodies dynamics. Flexible bodies were implemented using Cosserat rods model. It allows to simulate flexible threads or wires with elasticity and damping for stretching, bending and torsion. Threads may be combined into structures of any topology, so the software is able to simulate nets, pure tethers, tether bundles, cages, trusses, etc. Full contact dynamics was implemented. Programmatic interaction with simulation is possible - i.e. for control implementation. The underlying model has been experimentally validated and due to significant gravity influence, experiment had to be performed in microgravity conditions. Validation experiment for parabolic flight was a downscaled process of Envisat capturing. The prepacked net was launched towards the satellite model, it expanded, hit the model and wrapped around it. The whole process was recorded with 2 fast stereographic camera sets for full 3D trajectory reconstruction. The trajectories were used to compare net dynamics to respective simulations and then to validate the simulation tool. The experiments were performed on board of a Falcon-20 aircraft, operated by National Research Council in Ottawa, Canada. Validation results show that model reflects phenomenon physics accurately enough, so it may be used for scenario evaluation and mission design purposes. The functionalities of the simulator are described in detail in the paper, as well as its underlying model, sample cases and methodology behind validation. Results are presented and
Development and validation of three-dimensional CFD techniques for reactor safety applications. Final report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buchholz, Sebastian; Palazzo, Simone; Papukchiev, Angel; Scheurer Martina

2016-12-01

The overall goal of the project RS 1506 ''Development and Validation of Three Dimensional CFD Methods for Reactor Safety Applications'' is the validation of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software for the simulation of three -dimensional thermo-hydraulic heat and fluid flow phenomena in nuclear reactors. For this purpose a wide spectrum of validation and test cases was selected covering fluid flow and heat transfer phenomena in the downcomer and in the core of pressurized water reactors. In addition, the coupling of the system code ATHLET with the CFD code ANSYS CFX was further developed and validated. The first choice were UPTF experiments where turbulent single- and two-phase flows were investigated in a 1:1 scaled model of a German KONVOI reactor. The scope of the CFD calculations covers thermal mixing and stratification including condensation in single- and two-phase flows. In the complex core region, the flow in a fuel assembly with spacer grid was simulated as defined in the OECD/NEA Benchmark MATIS-H. Good agreement are achieved when the geometrical and physical boundary conditions were reproduced as realistic as possible. This includes, in particular, the consideration of heat transfer to walls. The influence of wall modelling on CFD results was investigated on the TALL-3D T01 experiment. In this case, the dynamic three dimensional fluid flow and heat transfer phenomena were simulated in a Generation IV liquid metal cooled reactor. Concurrently to the validation work, the coupling of the system code ATHLET with the ANSYS CFX software was optimized and expanded for two-phase flows. Different coupling approaches were investigated, in order to overcome the large difference between CPU-time requirements of system and CFD codes. Finally, the coupled simulation system was validated by applying it to the simulation of the PSI double T-junction experiment, the LBE-flow in the MYRRA Spallation experiment and a demonstration test case simulating a pump trip
The reliability, minimal detectable change and concurrent validity of a gravity-based bubble inclinometer and iphone application for measuring standing lumbar lordosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Salamh, Paul A; Kolber, Morey

2014-01-01

To investigate the reliability, minimal detectable change (MDC90) and concurrent validity of a gravity-based bubble inclinometer (inclinometer) and iPhone® application for measuring standing lumbar lordosis. Two investigators used both an inclinometer and an iPhone® with an inclinometer application to measure lumbar lordosis of 30 asymptomatic participants. ICC models 3,k and 2,k were used for the intrarater and interrater analysis, respectively. Good interrater and intrarater reliability was present for the inclinometer with Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC) of 0.90 and 0.85, respectively and the iPhone® application with ICC values of 0.96 and 0.81. The minimal detectable change (MDC90) indicates that a change greater than or equal to 7° and 6° is needed to exceed the threshold of error using the iPhone® and inclinometer, respectively. The concurrent validity between the two instruments was good with a Pearson product-moment coefficient of correlation (r) of 0.86 for both raters. Ninety-five percent limits of agreement identified differences ranging from 9° greater in regards to the iPhone® to 8° less regarding the inclinometer. Both the inclinometer and iPhone® application possess good interrater reliability, intrarater reliability and concurrent validity for measuring standing lumbar lordosis. This investigation provides preliminary evidence to suggest that smart phone applications may offer clinical utility comparable to inclinometry for quantifying standing lumbar lordosis. Clinicians should recognize potential individual differences when using these devices interchangeably.
Validation of the Intestinal Part of the Prostate Cancer Questionnaire 'QUFW94': Psychometric Properties, Responsiveness, and Content Validity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reidunsdatter, Randi J.; Lund, Jo-Asmund; Fransson, Per; Widmark, Anders

2010-01-01

Purpose: Several treatment options are available for patients with prostate cancer. Applicable and valid self-assessment instruments for assessing health-related quality of life (HRQOL) are of paramount importance. The aim of this study was to explore the validity and responsiveness of the intestinal part of the prostate cancer-specific questionnaire QUFW94. Methods and Materials: The content of the intestinal part of QUFW94 was examined by evaluation of experienced clinicians and reviewing the literature. The psychometric properties and responsiveness were assessed by analyzing HRQOL data from the randomized study Scandinavian Prostate Cancer Group 7 (SPCG)/Swedish Association for Urological Oncology 3 (SFUO). Subscales were constructed by means of exploratory factor analyses. Internal consistency was assessed by Cronbach's alpha. Responsiveness was investigated by comparing baseline scores with the 4-year posttreatment follow-up. Results: The content validity was found acceptable, but some amendments were proposed. The factor analyses revealed two symptom scales. The first scale comprised five items regarding general stool problems, frequency, incontinence, need to plan toilet visits, and daily activity. Cronbach's alpha at 0.83 indicated acceptable homogeneity. The second scale was less consistent with a Cronbach's alpha at 0.55. The overall responsiveness was found to be very satisfactory. Conclusion: Two scales were identified in the bowel dimension of the QUFW94; the first one had good internal consistency. The responsiveness was excellent, and some modifications are suggested to strengthen the content validity.
Reliability and Construct Validity of the Dutch Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version--Findings from a Sample of Male Adolescents in a Juvenile Justice Treatment Institution

Science.gov (United States)

Das, Jacqueline; de Ruiter, Corine; Doreleijers, Theo; Hillege, Sanne

2009-01-01

The present study examines the reliability and construct validity of the Dutch version of the Psychopathy Check List: Youth Version (PCL:YV) in a sample of male adolescents admitted to a secure juvenile justice treatment institution (N = 98). Hare's four-factor model is used to examine reliability and validity of the separate dimensions of…
Validation philosophy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vornehm, D.

1994-01-01

To determine when a set of calculations falls within an umbrella of an existing validation documentation, it is necessary to generate a quantitative definition of range of applicability (our definition is only qualitative) for two reasons: (1) the current trend in our regulatory environment will soon make it impossible to support the legitimacy of a validation without quantitative guidelines; and (2) in my opinion, the lack of support by DOE for further critical experiment work is directly tied to our inability to draw a quantitative open-quotes line-in-the-sandclose quotes beyond which we will not use computer-generated values
Verification and validation benchmarks.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oberkampf, William Louis; Trucano, Timothy Guy

2007-02-01

Verification and validation (V&V) are the primary means to assess the accuracy and reliability of computational simulations. V&V methods and procedures have fundamentally improved the credibility of simulations in several high-consequence fields, such as nuclear reactor safety, underground nuclear waste storage, and nuclear weapon safety. Although the terminology is not uniform across engineering disciplines, code verification deals with assessing the reliability of the software coding, and solution verification deals with assessing the numerical accuracy of the solution to a computational model. Validation addresses the physics modeling accuracy of a computational simulation by comparing the computational results with experimental data. Code verification benchmarks and validation benchmarks have been constructed for a number of years in every field of computational simulation. However, no comprehensive guidelines have been proposed for the construction and use of V&V benchmarks. For example, the field of nuclear reactor safety has not focused on code verification benchmarks, but it has placed great emphasis on developing validation benchmarks. Many of these validation benchmarks are closely related to the operations of actual reactors at near-safety-critical conditions, as opposed to being more fundamental-physics benchmarks. This paper presents recommendations for the effective design and use of code verification benchmarks based on manufactured solutions, classical analytical solutions, and highly accurate numerical solutions. In addition, this paper presents recommendations for the design and use of validation benchmarks, highlighting the careful design of building-block experiments, the estimation of experimental measurement uncertainty for both inputs and outputs to the code, validation metrics, and the role of model calibration in validation. It is argued that the understanding of predictive capability of a computational model is built on the level of
The Development and Validation of a Transformational Leadership Survey for Substance Use Treatment Programs

Science.gov (United States)

Edwards, Jennifer R.; Knight, Danica K.; Broome, Kirk M.; Flynn, Patrick M.

2014-01-01

Directors in substance use treatment programs are increasingly required to respond to external economic and socio-political pressures. Leadership practices that promote innovation can help offset these challenges. Using focus groups, factor analysis, and validation instruments, the current study developed and established psychometrics for the Survey of Transformational Leadership. In 2008, clinical directors were evaluated on leadership practices by 214 counselors within 57 programs in four U.S. regions. Nine themes emerged: integrity, sensible risk, demonstrates innovation, encourages innovation, inspirational motivation, supports others, develops others, delegates tasks, and expects excellence. Study implications, limitations and suggested future directions are discussed. Funding from NIDA. PMID:20509734
Validity and reliability of an application review process using dedicated reviewers in one stage of a multi-stage admissions model.

Science.gov (United States)

Zeeman, Jacqueline M; McLaughlin, Jacqueline E; Cox, Wendy C

2017-11-01

With increased emphasis placed on non-academic skills in the workplace, a need exists to identify an admissions process that evaluates these skills. This study assessed the validity and reliability of an application review process involving three dedicated application reviewers in a multi-stage admissions model. A multi-stage admissions model was utilized during the 2014-2015 admissions cycle. After advancing through the academic review, each application was independently reviewed by two dedicated application reviewers utilizing a six-construct rubric (written communication, extracurricular and community service activities, leadership experience, pharmacy career appreciation, research experience, and resiliency). Rubric scores were extrapolated to a three-tier ranking to select candidates for on-site interviews. Kappa statistics were used to assess interrater reliability. A three-facet Many-Facet Rasch Model (MFRM) determined reviewer severity, candidate suitability, and rubric construct difficulty. The kappa statistic for candidates' tier rank score (n = 388 candidates) was 0.692 with a perfect agreement frequency of 84.3%. There was substantial interrater reliability between reviewers for the tier ranking (kappa: 0.654-0.710). Highest construct agreement occurred in written communication (kappa: 0.924-0.984). A three-facet MFRM analysis explained 36.9% of variance in the ratings, with 0.06% reflecting application reviewer scoring patterns (i.e., severity or leniency), 22.8% reflecting candidate suitability, and 14.1% reflecting construct difficulty. Utilization of dedicated application reviewers and a defined tiered rubric provided a valid and reliable method to effectively evaluate candidates during the application review process. These analyses provide insight into opportunities for improving the application review process among schools and colleges of pharmacy. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Measuring stigma in children receiving mental health treatment: Validation of the Paediatric Self-Stigmatization Scale (PaedS).

Science.gov (United States)

Kaushik, A; Papachristou, E; Dima, D; Fewings, S; Kostaki, E; Ploubidis, G B; Kyriakopoulos, M

2017-06-01

Research on the impact of stigma associated with mental illness in children is scarce. Considering the known negative effects of stigma associated with mental illness in adults, it is crucial to explore the stigma experienced by children who access mental health treatment. However, no scale measuring self-stigmatization in younger children is available to date. This study aimed to develop and validate such a scale, the Paediatric Self-Stigmatization Scale (PaedS). A total of 156 children (119 receiving outpatient and 37 receiving inpatient treatment), aged 8-12 years, completed the PaedS, the Self-Perception Profile for Children and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL - Child Report, ages 8-12). In addition, parents completed the PedsQL (Parent Report for Children, ages 8-12), the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and a modified subscale of the PaedS measuring the children's rejection by others due to their mental health difficulties. A confirmatory factor analysis showed that a four-factor structure, comprising Societal Devaluation, Personal Rejection, Self-Stigma and Secrecy scales, had excellent fit to the data (CFI=0.95; TLI=0.95; RMSEA=0.05). Child-reported PaedS scores were positively correlated with parental-reported PaedS scores and negatively with PedsQL, the SDQ, and 5 out of 6 subscales of the Self-Perception Profile for Children, suggesting adequate convergent validity (all P-values<0.05). The PaedS is a valid instrument, which is hoped to advance the understanding of self-stigmatization in children with mental health difficulties and contribute to its prevention. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
Validation and implementation of model based control strategies at an industrial wastewater treatment plant.

Science.gov (United States)

Demey, D; Vanderhaegen, B; Vanhooren, H; Liessens, J; Van Eyck, L; Hopkins, L; Vanrolleghem, P A

2001-01-01

In this paper, the practical implementation and validation of advanced control strategies, designed using model based techniques, at an industrial wastewater treatment plant is demonstrated. The plant under study is treating the wastewater of a large pharmaceutical production facility. The process characteristics of the wastewater treatment were quantified by means of tracer tests, intensive measurement campaigns and the use of on-line sensors. In parallel, a dynamical model of the complete wastewater plant was developed according to the specific kinetic characteristics of the sludge and the highly varying composition of the industrial wastewater. Based on real-time data and dynamic models, control strategies for the equalisation system, the polymer dosing and phosphorus addition were established. The control strategies are being integrated in the existing SCADA system combining traditional PLC technology with robust PC based control calculations. The use of intelligent control in wastewater treatment offers a wide spectrum of possibilities to upgrade existing plants, to increase the capacity of the plant and to eliminate peaks. This can result in a more stable and secure overall performance and, finally, in cost savings. The use of on-line sensors has a potential not only for monitoring concentrations, but also for manipulating flows and concentrations. This way the performance of the plant can be secured.
Application of Digital Diagnosis and Treatment Technique in Benign Mandibular Diseases.

Science.gov (United States)

Ju, Rui; Zeng, Wei; Lian, Xiaotian; Chen, Gang; Yin, Huaqiang; Tang, Wei

2018-02-06

To explore the feasibility of preoperative planning for treatment of benign mandibular lesions (BML) using digital technologies such as three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction, measurement, visualization as well as image contrast and design of neural positioning protection template (NPPT) in combination with 3D printing technology in the BML diagnosis and treatment. The 3D models of BML and inferior alveolar nerves (IAN) of 10 BML patients were reconstructed based on their digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) data using MIMICS16.0 software. The models were used to visualize lesions and nerve contrast measurement and guide design of personalized NPPT and osteotomy after operation modality was determined in order to achieve accurate, minimally invasive operation with shortened intraoperative time. Intraoperative NPPT application could accurately locate lesions and their scope and assist osteotomy. The measurement results were consistent with those of preoperative reconstruction and measurement. The BML were curetted completely without damage IAN. The 10 BML patients had no numbness and other discomforts in the lower lip and mandibular teeth after operation. The digital diagnosis and treatment technology is an effective method for functional treatment of BML patients and its application could achieve personalized, minimally invasive and precise treatment and save intraoperation time.
Application of Laser Irradiation for Restorative Treatments.

Science.gov (United States)

Davoudi, Amin; Sanei, Maryam; Badrian, Hamid

2016-01-01

Nowadays, lasers are widely used in many fields of medicine. Also, they can be applied at many branches of dental practice such as diagnosis, preventive procedures, restorative treatments, and endodontic therapies. Procedures like caries removal, re-mineralization, and vital pulp therapy are the most noticeable effects of laser irradiation which has gained much attention among clinicians. With controlled and appropriate wavelength, they can help stimulating dentinogenesis, controlling pulpal hemorrhage, sterilization, healing of collagenic proteins, formation of a fibrous matrix, and inducing hard tissue barrier. Nevertheless, there are many controversies in literatures regarding their effects on the quality of bonded restorations. It hampered a wide application of lasers in some aspects of restorative dentistry and requirements to identify the best way to use this technology. The aim of this mini review is to explain special characteristics of laser therapy and to introduce the possible applications of laser devices for dental purposes.
Statistical Validation of Engineering and Scientific Models: Background

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hills, Richard G.; Trucano, Timothy G.

1999-01-01

A tutorial is presented discussing the basic issues associated with propagation of uncertainty analysis and statistical validation of engineering and scientific models. The propagation of uncertainty tutorial illustrates the use of the sensitivity method and the Monte Carlo method to evaluate the uncertainty in predictions for linear and nonlinear models. Four example applications are presented; a linear model, a model for the behavior of a damped spring-mass system, a transient thermal conduction model, and a nonlinear transient convective-diffusive model based on Burger's equation. Correlated and uncorrelated model input parameters are considered. The model validation tutorial builds on the material presented in the propagation of uncertainty tutoriaI and uses the damp spring-mass system as the example application. The validation tutorial illustrates several concepts associated with the application of statistical inference to test model predictions against experimental observations. Several validation methods are presented including error band based, multivariate, sum of squares of residuals, and optimization methods. After completion of the tutorial, a survey of statistical model validation literature is presented and recommendations for future work are made
Monte Carlo treatment planning with modulated electron radiotherapy: framework development and application

Science.gov (United States)

Alexander, Andrew William

Within the field of medical physics, Monte Carlo radiation transport simulations are considered to be the most accurate method for the determination of dose distributions in patients. The McGill Monte Carlo treatment planning system (MMCTP), provides a flexible software environment to integrate Monte Carlo simulations with current and new treatment modalities. A developing treatment modality called energy and intensity modulated electron radiotherapy (MERT) is a promising modality, which has the fundamental capabilities to enhance the dosimetry of superficial targets. An objective of this work is to advance the research and development of MERT with the end goal of clinical use. To this end, we present the MMCTP system with an integrated toolkit for MERT planning and delivery of MERT fields. Delivery is achieved using an automated "few leaf electron collimator" (FLEC) and a controller. Aside from the MERT planning toolkit, the MMCTP system required numerous add-ons to perform the complex task of large-scale autonomous Monte Carlo simulations. The first was a DICOM import filter, followed by the implementation of DOSXYZnrc as a dose calculation engine and by logic methods for submitting and updating the status of Monte Carlo simulations. Within this work we validated the MMCTP system with a head and neck Monte Carlo recalculation study performed by a medical dosimetrist. The impact of MMCTP lies in the fact that it allows for systematic and platform independent large-scale Monte Carlo dose calculations for different treatment sites and treatment modalities. In addition to the MERT planning tools, various optimization algorithms were created external to MMCTP. The algorithms produced MERT treatment plans based on dose volume constraints that employ Monte Carlo pre-generated patient-specific kernels. The Monte Carlo kernels are generated from patient-specific Monte Carlo dose distributions within MMCTP. The structure of the MERT planning toolkit software and
Independent technique of verifying high-dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy treatment plans

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saw, Cheng B.; Korb, Leroy J.; Darnell, Brenda; Krishna, K. V.; Ulewicz, Dennis

1998-01-01

Purpose: An independent technique for verifying high-dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy treatment plans has been formulated and validated clinically. Methods and Materials: In HDR brachytherapy, dwell times at respective dwell positions are computed, using an optimization algorithm in a HDR treatment-planning system to deliver a specified dose to many target points simultaneously. Because of the variability of dwell times, concerns have been expressed regarding the ability of the algorithm to compute the correct dose. To address this concern, a commercially available low-dose rate (LDR) algorithm was used to compute the doses at defined distances, based on the dwell times obtained from the HDR treatment plans. The percent deviation between doses computed using the HDR and LDR algorithms were reviewed for HDR procedures performed over the last year. Results: In this retrospective study, the difference between computed doses using the HDR and LDR algorithms was found to be within 5% for about 80% of the HDR procedures. All of the reviewed procedures have dose differences of less than 10%. Conclusion: An independent technique for verifying HDR brachytherapy treatment plans has been validated based on clinical data. Provided both systems are available, this technique is universal in its applications and not limited to either a particular implant applicator, implant site, or implant type
Efficient generalized cross-validation with applications to parametric image restoration and resolution enhancement.

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, N; Milanfar, P; Golub, G

2001-01-01

In many image restoration/resolution enhancement applications, the blurring process, i.e., point spread function (PSF) of the imaging system, is not known or is known only to within a set of parameters. We estimate these PSF parameters for this ill-posed class of inverse problem from raw data, along with the regularization parameters required to stabilize the solution, using the generalized cross-validation method (GCV). We propose efficient approximation techniques based on the Lanczos algorithm and Gauss quadrature theory, reducing the computational complexity of the GCV. Data-driven PSF and regularization parameter estimation experiments with synthetic and real image sequences are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of our method.

Applications of nanotechnology in water and wastewater treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Qu, Xiaolei; Alvarez, Pedro J J; Li, Qilin

2013-08-01

Providing clean and affordable water to meet human needs is a grand challenge of the 21st century. Worldwide, water supply struggles to keep up with the fast growing demand, which is exacerbated by population growth, global climate change, and water quality deterioration. The need for technological innovation to enable integrated water management cannot be overstated. Nanotechnology holds great potential in advancing water and wastewater treatment to improve treatment efficiency as well as to augment water supply through safe use of unconventional water sources. Here we review recent development in nanotechnology for water and wastewater treatment. The discussion covers candidate nanomaterials, properties and mechanisms that enable the applications, advantages and limitations as compared to existing processes, and barriers and research needs for commercialization. By tracing these technological advances to the physicochemical properties of nanomaterials, the present review outlines the opportunities and limitations to further capitalize on these unique properties for sustainable water management. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Application of ozone in the treatment of periodontal disease

Science.gov (United States)

Srikanth, Adusumilli; Sathish, Manthena; Sri Harsha, Anumolu Venkatanaga

2013-01-01

Gingivitis and periodontitis are most common inflammatory diseases of supporting tissues of teeth. Role of microbial etiology and host response in progression of gingival and periodontal diseases has been well established. Because of the beneficial biological effects of ozone, due to its antimicrobial and immunostimulating effect, it is well indicated in the treatment of gingival and periodontal diseases. The objective of this article is to provide a general review about clinical applications of ozone in treatment of periodontal diseases and to summarize the available in vitro and in vivo studies in Periodontics in which ozone has been used. PMID:23946585
Validation of a regional distribution model in environmental risk assessment of substances

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Berding, V.

2000-06-26

The regional distribution model SimpleBox proposed in the TGD (Technical Guidance Document) and implemented in the EUSES software (European Union System for the Evaluation of Substances) was validated. The aim of this investigation was to determine the applicability and weaknesses of the model and to make proposals for improvement. The validation was performed using the scheme set up by SCHWARTZ (2000) of which the main aspects are the division into internal and external validation, i.e. into generic and task-specific properties of the model. These two validation parts contain the scrutiny of theory, sensitivity analyses, comparison of predicted environmental concentrations with measured ones by means of scenario analyses, uncertainty analyses and comparison with alternative models. Generally, the model employed is a reasonable compromise between complexity and simplification. Simpler models are applicable, too, but in many cases the results can deviate considerably from the measured values. For the sewage treatment model, it could be shown that its influence on the predicted concentration is very low and a much simpler model fulfils its purpose in a similar way. It is proposed to improve the model in several ways, e.g. by including the pH/pK-correction for dissociating substances or by alternative estimations functions for partition coefficients. But the main focus for future improvements should be on the amelioration of release estimations and substance characteristics as degradation rates and partition coefficients.
Applicability and trends of anaerobic granular sludge treatment processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lim, Seung Joo; Kim, Tak-Hyun

2014-01-01

Anaerobic granular sludge treatment processes have been continuously developed, although the anaerobic sludge granulation process was not clearly understood. In this review, an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB), an expanded granule sludge blanket (EGSB), and a static granular bed reactor (SGBR) were introduced as components of a representative anaerobic granular sludge treatment processes. The characteristics and application trends of each reactor were presented. The UASB reactor was developed in the late 1970s and its use has been rapidly widespread due to the excellent performance. With the active granules, this reactor is able to treat various high-strength wastewaters as well as municipal wastewater. Most soluble industrial wastewaters can be efficiently applied using a UASB. The EGSB reactor was developed owing to give more chance to contact between wastewater and the granules. Dispersed sludge is separated from mature granules using the rapid upward velocity in this reactor. The EGSB reactor shows the excellent performance in treating low-strength and/or high-strength wastewater, especially under low temperatures. The SGBR, developed at Iowa State University, is one of anaerobic granular sludge treatment processes. Although the configuration of the SGBR is very simple, the performance of this system is similar to that of the UASB or EGSB reactor. The anaerobic sludge granulation processes showed excellent performance for various wastewaters at a broad range of organic loading rate in lab-, pilot-scale tests. This leads to erect thousands of full-scale granular processes, which has been widely operated around the world. -- Highlights: • Anaerobic sludge granulation is a key parameter for maintaining granular processes. • Anaerobic granular digestion processes are applicable for various wastewaters. • The UASB is an economic high-rate anaerobic granular process. • The EGSB can treat high-strength wastewater using expanding granules. • The SGBR is
A cross-validation Delphi method approach to the diagnosis and treatment of personality disorders in older adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosowsky, Erlene; Young, Alexander S; Malloy, Mary C; van Alphen, S P J; Ellison, James M

2018-03-01

The Delphi method is a consensus-building technique using expert opinion to formulate a shared framework for understanding a topic with limited empirical support. This cross-validation study replicates one completed in the Netherlands and Belgium, and explores US experts' views on the diagnosis and treatment of older adults with personality disorders (PD). Twenty-one geriatric PD experts participated in a Delphi survey addressing diagnosis and treatment of older adults with PD. The European survey was translated and administered electronically. First-round consensus was reached for 16 out of 18 items relevant to diagnosis and specific mental health programs for personality disorders in older adults. Experts agreed on the usefulness of establishing criteria for specific types of treatments. The majority of psychologists did not initially agree on the usefulness of pharmacotherapy. Expert consensus was reached following two subsequent rounds after clarification addressing medication use. Study results suggest consensus among regarding psychosocial treatments. Limited acceptance amongst US psychologists about the suitability of pharmacotherapy for late-life PDs contrasted with the views expressed by experts surveyed in Netherlands and Belgium studies.
Characterization, Modeling and Application of Aerobic Granular Sludge for Wastewater Treatment

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Xian-Wei; Yu, Han-Qing; Ni, Bing-Jie; Sheng, Guo-Ping

Recently extensive studies have been carried out to cultivate aerobic granular sludge worldwide, including in China. Aerobic granules, compared with conventional activated sludge flocs, are well known for their regular, dense, and strong microbial structure, good settling ability, high biomass retention, and great ability to withstand shock loadings. Studies have shown that the aerobic granules could be applied for the treatment of low- or high-strength wastewaters, simultaneous removal of organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, and decomposition of toxic wastewaters. Thus, this new form of activate sludge, like anaerobic granular sludge, could be employed for the treatment of municipal and industrial wastewaters in near future. This chapter attempts to provide an up-to-date review on the definition, cultivation, characterization, modeling and application of aerobic granular sludge for biological wastewater treatment. This review outlines some important discoveries with regard to the factors affecting the formation of aerobic granular sludge, their physicochemical characteristics, as well as their microbial structure and diversity. It also summarizes the modeling of aerobic granule formation. Finally, this chapter highlights the applications of aerobic granulation technology in the biological wastewater treatment. It is concluded that the knowledge regarding aerobic granular sludge is far from complete. Although previous studies in this field have undoubtedly improved our understanding on aerobic granular sludge, it is clear that much remains to be learned about the process and that many unanswered questions still remain. One of the challenges appears to be the integration of the existing and growing scientific knowledge base with the observations and applications in practice, which this paper hopes to partially achieve.
Mobile application-based Seoul National University Prostate Cancer Risk Calculator: development, validation, and comparative analysis with two Western risk calculators in Korean men.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chang Wook Jeong

Full Text Available OBJECTIVES: We developed a mobile application-based Seoul National University Prostate Cancer Risk Calculator (SNUPC-RC that predicts the probability of prostate cancer (PC at the initial prostate biopsy in a Korean cohort. Additionally, the application was validated and subjected to head-to-head comparisons with internet-based Western risk calculators in a validation cohort. Here, we describe its development and validation. PATIENTS AND METHODS: As a retrospective study, consecutive men who underwent initial prostate biopsy with more than 12 cores at a tertiary center were included. In the development stage, 3,482 cases from May 2003 through November 2010 were analyzed. Clinical variables were evaluated, and the final prediction model was developed using the logistic regression model. In the validation stage, 1,112 cases from December 2010 through June 2012 were used. SNUPC-RC was compared with the European Randomized Study of Screening for PC Risk Calculator (ERSPC-RC and the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial Risk Calculator (PCPT-RC. The predictive accuracy was assessed using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC. The clinical value was evaluated using decision curve analysis. RESULTS: PC was diagnosed in 1,240 (35.6% and 417 (37.5% men in the development and validation cohorts, respectively. Age, prostate-specific antigen level, prostate size, and abnormality on digital rectal examination or transrectal ultrasonography were significant factors of PC and were included in the final model. The predictive accuracy in the development cohort was 0.786. In the validation cohort, AUC was significantly higher for the SNUPC-RC (0.811 than for ERSPC-RC (0.768, p<0.001 and PCPT-RC (0.704, p<0.001. Decision curve analysis also showed higher net benefits with SNUPC-RC than with the other calculators. CONCLUSIONS: SNUPC-RC has a higher predictive accuracy and clinical benefit than Western risk calculators. Furthermore, it is easy
Microservices Validation: Methodology and Implementation

OpenAIRE

Savchenko, D.; Radchenko, G.

2015-01-01

Due to the wide spread of cloud computing, arises actual question about architecture, design and implementation of cloud applications. The microservice model describes the design and development of loosely coupled cloud applications when computing resources are provided on the basis of automated IaaS and PaaS cloud platforms. Such applications consist of hundreds and thousands of service instances, so automated validation and testing of cloud applications developed on the basis of microservic...
Application of industry-standard guidelines for the validation of avionics software

Science.gov (United States)

Hayhurst, Kelly J.; Shagnea, Anita M.

1990-01-01

The application of industry standards to the development of avionics software is discussed, focusing on verification and validation activities. It is pointed out that the procedures that guide the avionics software development and testing process are under increased scrutiny. The DO-178A guidelines, Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification, are used by the FAA for certifying avionics software. To investigate the effectiveness of the DO-178A guidelines for improving the quality of avionics software, guidance and control software (GCS) is being developed according to the DO-178A development method. It is noted that, due to the extent of the data collection and configuration management procedures, any phase in the life cycle of a GCS implementation can be reconstructed. Hence, a fundamental development and testing platform has been established that is suitable for investigating the adequacy of various software development processes. In particular, the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the development method recommended by the DO-178A guidelines are being closely examined.
Development and Validation of the EXPECT Questionnaire: Assessing Patient Expectations of Outcomes of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Treatments for Chronic Pain.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Salene M W; Lange, Jane; Turner, Judith; Cherkin, Dan; Ritenbaugh, Cheryl; Hsu, Clarissa; Berthoud, Heidi; Sherman, Karen

2016-11-01

Patient expectations may be associated with outcomes of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments for chronic pain. However, a psychometrically sound measure of such expectations is needed. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a questionnaire to assess individuals' expectations regarding outcomes of CAM treatments for chronic low back pain (CLBP), as well as a short form of the questionnaire. An 18-item draft questionnaire was developed through literature review, cognitive interviews with individuals with CLBP, CAM practitioners, and expert consultation. Two samples completed the questionnaire: (1) a community sample (n = 141) completed it via an online survey before or soon after starting a CAM treatment for CLBP, and (2) participants (n = 181) in randomized clinical trials evaluating CAM treatments for CLBP or fibromyalgia completed it prior to or shortly after starting treatment. Factor structure, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and criterion validity were examined. Based on factor analyses, 10 items reflecting expectations (used to create a total score) and three items reflecting hopes (not scored) were selected for the questionnaire. The questionnaire had high internal consistency, moderate test-retest reliability, and moderate correlations with other measures of expectations. A three-item short form also had adequate reliability and validity. The Expectations for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Treatments (EXPECT) questionnaire can be used in research to assess individuals' expectations of treatments for chronic pain. It is recommended that the three hope questions are included (but not scored) to help respondents distinguish between hopes and expectations. The short form may be appropriate for clinical settings and when expectation measurement is not a primary focus.
Verification and validation benchmarks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oberkampf, William Louis; Trucano, Timothy Guy

2007-01-01

Verification and validation (V and V) are the primary means to assess the accuracy and reliability of computational simulations. V and V methods and procedures have fundamentally improved the credibility of simulations in several high-consequence fields, such as nuclear reactor safety, underground nuclear waste storage, and nuclear weapon safety. Although the terminology is not uniform across engineering disciplines, code verification deals with assessing the reliability of the software coding, and solution verification deals with assessing the numerical accuracy of the solution to a computational model. Validation addresses the physics modeling accuracy of a computational simulation by comparing the computational results with experimental data. Code verification benchmarks and validation benchmarks have been constructed for a number of years in every field of computational simulation. However, no comprehensive guidelines have been proposed for the construction and use of V and V benchmarks. For example, the field of nuclear reactor safety has not focused on code verification benchmarks, but it has placed great emphasis on developing validation benchmarks. Many of these validation benchmarks are closely related to the operations of actual reactors at near-safety-critical conditions, as opposed to being more fundamental-physics benchmarks. This paper presents recommendations for the effective design and use of code verification benchmarks based on manufactured solutions, classical analytical solutions, and highly accurate numerical solutions. In addition, this paper presents recommendations for the design and use of validation benchmarks, highlighting the careful design of building-block experiments, the estimation of experimental measurement uncertainty for both inputs and outputs to the code, validation metrics, and the role of model calibration in validation. It is argued that the understanding of predictive capability of a computational model is built on the
Verification and validation benchmarks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oberkampf, William L.; Trucano, Timothy G.

2008-01-01

Verification and validation (V and V) are the primary means to assess the accuracy and reliability of computational simulations. V and V methods and procedures have fundamentally improved the credibility of simulations in several high-consequence fields, such as nuclear reactor safety, underground nuclear waste storage, and nuclear weapon safety. Although the terminology is not uniform across engineering disciplines, code verification deals with assessing the reliability of the software coding, and solution verification deals with assessing the numerical accuracy of the solution to a computational model. Validation addresses the physics modeling accuracy of a computational simulation by comparing the computational results with experimental data. Code verification benchmarks and validation benchmarks have been constructed for a number of years in every field of computational simulation. However, no comprehensive guidelines have been proposed for the construction and use of V and V benchmarks. For example, the field of nuclear reactor safety has not focused on code verification benchmarks, but it has placed great emphasis on developing validation benchmarks. Many of these validation benchmarks are closely related to the operations of actual reactors at near-safety-critical conditions, as opposed to being more fundamental-physics benchmarks. This paper presents recommendations for the effective design and use of code verification benchmarks based on manufactured solutions, classical analytical solutions, and highly accurate numerical solutions. In addition, this paper presents recommendations for the design and use of validation benchmarks, highlighting the careful design of building-block experiments, the estimation of experimental measurement uncertainty for both inputs and outputs to the code, validation metrics, and the role of model calibration in validation. It is argued that the understanding of predictive capability of a computational model is built on the
[Clinical application evaluation of Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Pediatrics in Traditional Chinese Medicine].

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Meng-Yu; Yang, Wei; Wang, Li-Ying; Zhao, Xue-Yao; Wang, Yue-Xi; Liu, Yu-Qi; Han, Xue-Jie; Lv, Ai-Ping

2017-09-01

Clinical application evaluation research of Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Pediatrics in Traditional Chinese Medicine intends to evaluate the quality level and clinical application of the guideline. A questionnaire and prospective case survey methods were used to evaluate the applicability evaluation based on the clinician questionnaire and the application evaluation based on clinical case observation. The applicability evaluation, familiarity and utilization rate of doctors' guidelines were 85.06%, 62.76%; Sort by technical grade, intermediate grade doctors have a higher familiarity rate and utilization rate, while the junior grade doctor's is lower; Guide quality level of applicability evaluation, other items' rational percentage are better than 96% except the items of health preserving and prevention and other treatment is relatively low; Items' applicable percentage of applicability evaluation are more than 91% except the item of guide simplicity. Comprehensive applicability evaluation, The percentage of the guideline applicable to clinical practice accounted for 94.94%. The consistency rate of syndrome differentiation and clinical application is more than 96% in addition to prescription medication, other treatments and health preserving and prevention of the guidelines apply consistency of application evaluation. The percentage of good treatment effect accounted for 92.96% of application effect evaluation. The safety percentage is 99.89% and economy is 97.45%. The research shows that of Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Pediatrics in Traditional Chinese Medicine quality level is good and is basically applicable to pediatric clinical practice which can be used as a standardized recommendation of pediatric common diseases' treatment specification. A small part of the guidelines are not applicable and need to be further consummated. Health preserving and prevention and other treatment of the
SU-F-T-65: AutomaticTreatment Planning for High-Dose Rate (HDR) Brachytherapy with a VaginalCylinder Applicator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhou, Y; Tan, J; Jiang, S; Albuquerque, K; Jia, X

2016-01-01

Purpose: High dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy treatment planning is conventionally performed in a manual fashion. Yet it is highly desirable to perform computerized automated planning to improve treatment planning efficiency, eliminate human errors, and reduce plan quality variation. The goal of this research is to develop an automatic treatment planning tool for HDR brachytherapy with a cylinder applicator for vaginal cancer. Methods: After inserting the cylinder applicator into the patient, a CT scan was acquired and was loaded to an in-house developed treatment planning software. The cylinder applicator was automatically segmented using image-processing techniques. CTV was generated based on user-specified treatment depth and length. Locations of relevant points (apex point, prescription point, and vaginal surface point), central applicator channel coordinates, and dwell positions were determined according to their geometric relations with the applicator. Dwell time was computed through an inverse optimization process. The planning information was written into DICOM-RT plan and structure files to transfer the automatically generated plan to a commercial treatment planning system for plan verification and delivery. Results: We have tested the system retrospectively in nine patients treated with vaginal cylinder applicator. These cases were selected with different treatment prescriptions, lengths, depths, and cylinder diameters to represent a large patient population. Our system was able to generate treatment plans for these cases with clinically acceptable quality. Computation time varied from 3–6 min. Conclusion: We have developed a system to perform automated treatment planning for HDR brachytherapy with a cylinder applicator. Such a novel system has greatly improved treatment planning efficiency and reduced plan quality variation. It also served as a testbed to demonstrate the feasibility of automatic HDR treatment planning for more complicated cases.
SU-F-T-65: AutomaticTreatment Planning for High-Dose Rate (HDR) Brachytherapy with a VaginalCylinder Applicator

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhou, Y; Tan, J; Jiang, S; Albuquerque, K; Jia, X [UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX (United States)

2016-06-15

Purpose: High dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy treatment planning is conventionally performed in a manual fashion. Yet it is highly desirable to perform computerized automated planning to improve treatment planning efficiency, eliminate human errors, and reduce plan quality variation. The goal of this research is to develop an automatic treatment planning tool for HDR brachytherapy with a cylinder applicator for vaginal cancer. Methods: After inserting the cylinder applicator into the patient, a CT scan was acquired and was loaded to an in-house developed treatment planning software. The cylinder applicator was automatically segmented using image-processing techniques. CTV was generated based on user-specified treatment depth and length. Locations of relevant points (apex point, prescription point, and vaginal surface point), central applicator channel coordinates, and dwell positions were determined according to their geometric relations with the applicator. Dwell time was computed through an inverse optimization process. The planning information was written into DICOM-RT plan and structure files to transfer the automatically generated plan to a commercial treatment planning system for plan verification and delivery. Results: We have tested the system retrospectively in nine patients treated with vaginal cylinder applicator. These cases were selected with different treatment prescriptions, lengths, depths, and cylinder diameters to represent a large patient population. Our system was able to generate treatment plans for these cases with clinically acceptable quality. Computation time varied from 3–6 min. Conclusion: We have developed a system to perform automated treatment planning for HDR brachytherapy with a cylinder applicator. Such a novel system has greatly improved treatment planning efficiency and reduced plan quality variation. It also served as a testbed to demonstrate the feasibility of automatic HDR treatment planning for more complicated cases.
Application of the nanofiltration and pervaporation in the treatment of waste water

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mora M, J.; Vatai, G.; Bekassy-Molnare

2002-01-01

This paper is about the application of membrane technologies in waste water treatment. Membrane operations are applied to a number of environmental problems as the result of more stringent regulations. For economical reasons applications are still generally limited to the cases where contaminants and/or water can be recovered for recycle or reuse. In the following will present the results experiments where Nanofiltration and Pervaporation of industrial wastewater treatment had been used. The examined waste water, containing methanol an salt, was originated from the drilling procedure of the MOL Rt. Hungary. Previously this wastewater had been treated by distillation or ionic exchange. The distillation removes the methanol by heat supply, which is an expensive method, and the salt precipitation causes difficulties in the cleaning of the apparatus. The ion exchange treatment experiments were not very efficient and economic. (Author) [es
[Validation of the Russian language version of the SSQ questionnaire].

Science.gov (United States)

Tufatulin, G Sh; Artyushkin, S A

2016-01-01

The Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ) is applied worldwide as a highly reliable tool for the characteristic of the quality of life and subjective sensations of the patients presenting with hearing impairment as well as for the estimation of the efficiency of hearing aids. The objective of the present study was to validate and adapt the Russian language version of the SSQ questionnaire (SSQrus) for its application in the audiological practice under conditions of this country. After the cultural and language adaptation of SSQrus, it was validated by means of repeat interviewing of three groups of the respondents (a total of 93 subjects with normal, moderately and severely impaired hearing). The results of the validation give evidence of the high reliability of the modified questionnaire. Specifically, high reproducibility of the data estimated from the results of the second interview has been demonstrated (r=0.85--0.99). High sensitivity of SSQruswas confirmed by the agreement between the results of the estimation (in scores) and the degree of the observed loss of hearing. The estimates obtained by the application of the SSQrus questionnaire are comparable with those reported by the foreign authors. It is concluded that the SSQrus questionnaire can be used in routine audiological practice as an additional diagnostic instrument for the estimation of hearing problems experienced by a patient, monitoring efficiency of therapy and surgical treatment of hearing impairment, improvement of hearing aids, and hearing dysfunction research.
Application of radiation for wastewater treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Han Bumsoo; Kim Jinkyu; Kim Yuri

2006-01-01

Electron beam processing of wastewater is non-chemical, and uses fast formation of short-lived reactive radicals that can interact with a wide range of pollutants. Such reactive radicals are strong oxidizing or reducing agents that can transform the pollutants in the liquids wastes. The first studies on the radiation treatment of wastes were carried out in the 1950s principally for disinfection. In the 1960s, these studies were extended to the purification of water and wastewater. After some laboratory research on industrial wastewaters and polluted groundwater in 1970s and 1980s, several pilot plants were built for extended research in the 1990s. The first full-scale application was reported for the purification of wastewater at the Voronezh synthetic rubber plant in Russia. Two accelerators (50 kW each) were used to convert the non-biodegradable emulsifier, 'nekal', present in the wastewater to a biodegradable form . The installation treats up to 2000 m3 of effluent per day. A pilot plant of 1000 m 3 /d for treating textile-dyeing wastewater has been constructed in Daegu, Korea with 1 MeV, 40 kW electron accelerator. High-energy irradiation produces instantaneous radiolytical transformations by energy transfer from accelerated electrons to orbital electrons of water molecules. Absorbed energy disturbs the electron system of the molecule and results in breakage of inter-atomic bonds. Hydrated electron eaq, H atom, . OH and HO 2 . radicals and hydrogen peroxide H 2 O 2 and H 2 are the most important products of the primary interactions (radiolysis products). Generally, radiation processing of wastewater has maximum efficiency at pollutant concentration less than 10 -3 mol/L (∼100 ppm). The treatment of such wastewater is simple, requires low dose (about 1 kGy or less) and gives almost complete elimination of odor, color, taste and turbidity. The radiation processing of polluted water containing specific contaminants may require creation of special conditions to
Patient learning of treatment contents in cognitive therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Gumport, Nicole B; Dong, Lu; Lee, Jason Y; Harvey, Allison G

2018-03-01

Research has demonstrated that both memory and learning for treatment contents are poor, and that both are associated with worse treatment outcome. The Memory Support Intervention has been shown to improve memory for treatment, but it has not yet been established if this intervention can also improve learning of treatment contents. This study was designed to document the number of times participants exhibited each of the indices of learning, to examine the indices of learning and their relationship to recall of treatment points, and to investigate the association between the indices of learning and depression outcome. Adults diagnosed with major depressive disorder (N = 48) were randomly assigned to 14 sessions of cognitive therapy-as-usual (CT-as-usual) or cognitive therapy plus the Memory Support Intervention (CT + Memory Support). Measures of learning, memory, and depressive symptomatology were taken at mid-treatment, post-treatment, and at 6-month follow-up. Relative to the CT-as-usual group, participants in the CT + Memory Support group reported more accurate thoughts and applications of treatment points at mid-treatment, post-treatment, and 6-month follow-up. Patient recall was significantly correlated with application and cognitive generalization. Thoughts and application at mid-treatment were associated with increased odds of treatment response at post-treatment. The learning measure for this study has not yet been psychometrically validated. The results are based on a small sample. Learning during treatment is poor, but modifiable via the Memory Support Intervention. These results provide encouraging data that improving learning of treatment contents can reduce symptoms during and following treatment. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Application of the Naive Bayesian Classifier to optimize treatment decisions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kazmierska, Joanna; Malicki, Julian

2008-01-01

Background and purpose: To study the accuracy, specificity and sensitivity of the Naive Bayesian Classifier (NBC) in the assessment of individual risk of cancer relapse or progression after radiotherapy (RT). Materials and methods: Data of 142 brain tumour patients irradiated from 2000 to 2005 were analyzed. Ninety-six attributes related to disease, patient and treatment were chosen. Attributes in binary form consisted of the training set for NBC learning. NBC calculated an individual conditional probability of being assigned to: relapse or progression (1), or no relapse or progression (0) group. Accuracy, attribute selection and quality of classifier were determined by comparison with actual treatment results, leave-one-out and cross validation methods, respectively. Clinical setting test utilized data of 35 patients. Treatment results at classification were unknown and were compared with classification results after 3 months. Results: High classification accuracy (84%), specificity (0.87) and sensitivity (0.80) were achieved, both for classifier training and in progressive clinical evaluation. Conclusions: NBC is a useful tool to support the assessment of individual risk of relapse or progression in patients diagnosed with brain tumour undergoing RT postoperatively

Measuring coverage in MNCH: a prospective validation study in Pakistan and Bangladesh on measuring correct treatment of childhood pneumonia.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tabish Hazir

Full Text Available Antibiotic treatment for pneumonia as measured by Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS is a key indicator for tracking progress in achieving Millennium Development Goal 4. Concerns about the validity of this indicator led us to perform an evaluation in urban and rural settings in Pakistan and Bangladesh.Caregivers of 950 children under 5 y with pneumonia and 980 with "no pneumonia" were identified in urban and rural settings and allocated for DHS/MICS questions 2 or 4 wk later. Study physicians assigned a diagnosis of pneumonia as reference standard; the predictive ability of DHS/MICS questions and additional measurement tools to identify pneumonia versus non-pneumonia cases was evaluated. Results at both sites showed suboptimal discriminative power, with no difference between 2- or 4-wk recall. Individual patterns of sensitivity and specificity varied substantially across study sites (sensitivity 66.9% and 45.5%, and specificity 68.8% and 69.5%, for DHS in Pakistan and Bangladesh, respectively. Prescribed antibiotics for pneumonia were correctly recalled by about two-thirds of caregivers using DHS questions, increasing to 72% and 82% in Pakistan and Bangladesh, respectively, using a drug chart and detailed enquiry.Monitoring antibiotic treatment of pneumonia is essential for national and global programs. Current (DHS/MICS questions and proposed new (video and pneumonia score methods of identifying pneumonia based on maternal recall discriminate poorly between pneumonia and children with cough. Furthermore, these methods have a low yield to identify children who have true pneumonia. Reported antibiotic treatment rates among these children are therefore not a valid proxy indicator of pneumonia treatment rates. These results have important implications for program monitoring and suggest that data in its current format from DHS/MICS surveys should not be used for the purpose of monitoring antibiotic
Hanford Facility dangerous waste permit application, liquid effluent retention facility and 200 area effluent treatment facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Coenenberg, J.G.

1997-01-01

The Hanford Facility Dangerous Waste Permit Application is considered to 10 be a single application organized into a General Information Portion (document 11 number DOE/RL-91-28) and a Unit-Specific Portion. The scope of the 12 Unit-Specific Portion is limited to Part B permit application documentation 13 submitted for individual, 'operating' treatment, storage, and/or disposal 14 units, such as the Liquid Effluent Retention Facility and 200 Area Effluent 15 Treatment Facility (this document, DOE/RL-97-03). 16 17 Both the General Information and Unit-Specific portions of the Hanford 18 Facility Dangerous Waste Permit Application address the content of the Part B 19 permit application guidance prepared by the Washington State Department of 20 Ecology (Ecology 1987 and 1996) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 21 (40 Code of Federal Regulations 270), with additional information needs 22 defined by the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments and revisions of 23 Washington Administrative Code 173-303. For ease of reference, the Washington 24 State Department of Ecology alpha-numeric section identifiers from the permit 25 application guidance documentation (Ecology 1996) follow, in brackets, the 26 chapter headings and subheadings. A checklist indicating where information is 27 contained in the Liquid Effluent Retention Facility and 200 Area Effluent 28 Treatment Facility permit application documentation, in relation to the 29 Washington State Department of Ecology guidance, is located in the Contents 30 Section. 31 32 Documentation contained in the General Information Portion is broader in 33 nature and could be used by multiple treatment, storage, and/or disposal units 34 (e.g., the glossary provided in the General Information Portion). Wherever 35 appropriate, the Liquid Effluent Retention Facility and 200 Area Effluent 36 Treatment Facility permit application documentation makes cross-reference to 37 the General Information Portion, rather than duplicating
Hanford Facility dangerous waste permit application, liquid effluent retention facility and 200 area effluent treatment facility

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Coenenberg, J.G.

1997-08-15

The Hanford Facility Dangerous Waste Permit Application is considered to 10 be a single application organized into a General Information Portion (document 11 number DOE/RL-91-28) and a Unit-Specific Portion. The scope of the 12 Unit-Specific Portion is limited to Part B permit application documentation 13 submitted for individual, `operating` treatment, storage, and/or disposal 14 units, such as the Liquid Effluent Retention Facility and 200 Area Effluent 15 Treatment Facility (this document, DOE/RL-97-03). 16 17 Both the General Information and Unit-Specific portions of the Hanford 18 Facility Dangerous Waste Permit Application address the content of the Part B 19 permit application guidance prepared by the Washington State Department of 20 Ecology (Ecology 1987 and 1996) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 21 (40 Code of Federal Regulations 270), with additional information needs 22 defined by the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments and revisions of 23 Washington Administrative Code 173-303. For ease of reference, the Washington 24 State Department of Ecology alpha-numeric section identifiers from the permit 25 application guidance documentation (Ecology 1996) follow, in brackets, the 26 chapter headings and subheadings. A checklist indicating where information is 27 contained in the Liquid Effluent Retention Facility and 200 Area Effluent 28 Treatment Facility permit application documentation, in relation to the 29 Washington State Department of Ecology guidance, is located in the Contents 30 Section. 31 32 Documentation contained in the General Information Portion is broader in 33 nature and could be used by multiple treatment, storage, and/or disposal units 34 (e.g., the glossary provided in the General Information Portion). Wherever 35 appropriate, the Liquid Effluent Retention Facility and 200 Area Effluent 36 Treatment Facility permit application documentation makes cross-reference to 37 the General Information Portion, rather than duplicating
Validation of the Spanish version of the questionnaire «Benefit, satisfaction and willingness to continue the treatment» in patients with overactive bladder.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiménez, M A; Cambronero, J

2013-09-01

To perform the linguistic and psychometric validation of the Spanish version of the BSW (Benefit, Satisfaction and Willingness to continue) questionnaire. Epidemiologic, observational, multicenter, prospective (October 2008-February 2009) study in patients ≥40 years old with de novo overactive bladder syndrome who start treatment with antimuscarinics by physicians assessment. Data was recorded at baseline (face-to-face) and the follow-up of the study after 1 and 3 months (closed surveys by phone). Morisky-Green questionnaire was used to assess compliance. Bladder Control Self-assessment Questionnaire (B-SAQ) and BSW questionnaire were completed, performing the validation of BSW. 312 evaluable patients were recruited, 93 remained until the 3 months visit. 65% and 71% of patients were not compliant with treatment at 1 and 3 months, respectively. The correlation between the BSW and the B-SAQ questionnaires after 1 and 3 months was moderate and statistically significant. The internal consistency between the BSW questionnaire items was high (Cronbach alpha: 0,89 at 1 month and 0,84 at 3 months). 92% of patients understood the questions and 84% were able to fill the BSW questionnaire without need of previous instructions (N=25). The BSW questionnaire has been shown to be a feasible, valid and reliable tool to know the patient self-assessment of the treatment, according to its psychometric properties. Copyright © 2013 AEU. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.
Multicentre validation of IMRT pre-treatment verification: Comparison of in-house and external audit

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jornet, Núria; Carrasco, Pablo; Beltrán, Mercè; Calvo, Juan Francisco; Escudé, Lluís; Hernández, Victor; Quera, Jaume; Sáez, Jordi

2014-01-01

Background and purpose: We performed a multicentre intercomparison of IMRT optimisation and dose planning and IMRT pre-treatment verification methods and results. The aims were to check consistency between dose plans and to validate whether in-house pre-treatment verification results agreed with those of an external audit. Materials and methods: Participating centres used two mock cases (prostate and head and neck) for the intercomparison and audit. Compliance to dosimetric goals and total number of MU per plan were collected. A simple quality index to compare the different plans was proposed. We compared gamma index pass rates using the centre’s equipment and methodology to those of an external audit. Results: While for the prostate case, all centres fulfilled the dosimetric goals and plan quality was homogeneous, that was not the case for the head and neck case. The number of MU did not correlate with the plan quality index. Pre-treatment verifications results of the external audit did not agree with those of the in-house measurements for two centres: being within tolerance for in-house measurements and unacceptable for the audit or the other way round. Conclusions: Although all plans fulfilled dosimetric constraints, plan quality is highly dependent on the planner expertise. External audits are an excellent tool to detect errors in IMRT implementation and cannot be replaced by intercomparison using results obtained by centres
Measurement-based Treatment of Residual Symptoms Using Clinically Useful Depression Outcome Scale: Korean Validation Study

Science.gov (United States)

Jeon, Sang Won; Han, Changsu; Ko, Young-Hoon; Yoon, Seo Young; Pae, Chi-Un; Choi, Joonho; Park, Yong Chon; Kim, Jong-Woo; Yoon, Ho-Kyoung; Ko, Seung-Duk; Patkar, Ashwin A.; Zimmerman, Mark

2017-01-01

Objective This study was aimed at evaluating the diagnostic validity of the Korean version of the Clinically Useful Depression Outcome Scale (CUDOS) with varying follow-up in a typical clinical setting in multiple centers. Methods In total, 891 psychiatric outpatients were enrolled at the time of their intake appointment. Current diagnostic characteristics were examined using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (41% major depressive disorder). The CUDOS was measured and compared with three clinician rating scales and four self-report scales. Results The CUDOS showed excellent results for internal consistency (Cronbach’s α, 0.91), test-retest reliability (patients at intake, r=0.81; depressed patients in ongoing treatment, r=0.89), and convergent and discriminant validity (measures of depression, r=0.80; measures of anxiety and somatization, r=0.42). The CUDOS had a high ability to discriminate between different levels of depression severity based on the rating of Clinical Global Impression for depression severity and the diagnostic classification of major depression, minor depression, and non-depression. The ability of the CUDOS to identify patients with major depression was high (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve=0.867). A score of 20 as the optimal cutoff point was suggested when screening for major depression using the CUDOS (sensitivity=89.9%, specificity=69.5%). The CUDOS was sensitive to change after antidepressant treatment: patients with greater improvement showed a greater decrease in CUDOS scores (p<0.001). Conclusion The results of this multi-site outpatient study found that the Korean version of the CUDOS is a very useful measurement for research and for clinical practice. PMID:28138107
Development of Advanced Verification and Validation Procedures and Tools for the Certification of Learning Systems in Aerospace Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Jacklin, Stephen; Schumann, Johann; Gupta, Pramod; Richard, Michael; Guenther, Kurt; Soares, Fola

2005-01-01

Adaptive control technologies that incorporate learning algorithms have been proposed to enable automatic flight control and vehicle recovery, autonomous flight, and to maintain vehicle performance in the face of unknown, changing, or poorly defined operating environments. In order for adaptive control systems to be used in safety-critical aerospace applications, they must be proven to be highly safe and reliable. Rigorous methods for adaptive software verification and validation must be developed to ensure that control system software failures will not occur. Of central importance in this regard is the need to establish reliable methods that guarantee convergent learning, rapid convergence (learning) rate, and algorithm stability. This paper presents the major problems of adaptive control systems that use learning to improve performance. The paper then presents the major procedures and tools presently developed or currently being developed to enable the verification, validation, and ultimate certification of these adaptive control systems. These technologies include the application of automated program analysis methods, techniques to improve the learning process, analytical methods to verify stability, methods to automatically synthesize code, simulation and test methods, and tools to provide on-line software assurance.
Validation of a treatment satisfaction questionnaire in non-Hodgkin lymphoma: assessing the change from intravenous to subcutaneous administration of rituximab

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Theodore-Oklota C

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Christina Theodore-Oklota,1 Louise Humphrey,2 Christof Wiesner,1 Gabriel Schnetzler,3 Stacie Hudgens,4 Alicyn Campbell1 1Genentech, South San Francisco, CA, USA; 2Adelphi Values, Macclesfield, Cheshire, UK; 3F. Hoffmann La-Roche Ltd, Basel, Switzerland; 4Clinical Outcomes Solutions, Tucson, AZ, USA Background: A subcutaneous (SC formulation of rituximab (MabThera®/Rituxan® has been developed that could reduce administration time and improve patient satisfaction with treatment. The Rituximab Administration Satisfaction Questionnaire (RASQ was created to assess patients’ perceptions and satisfaction with rituximab SC (RASQ-SC or rituximab intravenous (RASQ-IV. We assessed the content validity and psychometric properties of RASQ in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.Methods: Face and content validity of RASQ-SC and RASQ-IV were qualitatively assessed using 60-minute combined concept elicitation and cognitive debriefing interviews. Psychometric validation of RASQ (item performance and reliability was assessed quantitatively against the established Cancer Therapy Satisfaction Questionnaire (CTSQ, using questionnaire data from the PrefMab (NCT01724021 and MabCute (NCT01461928 clinical studies.Results: RASQ-IV demonstrated excellent coverage of concepts relevant to patients’ (n=10 own treatment experiences and no new concepts were identified. Patients’ expectations of rituximab SC were conceptually consistent with items included in the RASQ-SC, suggesting that the tool is also conceptually adequate. In 1,051 patients from PrefMab and MabCute, correlations with domains such as “RASQ: Physical Impacts” and “CTSQ: Feelings About Side Effects”, “RASQ: Physical Impacts” and “CTSQ: Satisfaction With Therapy”, and “RASQ: Satisfaction” and “CTSQ: Satisfaction With Therapy”, achieved moderate-to-high correlations (>0.4 for convergent domains and <0.3 for divergent domains.Conclusion: This study supports the qualitative face and
Generation, Validation, and Application of Abundance Map Reference Data for Spectral Unmixing

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, McKay D.

Reference data ("ground truth") maps traditionally have been used to assess the accuracy of imaging spectrometer classification algorithms. However, these reference data can be prohibitively expensive to produce, often do not include sub-pixel abundance estimates necessary to assess spectral unmixing algorithms, and lack published validation reports. Our research proposes methodologies to efficiently generate, validate, and apply abundance map reference data (AMRD) to airborne remote sensing scenes. We generated scene-wide AMRD for three different remote sensing scenes using our remotely sensed reference data (RSRD) technique, which spatially aggregates unmixing results from fine scale imagery (e.g., 1-m Ground Sample Distance (GSD)) to co-located coarse scale imagery (e.g., 10-m GSD or larger). We validated the accuracy of this methodology by estimating AMRD in 51 randomly-selected 10 m x 10 m plots, using seven independent methods and observers, including field surveys by two observers, imagery analysis by two observers, and RSRD using three algorithms. Results indicated statistically-significant differences between all versions of AMRD, suggesting that all forms of reference data need to be validated. Given these significant differences between the independent versions of AMRD, we proposed that the mean of all (MOA) versions of reference data for each plot and class were most likely to represent true abundances. We then compared each version of AMRD to MOA. Best case accuracy was achieved by a version of imagery analysis, which had a mean coverage area error of 2.0%, with a standard deviation of 5.6%. One of the RSRD algorithms was nearly as accurate, achieving a mean error of 3.0%, with a standard deviation of 6.3%, showing the potential of RSRD-based AMRD generation. Application of validated AMRD to specific coarse scale imagery involved three main parts: 1) spatial alignment of coarse and fine scale imagery, 2) aggregation of fine scale abundances to produce
Full-scale Applications of Membrane Filtration in Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Holba, Marek; Plotěný, K.; Dvořák, L.; Gómez, M.; Růžičková, I.

2012-01-01

Roč. 40, č. 5 (2012), s. 479-486 ISSN 1863-0650 Institutional support: RVO:67985939 Keywords : membrane bioreactors * wastewater treatment * full-scale application Subject RIV: EF - Botanics Impact factor: 2.046, year: 2012
Application of Ozone MBBR Process in Refinery Wastewater Treatment

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Wang

2018-01-01

Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) is a kind of sewage treatment technology based on fluidized bed. At the same time, it can also be regarded as an efficient new reactor between active sludge method and the biological membrane method. The application of ozone MBBR process in refinery wastewater treatment is mainly studied. The key point is to design the ozone +MBBR combined process based on MBBR process. The ozone +MBBR process is used to analyze the treatment of concentrated water COD discharged from the refinery wastewater treatment plant. The experimental results show that the average removal rate of COD is 46.0%~67.3% in the treatment of reverse osmosis concentrated water by ozone MBBR process, and the effluent can meet the relevant standard requirements. Compared with the traditional process, the ozone MBBR process is more flexible. The investment of this process is mainly ozone generator, blower and so on. The prices of these items are relatively inexpensive, and these costs can be offset by the excess investment in traditional activated sludge processes. At the same time, ozone MBBR process has obvious advantages in water quality, stability and other aspects.
Development and validation of a novel patient-reported treatment satisfaction measure for hyperfunctional facial lines: facial line satisfaction questionnaire.

Science.gov (United States)

Pompilus, Farrah; Burgess, Somali; Hudgens, Stacie; Banderas, Benjamin; Daniels, Selena

2015-12-01

Facial lines or wrinkles are among the most visible signs of aging, and minimally invasive cosmetic procedures are becoming increasingly popular. The aim of this study was to develop and validate the Facial Line Satisfaction Questionnaire (FLSQ) for use in adults with upper facial lines (UFL). A literature review, concept elicitation interviews (n = 33), and cognitive debriefing interviews (n = 23) of adults with UFL were conducted to develop the FLSQ. The FLSQ comprises Baseline and Follow-up versions and was field-tested with 150 subjects in a US observational study designed to assess its psychometric performance. Analyses included acceptability (item and scale distribution [i.e. missingness, floor, and ceiling effects]), reliability, and validity (including concurrent validity). In total, 69 concepts were elicited during patient interviews. Following cognitive debriefing interviews, the FLSQ-Baseline version included 11 items and the Follow-up version included 13 items. Response rates for the FLSQ were 100% and 73% at baseline and follow-up, respectively; no items had excessive missing data. Questionnaire scale scores were normally distributed. Most domain scores demonstrated good internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's α ≥ 0.70). Most items within their respective domains exhibited good convergent (item-scale correlations > 0.40) and discriminant (items had higher correlation with their hypothesized scales than other scales) validity. Concurrent validity correlation coefficients of the FLSQ domain scores with the associated concurrent measures were acceptable (range: r = 0.40-0.70). Six FLSQ items demonstrated reliability and validity as stand-alone items outside their domains. The FLSQ is a valid questionnaire for assessing treatment expectations, satisfaction, impact, and preference in adults with UFL. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Impact of PTSD on Functioning in Patients Seeking Treatment for Chronic Pain and Validation of the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Åkerblom, Sophia; Perrin, Sean; Rivano Fischer, Marcelo; McCracken, Lance M

2017-04-01

The purpose of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of a Swedish version of the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS); to investigate the prevalence of traumatic experiences, trauma types, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a sample of patients seeking treatment for chronic pain; and to examine how indices of pain-related functioning vary with a history of traumatic exposure and PTSD diagnostic status. Participants were 463 consecutive patients with chronic pain referred for assessment at the Pain Rehabilitation Unit at Skåne University Hospital. The translated version of the PDS demonstrated high levels of internal consistency and a factor structure similar to that reported in previous validation studies using samples identified because of trauma exposure (not chronic pain), both of which provide preliminary support for the validity of this translated version. Based on their responses to the PDS, most patients (71.8%) reported one or more traumatic events with 28.9% fulfilling criteria for a current PTSD diagnosis. The patients with PTSD also reported significantly higher levels of pain interference, kinesiophobia, anxiety, and depression and significantly lower levels of life control, compared to patients exposed to trauma and not fulfilling criteria for PTSD and patients with no history of traumatic exposure. Consistent with previous research, a significant proportion of patients seeking treatment for chronic pain reported a history of traumatic exposure and nearly one third of these met current criteria for PTSD according to a standardized self-report measure. The presence of PTSD was associated with multiple indictors of poorer functioning and greater treatment need and provides further evidence that routine screening of chronic pain patients for PTSD is warranted. Self-report measures like the PDS appear to be valid for use in chronic pain samples and offer a relative low-cost method for screening for PTSD.
The translation and validation of Chinese overactive bladder symptom score for assessing overactive bladder syndrome and response to solifenacin treatment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eric Chieh-Lung Chou

2014-08-01

Conclusion: The Chinese OABSS has been validated as a reliable instrument for assessing OAB. Solifenacin 5 mg once daily improved urgency and other symptoms of OAB including frequency, urge incontinence, OABSS and International Prostatic Symptom Score. The adverse effects were acceptable and became less significant with time in the three months of treatment.
Application of national treatment in the foreign investments law of Serbia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Divljak Drago Lj.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available National treatment of foreign investors in the Serbian law, primarily the content, field and reach of its application, including the system of exemptions, all in the comparative context makes the subject of study in the paper. A new investment related legislation of Serbia anticipates the application of national treatment on a wide and more precisely regulated basis. In addition, our country has concluded a number of bilateral agreements on protection of investments, which, by the rule, contain the obligation to observe the principle of national treatment, in a relatively standardized form. In terms of content, our law has accepted a concept where national treatment is formally reduced to equal treatment of foreign and domestic investors. We evaluate positively the fact that a new system of stimulations enables avoiding the possibility of bringing foreign investors in actually privileged position compared to domestic investors, which used to happen periodically before. Speaking in general, the above-mentioned treatment in our law is legally stipulated in the framework of international comparative standards, including the system of exemptions. The lack of new legislation is that it displaces their regulating from the investment related legislation into special laws, which reduces the effective transparency and possibility for foreign investors to manage more easily. However, it is obvious that our country has managed to get closer in this field to its conceptual goal to establish a system of protection of foreign investors at a rational basis, while maintaining a stimulative legal environment for their investments and protecting its own interests.
Validation of elastic cross section models for space radiation applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Werneth, C.M., E-mail: charles.m.werneth@nasa.gov [NASA Langley Research Center (United States); Xu, X. [National Institute of Aerospace (United States); Norman, R.B. [NASA Langley Research Center (United States); Ford, W.P. [The University of Tennessee (United States); Maung, K.M. [The University of Southern Mississippi (United States)

2017-02-01

The space radiation field is composed of energetic particles that pose both acute and long-term risks for astronauts in low earth orbit and beyond. In order to estimate radiation risk to crew members, the fluence of particles and biological response to the radiation must be known at tissue sites. Given that the spectral fluence at the boundary of the shielding material is characterized, radiation transport algorithms may be used to find the fluence of particles inside the shield and body, and the radio-biological response is estimated from experiments and models. The fidelity of the radiation spectrum inside the shield and body depends on radiation transport algorithms and the accuracy of the nuclear cross sections. In a recent study, self-consistent nuclear models based on multiple scattering theory that include the option to study relativistic kinematics were developed for the prediction of nuclear cross sections for space radiation applications. The aim of the current work is to use uncertainty quantification to ascertain the validity of the models as compared to a nuclear reaction database and to identify components of the models that can be improved in future efforts.
Validation of an analytical method for simultaneous high-precision measurements of greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater treatment plants using a gas chromatography-barrier discharge detector system.

Science.gov (United States)

Pascale, Raffaella; Caivano, Marianna; Buchicchio, Alessandro; Mancini, Ignazio M; Bianco, Giuliana; Caniani, Donatella

2017-01-13

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) emit CO 2 and N 2 O, which may lead to climate change and global warming. Over the last few years, awareness of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from WWTPs has increased. Moreover, the development of valid, reliable, and high-throughput analytical methods for simultaneous gas analysis is an essential requirement for environmental applications. In the present study, an analytical method based on a gas chromatograph (GC) equipped with a barrier ionization discharge (BID) detector was developed for the first time. This new method simultaneously analyses CO 2 and N 2 O and has a precision, measured in terms of relative standard of variation RSD%, equal to or less than 6.6% and 5.1%, respectively. The method's detection limits are 5.3ppm v for CO 2 and 62.0ppb v for N 2 O. The method's selectivity, linearity, accuracy, repeatability, intermediate precision, limit of detection and limit of quantification were good at trace concentration levels. After validation, the method was applied to a real case of N 2 O and CO 2 emissions from a WWTP, confirming its suitability as a standard procedure for simultaneous GHG analysis in environmental samples containing CO 2 levels less than 12,000mg/L. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Validation of an algorithm-based definition of treatment resistance in patients with schizophrenia.

Science.gov (United States)

Ajnakina, Olesya; Horsdal, Henriette Thisted; Lally, John; MacCabe, James H; Murray, Robin M; Gasse, Christiane; Wimberley, Theresa

2018-02-19

Large-scale pharmacoepidemiological research on treatment resistance relies on accurate identification of people with treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) based on data that are retrievable from administrative registers. This is usually approached by operationalising clinical treatment guidelines by using prescription and hospital admission information. We examined the accuracy of an algorithm-based definition of TRS based on clozapine prescription and/or meeting algorithm-based eligibility criteria for clozapine against a gold standard definition using case notes. We additionally validated a definition entirely based on clozapine prescription. 139 schizophrenia patients aged 18-65years were followed for a mean of 5years after first presentation to psychiatric services in South-London, UK. The diagnostic accuracy of the algorithm-based measure against the gold standard was measured with sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV). A total of 45 (32.4%) schizophrenia patients met the criteria for the gold standard definition of TRS; applying the algorithm-based definition to the same cohort led to 44 (31.7%) patients fulfilling criteria for TRS with sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV of 62.2%, 83.0%, 63.6% and 82.1%, respectively. The definition based on lifetime clozapine prescription had sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV of 40.0%, 94.7%, 78.3% and 76.7%, respectively. Although a perfect definition of TRS cannot be derived from available prescription and hospital registers, these results indicate that researchers can confidently use registries to identify individuals with TRS for research and clinical practices. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Phase-II Clinical Validation of a Powered Exoskeleton for the Treatment of Elbow Spasticity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Simona Crea

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Spasticity is a typical motor disorder in patients affected by stroke. Typically post-stroke rehabilitation consists of repetition of mobilization exercises on impaired limbs, aimed to reduce muscle hypertonia and mitigate spastic reflexes. It is currently strongly debated if the treatment's effectiveness improves with the timeliness of its adoption; in particular, starting intensive rehabilitation as close as possible to the stroke event may counteract the growth and postpone the onset of spasticity. In this paper we present a phase-II clinical validation of a robotic exoskeleton in treating subacute post-stroke patients.Methods: Seventeen post-stroke patients participated in 10 daily rehabilitation sessions using the NEUROExos Elbow Module exoskeleton, each one lasting 45 min: the exercises consisted of isokinetic passive mobilization of the elbow, with torque threshold to detect excessive user's resistance to the movement. We investigated the safety by reporting possible adverse events, such as mechanical, electrical or software failures of the device or injuries or pain experienced by the patient. As regards the efficacy, the Modified Ashworth Scale, was identified as primary outcome measure and the NEEM metrics describing elbow joint resistance to passive extension (i.e., maximum extension torque and zero-torque angle as secondary outcomes.Results: During the entire duration of the treatments no failures or adverse events for the patients were reported. No statistically significant differences were found in the Modified Ashworth Scale scores, between pre-treatment and post-treatment and between post-treatment and follow-up sessions, indicating the absence of spasticity increase throughout (14 days and after (3–4 months follow-up the treatment. Exoskeleton metrics confirmed the absence of significant difference in between pre- and post-treatment data, whereas intra-session data highlighted significant differences in the
Phase-II Clinical Validation of a Powered Exoskeleton for the Treatment of Elbow Spasticity.

Science.gov (United States)

Crea, Simona; Cempini, Marco; Mazzoleni, Stefano; Carrozza, Maria Chiara; Posteraro, Federico; Vitiello, Nicola

2017-01-01

Introduction: Spasticity is a typical motor disorder in patients affected by stroke. Typically post-stroke rehabilitation consists of repetition of mobilization exercises on impaired limbs, aimed to reduce muscle hypertonia and mitigate spastic reflexes. It is currently strongly debated if the treatment's effectiveness improves with the timeliness of its adoption; in particular, starting intensive rehabilitation as close as possible to the stroke event may counteract the growth and postpone the onset of spasticity. In this paper we present a phase-II clinical validation of a robotic exoskeleton in treating subacute post-stroke patients. Methods: Seventeen post-stroke patients participated in 10 daily rehabilitation sessions using the NEUROExos Elbow Module exoskeleton, each one lasting 45 min: the exercises consisted of isokinetic passive mobilization of the elbow, with torque threshold to detect excessive user's resistance to the movement. We investigated the safety by reporting possible adverse events, such as mechanical, electrical or software failures of the device or injuries or pain experienced by the patient. As regards the efficacy , the Modified Ashworth Scale, was identified as primary outcome measure and the NEEM metrics describing elbow joint resistance to passive extension (i.e., maximum extension torque and zero-torque angle) as secondary outcomes. Results: During the entire duration of the treatments no failures or adverse events for the patients were reported. No statistically significant differences were found in the Modified Ashworth Scale scores, between pre-treatment and post-treatment and between post-treatment and follow-up sessions, indicating the absence of spasticity increase throughout (14 days) and after (3-4 months follow-up) the treatment. Exoskeleton metrics confirmed the absence of significant difference in between pre- and post-treatment data, whereas intra-session data highlighted significant differences in the secondary outcomes

Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Technology Validation | Hydrogen and Fuel Cells |

Science.gov (United States)

NREL Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Technology Validation Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Technology Validation The NREL technology validation team works on validating hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles; hydrogen fueling infrastructure; hydrogen system components; and fuel cell use in early market applications such as
Analytical and numerical study of validation test-cases for multi-physic problems: application to magneto-hydro-dynamic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D Cébron

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The present paper is concerned with the numerical simulation of Magneto-Hydro-Dynamic (MHD problems with industrial tools. MHD has receivedattention some twenty to thirty years ago as a possible alternative inpropulsion applications; MHD propelled ships have even been designed forthat purpose. However, such propulsion systems have been proved of lowefficiency and fundamental researches in the area have progressivelyreceived much less attention over the past decades. Numerical simulationof MHD problem could however provide interesting solutions in the field ofturbulent flow control. The development of recent efficient numericaltechniques for multi-physic applications provide promising tool for theengineer for that purpose. In the present paper, some elementary testcases in laminar flow with magnetic forcing terms are analysed; equationsof the coupled problem are exposed, analytical solutions are derived ineach case and are compared to numerical solutions obtained with anumerical tool for multi-physic applications. The present work can be seenas a validation of numerical tools (based on the finite element method foracademic as well as industrial application purposes.
Langmuir probe-based observables for plasma-turbulence code validation and application to the TORPEX basic plasma physics experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ricci, Paolo; Theiler, C.; Fasoli, A.; Furno, I.; Labit, B.; Mueller, S. H.; Podesta, M.; Poli, F. M.

2009-01-01

The methodology for plasma-turbulence code validation is discussed, with focus on the quantities to use for the simulation-experiment comparison, i.e., the validation observables, and application to the TORPEX basic plasma physics experiment [A. Fasoli et al., Phys. Plasmas 13, 055902 (2006)]. The considered validation observables are deduced from Langmuir probe measurements and are ordered into a primacy hierarchy, according to the number of model assumptions and to the combinations of measurements needed to form each of them. The lowest levels of the primacy hierarchy correspond to observables that require the lowest number of model assumptions and measurement combinations, such as the statistical and spectral properties of the ion saturation current time trace, while at the highest levels, quantities such as particle transport are considered. The comparison of the observables at the lowest levels in the hierarchy is more stringent than at the highest levels. Examples of the use of the proposed observables are applied to a specific TORPEX plasma configuration characterized by interchange-driven turbulence.
Recycled Water Reuse Permit Renewal Application for the Central Facilities Area Sewage Treatment Plant

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lewis, Mike [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

2014-09-01

This renewal application for a Recycled Water Reuse Permit is being submitted in accordance with the Idaho Administrative Procedures Act 58.01.17 “Recycled Water Rules” and the Municipal Wastewater Reuse Permit LA-000141-03 for continuing the operation of the Central Facilities Area Sewage Treatment Plant located at the Idaho National Laboratory. The permit expires March 16, 2015. The permit requires a renewal application to be submitted six months prior to the expiration date of the existing permit. For the Central Facilities Area Sewage Treatment Plant, the renewal application must be submitted by September 16, 2014. The information in this application is consistent with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality’s Guidance for Reclamation and Reuse of Municipal and Industrial Wastewater and discussions with Idaho Department of Environmental Quality personnel.
Transdiagnostic Theory and Application of Family-Based Treatment for Youth with Eating Disorders

Science.gov (United States)

Loeb, Katharine L.; Lock, James; Greif, Rebecca; le Grange, Daniel

2012-01-01

This paper describes the transdiagnostic theory and application of family-based treatment (FBT) for children and adolescents with eating disorders. We review the fundamentals of FBT, a transdiagnostic theoretical model of FBT and the literature supporting its clinical application, adaptations across developmental stages and the diagnostic spectrum…
Interactive adaptation of a volumetric imaging radiotherapy treatment: development and validation of tools for its implementation in clinical routine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huger, Sandrine

2013-01-01

Changing anatomy during radiotherapy can lead to significant dosimetric consequences for organs at risk (OARs) and/or target volumes. Adaptive radiotherapy can compensate for these variations however its deployment for clinical work is hampered by the increased workload for the medical staff and there is still no commercialized software available for clinical use. We developed a simple in vivo dosimetric alert tool allowing rapid identification of patients who might benefit from an adaptive radiotherapy. Dosimetric evaluation of delivered treatment has been conducted onto 3D on board imaging (CBCT) whose dose calculation accuracy has been evaluated. The tool does not require a new volume of interest delineation. Tool alert is based on objectives and quantifiable criteria defined by the exceeding volumes of interest dose thresholds. Tool precision and detectability have been validated and applied in a retrospective study on 10 head and neck patients. The tool allows detecting patients where an adaptive treatment could have been considered. In its clinical implementation, adaptive radiotherapy process requires deformable matching algorithms to follow patient local's deformations occurring during treatment. Nevertheless, their use has not been validated. We conducted an evaluation of the Block Matching deformable algorithm, suitable for multimodality imaging (CT/CBCT), in comparison to rigid algorithm. A study has been conducted for 10 head and neck patients based on volume of interest contours comparison for 76 CBCT. Similarity parameters used consisted on Dice Similarity Index, Robust Hausdorff Distance (in mm) and the absolute volume difference (in cc). (author)
Preclinical investigations towards the first spacer gel application in prostate cancer treatment during particle therapy at HIT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ruciński, Antoni; Parodi, Katia; Jäkel, Oliver; Haberer, Thomas; Bauer, Julia; Campbell, Patrick; Brons, Stephan; Unholtz, Daniel; Habl, Gregor; Herfarth, Klaus; Debus, Jürgen; Bert, Christoph

2013-01-01

The application of spacer gel represents a promising approach to reliably spare the rectal frontal wall during particle therapy (IJROBP 76:1251-1258, 2010). In order to qualify the spacer gel for the clinical use in particle therapy, a variety of measurements were performed in order to ensure the biological compatibility of the gel, its physical stability during and after the irradiation, and a proper definition of the gel in terms of the Hounsfield Unit (HU) values for the treatment planning system. The potential for the use of the spacer gel for particle therapy monitoring with off-line Positron Emission Tomography (PET) was also investigated. The spacer gel implanted to the prostate patient in direct neighbourhood to the clinical target volume does not interfere with the particle therapy treatment planning procedure applied at Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Centre (HIT). The performed measurements show that Bragg-peak position of the particles can be properly predicted on the basis of computed tomography imaging with the treatment planning system used at HIT (measured water equivalent path length of 1.011 ±0.011 (2σ), measured Hounsfield Unit of 28.9 ±6.1 (2σ)). The spacer gel samples remain physically unchanged after irradiation with a dose exceeding the therapeutic dose level. The independently measured Bragg-Peak position does not change within the time interval of 10 weeks. As a result of the presented experiments, the first clinical application of spacer gel implant during prostate cancer treatment with carbon ions and protons was possible at HIT in 2012. The reported pre-clinical investigations demonstrate that use of spacer gel is safe in particle therapy in presence of therapy target motion and patient positioning induced particle range variations. The spacer gel injected between prostate and rectum enlarge the distance between both organs, which is expected to clinically significantly decrease the undesirable exposure of the most critical organ at risk
Validation of the 3D finite element transport theory code EVENT for shielding applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Warner, Paul; Oliveira, R.E. de

2000-01-01

This paper is concerned with the validation of the 3D deterministic neutral-particle transport theory code EVENT for shielding applications. The code is based on the finite element-spherical harmonics (FE-P N ) method which has been extensively developed over the last decade. A general multi-group, anisotropic scattering formalism enables the code to address realistic steady state and time dependent, multi-dimensional coupled neutron/gamma radiation transport problems involving high scattering and deep penetration alike. The powerful geometrical flexibility and competitive computational effort makes the code an attractive tool for shielding applications. In recognition of this, EVENT is currently in the process of being adopted by the UK nuclear industry. The theory behind EVENT is described and its numerical implementation is outlined. Numerical results obtained by the code are compared with predictions of the Monte Carlo code MCBEND and also with the results from benchmark shielding experiments. In particular, results are presented for the ASPIS experimental configuration for both neutron and gamma ray calculations using the BUGLE 96 nuclear data library. (author)
Experimental validation of a true-scale morphing flap for large civil aircraft applications

Science.gov (United States)

Pecora, R.; Amoroso, F.; Arena, M.; Noviello, M. C.; Rea, F.

2017-04-01

Within the framework of the JTI-Clean Sky (CS) project, and during the first phase of the Low Noise Configuration Domain of the Green Regional Aircraft - Integrated Technological Demonstration (GRA-ITD, the preliminary design and technological demonstration of a novel wing flap architecture were addressed. Research activities were carried out to substantiate the feasibility of morphing concepts enabling flap camber variation in compliance with the demanding safety requirements applicable to the next generation green regional aircraft, 130- seats with open rotor configuration. The driving motivation for the investigation on such a technology was found in the opportunity to replace a conventional double slotted flap with a single slotted camber-morphing flap assuring similar high lift performances -in terms of maximum attainable lift coefficient and stall angle- while lowering emitted noise and system complexity. Studies and tests were limited to a portion of the flap element obtained by slicing the actual flap geometry with two cutting planes distant 0.8 meters along the wing span. Further activities were then addressed in order to increase the TRL of the validated architecture within the second phase of the CS-GRA. Relying upon the already assessed concept, an innovative and more advanced flap device was designed in order to enable two different morphing modes on the basis of the A/C flight condition / flap setting: Mode1, Overall camber morphing to enhance high-lift performances during take-off and landing (flap deployed); Mode2, Tab-like morphing mode. Upwards and downwards deflection of the flap tip during cruise (flap stowed) for load control at high speed. A true-scale segment of the outer wing flap (4 meters span with a mean chord of 0.9 meters) was selected as investigation domain for the new architecture in order to duly face the challenges posed by real wing installation. Advanced and innovative solutions for the adaptive structure, actuation and control
A Comprehensive Validation Methodology for Sparse Experimental Data

Science.gov (United States)

Norman, Ryan B.; Blattnig, Steve R.

2010-01-01

A comprehensive program of verification and validation has been undertaken to assess the applicability of models to space radiation shielding applications and to track progress as models are developed over time. The models are placed under configuration control, and automated validation tests are used so that comparisons can readily be made as models are improved. Though direct comparisons between theoretical results and experimental data are desired for validation purposes, such comparisons are not always possible due to lack of data. In this work, two uncertainty metrics are introduced that are suitable for validating theoretical models against sparse experimental databases. The nuclear physics models, NUCFRG2 and QMSFRG, are compared to an experimental database consisting of over 3600 experimental cross sections to demonstrate the applicability of the metrics. A cumulative uncertainty metric is applied to the question of overall model accuracy, while a metric based on the median uncertainty is used to analyze the models from the perspective of model development by analyzing subsets of the model parameter space.
Sewage-based epidemiology in monitoring the use of new psychoactive substances: Validation and application of an analytical method using LC-MS/MS.

Science.gov (United States)

Kinyua, Juliet; Covaci, Adrian; Maho, Walid; McCall, Ann-Kathrin; Neels, Hugo; van Nuijs, Alexander L N

2015-09-01

Sewage-based epidemiology (SBE) employs the analysis of sewage to detect and quantify drug use within a community. While SBE has been applied repeatedly for the estimation of classical illicit drugs, only few studies investigated new psychoactive substances (NPS). These compounds mimic effects of illicit drugs by introducing slight modifications to chemical structures of controlled illicit drugs. We describe the optimization, validation, and application of an analytical method using liquid chromatography coupled to positive electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) for the determination of seven NPS in sewage: methoxetamine (MXE), butylone, ethylone, methylone, methiopropamine (MPA), 4-methoxymethamphetamine (PMMA), and 4-methoxyamphetamine (PMA). Sample preparation was performed using solid-phase extraction (SPE) with Oasis MCX cartridges. The LC separation was done with a HILIC (150 x 3 mm, 5 µm) column which ensured good resolution of the analytes with a total run time of 19 min. The lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) was between 0.5 and 5 ng/L for all compounds. The method was validated by evaluating the following parameters: sensitivity, selectivity, linearity, accuracy, precision, recoveries and matrix effects. The method was applied on sewage samples collected from sewage treatment plants in Belgium and Switzerland in which all investigated compounds were detected, except MPA and PMA. Furthermore, a consistent presence of MXE has been observed in most of the sewage samples at levels higher than LLOQ. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Laser surface treatment of grey cast iron for automotive applications

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ocelik, V.; Tang, P.N.; de Boer, M.C.; de Oliveira, U.; de Hosson, J.T.M.; DeHosson, JTM; Brebbia, CA; Nishida, SI

2005-01-01

The surface of pearlitic grey cast iron was treated using a 2 kW Nd:YAG laser beam with the final aim to improve its surface properties, mainly for automotive applications. Two kinds of laser surface treatments were experimentally applied. In the laser surface hardening approach the surface of cast
Probabilistic application of a fugacity model to predict triclosan fate during wastewater treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Bock, Michael; Lyndall, Jennifer; Barber, Timothy; Fuchsman, Phyllis; Perruchon, Elyse; Capdevielle, Marie

2010-07-01

The fate and partitioning of the antimicrobial compound, triclosan, in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is evaluated using a probabilistic fugacity model to predict the range of triclosan concentrations in effluent and secondary biosolids. The WWTP model predicts 84% to 92% triclosan removal, which is within the range of measured removal efficiencies (typically 70% to 98%). Triclosan is predominantly removed by sorption and subsequent settling of organic particulates during primary treatment and by aerobic biodegradation during secondary treatment. Median modeled removal efficiency due to sorption is 40% for all treatment phases and 31% in the primary treatment phase. Median modeled removal efficiency due to biodegradation is 48% for all treatment phases and 44% in the secondary treatment phase. Important factors contributing to variation in predicted triclosan concentrations in effluent and biosolids include influent concentrations, solids concentrations in settling tanks, and factors related to solids retention time. Measured triclosan concentrations in biosolids and non-United States (US) effluent are consistent with model predictions. However, median concentrations in US effluent are over-predicted with this model, suggesting that differences in some aspect of treatment practices not incorporated in the model (e.g., disinfection methods) may affect triclosan removal from effluent. Model applications include predicting changes in environmental loadings associated with new triclosan applications and supporting risk analyses for biosolids-amended land and effluent receiving waters. (c) 2010 SETAC.
APPLICATION OF PULSE-PERIODICAL MODE FOR IMPROVEMENT OF LASER TREATMENT EFFICIENCY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. V. Apollonov

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the paper is to estimate an application of pulse-periodical mode for improvement of laser treatment efficiency. Laser technologies have been widely used in the processes of material treatment with the purpose to provide them the required surface properties and also for high accuracy cutting of sheet materials. Application of complex treatment is of great interest and especially when it is used for worn-out surfaces with formation of a coating by gas-flame laying of powder mixture of specific composition and subsequent laser fusion.Increase of laser unit capacity is very important task for higher efficiency of laser technology application in mechanical engineering. Nowadays technological processes using lasers with high average power (more than 100 W have been applying only sources that are working in two modes, namely: continuous and pulse- periodical (P-P with pulse repetition rate from some units to several hundred hertz and pulse duration within dozens to hundreds of microseconds and even within milliseconds. On the other hand, in some cases shielding effect of plasma cloud formed during laser alloying, cladding or welding reduces the efficiency of laser treatment up to 50 % depending on plasma composition and laser beam length. High frequency P-P laser systems with high average power working in mode of Q-factor modulation allow to realize principally other mechanism of irradiation interaction with materials that is an ablation. In this case it is possible to provide local energy release both in space and time.The performed analysis has revealed that P-P mode of laser operation for a majority of treatment processes is much better and more efficient from energetic point of view in comparison with the continuous mode. On the basis of the developments it is possible to make a conclusion that there is a possibility to create laser systems working in high frequency P-P mode with high average power above hundreds watt.
[Reflections about the efficiency criteria for cancer treatments during marketing authorization application].

Science.gov (United States)

Jeannin, Noémie; Blois-Da Conceição, Stéphanie; Protière, Christel

2013-03-01

Although clear and validated recommendations exist concerning the evaluation of cancer treatments at the international level, the criteria retained to obtain the marketing authorization (MA) are multiple and heterogeneous. This qualitative survey explores the opinion related to the assessment of cancer treatment among the several concerned population. By the way of semi-structured interviews, our aim was to elicit perceptions toward the criteria which should be retained during the process of MA, by patients, oncologists, members of the pharmaceutical industry, health decision-makers and general population. Our survey emphasizes the variability of the significations associated with the criteria of efficiency of cancer treatments according to the characteristics of the respondents. We also have observed some common expectations from patients and oncologists toward the economic and political aspect, but also from the whole respondents toward the importance of the comfort of the patients. Lastly, the necessity to define specific criteria related to clinical cases emerges.
Assessment of validity with polytrauma Veteran populations.

Science.gov (United States)

Bush, Shane S; Bass, Carmela

2015-01-01

Veterans with polytrauma have suffered injuries to multiple body parts and organs systems, including the brain. The injuries can generate a triad of physical, neurologic/cognitive, and emotional symptoms. Accurate diagnosis is essential for the treatment of these conditions and for fair allocation of benefits. To accurately diagnose polytrauma disorders and their related problems, clinicians take into account the validity of reported history and symptoms, as well as clinical presentations. The purpose of this article is to describe the assessment of validity with polytrauma Veteran populations. Review of scholarly and other relevant literature and clinical experience are utilized. A multimethod approach to validity assessment that includes objective, standardized measures increases the confidence that can be placed in the accuracy of self-reported symptoms and physical, cognitive, and emotional test results. Due to the multivariate nature of polytrauma and the multiple disciplines that play a role in diagnosis and treatment, an ideal model of validity assessment with polytrauma Veteran populations utilizes neurocognitive, neurological, neuropsychiatric, and behavioral measures of validity. An overview of these validity assessment approaches as applied to polytrauma Veteran populations is presented. Veterans, the VA, and society are best served when accurate diagnoses are made.
Method for appraising model validity of randomised controlled trials of homeopathic treatment: multi-rater concordance study

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Background A method for assessing the model validity of randomised controlled trials of homeopathy is needed. To date, only conventional standards for assessing intrinsic bias (internal validity) of trials have been invoked, with little recognition of the special characteristics of homeopathy. We aimed to identify relevant judgmental domains to use in assessing the model validity of homeopathic treatment (MVHT). We define MVHT as the extent to which a homeopathic intervention and the main measure of its outcome, as implemented in a randomised controlled trial (RCT), reflect 'state-of-the-art' homeopathic practice. Methods Using an iterative process, an international group of experts developed a set of six judgmental domains, with associated descriptive criteria. The domains address: (I) the rationale for the choice of the particular homeopathic intervention; (II) the homeopathic principles reflected in the intervention; (III) the extent of homeopathic practitioner input; (IV) the nature of the main outcome measure; (V) the capability of the main outcome measure to detect change; (VI) the length of follow-up to the endpoint of the study. Six papers reporting RCTs of homeopathy of varying design were randomly selected from the literature. A standard form was used to record each assessor's independent response per domain, using the optional verdicts 'Yes', 'Unclear', 'No'. Concordance among the eight verdicts per domain, across all six papers, was evaluated using the kappa (κ) statistic. Results The six judgmental domains enabled MVHT to be assessed with 'fair' to 'almost perfect' concordance in each case. For the six RCTs examined, the method allowed MVHT to be classified overall as 'acceptable' in three, 'unclear' in two, and 'inadequate' in one. Conclusion Future systematic reviews of RCTs in homeopathy should adopt the MVHT method as part of a complete appraisal of trial validity. PMID:22510227
Development and validation of UPLC/ESI-Q-TOF-MS for carteolol in aqueous humour: Stability, stress degradation and application in pharmacokinetics of nanoformulation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ameeduzzafar

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Carteolol (CRT is currently under development as a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of open angle glaucoma. The purpose of the present work is to develop and validate a stability indicating assay method and its application to estimate CRT in aqueous humour and study the pharmacokinetic parameters. An ultra performance liquid chromatographic tandem mass spectroscopy (UPLC–MS/MS method was developed and validated for the quantitative determination of CRT in rabbit aqueous humour, using propranolol as the internal standard (I.S.. Aqueous humour samples were prepared by a simple liquid–liquid extraction technique (LLE. The analyte and internal standard were separated by an Acquity UPLC BEH C18 (100.0 × 2.1 mm; 1.7 μm column with a mobile phase of acetonitrile – 2 mM (milli mole ammonium acetate (90/10, v/v over 3 min of retention time. Detection was based on the multiple reactions monitoring with the precursor-to-product ion transitions m/z 293.2 → 237.12 for CRT and m/z 260.09 → 183.04 for I.S. The method was validated according to FDA guidelines on the bio-analytical method validation. The method developed was linear (r2 = 0.999 over the concentration range of 1–1000 ng/mL. The selectivity, sensitivity, linearity, accuracy, precision, extraction recovery, and stability were within the acceptable ranges. Forced degradation studies were performed on bulk sample of CRT as per ICH prescribed stress conditions, such as acid, base, oxidative and photolytic to show the forced of the method. Significant degradation was observed during basic stress condition. The pharmacokinetic study of CRT solution and nanoparticles in aqueous humour of rabbit eye was performed and results showed that CRT nanoparticles enhance the ocular bioavailability by 5.61-fold as compared to CRT-solution.
The reliability and concurrent validity of measurements used to quantify lumbar spine mobility: an analysis of an iphone® application and gravity based inclinometry.

Science.gov (United States)

Kolber, Morey J; Pizzini, Matias; Robinson, Ashley; Yanez, Dania; Hanney, William J

2013-04-01

PURPOSEAIM: This purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability, minimal detectable change (MDC), and concurrent validity of active spinal mobility measurements using a gravity-based bubble inclinometer and iPhone® application. MATERIALSMETHODS: Two investigators each used a bubble inclinometer and an iPhone® with inclinometer application to measure total thoracolumbo-pelvic flexion, isolated lumbar flexion, total thoracolumbo-pelvic extension, and thoracolumbar lateral flexion in 30 asymptomatic participants using a blinded repeated measures design. The procedures used in this investigation for measuring spinal mobility yielded good intrarater and interrater reliability with Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC) for bubble inclinometry ≥ 0.81 and the iPhone® ≥ 0.80. The MDC90 for the interrater analysis ranged from 4° to 9°. The concurrent validity between bubble inclinometry and the iPhone® application was good with ICC values of ≥ 0.86. The 95% level of agreement indicates that although these measuring instruments are equivalent individual differences of up to 18° may exist when using these devices interchangeably. The bubble inclinometer and iPhone® possess good intrarater and interrater reliability as well as concurrent validity when strict measurement procedures are adhered to. This study provides preliminary evidence to suggest that smart phone applications may offer clinical utility comparable to inclinometry for quantifying spinal mobility. Clinicians should be aware of the potential disagreement when using these devices interchangeably. 2b (Observational study of reliability).
Application of laser therapy for the treatment of dentinal hyperesthesia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fumero Sanchez, Yanisley; Rodriguez Jorrin, Daimy; Castanneda Marin, Raul

2009-01-01

An experimental study was carried out, to evaluate the effectiveness of the low - power laser combined with fluoride varnish to 2% (Profilac) in the treatment of the Dentinal Hyperesthesia in patients attended to in the Stomatology Clinic of Ciro Redondo in the period from October 2007 to January 2008. The universe of study was constituted by 75 patients diagnosed with dentinal hyperesthesia in the period of time indicated above, being conformed the sample by those 25 who fulfilled the pre-established criteria for the study. With the application of the laser combined with Lacquer Fluorine (Profilac), a remission of the pain was observed that increased gradually with the treatment sessions, having been obtained to almost eliminate in the totality of the cases the group of symptoms when finalizing it, evaluating the treatment of effective in 100% of the cases. We only found a recidivism after a year of treatment

Prospect for application of umbilical cord blood to clinical treatment of radiation sickness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jia Tingzhen; Ke Xiaoyan

1998-01-01

Objective: To look forward to the prospect for application of umbilical cord blood to clinical treatment of radiation sickness by analyzing the results using umbilical cord blood in laboratory experiments and clinical research. Method: The data on umbilical cord blood published in literature are reviewed. Results: The umbilical blood is rich in hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells, low in immunological activity of lymphocytes, expanded significantly ex vivo under selected culture condition readily available and collected easily. Conclusion: With the above advantages, the prospect for application of umbilical cord blood is encouraging, particularly in the clinical treatment of radiation sickness
A smartphone application of alcohol resilience treatment for behavioral self-control training

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yu, Fei; Albers, Jörg; Gao, Tian

2012-01-01

of the treatment rationale, it is realistic, reasonable and manageable to transform the method into a smartphone application. An ART app in Android system and an accessory of bilateral tactile stimulation were developed and will be used in a study with behavioral self-control training. This paper presents...... the design and realization of the smartphone based ART application. The design of a pilot study, which is to examine the benefits of a smartphone application providing behavioral self-control training, is also reported in this paper....
Development and face validation of a Virtual Reality Epley Maneuver System (VREMS) for home Epley treatment of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo: A randomized, controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Tabanfar, Reza; Chan, Harley H L; Lin, Vincent; Le, Trung; Irish, Jonathan C

To develop and validate a smartphone based Virtual Reality Epley Maneuver System (VREMS) for home use. A smartphone application was designed to produce stereoscopic views of a Virtual Reality (VR) environment, which when viewed after placing a smartphone in a virtual reality headset, allowed the user to be guided step-by-step through the Epley maneuver in a VR environment. Twenty healthy participants were recruited and randomized to undergo either assisted Epleys or self-administered Epleys following reading instructions from an Instructional Handout (IH). All participants were filmed and two expert Otologists reviewed the videos, assigning each participant a score (out of 10) for performance on each step. Participants rated their perceived workload by completing a validated task-load questionnaire (NASA Task Load Index) and averages for both groups were calculated. Twenty participants were evaluated with average age 26.4±7.12years old in the VREMS group and 26.1±7.72 in the IH group. The VR assisted group achieved an average score of 7.78±0.99 compared to 6.65±1.72 in the IH group. This result was statistically significant with p=0.0001 and side dominance did not appear to play a factor. Analyzing each step of the Epley maneuver demonstrated that assisted Epleys were done more accurately with statically significant results in steps 2-4. Results of the NASA-TLX scores were variable with no significant findings. We have developed and demonstrated face validity for VREMS through our randomized controlled trial. The VREMS platform is promising technology, which may improve the accuracy and effectiveness of home Epley treatments. N/A. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Verification and validation as an integral part of the development of digital systems for nuclear applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Straker, E.A.; Thomas, N.C.

1983-01-01

The nuclear industry's current attitude toward verification and validation (V and V) is realized through the experiences gained to date. On the basis of these experiences, V and V can effectively be applied as an integral part of digital system development for nuclear electric power applications. An overview of a typical approach for integrating V and V with system development is presented. This approach represents a balance between V and V as applied in the aerospace industry and the standard practice commonly applied within the nuclear industry today
Validation and application of a death proxy in adult cancer patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Mealing, Nicole M; Dobbins, Timothy A; Pearson, Sallie-Anne

2012-07-01

PURPOSE: Fact of death is not always available on data sets used for pharmacoepidemiological research. Proxies may be an appropriate substitute in the absence of death data. The purposes of this study were to validate a proxy for death in adult cancer patients and to assess its performance when estimating survival in two cohorts of cancer patients. METHODS: We evaluated 30-, 60-, 90- and 180-day proxies overall and by cancer type using data from 12 394 Australian veterans with lung, colorectal, breast or prostate cancer. The proxy indicated death if the difference between the last dispensing record and the end of the observational period exceeded the proxy cutoff. We then compared actual survival to 90-day proxy estimates in a subset of 4090 veterans with 'full entitlements' for pharmaceutical items and in 3704 Australian women receiving trastuzumab for HER2+ metastatic breast cancer. RESULTS: The 90-day proxy was optimal with an overall sensitivity of 99.3% (95%CI: 98.4-99.7) and a specificity of 97.6% (95%CI: 91.8-99.4). These measures remained high when evaluated by cancer type and spread of disease. The application of the proxy using the most conservative date of death estimate (date of last dispensing) generally underestimated survival, with estimates up to 3 months shorter than survival based on fact of death. CONCLUSIONS: A 90-day death proxy is a robust substitute to identify death in a chronic population when fact of death is not available. The proxy is likely to be valid across a range of chronic diseases as it relies on the presence of 'regular' dispensing records for individual patients. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Assiut Experience in the Application of Holmium Laser in Treatment ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Assiut Experience in the Application of Holmium Laser in Treatment of Ureteral Calculi in Adults. A.M. Abdel Lateef, A.E. Abdel Moniem, M.I. Taha, M.A. Shalaby. Abstract. Internal Optical Urethrotomy at the National Medical Center of Sanou Souro in Bobo-Dioulasso: Feasibility, Safety and Short-Term Results Objective To ...
Development and validation of LC-MS/MS assay for the determination of Butoconazole in human plasma: Evaluation of systemic absorption following topical application in healthy volunteers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eman G. Nouman

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Butoconazole is an imidazole antifungal that is more effective than miconazole and clotrimazole for treatment of vaginal candidiasis. A highly sensitive tandem mass spectrometric assay was developed and validated to evaluate systemic absorption of Butoconazole following intravaginal administration. Chromatographic separation was achieved using Waters Xterra C18 column (3Â Âµm, 3.0Â ÃÂ 50.0Â mm. Liquid-liquid extraction using tert-butyl methyl ether was used for preparation of plasma samples. The mobile phase was solvent A: 0.1% formic acid in water and solvent B: acetonitrile: methanol (30:70, v/v, using gradient elution mode at 0.5Â mL/min. Detection at positive electrospray ionization in the MRM mode was then employed. Analysis was carried out within 5.5Â min over a linear concentration range of 0.10â30.00Â ng/mL. Validation was carried out according to US FDA guidelines for bioanalytical method validation. Matrix effect, recovery efficiency and process efficiency have been investigated for the analyte and internal standard in neat solvent, post-extraction matrix and plasma. The mean percentage recoveries were higher than 80%, the accuracy was 93.51â106.85% and the RSD was below 10% throughout the studied concentration range. Results indicated sufficient stability of the target analyte in plasma at the employed experimental conditions. Results of incurred sample re-analysis and incurred sample stability revealed less than 5% variability. The applicability of the assay for monitoring of the systemic absorption of Butoconazole following intra vaginal application to healthy volunteers was demonstrated. Results confirmed that Butoconazole was detected shortly after intra vaginal administration with Cmax and tmax of 30Â ng/mL and 6Â h, respectively. Keywords: Butoconazole, LC-MS/MS, Matrix effect, Process efficiency, Recovery efficiency
Capability beliefs regarding evidence-based practice are associated with application of EBP and research use: validation of a new measure.

Science.gov (United States)

Wallin, Lars; Boström, Anne-Marie; Gustavsson, J Petter

2012-08-01

Beliefs about capabilities, or self-efficacy, is a construct originating in social cognitive psychology. Capability beliefs have been found to be positively associated with intention and healthcare practice behaviour. A measure of an individual's beliefs about his/her capability to apply the components of evidence-based practice (EBP) has potential to be useful in implementation research. To evaluate the concurrent validity and internal structure of a new scale measuring nurses' capability beliefs regarding EBP. Data were taken from a prospective longitudinal study in Sweden (the Longitudinal Analyses of Nursing Education and Entry in Worklife [LANE]). A cohort of nursing students who graduated in the autumn of 2004 that was followed up 2 years after their graduation was used (n= 1,256). Concurrent validity was tested relating different levels of capability beliefs to extent of research use and application of EBP. An item-response approach was applied in the evaluation of internal structure of the proposed scale (six items). The psychometric analyses indicated that the six items could be summed to reflect a one-dimensional scale. Nurses with the highest level of capability beliefs reported that they used research findings in clinical practice more than twice as often as those with lower levels of capability beliefs. They also participated in the implementation of evidence seven times more often. There is a need for further studies of the construct and predictive validity of the scale. It should also be validated in other groups of health professionals. Learning including mastery experiences, role modelling, social persuasion, and manageable stress could be used in undergraduate education as well as practice development to increase beliefs about capabilities which might open the way to increased application of EBP in healthcare practice. This new measure is well grounded in social cognitive theory, functions as a one-dimensional scale and possesses promising
Renewable Energy in Water and Wastewater Treatment Applications; Period of Performance: April 1, 2001--September 1, 2001

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Argaw, N.

2003-06-01

This guidebook will help readers understand where and how renewable energy technologies can be used for water and wastewater treatment applications. It is specifically designed for rural and small urban center water supply and wastewater treatment applications. This guidebook also provides basic information for selecting water resources and for various kinds of commercially available water supply and wastewater treatment technologies and power sources currently in the market.
National Treatment under GATT Article III: 2 and its Applicability in the Context of Korea's FTAs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sherzod Shadikhodjaev

2008-06-01

Full Text Available GATT Article III: 2 on national treatment on internal taxation is an integral part of Korea's FTAs. Therefore, GATT/WTO case law provides useful guidance on proper application of this provision in the FTA context. Article III:2 involves a multi-tiered test of several issues including likeness, discriminatory threshold, and protective application of a tax measure. When the FTA parties enter into a dispute over national treatment, the problem of applicable law may arise. First, FTA panels are not obliged to rely on GATT/WTO jurisprudence. Nevertheless, given the incorporation of GATT Article III into the FTA, it is suggested that FTA panels follow WTO case law to secure consistent and predictable applGATT Article III: 2 on national treatment on internal taxation is an integral part of Korea's FTAs. Therefore, GATT/WTO case law provides useful guidance on proper application of this provision in the FTA context. Article III:2 involves a multi-tiered test of several issues including likeness, discriminatory threshold, and protective application of a tax measure. When the FTA parties enter into a dispute over national treatment, the problem of applicable law may arise. First, FTA panels are not obliged to rely on GATT/WTO jurisprudence. Nevertheless, given the incorporation of GATT Article III into the FTA, it is suggested that FTA panels follow WTO case law to secure consistent and predictable application of the national treatment rule. Second, it is questionable whether WTO panels can examine claims under the GATT-plus provisions on national treatment contained in the FTA. In order to avoid possible jurisprudential difficulties, disputing parties may choose to refer the matter to an FTA panel, instead of launching a WTO dispute settlement procedure. Alternatively, the parties may agree, pursuant to DSU Article 7.3, on non-standard terms of reference of the panel where a GATT-plus provision is explicitly listed. In both scenarios, the GATT
Assessing motivation orientations in schizophrenia: Scale development and validation.

Science.gov (United States)

Cooper, Shanna; Lavaysse, Lindsey M; Gard, David E

2015-01-30

Motivation deficits are common in several disorders including schizophrenia, and are an important factor in both functioning and treatment adherence. Self-Determination Theory (SDT), a leading macro-theory of motivation, has contributed a number of insights into how motivation is impaired in schizophrenia. Nonetheless, self-report measures of motivation appropriate for people with severe mental illness (including those that emphasize SDT) are generally lacking in the literature. To fill this gap, we adapted and abbreviated the well-validated General Causality Orientation Scale for use with people with schizophrenia and with other severe mental disorders (GCOS-clinical populations; GCOS-CP). In Study 1, we tested the similarity of our measure to the existing GCOS (using a college sample) and then validated this new measure in a schizophrenia and healthy control sample (Study 2). Results from Study 1 (N=360) indicated that the GCOS-CP was psychometrically similar to the original GCOS and provided good convergent and discriminant validity. In Study 2, the GCOS-CP was given to individuals with (N=44) and without schizophrenia (N=42). In line with both laboratory-based and observer-based research, people with schizophrenia showed lower motivational autonomy and higher impersonal/amotivated orientations. Additional applications of the GCOS-CP are discussed. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
Validity of activity trackers, smartphones, and phone applications to measure steps in various walking conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Höchsmann, C; Knaier, R; Eymann, J; Hintermann, J; Infanger, D; Schmidt-Trucksäss, A

2018-02-20

To examine the validity of popular smartphone accelerometer applications and a consumer activity wristband compared to a widely used research accelerometer while assessing the impact of the phone's position on the accuracy of step detection. Twenty volunteers from 2 different age groups (Group A: 18-25 years, n = 10; Group B 45-70 years, n = 10) were equipped with 3 iPhone SE smartphones (placed in pants pocket, shoulder bag, and backpack), 1 Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge (pants pocket), 1 Garmin Vivofit 2 wristband, and 2 ActiGraph wGTX+ devices (worn at wrist and hip) while walking on a treadmill (1.6, 3.2, 4.8, and 6.0 km/h) and completing a walking course. All smartphones included 6 accelerometer applications. Video observation was used as gold standard. Validity was evaluated by comparing each device with the gold standard using mean absolute percentage errors (MAPE). The MAPE of the iPhone SE (all positions) and the Garmin Vivofit was small (Samsung Galaxy and hip-worn ActiGraph showed small MAPE only for treadmill walking at 4.8 and 6.0 km/h and for free walking. The wrist-worn ActiGraph showed high MAPE (17-47) for all walking conditions. The iPhone SE and the Garmin Vivofit 2 are accurate tools for step counting in different age groups and during various walking conditions, even during slow walking. The phone's position does not impact the accuracy of step detection, which substantially improves the versatility for physical activity assessment in clinical and research settings. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
[Clinical application evaluation of Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Internal Diseases in Traditional Chinese Medicine].

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Xue-Jie; Liu, Meng-Yu; Lian, Zhi-Hua; Wang, Li-Ying; Shi, Nan-Nan; Zhao, Jun

2017-09-01

To evaluate the applicability and clinical applications of Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Internal Diseases in Traditional Chinese Medicine, so as to provide the basis for the revision of the guidelines. This study was completed by the research and promotion base for traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) standard. The methods of applicability evaluation and application evaluation were used in the study. The questionnaires were filled out to evaluate applicability of the guideline, including doctor's familiarity with the guideline,the quality of the guideline, applicable conditions and clinical applications. The prospective case study analysis method was used to evaluate application of the guideline, including evaluation of clinical application compliance and application results(such as clinical effects, safety and economy). There were two parts in the guideline, which were TCM guideline and Western medicine guideline. The results of applicability evaluation showed that there were no obvious differences between TCM guideline and Western medicine guideline in doctor's familiarity with guideline(85.43%, 84.57%) and the use of the guideline(52.10%, 54.47%); the guidelines with good quality, and higher scores in the scope of application and the use of the term rationality(91.94%, 93.35%); the rationality scores of relevant contents in syndrome differentiation and treatment were more than 75%; the applicable conditions were better, and the safety score was the the highest. The comprehensive applicability evaluation showed that the proportion of the application of TCM guideline and Western medicine guideline were 77.73%, 75.46%, respectively. The results of application evaluation showed that there was high degree coincidence between the guideline with its clinical application; except for "other treatment" and "recuperation and prevention" in TCM, other items got high scores which were more than 90%; in the evaluation of application effects, safety of the guideline
Benchmark validation of statistical models: Application to mediation analysis of imagery and memory.

Science.gov (United States)

MacKinnon, David P; Valente, Matthew J; Wurpts, Ingrid C

2018-03-29

This article describes benchmark validation, an approach to validating a statistical model. According to benchmark validation, a valid model generates estimates and research conclusions consistent with a known substantive effect. Three types of benchmark validation-(a) benchmark value, (b) benchmark estimate, and (c) benchmark effect-are described and illustrated with examples. Benchmark validation methods are especially useful for statistical models with assumptions that are untestable or very difficult to test. Benchmark effect validation methods were applied to evaluate statistical mediation analysis in eight studies using the established effect that increasing mental imagery improves recall of words. Statistical mediation analysis led to conclusions about mediation that were consistent with established theory that increased imagery leads to increased word recall. Benchmark validation based on established substantive theory is discussed as a general way to investigate characteristics of statistical models and a complement to mathematical proof and statistical simulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
Methodology for Computational Fluid Dynamic Validation for Medical Use: Application to Intracranial Aneurysm.

Science.gov (United States)

Paliwal, Nikhil; Damiano, Robert J; Varble, Nicole A; Tutino, Vincent M; Dou, Zhongwang; Siddiqui, Adnan H; Meng, Hui

2017-12-01

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a promising tool to aid in clinical diagnoses of cardiovascular diseases. However, it uses assumptions that simplify the complexities of the real cardiovascular flow. Due to high-stakes in the clinical setting, it is critical to calculate the effect of these assumptions in the CFD simulation results. However, existing CFD validation approaches do not quantify error in the simulation results due to the CFD solver's modeling assumptions. Instead, they directly compare CFD simulation results against validation data. Thus, to quantify the accuracy of a CFD solver, we developed a validation methodology that calculates the CFD model error (arising from modeling assumptions). Our methodology identifies independent error sources in CFD and validation experiments, and calculates the model error by parsing out other sources of error inherent in simulation and experiments. To demonstrate the method, we simulated the flow field of a patient-specific intracranial aneurysm (IA) in the commercial CFD software star-ccm+. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) provided validation datasets for the flow field on two orthogonal planes. The average model error in the star-ccm+ solver was 5.63 ± 5.49% along the intersecting validation line of the orthogonal planes. Furthermore, we demonstrated that our validation method is superior to existing validation approaches by applying three representative existing validation techniques to our CFD and experimental dataset, and comparing the validation results. Our validation methodology offers a streamlined workflow to extract the "true" accuracy of a CFD solver.
Identifying a predictive model for response to atypical antipsychotic monotherapy treatment in south Indian schizophrenia patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Gupta, Meenal; Moily, Nagaraj S; Kaur, Harpreet; Jajodia, Ajay; Jain, Sanjeev; Kukreti, Ritushree

2013-08-01

Atypical antipsychotic (AAP) drugs are the preferred choice of treatment for schizophrenia patients. Patients who do not show favorable response to AAP monotherapy are subjected to random prolonged therapeutic treatment with AAP multitherapy, typical antipsychotics or a combination of both. Therefore, prior identification of patients' response to drugs can be an important step in providing efficacious and safe therapeutic treatment. We thus attempted to elucidate a genetic signature which could predict patients' response to AAP monotherapy. Our logistic regression analyses indicated the probability that 76% patients carrying combination of four SNPs will not show favorable response to AAP therapy. The robustness of this prediction model was assessed using repeated 10-fold cross validation method, and the results across n-fold cross-validations (mean accuracy=71.91%; 95%CI=71.47-72.35) suggest high accuracy and reliability of the prediction model. Further validations of these results in large sample sets are likely to establish their clinical applicability. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Statistical validation of normal tissue complication probability models

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Xu, Cheng-Jian; van der Schaaf, Arjen; van t Veld, Aart; Langendijk, Johannes A.; Schilstra, Cornelis

2012-01-01

PURPOSE: To investigate the applicability and value of double cross-validation and permutation tests as established statistical approaches in the validation of normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) models. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A penalized regression method, LASSO (least absolute shrinkage
Experimental validation of hyperthermia SAR treatment planning using MR B1+ imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Berg, Cornelis A T van den; Bartels, Lambertus W; Leeuw, Astrid A C De; Lagendijk, Jan J W; Kamer, Jeroen B Van de

2004-01-01

In this paper the concept of using B 1+ imaging as a means to validate SAR models for radiofrequency hyperthermia is presented. As in radiofrequency hyperthermia, in common clinical MR imaging which applies RF frequencies between 64 and 128 MHz, the RF field distribution inside a patient is largely determined by the dielectric distribution of the anatomy. Modern MR imaging techniques allow measurement of the RF magnetic field component B 1+ making it possible to measure at high resolution the dielectric interaction of the RF field with the patient. Given these considerations, we propose to use MR imaging to verify the validity of our dielectric patient model used for SAR models of radiofrequency hyperthermia. The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of this concept by performing B 1+ measurements and simulations on cylindrical split phantoms consisting of materials with dielectric properties similar to human tissue types. Important topics of investigation were the accuracy and sensitivity of B 1+ measurements and the validity of the electric model of the MR body coil. The measurements were performed on a clinical 1.5 T MR scanner with its quadrature body coil operating at 64 MHz. It was shown that even small B 1+ variations of 2 to 5% could be measured reliably in the phantom experiments. An electrical model of the transmit coil was implemented on our FDTD-based hyperthermia treatment planning platform and the RF field distributions were calculated assuming an idealized quadrature current distribution in the coil. A quantitatively good correlation between measurements and simulations was found for phantoms consisting of water and oil, while highly conductive phantoms show considerable deviations. However, assuming linear excitation for these conductive phantoms resulted in good correspondence. As an explanation it is suggested that the coil is being detuned due to the inductive nature of the conductive phantoms, breaking up the phase difference of �
Measuring Coverage in MNCH: A Prospective Validation Study in Pakistan and Bangladesh on Measuring Correct Treatment of Childhood Pneumonia

Science.gov (United States)

el Arifeen, Shams; Khan, Amira M.; Huque, M. Hamidul; Kazmi, Narjis; Roy, Sushmita; Abbasi, Saleem; Rahman, Qazi Sadeq-ur; Theodoratou, Evropi; Khorshed, Mahmuda Shayema; Rahman, Kazi Mizanur; Bari, Sanwarul; Kaiser, M. Mahfuzul Islam; Saha, Samir K.; Ahmed, A. S. M. Nawshad Uddin; Rudan, Igor; Bryce, Jennifer; Qazi, Shamim Ahmad; Campbell, Harry

2013-01-01

Background Antibiotic treatment for pneumonia as measured by Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) is a key indicator for tracking progress in achieving Millennium Development Goal 4. Concerns about the validity of this indicator led us to perform an evaluation in urban and rural settings in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Methods and Findings Caregivers of 950 children under 5 y with pneumonia and 980 with “no pneumonia” were identified in urban and rural settings and allocated for DHS/MICS questions 2 or 4 wk later. Study physicians assigned a diagnosis of pneumonia as reference standard; the predictive ability of DHS/MICS questions and additional measurement tools to identify pneumonia versus non-pneumonia cases was evaluated. Results at both sites showed suboptimal discriminative power, with no difference between 2- or 4-wk recall. Individual patterns of sensitivity and specificity varied substantially across study sites (sensitivity 66.9% and 45.5%, and specificity 68.8% and 69.5%, for DHS in Pakistan and Bangladesh, respectively). Prescribed antibiotics for pneumonia were correctly recalled by about two-thirds of caregivers using DHS questions, increasing to 72% and 82% in Pakistan and Bangladesh, respectively, using a drug chart and detailed enquiry. Conclusions Monitoring antibiotic treatment of pneumonia is essential for national and global programs. Current (DHS/MICS questions) and proposed new (video and pneumonia score) methods of identifying pneumonia based on maternal recall discriminate poorly between pneumonia and children with cough. Furthermore, these methods have a low yield to identify children who have true pneumonia. Reported antibiotic treatment rates among these children are therefore not a valid proxy indicator of pneumonia treatment rates. These results have important implications for program monitoring and suggest that data in its current format from DHS/MICS surveys should not be used for the
[APPLICATION OF COMPRESSION MINI-SCREWS IN TREATMENT OF PATIENTS WITH INJURY OF ELBOW JOINT BONES].

Science.gov (United States)

Neverov, V A; Egorov, K S

2015-01-01

A case report presents the experience of application of compression pileateless mini-screws (Gerbert's screws) in treatment of intra-articular fractures, which formed the elbow joint (44 cases). There were performed 32 operations concerning fracture of head of radius, 10 operations on the occasion of fractures of distal section of the humerus and 2 operations on the coronoid process. Long-term treatment results were followed-up in 31 patients during more than 6 months. On basis of analysis of treatment results the authors made a conclusion that the application of mini-screws in case of bone fractures, which formed the elbow joint, allowed realization of stable osteosynthesis after anatomic reposition of articular surfaces, obtaining good anatomical and functional result and shortened the terms of patient's treatment.

Accounting treatment of software development costs according to applicable accounting standards

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dilyana Markova

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The growth of the software sector worldwide is ahead of the creation and updating of accounting standards that regulate the reporting of the products and services it creates. Applicable standards across countries are interpreted differently and that lead to incomplete reports. This impose the adoption and application of explanations to give a specific guidelines and rules on the accounting treatment of R & D expenditure at each phase of the software project life cycle and disclosure of the information in the financial statements.
Software requirements, design, and verification and validation for the FEHM application - a finite-element heat- and mass-transfer code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dash, Z.V.; Robinson, B.A.; Zyvoloski, G.A.

1997-07-01

The requirements, design, and verification and validation of the software used in the FEHM application, a finite-element heat- and mass-transfer computer code that can simulate nonisothermal multiphase multicomponent flow in porous media, are described. The test of the DOE Code Comparison Project, Problem Five, Case A, which verifies that FEHM has correctly implemented heat and mass transfer and phase partitioning, is also covered
Application of the MiniPanda test case ‘erosion of a stratified layer by a vertical jet’ for CFD validation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kelm, Stephan, E-mail: s.kelm@fz-juelich.de [Forschungszentrum Juelich, Institute for Energy and Climate Research (IEK-6) (Germany); Ritterath, Martin; Prasser, Horst-Michael [ETH Zurich, Laboratory of Nuclear Energy Systems (LKE) (Switzerland); Allelein, Hans-Josef [Forschungszentrum Juelich, Institute for Energy and Climate Research (IEK-6) (Germany); RWTH Aachen University, Institute for Reactor Safety and Technology (LRST) (Germany)

2016-04-01

Highlights: • Small-scale experiment with innovative temperature wire mesh field measurements. • Discussion of benefits and limitations of small-scale setup regarding existing data base. • Systematic validation of a U-RANS model under consideration of best practice guidelines. • Quantitative point-to-point and phenomenological field-to-field comparison. - Abstract: In order to allow development and validation of CFD models for hydrogen mixing and transport in the containment, a comprehensive experimental test campaign was performed at the small scale MiniPanda facility at ETH Zurich. The considered test series aimed at studying the turbulent erosion of a stratified light gas by means of a vertical air jet with different momenta. Due to its new and innovative measurements, e.g., with temperature wire mesh sensors, the global mixing and the local interaction of jet and stratification are characterized in a high resolution in space and time. Both are essential for a detailed model assessment, to identify possible error sources and rate their effect on the global scenario evolution. Consequently, the tests are well suited for CFD model development and validation and complement the data basis gained before, e.g., in the frame of the joint OECD/NEA-SETH-2 Project (2007–2010) (OECD/NEA, 2012). Based on a description of the MiniPanda facility and the ‘layer erosion’ test series, the application of a U-RANS CFD approach, capable to be applied also for large scale application, is discussed. Numerical model uncertainties are minimized according to the best practice guidelines before a systematic comparison against the experimental data is performed and the capability of the model to predict the turbulent mixing at the interface and the inter-compartment mass transfer is successfully validated.
Concurrent validity and interrater reliability of a new smartphone application to assess 3D active cervical range of motion in patients with neck pain.

Science.gov (United States)

Stenneberg, Martijn S; Busstra, Harm; Eskes, Michel; van Trijffel, Emiel; Cattrysse, Erik; Scholten-Peeters, Gwendolijne G M; de Bie, Rob A

2018-04-01

There is a lack of valid, reliable, and feasible instruments for measuring planar active cervical range of motion (aCROM) and associated 3D coupling motions in patients with neck pain. Smartphones have advanced sensors and appear to be suitable for these measurements. To estimate the concurrent validity and interrater reliability of a new iPhone application for assessing planar aCROM and associated 3D coupling motions in patients with neck pain, using an electromagnetic tracking device as a reference test. Cross-sectional study. Two samples of neck pain patients were recruited; 30 patients for the validity study and 26 patients for the reliability study. Validity was estimated using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs), and by calculating 95% limits of agreement (LoA). To estimate interrater reliability, ICCs were calculated. Cervical 3D coupling motions were analyzed by calculating the cross-correlation coefficients and ratio between the main motions and coupled motions for both instruments. ICCs for concurrent validity and interrater reliability ranged from 0.90 to 0.99. The width of the 95% LoA ranged from about 5° for right lateral bending to 11° for total rotation. No significant differences were found between both devices for associated coupling motion analysis. The iPhone application appears to be a useful discriminative tool for the measurement of planar aCROM and associated coupling motions in patients with neck pain. It fulfills the need for a valid, reliable, and feasible instrument in clinical practice and research. Therapists and researchers should consider measurement error when interpreting scores. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
[Application of three-dimensional digital technology in the diagnosis and treatment planning in orthodontics].

Science.gov (United States)

Bai, Y X

2016-06-01

Three-dimensional(3D)digital technology has been widely used in the field of orthodontics in clinical examination, diagnosis, treatment and curative effect evaluation. 3D digital technology greatly improves the accuracy of diagnosis and treatment, and provides effective means for personalized orthodontic treatment. This review focuses on the application of 3D digital technology in the field of orthodontics.
Development of optimum conditions for modification of Kpautagi clay for application in petroleum refinery wastewater treatment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matthew A. ONU

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Kautagi clay is a kaolin type deposit that is abundantly available in Niger State, Nigeria with potential for application in pollution control such as wastewater treatment. This study investigates the optimum conditions for modification of Kpautagi clay for application in refinery wastewater treatment. Sulphuric acid was used in the modification of the clay and the modification variables considered were acid concentration, activation time and temperature. To develop the optimum conditions for the modification variables, the sulphuric acid modified Kpautagi clay was applied in the treatment of refinery wastewater in column mode at a fixed flow rate and mass of adsorbent. The results obtained indicate that the optimum conditions for modification of Kpautagi clay for application in the treatment of petroleum refinery wastewater are: acid concentration of 4M; activation time of 120min and activation temperature of 100°C. Therefore, the optimum conditions developed in this study for modification of Kpautagi clay could be applied for improved performance in the treatment of petroleum refinery wastewater.
Efficiency and resistance of the artificial oxalate protection treatment on marble against chemical weathering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doherty, B.; Pamplona, M.; Selvaggi, R.; Miliani, C.; Matteini, M.; Sgamellotti, A.; Brunetti, B.

2007-01-01

The artificial oxalate protection method was analyzed in laboratory experiments in order to achieve an optimum treatment application and concentration giving rise to its most effective protective nature. Spectroscopic (Fourier transform infrared, Micro-Raman and UV-vis colorimetry), microscopic (scanning electron microscope) and contact-angle analyses were carried out to characterize Carrara marble samples before and after application of the treatment to validate its efficiency. The resistance effects against chemical weathering were subsequently observed in a lab-controlled weak acid rain experiment. An acid spray at pH 5.5, representative of normal rain was used to provoke degrade of natural marble, marble treated with the artificial oxalate protective at concentrations of 0.4 and 5% and marble treated with a commercial organic silicon product. Run-off solutions sampled at timely intervals were tested for any change in pH followed by ion chromatography measurements for the presence of calcium ions in solution. The chromatography results of the oxalate treatment applied at a 5% concentration are analogous to an organic commercial product indicating its validity as a method for the conservation of carbonate substrates conferring protection to stone materials against acid environments
Efficiency and resistance of the artificial oxalate protection treatment on marble against chemical weathering

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Doherty, B. [Dipartimento di Chimica, Universita degli Studi di Perugia, via Elce di Sotto, 8, I-60123 Perugia (Italy); Pamplona, M. [Centro de Petrologia e Geoquimica do Instituto Superior Tecnico Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa, Avenida Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisbon (Portugal); Selvaggi, R. [Dipartimento di Chimica, Universita degli Studi di Perugia, via Elce di Sotto, 8, I-60123 Perugia (Italy); Miliani, C. [Istituto CNR di Scienze e Tecnologie Molecolari (ISTM), Dipartimento di Chimica, Universita degli Studi di Perugia, via Elce di Sotto, 8, I-60123 Perugia (Italy)]. E-mail: miliani@thch.unipg.it; Matteini, M. [CNR Istituto, Conservazione e Valorizzazione dei Beni Culturali (ICVBC), Via Madonna del Piano, 10, Edifico C-50019, Florence (Italy); Sgamellotti, A. [Dipartimento di Chimica, Universita degli Studi di Perugia, via Elce di Sotto, 8, I-60123 Perugia (Italy); Istituto CNR di Scienze e Tecnologie Molecolari (ISTM), Dipartimento di Chimica, Universita degli Studi di Perugia, via Elce di Sotto, 8, I-60123 Perugia (Italy); Brunetti, B. [Dipartimento di Chimica, Universita degli Studi di Perugia, via Elce di Sotto, 8, I-60123 Perugia (Italy)

2007-03-15

The artificial oxalate protection method was analyzed in laboratory experiments in order to achieve an optimum treatment application and concentration giving rise to its most effective protective nature. Spectroscopic (Fourier transform infrared, Micro-Raman and UV-vis colorimetry), microscopic (scanning electron microscope) and contact-angle analyses were carried out to characterize Carrara marble samples before and after application of the treatment to validate its efficiency. The resistance effects against chemical weathering were subsequently observed in a lab-controlled weak acid rain experiment. An acid spray at pH 5.5, representative of normal rain was used to provoke degrade of natural marble, marble treated with the artificial oxalate protective at concentrations of 0.4 and 5% and marble treated with a commercial organic silicon product. Run-off solutions sampled at timely intervals were tested for any change in pH followed by ion chromatography measurements for the presence of calcium ions in solution. The chromatography results of the oxalate treatment applied at a 5% concentration are analogous to an organic commercial product indicating its validity as a method for the conservation of carbonate substrates conferring protection to stone materials against acid environments.
Direct-contact condensers for open-cycle OTEC applications: Model validation with fresh water experiments for structured packings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bharathan, D.; Parsons, B.K.; Althof, J.A.

1988-10-01

The objective of the reported work was to develop analytical methods for evaluating the design and performance of advanced high-performance heat exchangers for use in open-cycle thermal energy conversion (OC-OTEC) systems. This report describes the progress made on validating a one-dimensional, steady-state analytical computer of fresh water experiments. The condenser model represents the state of the art in direct-contact heat exchange for condensation for OC-OTEC applications. This is expected to provide a basis for optimizing OC-OTEC plant configurations. Using the model, we examined two condenser geometries, a cocurrent and a countercurrent configuration. This report provides detailed validation results for important condenser parameters for cocurrent and countercurrent flows. Based on the comparisons and uncertainty overlap between the experimental data and predictions, the model is shown to predict critical condenser performance parameters with an uncertainty acceptable for general engineering design and performance evaluations. 33 refs., 69 figs., 38 tabs.
Game Analysis, Validation, and Potential Application of EyeToy Play and Play 2 to Upper-Extremity Rehabilitation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yu-ping Chen

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Objective. To describe and analyze the potential use of games in the commercially available EyeToy Play and EyeToy Play 2 on required/targeted training skills and feedback provided for clinical application. Methods. A summary table including all games was created. Two movement experts naïve to the software validated required/targeted training skills and feedback for 10 randomly selected games. Ten healthy school-aged children played to further validate the required/targeted training skills. Results. All but two (muscular and cardiovascular endurance had excellent agreement in required/targeted training skills, and there was 100% agreement on feedback. Children’s performance in required/targeted training skills (number of unilateral reaches and bilateral reaches, speed, muscular endurance, and cardiovascular endurance significantly differed between games (P<.05. Conclusion. EyeToy Play games could be used to train children’s arm function. However, a careful evaluation of the games is needed since performance might not be consistent between players and therapists’ interpretation.
The economics of improving medication adherence in osteoporosis: validation and application of a simulation model.

Science.gov (United States)

Patrick, Amanda R; Schousboe, John T; Losina, Elena; Solomon, Daniel H

2011-09-01

Adherence to osteoporosis treatment is low. Although new therapies and behavioral interventions may improve medication adherence, questions are likely to arise regarding their cost-effectiveness. Our objectives were to develop and validate a model to simulate the clinical outcomes and costs arising from various osteoporosis medication adherence patterns among women initiating bisphosphonate treatment and to estimate the cost-effectiveness of a hypothetical intervention to improve medication adherence. We constructed a computer simulation using estimates of fracture rates, bisphosphonate treatment effects, costs, and utilities for health states drawn from the published literature. Probabilities of transitioning on and off treatment were estimated from administrative claims data. Patients were women initiating bisphosphonate therapy from the general community. We evaluated a hypothetical behavioral intervention to improve medication adherence. Changes in 10-yr fracture rates and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios were evaluated. A hypothetical intervention with a one-time cost of $250 and reducing bisphosphonate discontinuation by 30% had an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of $29,571 per quality-adjusted life year in 65-yr-old women initiating bisphosphonates. Although the ICER depended on patient age, intervention effectiveness, and intervention cost, the ICERs were less than $50,000 per quality-adjusted life year for the majority of intervention cost and effectiveness scenarios evaluated. Results were sensitive to bisphosphonate cost and effectiveness and assumptions about the rate at which intervention and treatment effects decline over time. Our results suggests that behavioral interventions to improve osteoporosis medication adherence will likely have favorable ICERs if their efficacy can be sustained.
Application of concrete to the treatment and disposal of radioactive waste in Japan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maki, Yasuro; Ohnuma, Hiroshi

1992-01-01

The paper presents the present state of application of concrete to treatment, storage and disposal of low level radioactive waste in Japan. In the 2nd section, the electric power supply and the kinds and volumes of radioactive waste from nuclear power plants in Japan are described. In the 3rd section, the applications of concrete to the treatment of radioactive waste are described. These are solidification with cement and containers made by various mortars and concretes. The application of concrete to disposal structures are presented in the 4th section; these are research on the durabity of concrete under disposal site condition, research on the filling the concrete pit with 200 l drum packed cement solidified wastes by prepacked concreting methods, and so on. And this section describes also the outlines of the low level radioactive disposal system at the Rokkasho site. (orig./DG)
Application countermeasures of non-incineration technologies for medical waste treatment in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Yang; Ding, Qiong; Yang, Xiaoling; Peng, Zhengyou; Xu, Diandou; Feng, Qinzhong

2013-12-01

By the end of 2012, there were 272 modern, high-standard, centralized medical waste disposal facilities operating in various cities in China. Among these facilities nearly 50% are non-incineration treatment facilities, including the technologies of high temperature steam, chemical disinfection and microwave. Each of the non-incineration technologies has its advantages and disadvantages, and any single technology cannot offer a panacea because of the complexity of medical waste disposal. Although non-incineration treatment of medical waste can avoid the release of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/dibenzofurans, it is still necessary to decide how to best meet the local waste management needs while minimizing the impact on the environment and public health. There is still a long way to go to establish the sustainable application and management mode of non-incineration technologies. Based on the analysis of typical non-incineration process, pollutant release, and the current tendency for technology application and development at home and abroad, this article recommends the application countermeasures of non-incineration technologies as the best available techniques and best environmental practices in China.
Physical validation issue of the NEPTUNE two-phase modelling: validation plan to be adopted, experimental programs to be set up and associated instrumentation techniques developed

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pierre Peturaud; Eric Hervieu

2005-01-01

Full text of publication follows: A long-term joint development program for the next generation of nuclear reactors simulation tools has been launched in 2001 by EDF (Electricite de France) and CEA (Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique). The NEPTUNE Project constitutes the Thermal-Hydraulics part of this comprehensive program. Along with the underway development of this new two-phase flow software platform, the physical validation of the involved modelling is a crucial issue, whatever the modelling scale is, and the present paper deals with this issue. After a brief recall about the NEPTUNE platform, the general validation strategy to be adopted is first of all clarified by means of three major features: (i) physical validation in close connection with the concerned industrial applications, (ii) involving (as far as possible) a two-step process successively focusing on dominant separate models and assessing the whole modelling capability, (iii) thanks to the use of relevant data with respect to the validation aims. Based on this general validation process, a four-step generic work approach has been defined; it includes: (i) a thorough analysis of the concerned industrial applications to identify the key physical phenomena involved and associated dominant basic models, (ii) an assessment of these models against the available validation pieces of information, to specify the additional validation needs and define dedicated validation plans, (iii) an inventory and assessment of existing validation data (with respect to the requirements specified in the previous task) to identify the actual needs for new validation data, (iv) the specification of the new experimental programs to be set up to provide the needed new data. This work approach has been applied to the NEPTUNE software, focusing on 8 high priority industrial applications, and it has resulted in the definition of (i) the validation plan and experimental programs to be set up for the open medium 3D modelling
On Line Validation Exercise (OLIVE: A Web Based Service for the Validation of Medium Resolution Land Products. Application to FAPAR Products

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marie Weiss

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The OLIVE (On Line Interactive Validation Exercise platform is dedicated to the validation of global biophysical products such as LAI (Leaf Area Index and FAPAR (Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation. It was developed under the framework of the CEOS (Committee on Earth Observation Satellites Land Product Validation (LPV sub-group. OLIVE has three main objectives: (i to provide a consistent and centralized information on the definition of the biophysical variables, as well as a description of the main available products and their performances (ii to provide transparency and traceability by an online validation procedure compliant with the CEOS LPV and QA4EO (Quality Assurance for Earth Observation recommendations (iii and finally, to provide a tool to benchmark new products, update product validation results and host new ground measurement sites for accuracy assessment. The functionalities and algorithms of OLIVE are described to provide full transparency of its procedures to the community. The validation process and typical results are illustrated for three FAPAR products: GEOV1 (VEGETATION sensor, MGVIo (MERIS sensor and MODIS collection 5 FPAR. OLIVE is available on the European Space Agency CAL/VAL portal, including full documentation, validation exercise results, and product extracts.
SU-E-T-219: Comprehensive Validation of the Electron Monte Carlo Dose Calculation Algorithm in RayStation Treatment Planning System for An Elekta Linear Accelerator with AgilityTM Treatment Head

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Yi; Park, Yang-Kyun; Doppke, Karen P. [Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA (United States)

2015-06-15

Purpose: This study evaluated the performance of the electron Monte Carlo dose calculation algorithm in RayStation v4.0 for an Elekta machine with Agility™ treatment head. Methods: The machine has five electron energies (6–8 MeV) and five applicators (6×6 to 25×25 cm {sup 2}). The dose (cGy/MU at d{sub max}), depth dose and profiles were measured in water using an electron diode at 100 cm SSD for nine square fields ≥2×2 cm{sup 2} and four complex fields at normal incidence, and a 14×14 cm{sup 2} field at 15° and 30° incidence. The dose was also measured for three square fields ≥4×4 cm{sup 2} at 98, 105 and 110 cm SSD. Using selected energies, the EBT3 radiochromic film was used for dose measurements in slab-shaped inhomogeneous phantoms and a breast phantom with surface curvature. The measured and calculated doses were analyzed using a gamma criterion of 3%/3 mm. Results: The calculated and measured doses varied by <3% for 116 of the 120 points, and <5% for the 4×4 cm{sup 2} field at 110 cm SSD at 9–18 MeV. The gamma analysis comparing the 105 pairs of in-water isodoses passed by >98.1%. The planar doses measured from films placed at 0.5 cm below a lung/tissue layer (12 MeV) and 1.0 cm below a bone/air layer (15 MeV) showed excellent agreement with calculations, with gamma passing by 99.9% and 98.5%, respectively. At the breast-tissue interface, the gamma passing rate is >98.8% at 12–18 MeV. The film results directly validated the accuracy of MU calculation and spatial dose distribution in presence of tissue inhomogeneity and surface curvature - situations challenging for simpler pencil-beam algorithms. Conclusion: The electron Monte Carlo algorithm in RayStation v4.0 is fully validated for clinical use for the Elekta Agility™ machine. The comprehensive validation included small fields, complex fields, oblique beams, extended distance, tissue inhomogeneity and surface curvature.
40 CFR 152.93 - Citation of a previously submitted valid study.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... Data Submitters' Rights § 152.93 Citation of a previously submitted valid study. An applicant may demonstrate compliance for a data requirement by citing a valid study previously submitted to the Agency. The... the original data submitter, the applicant may cite the study only in accordance with paragraphs (b...
Development and validation of a risk score for chronic kidney disease in HIV infection using prospective cohort data from the D:A:D study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mocroft, Amanda; Lundgren, Jens D; Ross, Michael

2015-01-01

antiretrovirals to a treatment regimen and would identify those at greatest risk of CKD. The aims of this study were to develop a simple, externally validated, and widely applicable long-term risk score model for CKD in HIV-positive individuals that can guide decision making in clinical practice. METHODS...
Commissioning and first clinical application of mARC treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dzierma, Yvonne; Nuesken, Frank G.; Kremp, Stephanie; Palm, Jan; Licht, Norbert P.; Ruebe, Christian

2014-01-01

The modulated arc (mARC) technique has recently been introduced for Siemens ARTISTE linear accelerators. We present the first experiences with the commissioning of the system and first patient treatments. Treatment planning and delivery are presented for the Prowess Panther treatment planning system or, alternatively, an in-house code. Dosimetric verification is performed both by point dose measurements and in 3D dose distribution. Depending on the target volume, one or two arcs can be used to create highly conformal plans. Dosimetric verification of the converted mARC plans with step-and-shoot plans shows deviations below 1 % in absolute point dose; in the 3D dose distribution, over 95 % of the points pass the 3D gamma criteria (3 % deviation in local dose and 3 mm distance to agreement for doses > 20 % of the maximum). Patient specific verification of the mARC dose distribution with the calculations has a similar pass rate. Treatment times range between 2 and 5 min for a single arc. To our knowledge, this is the first report of clinical application of the mARC technique. The mARC offers the possibility to save significant amounts of time, with single-arc treatments of only a few minutes achieving comparable dose distribution to IMRT plans taking up to twice as long. (orig.) [de
At-Home Application of Autologous Platelet Rich Plasma as Treatment for Pressure Sore and Related Anemia.

Science.gov (United States)

Tendas, Andrea; Niscola, Pasquale; Giovannini, Marco; Costa, Adriana; Venditti, Daniela; Volta, Laura; Malandruccolo, Luigi; Sabbadini, Stefania; Lasorella, Rosa; Fabritiis, Paolo de; Cassetta, Rita; Perrotti, Alessio P

2017-01-01

Pressure sores are a major complication in the bed-ridden older patient. In this report, we present the case of platelet rich plasma (PRP) application for the treatment of a pressure sore in an 88-year-old female affected by transfusion-dependent chronic inflammatory disease anemia associated with the congenital and inherited condition of thalassemic trait carrier. A weekly application schedule was planned athome, given the patient's debilitation and her decreased performance status as well as personal and family difficulties to go as outpatients at our treatment center. After 9 PRP applications, a remarkable sore improvement was achieved so that PRP was discontinued; nevertheless, sore rapidly improved until the full resolution and the complete closing after 4 months from the start of PRP treatment. Noteworthy, transfusion support was interrupted and a significant recovery and a sustained stabilization of hemoglobin (Hb) level at 1 year after ulcer healing were observed. The present case suggests that PRP application, performed athome in our case, is a feasible and effective treatment for pressure sores and related complications. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

The Accutension Stetho, an automated auscultatory device to validate automated sphygmomanometer readings in individual patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Alpert, Bruce S

2018-04-06

The aim of this report is to describe a new device that can validate, by automated auscultation, individual blood pressure (BP) readings taken by automated sphygmomanometers.The Accutension Stetho utilizes a smartphone application in conjunction with a specially designed stethoscope that interfaces directly into the smartphone via the earphone jack. The Korotkoff sounds are recorded by the application and are analyzed by the operator on the screen of the smartphone simultaneously with the images from the sphygmomanometer screen during BP estimation. Current auscultatory validation standards require at least 85 subjects and strict statistical criteria for passage. A device that passes can make no guarantee of accuracy on individual patients. The Accutension Stetho is an inexpensive smartphone/stethoscope kit combination that estimates precise BP values by auscultation to confirm the accuracy of an automated sphygmomanometer's readings on individual patients. This should be of great value for both professional and, in certain circumstances, self-measurement BP. Patients will avoid both unnecessary treatment and errors of underestimation of BP, in which the patient requires therapy. The Stetho's software has been validated in an independent ANSI/AAMI/ISO standard study. The Stetho has been shown to perform without difficulty in multiple deflation-based devices by many manufacturers.
Final Report for 'Verification and Validation of Radiation Hydrodynamics for Astrophysical Applications'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zingale, M.; Howell, L.H.

2010-01-01

The motivation for this work is to gain experience in the methodology of verification and validation (V and V) of astrophysical radiation hydrodynamics codes. In the first period of this work, we focused on building the infrastructure to test a single astrophysical application code, Castro, developed in collaboration between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL). We delivered several hydrodynamic test problems, in the form of coded initial conditions and documentation for verification, routines to perform data analysis, and a generalized regression test suite to allow for continued automated testing. Astrophysical simulation codes aim to model phenomena that elude direct experimentation. Our only direct information about these systems comes from what we observe, and may be transient. Simulation can help further our understanding by allowing virtual experimentation of these systems. However, to have confidence in our simulations requires us to have confidence in the tools we use. Verification and Validation is a process by which we work to build confidence that a simulation code is accurately representing reality. V and V is a multistep process, and is never really complete. Once a single test problem is working as desired (i.e. that problem is verified), one wants to ensure that subsequent code changes do not break that test. At the same time, one must also search for new verification problems that test the code in a new way. It can be rather tedious to manually retest each of the problems, so before going too far with V and V, it is desirable to have an automated test suite. Our project aims to provide these basic tools for astrophysical radiation hydrodynamics codes.
Perspectives and problems of application of the effects of ionizing radiation in water treatment technology in Czechoslovakia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vacek, K.

1978-01-01

Investigations of the possibilities of the utilization of physico-chemical and biological effects of ionizing radiation in water treatment technology has been carried out in Czechoslovakia since 1976. In the area of water sources the radiation recovery of wells clogged with Fe(III) hydroxyoxides as a result of activity of some microorganism begins to be used. Other possible methods of the application of ionizing radiation as increase of disinfection efficiency of chlorination during irradiation, radiation deodorization and discoloration of drinking water are not utilized for economic reasons. In the area of waste water the radiation destruction of solution of some dyestuffs in the presence of charcoal was investigated. This process is complicated and cannot compete with current technologies. Radiation hygienization of sewage sludge with their perspective utilization as fertilizers was also investigated. At present a part of sewage sludge is agrotechnically used, yet with various restrictions. Technical and economic analysis showed that hygienization using electron accelerators would be very desirable as soon as renewed hygienic regulations of sludge depositions become valid. (Auth.)
Hanford Environmental Restoration data validation process for chemical and radiochemical analyses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adams, M.R.; Bechtold, R.A.; Clark, D.E.; Angelos, K.M.; Winter, S.M.

1993-10-01

Detailed procedures for validation of chemical and radiochemical data are used to assure consistent application of validation principles and support a uniform database of quality environmental data. During application of these procedures, it was determined that laboratory data packages were frequently missing certain types of documentation causing subsequent delays in meeting critical milestones in the completion of validation activities. A quality improvement team was assembled to address the problems caused by missing documentation and streamline the entire process. The result was the development of a separate data package verification procedure and revisions to the data validation procedures. This has resulted in a system whereby deficient data packages are immediately identified and corrected prior to validation and revised validation procedures which more closely match the common analytical reporting practices of laboratory service vendors
Feasibility of a Mobile Application to Enhance Swallowing Therapy for Patients Undergoing Radiation-Based Treatment for Head and Neck Cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Starmer, Heather M; Abrams, Rina; Webster, Kimberly; Kizner, Jennifer; Beadle, Beth; Holsinger, F Christopher; Quon, Harry; Richmon, Jeremy

2018-04-01

Dysphagia following treatment for head and neck cancer is one of the most significant morbidities impacting quality of life. Despite the value of prophylactic exercises to mitigate the impact of radiation on long-term swallowing function, adherence to treatment is limited. The purpose of this investigation was to explore the feasibility of a mobile health application to support patient adherence to swallowing therapy during radiation-based treatment. 36 patients undergoing radiation therapy were provided with the Vibrent™ mobile application as an adjunct to standard swallowing therapy. The application included exercise videos, written instructions, reminders, exercise logging, and educational content. 80% of participants used the app during treatment and logged an average of 102 exercise sessions over the course of treatment. 25% of participants logged at least two exercise sessions per day over the 7-week treatment period, and 53% recorded at least one session per day. Exit interviews regarding the patient experience with the Vibrent™ mobile application were largely positive, but also provided actionable strategies to improve future versions of the application. The Vibrent™ mobile application appears to be a tool that can be feasibly integrated into existing patient care practices and may assist patients in adhering to treatment recommendations and facilitate communication between patients and providers between encounters.
Marketing Plan for Demonstration and Validation Assets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

None, None

2008-05-30

The National Security Preparedness Project (NSPP), is to be sustained by various programs, including technology demonstration and evaluation (DEMVAL). This project assists companies in developing technologies under the National Security Technology Incubator program (NSTI) through demonstration and validation of technologies applicable to national security created by incubators and other sources. The NSPP also will support the creation of an integrated demonstration and validation environment. This report documents the DEMVAL marketing and visibility plan, which will focus on collecting information about, and expanding the visibility of, DEMVAL assets serving businesses with national security technology applications in southern New Mexico.
Dosimetric validation of Monaco treatment planning system on an Elekta VersaHD linear accelerator.

Science.gov (United States)

Narayanasamy, Ganesh; Saenz, Daniel L; Defoor, Dewayne; Papanikolaou, Niko; Stathakis, Sotirios

2017-11-01

The purpose of this study is to perform dosimetric validation of Monaco treatment planning system version 5.1. The Elekta VersaHD linear accelerator with high dose rate flattening filter-free photon modes and electron energies was used in this study. The dosimetric output of the new Agility head combined with the FFF photon modes warranted this investigation into the dosimetric accuracy prior to clinical usage. A model of the VersaHD linac was created in Monaco TPS by Elekta using commissioned beam data including percent depth dose curves, beam profiles, and output factors. A variety of 3D conformal fields were created in Monaco TPS on a combined Plastic water/Styrofoam phantom and validated against measurements with a calibrated ion chamber. Some of the parameters varied including source to surface distance, field size, wedges, gantry angle, and depth for all photon and electron energies. In addition, a series of step and shoot IMRT, VMAT test plans, and patient plans on various anatomical sites were verified against measurements on a Delta 4 diode array. The agreement in point dose measurements was within 2% for all photon and electron energies in the homogeneous phantom and within 3% for photon energies in the heterogeneous phantom. The mean ± SD gamma passing rates of IMRT test fields yielded 93.8 ± 4.7% based on 2% dose difference and 2 mm distance-to-agreement criteria. Eight previously treated IMRT patient plans were replanned in Monaco TPS and five measurements on each yielded an average gamma passing rate of 95% with 6.7% confidence limit based on 3%, 3 mm gamma criteria. This investigation on dosimetric validation ensures accuracy of modeling VersaHD linac in Monaco TPS thereby improving patient safety. © 2017 The Authors. Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Association of Physicists in Medicine.
Hydrothermal treatment of grape marc for solid fuel applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mäkelä, Mikko; Kwong, Chi Wai; Broström, Markus; Yoshikawa, Kunio

2017-01-01

Highlights: • The effects of treatment temperature and liquid pH on char and liquid properties. • Liquid pH had a statistically significant effect only on liquid carbon yield. • Higher treatment temperature increased char volatiles that can enhance ignitability. • Char showed promising fuel properties if elevated ash phosphorus can be tolerated. - Abstract: The treatment and disposal of grape marc, a residue from grape processing, represents a significant economic and environmental challenge for the winemaking industry. Hydrothermal treatment of grape marc could be an efficient way for producing solid fuels on-site at the wineries. In this work the effects of treatment temperature and liquid pH on grape marc char and liquid properties were determined based on laboratory experiments and the combustion characteristics of char were assessed through thermogravimetric analysis and fuel ash classification. The results showed that hydrothermal treatment increased the energy and carbon contents and decreased the ash content of grape marc. The effect of liquid pH was statistically significant (p < 0.05) only for the determined carbon yield of liquid samples. The energy yield from grape marc was maximized at lower treatment temperatures, which also decreased the content of less thermally stable compounds in the attained char. Higher treatment temperatures decreased grape marc solid, carbon and energy yields and led to an increase in thermally labile compounds compared to lower temperatures likely due to the condensation of liquid compounds or volatiles trapped in the pores of char particles. The alkali metal contents of char ash were reduced coupled with an increase in respective phosphorus. Overall the results support the use of hydrothermally treated grape marc in solid fuel applications, if elevated levels of ash phosphorus can be tolerated.
Community Priority Index: utility, applicability and validation for priority setting in community-based participatory research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hamisu M. Salihu

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Background. Providing practitioners with an intuitive measure for priority setting that can be combined with diverse data collection methods is a necessary step to foster accountability of the decision-making process in community settings. Yet, there is a lack of easy-to-use, but methodologically robust measures, that can be feasibly implemented for reliable decision-making in community settings. To address this important gap in community based participatory research (CBPR, the purpose of this study was to demonstrate the utility, applicability, and validation of a community priority index in a community-based participatory research setting. Design and Methods. Mixed-method study that combined focus groups findings, nominal group technique with six key informants, and the generation of a Community Priority Index (CPI that integrated community importance, changeability, and target populations. Bootstrapping and simulation were performed for validation. Results. For pregnant mothers, the top three highly important and highly changeable priorities were: stress (CPI=0.85; 95%CI: 0.70, 1.00, lack of affection (CPI=0.87; 95%CI: 0.69, 1.00, and nutritional issues (CPI=0.78; 95%CI: 0.48, 1.00. For non-pregnant women, top priorities were: low health literacy (CPI=0.87; 95%CI: 0.69, 1.00, low educational attainment (CPI=0.78; 95%CI: 0.48, 1.00, and lack of self-esteem (CPI=0.72; 95%CI: 0.44, 1.00. For children and adolescents, the top three priorities were: obesity (CPI=0.88; 95%CI: 0.69, 1.00, low self-esteem (CPI=0.81; 95%CI: 0.69, 0.94, and negative attitudes toward education (CPI=0.75; 95%CI: 0.50, 0.94. Conclusions. This study demonstrates the applicability of the CPI as a simple and intuitive measure for priority setting in CBPR.
Streamlining Transportation Corridors Planning Processes and Validating the Application of Commercial Remote Sensing and Spatial Information (CRS-SI) Technologies for Environmental Impact Assessments

Science.gov (United States)

2008-02-05

The new US DOT RITA program has selected MSU for addressing corridor planning and environmental assessment in new and innovative ways that can be compared to traditional approaches. Our primary focus is on the application and validation of new and in...
Erratum: Probabilistic application of a fugacity model to predict triclosan fate during wastewater treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Bock, Michael; Lyndall, Jennifer; Barber, Timothy; Fuchsman, Phyllis; Perruchon, Elyse; Capdevielle, Marie

2010-10-01

The fate and partitioning of the antimicrobial compound, triclosan, in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is evaluated using a probabilistic fugacity model to predict the range of triclosan concentrations in effluent and secondary biosolids. The WWTP model predicts 84% to 92% triclosan removal, which is within the range of measured removal efficiencies (typically 70% to 98%). Triclosan is predominantly removed by sorption and subsequent settling of organic particulates during primary treatment and by aerobic biodegradation during secondary treatment. Median modeled removal efficiency due to sorption is 40% for all treatment phases and 31% in the primary treatment phase. Median modeled removal efficiency due to biodegradation is 48% for all treatment phases and 44% in the secondary treatment phase. Important factors contributing to variation in predicted triclosan concentrations in effluent and biosolids include influent concentrations, solids concentrations in settling tanks, and factors related to solids retention time. Measured triclosan concentrations in biosolids and non-United States (US) effluent are consistent with model predictions. However, median concentrations in US effluent are over-predicted with this model, suggesting that differences in some aspect of treatment practices not incorporated in the model (e.g., disinfection methods) may affect triclosan removal from effluent. Model applications include predicting changes in environmental loadings associated with new triclosan applications and supporting risk analyses for biosolids-amended land and effluent receiving waters. © 2010 SETAC.
Method development and validation of liquid chromatography-tandem/mass spectrometry for aldosterone in human plasma: Application to drug interaction study of atorvastatin and olmesartan combination

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rakesh Das

2014-01-01

Full Text Available In the present investigation, a simple and sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS method was developed for the quantification of aldosterone (ALD a hormone responsible for blood pressure in human plasma. The developed method was validated and extended for application on human subjects to study drug interaction of atorvastatin (ATSV and olmesartan (OLM on levels of ALD. The ALD in plasma was extracted by liquid-liquid extraction with 5 mL dichloromethane/ethyl ether (60/40% v/v. The chromatographic separation of ALD was carried on Xterra, RP-Column C18 (150 mm× 4.6 mm × 3.5 μm at 30°C followed by four-step gradient program composed of methanol and water. Step 1 started with 35% methanol for first 1 min and changed linearly to 90% in next 1.5 min in Step 2. Step 3 lasted for next 2 min with 90% methanol. The method finally concluded with Step 4 to achieve initial concentration of methanol that is, 35% thus contributing the total method run time of 17.5 min. The flow rate was 0.25 mL/min throughout the process. The developed method was validated for specificity, accuracy, precision, stability, linearity, sensitivity, and recovery. The method was linear and found to be acceptable over the range of 50-800 ng/mL. The method was successfully applied for the drug interaction study of ATSV + OLM in combination against OLM treatment on blood pressure by quantifying changes in levels of ALD in hypertensive patients. The study revealed levels of ALD were significantly higher in ATSV + OLM treatment condition when compared to OLM as single treated condition. This reflects the reason of low effectiveness of ATSV + OLM in combination instead of synergistic activity.
Extracorporeal treatment for thallium poisoning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ghannoum, Marc; Nolin, Thomas D; Goldfarb, David S

2012-01-01

The EXtracorporeal TReatments In Poisoning (EXTRIP) workgroup was formed to provide recommendations on the use of extracorporeal treatment (ECTR) in poisoning. To test and validate its methods, the workgroup reviewed data for thallium (Tl).......The EXtracorporeal TReatments In Poisoning (EXTRIP) workgroup was formed to provide recommendations on the use of extracorporeal treatment (ECTR) in poisoning. To test and validate its methods, the workgroup reviewed data for thallium (Tl)....
Surface applicator calibration and commissioning of an electronic brachytherapy system for nonmelanoma skin cancer treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rong, Yi; Welsh, James S.

2010-01-01

Purpose: The Xoft Axxent x-ray source has been used for treating nonmelanoma skin cancer since the surface applicators became clinically available in 2009. The authors report comprehensive calibration procedures for the electronic brachytherapy (eBx) system with the surface applicators. Methods: The Xoft miniature tube (model S700) generates 50 kVp low-energy x rays. The new surface applicators are available in four sizes of 10, 20, 35, and 50 mm in diameter. The authors' tests include measurements of dose rate, air-gap factor, output stability, depth dose verification, beam flatness and symmetry, and treatment planning with patient specific cutout factors. The TG-61 in-air method was used as a guideline for acquiring nominal dose-rate output at the skin surface. A soft x-ray parallel-plate chamber (PTW T34013) and electrometer was used for the output commissioning. GafChromic EBT films were used for testing the properties of the treatment fields with the skin applicators. Solid water slabs were used to verify the depth dose and cutout factors. Patients with basal cell or squamous cell carcinoma were treated with eBx using a calibrated Xoft system with the low-energy x-ray source and the skin applicators. Results: The average nominal dose-rate output at the skin surface for the 35 mm applicator is 1.35 Gy/min with ±5% variation for 16 sources. The dose-rate output and stability (within ±5% variation) were also measured for the remaining three applicators. For the same source, the output variation is within 2%. The effective source-surface distance was calculated based on the air-gap measurements for four applicator sizes. The field flatness and symmetry are well within 5%. Percentage depth dose in water was provided by factory measurements and can be verified using solid water slabs. Treatment duration was calculated based on the nominal dose rate, the prescription fraction size, the depth dose percentage, and the cutout factor. The output factor needs to be
Surface applicator calibration and commissioning of an electronic brachytherapy system for nonmelanoma skin cancer treatment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rong, Yi; Welsh, James S. [Department of Human Oncology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, Wisconsin 53792 and University of Wisconsin Cancer Center-Riverview, Riverview Hospital Association, Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin 54494 (United States); Department of Human Oncology and Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, Wisconsin 53792 and University of Wisconsin Cancer Center-Riverview, Riverview Hospital Association, Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin 54494 (United States)

2010-10-15

Purpose: The Xoft Axxent x-ray source has been used for treating nonmelanoma skin cancer since the surface applicators became clinically available in 2009. The authors report comprehensive calibration procedures for the electronic brachytherapy (eBx) system with the surface applicators. Methods: The Xoft miniature tube (model S700) generates 50 kVp low-energy x rays. The new surface applicators are available in four sizes of 10, 20, 35, and 50 mm in diameter. The authors' tests include measurements of dose rate, air-gap factor, output stability, depth dose verification, beam flatness and symmetry, and treatment planning with patient specific cutout factors. The TG-61 in-air method was used as a guideline for acquiring nominal dose-rate output at the skin surface. A soft x-ray parallel-plate chamber (PTW T34013) and electrometer was used for the output commissioning. GafChromic EBT films were used for testing the properties of the treatment fields with the skin applicators. Solid water slabs were used to verify the depth dose and cutout factors. Patients with basal cell or squamous cell carcinoma were treated with eBx using a calibrated Xoft system with the low-energy x-ray source and the skin applicators. Results: The average nominal dose-rate output at the skin surface for the 35 mm applicator is 1.35 Gy/min with {+-}5% variation for 16 sources. The dose-rate output and stability (within {+-}5% variation) were also measured for the remaining three applicators. For the same source, the output variation is within 2%. The effective source-surface distance was calculated based on the air-gap measurements for four applicator sizes. The field flatness and symmetry are well within 5%. Percentage depth dose in water was provided by factory measurements and can be verified using solid water slabs. Treatment duration was calculated based on the nominal dose rate, the prescription fraction size, the depth dose percentage, and the cutout factor. The output factor needs
Surface applicator calibration and commissioning of an electronic brachytherapy system for nonmelanoma skin cancer treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Rong, Yi; Welsh, James S

2010-10-01

The Xoft Axxent x-ray source has been used for treating nonmelanoma skin cancer since the surface applicators became clinically available in 2009. The authors report comprehensive calibration procedures for the electronic brachytherapy (eBx) system with the surface applicators. The Xoft miniature tube (model S700) generates 50 kVp low-energy x rays. The new surface applicators are available in four sizes of 10, 20, 35, and 50 mm in diameter. The authors' tests include measurements of dose rate, air-gap factor, output stability, depth dose verification, beam flatness and symmetry, and treatment planning with patient specific cutout factors. The TG-61 in-air method was used as a guideline for acquiring nominal dose-rate output at the skin surface. A soft x-ray parallel-plate chamber (PTW T34013) and electrometer was used for the output commissioning. GafChromic EBT films were used for testing the properties of the treatment fields with the skin applicators. Solid water slabs were used to verify the depth dose and cutout factors. Patients with basal cell or squamous cell carcinoma were treated with eBx using a calibrated Xoft system with the low-energy x-ray source and the skin applicators. The average nominal dose-rate output at the skin surface for the 35 mm applicator is 1.35 Gy/min with +/- 5% variation for 16 sources. The dose-rate output and stability (within +/- 5% variation) were also measured for the remaining three applicators. For the same source, the output variation is within 2%. The effective source-surface distance was calculated based on the air-gap measurements for four applicator sizes. The field flatness and symmetry are well within 5%. Percentage depth dose in water was provided by factory measurements and can be verified using solid water slabs. Treatment duration was calculated based on the nominal dose rate, the prescription fraction size, the depth dose percentage, and the cutout factor. The output factor needs to be measured for each case with
Monte Carlo model for a prototype CT-compatible, anatomically adaptive, shielded intracavitary brachytherapy applicator for the treatment of cervical cancer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Price, Michael J.; Gifford, Kent A.; Horton, John L. Jr.; Eifel, Patricia J.; Gillin, Michael T.; Lawyer, Ann A.; Mourtada, Firas [Department of Radiation Physics, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1220 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77030 and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Texas-Houston, 6767 Bertner Avenue, Houston, Texas 77030 (United States); Department of Radiation Physics, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1220 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77030 (United States); Division of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1220 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77030 and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Texas-Houston, 6767 Bertner Avenue, Houston, Texas 77030 (United States); Department of Radiation Physics, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1220 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77030 and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Texas-Houston, 6767 Bertner Avenue, Houston, Texas 77030 (United States); Department of Radiation Physics, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1220 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77030 (United States); Department of Radiation Physics, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1220 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77030 and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Texas-Houston, 6767 Bertner Avenue, Houston, Texas 77030 (United States)

2009-09-15

Purpose: Current, clinically applicable intracavitary brachytherapy applicators that utilize shielded ovoids contain a pair of tungsten-alloy shields which serve to reduce dose delivered to the rectum and bladder during source afterloading. After applicator insertion, these fixed shields are not necessarily positioned to provide optimal shielding of these critical structures due to variations in patient anatomies. The authors present a dosimetric evaluation of a novel prototype intracavitary brachytherapy ovoid [anatomically adaptive applicator (A{sup 3})], featuring a single shield whose position can be adjusted with two degrees of freedom: Rotation about and translation along the long axis of the ovoid. Methods: The dosimetry of the device for a HDR {sup 192}Ir was characterized using radiochromic film measurements for various shield orientations. A MCNPX Monte Carlo model was developed of the prototype ovoid and integrated with a previously validated model of a v2 mHDR {sup 192}Ir source (Nucletron Co.). The model was validated for three distinct shield orientations using film measurements. Results: For the most complex case, 91% of the absolute simulated and measured dose points agreed within 2% or 2 mm and 96% agreed within 10% or 2 mm. Conclusions: Validation of the Monte Carlo model facilitates future investigations into any dosimetric advantages the use of the A{sup 3} may have over the current state of art with respect to optimization and customization of dose delivery as a function of patient anatomical geometries.
Monte Carlo model for a prototype CT-compatible, anatomically adaptive, shielded intracavitary brachytherapy applicator for the treatment of cervical cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Price, Michael J.; Gifford, Kent A.; Horton, John L. Jr.; Eifel, Patricia J.; Gillin, Michael T.; Lawyer, Ann A.; Mourtada, Firas

2009-01-01

Purpose: Current, clinically applicable intracavitary brachytherapy applicators that utilize shielded ovoids contain a pair of tungsten-alloy shields which serve to reduce dose delivered to the rectum and bladder during source afterloading. After applicator insertion, these fixed shields are not necessarily positioned to provide optimal shielding of these critical structures due to variations in patient anatomies. The authors present a dosimetric evaluation of a novel prototype intracavitary brachytherapy ovoid [anatomically adaptive applicator (A 3 )], featuring a single shield whose position can be adjusted with two degrees of freedom: Rotation about and translation along the long axis of the ovoid. Methods: The dosimetry of the device for a HDR 192 Ir was characterized using radiochromic film measurements for various shield orientations. A MCNPX Monte Carlo model was developed of the prototype ovoid and integrated with a previously validated model of a v2 mHDR 192 Ir source (Nucletron Co.). The model was validated for three distinct shield orientations using film measurements. Results: For the most complex case, 91% of the absolute simulated and measured dose points agreed within 2% or 2 mm and 96% agreed within 10% or 2 mm. Conclusions: Validation of the Monte Carlo model facilitates future investigations into any dosimetric advantages the use of the A 3 may have over the current state of art with respect to optimization and customization of dose delivery as a function of patient anatomical geometries.
Explanation of application standards of hematopoietic stimulating factors in the treatment of acute radiation sickness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xing Zhiwei; Jiang Enhai; Wang Guilin; Luo Qingliang

2012-01-01

Occupational standard of the Ministry of health-Application Standards of Hematopoietic Stimulating Factors in the Treatment of Acute Radiation Sickness has been completed as a draft standard. Based on the wide study and analysis of related animal experimental literature about hematopoietic stimulating factor in the treatment of acute radiation sickness and domestic and foreign clinical reports about application of hematopoietic stimulating factor in radiation accidents in the past decade, the standard was enacted according to the suggestions of International Atomic Energy Agency and the United States Strategic National Stockpile Radiation Working Group and European countries about the application of hematopoietic stimulating factor. It is mainly used for nuclear accident emergency and the treatment of the bone marrow form of acute radiation sickness caused by radiation accidents. It also applies to other hematopoietic failure diseases. In order to implement this standard correctly, the relevant contents of the standard were interpreted in this article. (authors)
Development and validation of a clinically applicable score to classify cachexia stages in advanced cancer patients

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Ting; Wang, Bangyan; Liu, Huiquan; Yang, Kaixiang; Thapa, Sudip; Zhang, Haowen; Li, Lu

2018-01-01

Abstract Background Cachexia is a multifactorial syndrome that is highly prevalent in advanced cancer patients and leads to progressive functional impairments. The classification of cachexia stages is essential for diagnosing and treating cachexia. However, there is a lack of simple tools with good discrimination for classifying cachexia stages. Therefore, our study aimed to develop a clinically applicable cachexia staging score (CSS) and validate its discrimination of clinical outcomes for different cachexia stages. Methods Advanced cancer patients were enrolled in our study. A CSS comprising the following five components was developed: weight loss, a simple questionnaire of sarcopenia (SARC‐F), Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, appetite loss, and abnormal biochemistry. According to the CSS, patients were classified into non‐cachexia, pre‐cachexia, cachexia, and refractory cachexia stages, and clinical outcomes were compared among the four groups. Results Of the 297 participating patients, data from 259 patients were ultimately included. Based on the CSS, patients were classified into non‐cachexia (n = 69), pre‐cachexia (n = 68), cachexia (n = 103), and refractory cachexia (n = 19) stages. Patients with more severe cachexia stages had lower skeletal muscle indexes (P = 0.002 and P = 0.004 in male and female patients, respectively), higher prevalence of sarcopenia (P = 0.017 and P = 0.027 in male and female patients, respectively), more severe symptom burden (P cachexia stages. This score is extremely useful for the clinical treatment and prognosis of cachexia and for designing clinical trials. PMID:29372594

Commissioning and Validation of the First Monte Carlo Based Dose Calculation Algorithm Commercial Treatment Planning System in Mexico

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Larraga-Gutierrez, J. M.; Garcia-Garduno, O. A.; Hernandez-Bojorquez, M.; Galvan de la Cruz, O. O.; Ballesteros-Zebadua, P.

2010-01-01

This work presents the beam data commissioning and dose calculation validation of the first Monte Carlo (MC) based treatment planning system (TPS) installed in Mexico. According to the manufacturer specifications, the beam data commissioning needed for this model includes: several in-air and water profiles, depth dose curves, head-scatter factors and output factors (6x6, 12x12, 18x18, 24x24, 42x42, 60x60, 80x80 and 100x100 mm 2 ). Radiographic and radiochromic films, diode and ionization chambers were used for data acquisition. MC dose calculations in a water phantom were used to validate the MC simulations using comparisons with measured data. Gamma index criteria 2%/2 mm were used to evaluate the accuracy of MC calculations. MC calculated data show an excellent agreement for field sizes from 18x18 to 100x100 mm 2 . Gamma analysis shows that in average, 95% and 100% of the data passes the gamma index criteria for these fields, respectively. For smaller fields (12x12 and 6x6 mm 2 ) only 92% of the data meet the criteria. Total scatter factors show a good agreement ( 2 ) that show a error of 4.7%. MC dose calculations are accurate and precise for clinical treatment planning up to a field size of 18x18 mm 2 . Special care must be taken for smaller fields.
The Elbow Self-Assessment Score (ESAS): development and validation of a new patient-reported outcome measurement tool for elbow disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Beirer, Marc; Friese, Henrik; Lenich, Andreas; Crönlein, Moritz; Sandmann, Gunther H; Biberthaler, Peter; Kirchhoff, Chlodwig; Siebenlist, Sebastian

2017-07-01

To develop and validate an elbow self-assessment score considering subjective as well as objective parameters. Each scale of the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons-Elbow Score, the Broberg and Morrey rating system (BMS), the Patient-Rated Elbow Evaluation (PREE) Questionnaire, the Mayo Elbow Performance Score (MEPS), the Oxford Elbow Score (OES) and the Quick Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (Quick-DASH) was analysed, and after matching of the general topics, the dedicated items underwent a fusion to the final ESAS's item and a score containing 22 items was created. In a prospective clinical study, validity, reliability and responsiveness in physically active patients with traumatic as well as degenerative elbow disorders were evaluated. Validation study included 103 patients (48 women, 55 men; mean age 43 years). A high test-retest reliability was found with intraclass correlation coefficients of at least 0.71. Construct validity and responsiveness were confirmed by correlation coefficients of -0.80 to -0.84 and 0.72-0.84 (p Self-Assessment Score (ESAS), a valid and reliable instrument for a qualitative self-assessment of subjective and objective parameters (e.g. range of motion) of the elbow joint is demonstrated. Quantitative measurement of elbow function may not longer be limited to specific elbow disorders or patient groups. The ESAS seems to allow for a broad application in clinical research studying elbow patients and may facilitate the comparison of treatment results in elbow disorders. The treatment efficacy can be easily evaluated, and treatment concepts could be reviewed and revised. Diagnostic study, Level III.
Suitability of point kernel dose calculation techniques in brachytherapy treatment planning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lakshminarayanan Thilagam

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Brachytherapy treatment planning system (TPS is necessary to estimate the dose to target volume and organ at risk (OAR. TPS is always recommended to account for the effect of tissue, applicator and shielding material heterogeneities exist in applicators. However, most brachytherapy TPS software packages estimate the absorbed dose at a point, taking care of only the contributions of individual sources and the source distribution, neglecting the dose perturbations arising from the applicator design and construction. There are some degrees of uncertainties in dose rate estimations under realistic clinical conditions. In this regard, an attempt is made to explore the suitability of point kernels for brachytherapy dose rate calculations and develop new interactive brachytherapy package, named as BrachyTPS, to suit the clinical conditions. BrachyTPS is an interactive point kernel code package developed to perform independent dose rate calculations by taking into account the effect of these heterogeneities, using two regions build up factors, proposed by Kalos. The primary aim of this study is to validate the developed point kernel code package integrated with treatment planning computational systems against the Monte Carlo (MC results. In the present work, three brachytherapy applicators commonly used in the treatment of uterine cervical carcinoma, namely (i Board of Radiation Isotope and Technology (BRIT low dose rate (LDR applicator and (ii Fletcher Green type LDR applicator (iii Fletcher Williamson high dose rate (HDR applicator, are studied to test the accuracy of the software. Dose rates computed using the developed code are compared with the relevant results of the MC simulations. Further, attempts are also made to study the dose rate distribution around the commercially available shielded vaginal applicator set (Nucletron. The percentage deviations of BrachyTPS computed dose rate values from the MC results are observed to be within plus/minus 5
Mathematical modeling and validation in physiology applications to the cardiovascular and respiratory systems

CERN Document Server

Bachar, Mostafa; Kappel, Franz

2013-01-01

This volume synthesizes theoretical and practical aspects of both the mathematical and life science viewpoints needed for modeling of the cardiovascular-respiratory system specifically and physiological systems generally. Theoretical points include model design, model complexity and validation in the light of available data, as well as control theory approaches to feedback delay and Kalman filter applications to parameter identification. State of the art approaches using parameter sensitivity are discussed for enhancing model identifiability through joint analysis of model structure and data. Practical examples illustrate model development at various levels of complexity based on given physiological information. The sensitivity-based approaches for examining model identifiability are illustrated by means of specific modeling examples. The themes presented address the current problem of patient-specific model adaptation in the clinical setting, where data is typically limited.
Telepsychiatry clinical decision support system used by non-psychiatrists in remote areas: Validity & reliability of diagnostic module

Science.gov (United States)

Malhotra, Savita; Chakrabarti, Subho; Shah, Ruchita; Sharma, Minali; Sharma, Kanu Priya; Malhotra, Akanksha; Upadhyaya, Suneet K.; Margoob, Mushtaq A.; Maqbool, Dar; Jassal, Gopal D.

2017-01-01

Background & objectives: A knowledge-based, logically-linked online telepsychiatric decision support system for diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders was developed and validated. We evaluated diagnostic accuracy and reliability of the application at remote sites when used by non-psychiatrists who underwent a brief training in its use through video-conferencing. Methods: The study was conducted at a nodal telepsychiatry centre, and three geographically remote peripheral centres. The diagnostic tool of application had a screening followed by detailed criteria-wise diagnostic modules for 18 psychiatric disorders. A total of 100 consecutive consenting adult outpatients attending remote telepsychiatry centres were included. To assess inter-rater reliability, patients were interviewed face to face by non-specialists at remote sites using the application (active interviewer) and simultaneously on online application via video-conferencing by a passive assessor at nodal centre. Another interviewer at the nodal centre rated the patient using Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) for diagnostic validation. Results: Screening sub-module had high sensitivity (80-100%), low positive predictive values (PPV) (0.10-0.71) but high negative predictive value (NPV) (0.97-1) for most disorders. For the diagnostic sub-modules, Cohen's kappa was >0.4 for all disorders, with kappa of 0.7-1.0 for most disorders. PPV and NPV were high for most disorders. Inter-rater agreement analysis revealed kappa >0.6 for all disorders. Interpretation & conclusions: Diagnostic tool showed acceptable to good validity and reliability when used by non-specialists at remote sites. Our findings show that diagnostic tool of the telepsychiatry application has potential to empower non-psychiatrist doctors and paramedics to diagnose psychiatric disorders accurately and reliably in remote sites. PMID:29265020
Validation of the TEXSAN thermal-hydraulic analysis program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burns, S.P.; Klein, D.E.

1992-01-01

The TEXSAN thermal-hydraulic analysis program has been developed by the University of Texas at Austin (UT) to simulate buoyancy driven fluid flow and heat transfer in spent fuel and high level nuclear waste (HLW) shipping applications. As part of the TEXSAN software quality assurance program, the software has been subjected to a series of test cases intended to validate its capabilities. The validation tests include many physical phenomena which arise in spent fuel and HLW shipping applications. This paper describes some of the principal results of the TEXSAN validation tests and compares them to solutions available in the open literature. The TEXSAN validation effort has shown that the TEXSAN program is stable and consistent under a range of operating conditions and provides accuracy comparable with other heat transfer programs and evaluation techniques. The modeling capabilities and the interactive user interface employed by the TEXSAN program should make it a useful tool in HLW transportation analysis
A cross-validation package driving Netica with python

Science.gov (United States)

Fienen, Michael N.; Plant, Nathaniel G.

2014-01-01

Bayesian networks (BNs) are powerful tools for probabilistically simulating natural systems and emulating process models. Cross validation is a technique to avoid overfitting resulting from overly complex BNs. Overfitting reduces predictive skill. Cross-validation for BNs is known but rarely implemented due partly to a lack of software tools designed to work with available BN packages. CVNetica is open-source, written in Python, and extends the Netica software package to perform cross-validation and read, rebuild, and learn BNs from data. Insights gained from cross-validation and implications on prediction versus description are illustrated with: a data-driven oceanographic application; and a model-emulation application. These examples show that overfitting occurs when BNs become more complex than allowed by supporting data and overfitting incurs computational costs as well as causing a reduction in prediction skill. CVNetica evaluates overfitting using several complexity metrics (we used level of discretization) and its impact on performance metrics (we used skill).
[Application of saw palmetto fruit extract in the treatment of prostate diseases].

Science.gov (United States)

Zhan, Xu-xin; Shang, Xue-jun; Huang, Yu-feng

2015-09-01

Saw palmetto fruit extract (SPE), as a herbal product, is widely used for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). Recent studies show that SPE also has some therapeutic effects on chronic prostatitis, prostate cancer, sexual dysfunction, and so on. This article presents an overview on the application of SPE in the treatment of BPH, prostate cancer, and chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome, with a discussion on its action mechanisms.
Application programming in C# environment with recorded user software interactions and its application in autopilot of VMAT/IMRT treatment planning.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Henry; Xing, Lei

2016-11-08

An autopilot scheme of volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT)/intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) planning with the guidance of prior knowl-edge is established with recorded interactions between a planner and a commercial treatment planning system (TPS). Microsoft (MS) Visual Studio Coded UI is applied to record some common planner-TPS interactions as subroutines. The TPS used in this study is a Windows-based Eclipse system. The interactions of our application program with Eclipse TPS are realized through a series of subrou-tines obtained by prerecording the mouse clicks or keyboard strokes of a planner in operating the TPS. A strategy to autopilot Eclipse VMAT/IMRT plan selection process is developed as a specific example of the proposed "scripting" method. The autopiloted planning is navigated by a decision function constructed with a reference plan that has the same prescription and similar anatomy with the case at hand. The calculation proceeds by alternating between the Eclipse optimization and the outer-loop optimization independent of the Eclipse. In the C# program, the dosimetric characteristics of a reference treatment plan are used to assess and modify the Eclipse planning parameters and to guide the search for a clinically sensible treatment plan. The approach is applied to plan a head and neck (HN) VMAT case and a prostate IMRT case. Our study demonstrated the feasibility of application programming method in C# environment with recorded interactions of planner-TPS. The process mimics a planner's planning process and automatically provides clinically sensible treatment plans that would otherwise require a large amount of manual trial and error of a planner. The proposed technique enables us to harness a commercial TPS by application programming via the use of recorded human computer interactions and provides an effective tool to greatly facilitate the treatment planning process. © 2016 The Authors.
Food applications of natural antimicrobial compounds

Science.gov (United States)

Lucera, Annalisa; Costa, Cristina; Conte, Amalia; Del Nobile, Matteo A.

2012-01-01

In agreement with the current trend of giving value to natural and renewable resources, the use of natural antimicrobial compounds, particularly in food and biomedical applications, becomes very frequent. The direct addition of natural compounds to food is the most common method of application, even if numerous efforts have been made to find alternative solutions to the aim of avoiding undesirable inactivation. Dipping, spraying, and coating treatment of food with active solutions are currently applied to product prior to packaging as valid options. The aim of the current work is to give an overview on the use of natural compounds in food sector. In particular, the review will gather numerous case-studies of meat, fish, dairy products, minimally processed fruit and vegetables, and cereal-based products where these compounds found application. PMID:23060862
Food applications of natural antimicrobial compounds.

Science.gov (United States)

Lucera, Annalisa; Costa, Cristina; Conte, Amalia; Del Nobile, Matteo A

2012-01-01

In agreement with the current trend of giving value to natural and renewable resources, the use of natural antimicrobial compounds, particularly in food and biomedical applications, becomes very frequent. The direct addition of natural compounds to food is the most common method of application, even if numerous efforts have been made to find alternative solutions to the aim of avoiding undesirable inactivation. Dipping, spraying, and coating treatment of food with active solutions are currently applied to product prior to packaging as valid options. The aim of the current work is to give an overview on the use of natural compounds in food sector. In particular, the review will gather numerous case-studies of meat, fish, dairy products, minimally processed fruit and vegetables, and cereal-based products where these compounds found application.
Food applications of natural antimicrobial compounds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matteo Alessandro eDel Nobile

2012-08-01

Full Text Available In agreement with the current trend of giving value to natural and renewable resources, the use of natural antimicrobial compounds, particularly in food and biomedical applications, becomes very frequent. The direct addition of natural compounds to food is the most common method of application, even if numerous efforts have been made to find alternative solutions to the aim of avoiding undesirable inactivation. Dipping, spraying and coating treatment of food with active solutions are currently applied to product prior to packaging as valid options. The aim of the current work is to give an overview on the use of natural compounds in food sector. In particular, the review will gather numerous case-studies of meat, fish, dairy products, minimally processed fruit and vegetables and cereal-based products where these compounds found application.
An updated PREDICT breast cancer prognostication and treatment benefit prediction model with independent validation.

Science.gov (United States)

Candido Dos Reis, Francisco J; Wishart, Gordon C; Dicks, Ed M; Greenberg, David; Rashbass, Jem; Schmidt, Marjanka K; van den Broek, Alexandra J; Ellis, Ian O; Green, Andrew; Rakha, Emad; Maishman, Tom; Eccles, Diana M; Pharoah, Paul D P

2017-05-22

PREDICT is a breast cancer prognostic and treatment benefit model implemented online. The overall fit of the model has been good in multiple independent case series, but PREDICT has been shown to underestimate breast cancer specific mortality in women diagnosed under the age of 40. Another limitation is the use of discrete categories for tumour size and node status resulting in 'step' changes in risk estimates on moving between categories. We have refitted the PREDICT prognostic model using the original cohort of cases from East Anglia with updated survival time in order to take into account age at diagnosis and to smooth out the survival function for tumour size and node status. Multivariable Cox regression models were used to fit separate models for ER negative and ER positive disease. Continuous variables were fitted using fractional polynomials and a smoothed baseline hazard was obtained by regressing the baseline cumulative hazard for each patients against time using fractional polynomials. The fit of the prognostic models were then tested in three independent data sets that had also been used to validate the original version of PREDICT. In the model fitting data, after adjusting for other prognostic variables, there is an increase in risk of breast cancer specific mortality in younger and older patients with ER positive disease, with a substantial increase in risk for women diagnosed before the age of 35. In ER negative disease the risk increases slightly with age. The association between breast cancer specific mortality and both tumour size and number of positive nodes was non-linear with a more marked increase in risk with increasing size and increasing number of nodes in ER positive disease. The overall calibration and discrimination of the new version of PREDICT (v2) was good and comparable to that of the previous version in both model development and validation data sets. However, the calibration of v2 improved over v1 in patients diagnosed under the age
Treatment of verruca of hands and feet with 32P application therapy and laser

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ma Yubo; Huang Gang; Kang Xiangdong; Liu Yiwen; Lu Ping; Chen Meijuan

2004-01-01

To study and compare the clinical curative effect of extremity verruca with 32 P and laser as well as their application values, 229 patients with extremity verruca were chosen by random from outpatient. Out of them, 83 patients were male and 146 were female, with the average age of 34.6 ± 19.5 (x-bar ± s) years. They were randomly divided into two groups: for the laser treatment group consisting of 127 individuals, the wart bodies were eliminated by CO 2 laser under local anaesthetization, if there were a lot of locus, the wart bodies were treated in turn. 102 individuals were treated with 32 P application therapy. The liquid containing radionuclide 32 P was dropped on filter papers, dried and then fixed on the corresponding focus surface for application therapy, applying 4-8 hours continuously (the absorbed dose at the lesion surface reaching 984-1968 cGy) each time and once a week until the lesion recovered. The clinical reaction and curative effect were observed. The clinical effective rate, cure rate, recurrence rate, side effective rate occurrence rate and complication occurrence rate for the laser treatment group are 100%, 55.9%, 44.1%, 17.3% and 25.2%, respectively while they are 100%, 91.2%, 5.9%, 19.6% and 7.8% respectively for the group of 32 P application therapy. It is concluded that the treatment of extremity verruca with 32 P application therapy is a simple and effective method with features such as safety, little pain, notable curative effect, lower recurrence rate, less side effect and complication. (authors)
Custom-made micro applicators for high-dose-rate brachytherapy treatment of chronic psoriasis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivan M. Buzurovic

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Purpose: In this study, we present the treatment of the psoriatic nail beds of patients refractory to standard therapies using high-dose-rate (HDR brachytherapy. The custom-made micro applicators (CMMA were designed and constructed for radiation dose delivery to small curvy targets with complicated topology. The role of the HDR brachytherapy treatment was to stimulate the T cells for an increased immune response. Material and methods: The patient diagnosed with psoriatic nail beds refractory to standard therapies received monthly subunguinal injections that caused significant pain and discomfort in both hands. The clinical target was defined as the length from the fingertip to the distal interphalangeal joint. For the accurate and reproducible setup in the multi-fractional treatment delivery, the CMMAs were designed. Five needles were embedded into the dense plastic mesh and covered with 5 mm bolus material for each micro applicator. Five CMMAs were designed, resulting in the usage of 25 catheters in total. Results: The prescription dose was planned to the depth of the anterior surface of the distal phalanx, allowing for the sparing of the surrounding tissue. The total number of the active dwell positions was 145 with step size of 5 mm. The total treatment time was 115 seconds with a 7.36 Ci activity of the 192Ir source. The treatment resulted in good pain control. The patient did not require further injections to the nail bed. After this initial treatment, additional two patients with similar symptoms received HDR brachytherapy. The treatment outcome was favorable in all cases. Conclusions : The first HDR brachytherapy treatment of psoriasis of the nail bed is presented. The initial experience revealed that brachytherapy treatment was well-tolerated and resulted in adequate control of the disease. A larger cohort of patients will be required for additional conclusions related to the long-term clinical benefits.
Discussion about the application of treatment process for dehydrated wet waste at nuclear power station

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Guanghua; Wu Qiang

2009-01-01

In nuclear power station, the most popular treatment about low level radioactive wet waste generated during the unit operating and maintenance is embedded by cement. For radioactive waste minimization, this article introduces a new treatment process to dehydrate and compress wet waste. According to the development and application of the treatment process for the wet waste, and comparing with the formerly treatment-the cement embedding, prove that the new treatment can meet the purpose for volume reduction of wet waste. (authors)
Measuring patients’ satisfaction with their anti-TNF treatment in severe Crohn’s disease: scoring and psychometric validation of the Satisfaction for PAtients in Crohn’s diseasE Questionnaire (SPACE-Q©

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gilet H

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Hélène Gilet,1 Benoit Arnould,1 Fatoumata Fofana,1 Pierre Clerson,2 Jean-Frédéric Colombel,10 Olivier D’Hondt,2 Patrick Faure,4 Hervé Hagège,5 Maria Nachury,3 Stéphane Nahon,6 Gilbert Tucat,7 Luc Vandromme,8 Ines Cazala-Telinge,9 Emmanuel Thibout9 1HEOR and Strategic Market Access, Mapi, Lyon, France; 2Orgamétrie, Roubaix, France; 3Hôpital Claude Huriez, Lille, France; 4Clinique Saint-Jean du Languedoc, Toulouse, France; 5Centre Hospitalier Intercommunal, Créteil, France; 6Centre Hospitalier Intercommunal, Le Raincy Montfermeil, France; 7Gastroenterologist, Private Clinical Practice, Paris, France; 8Gastroenterologist, Private Clinical Practice, Reims, France; 9Abbvie France, Rungis, France; 10Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA Background: Severe Crohn’s disease management includes anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF drugs that differ from early-stage treatments regarding efficacy, safety, and convenience. This study aimed to finalize and psychometrically validate the Satisfaction for PAtients in Crohn’s diseasE Questionnaire (SPACE-Q©, developed to measure satisfaction with anti-TNF treatment in patients with severe Crohn’s disease. Methods: A total of 279 patients with severe Crohn’s disease receiving anti-TNF therapy completed the SPACE-Q 62-item pilot version at inclusion and 12 and 13 weeks after first anti-TNF injection. The final SPACE-Q scoring was defined using multitrait and regression analyses and clinical relevance considerations. Psychometric validation included clinical validity against Harvey–Bradshaw score, concurrent validity against Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication (TSQM, internal consistency reliability, test–retest reliability, and responsiveness against the patient global impression of change (PGIC.Results: Quality of completion was good (55%–67% of patients completed all items. Four items were removed from the questionnaire. Eleven scores were defined
ALTERATIONS IN BARLEY PROTEOME UPON FUNGAL INFECTION AND TRICYCLAZOLE TREATMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Manoj Kumar a,b

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The barley proteome was investigated upon fungal infection and subsequent treatment by tricyclazole (TCZ, which is known to have applications in spot blotch disease management in barley.Significantly enhanced chlorophyll content was recorded in TCZ treated plants. The disease severity was significantly reduced after TCZ application in pathogen inoculated plants by reducing the appressoria formation at infection site in barley leaves. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE revealed the expression profile of proteins from (I control plants (healthy barley leaves; application with sterile water,(II plants after foliar application of TCZ (100 µg/ml, (III plants inoculated with B. sorokiniana and (IV plants treated with TCZ (72 h after B. sorokiniana inoculation. A set of 33 proteins expressed differentially after TCZ treatment. Out of this 19 had known functions, while others were unknown or hypothetical proteins. These differentially expressed proteins were related to redox-activity and gene expression, electron transfer,cell division and chromosome partitioning, cell envelop biogenesis, energy metabolism and conversion, respiration and pathogenesis related functions in the barley plants. The study provides a platform and documents the proteins that might be involved in disease management in barley following TCZ application. It is expected that the study will provide boost in understanding proteome regulation upon fungal infection and subsequent anti-fungal treatment and will attract researchers for further validation leading to better pest management.
Validation and Application of Concentrated Cesium Eluate Physical Property Models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, A.S.

2004-01-01

This work contained two objectives. To verify the mathematical equations developed for the physical properties of concentrated cesium eluate solutions against experimental test results obtained with simulated feeds. To estimate the physical properties of the radioactive AW-101 cesium eluate at saturation using the validated models. The Hanford River Protection Project (RPP) Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) is currently being built to extract radioisotopes from the vast inventory of Hanford tank wastes and immobilize them in a silicate glass matrix for eventual disposal at a geological repository. The baseline flowsheet for the pretreatment of supernatant liquid wastes includes removal of cesium using regenerative ion-exchange resins. The loaded cesium ion-exchange columns will be eluted with nitric acid nominally at 0.5 molar, and the resulting eluate solution will be concentrated in a forced-convection evaporator to reduce the storage volume and to recover the acid for reuse. The reboiler pot is initially charged with a concentrated nitric acid solution and kept under a controlled vacuum during feeding so the pot contents would boil at 50 degrees Celsius. The liquid level in the pot is maintained constant by controlling both the feed and boilup rates. The feeding will continue with no bottom removal until the solution in the pot reaches the target endpoint of 80 per cent saturation with respect to any one of the major salt species present
Penis augmentation by application of silicone material: complications and surgical treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Sukop, A; Heracek, J; Mestak, O; Borský, J; Bayer, J; Schwarzmannová, K

2013-01-01

Complications resulting from enlargement of the penis by applications of unknown types of silicone and mineral oils are well described. Surgical removal of the tissue altered by inflammation leads to the development of defects of various sizes, often circular from the glans penis to the scrotum. The options of subsequent surgical treatment described in literature are not very extensive. Most defects are managed with skin grafting, rarely V-Y advancement or bilateral scrotal flaps. We present a 36-year-old patient after application of unknown silicone material into the penis for cosmetic enlargement. After the application developed severe inflammation with ulceration and necrosis around the penis. Conservative treatment was not effective, therefore, the infiltrated skin with subcutaneous tissue of the entire penis was surgically removed. The resulting defect was covered by implantation of the penis under the skin of the scrotum. There were no complications in the postoperative course, pain that was present before the surgery immediately subsided. Skin suture healed completely within 14 days. Three months after the surgery the patient returned to normal sexual life. Implantation of the penis under the skin of the scrotum is a fast, safe and effective method that can treat most of the circular skin defects of the penis. Scrotal skin is thin, soft, elastic and creates abundant and good cover around the entire penis.

RECYCLING OF WATER TREATMENT PLANT SLUDGE VIA LAND APPLICATION: ASSESSMENT OF RISK

Science.gov (United States)

Water treatment sludges (WTS) offer potential benefits when applied to soil and recycling of the waste stream via land application has been proposed as a management option. Recycling of WTS to the land helps conserve landfill disposal capacity and natural resources, but potential...
77 FR 5213 - Medicare Program; Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA): Applicability to Hospital...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-02-02

... [CMS-1350-NC] RIN 0938-AQ51 Medicare Program; Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA... the applicability of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) to hospital inpatients... available to persons without Federal government identification, commenters are encouraged to leave their...
Validity and clinical utility of the DSM-5 severity specifier for bulimia nervosa: results from a multisite sample of patients who received evidence-based treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Dakanalis, Antonios; Bartoli, Francesco; Caslini, Manuela; Crocamo, Cristina; Zanetti, Maria Assunta; Riva, Giuseppe; Clerici, Massimo; Carrà, Giuseppe

2017-12-01

A new "severity specifier" for bulimia nervosa (BN), based on the frequency of inappropriate weight compensatory behaviours (IWCBs), was added to the DSM-5 as a means of documenting heterogeneity and variability in the severity of the disorder. Yet, evidence for its validity in clinical populations, including prognostic significance for treatment outcome, is currently lacking. Existing data from 281 treatment-seeking patients with DSM-5 BN, who received the best available treatment for their disorder (manual-based cognitive behavioural therapy; CBT) in an outpatient setting, were re-analysed to examine whether these patients subgrouped based on the DSM-5 severity levels would show meaningful and consistent differences on (a) a range of clinical variables assessed at pre-treatment and (b) post-treatment abstinence from IWCBs. Results highlight that the mild, moderate, severe, and extreme severity groups were statistically distinguishable on 22 variables assessed at pre-treatment regarding eating disorder pathological features, maintenance factors of BN, associated (current) and lifetime psychopathology, social maladjustment and illness-specific functional impairment, and abstinence outcome. Mood intolerance, a maintenance factor of BN but external to eating disorder pathological features (typically addressed within CBT), emerged as the primary clinical variable distinguishing the severity groups showing a differential treatment response. Overall, the findings speak to the concurrent and predictive validity of the new DSM-5 severity criterion for BN and are important because a common benchmark informing patients, clinicians, and researchers about severity of the disorder and allowing severity fluctuation and patient's progress to be tracked does not exist so far. Implications for future research are outlined.
An Italian multicentre validation study of the coma recovery scale-revised.

Science.gov (United States)

Estraneo, A; Moretta, P; De Tanti, A; Gatta, G; Giacino, J T; Trojano, L

2015-10-01

Rate of misdiagnosis of disorders of consciousness (DoC) can be reduced by employing validated clinical diagnostic tools, such as the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R). An Italian version of the CRS-R has been recently developed, but its applicability across different clinical settings, and its concurrent validity and diagnostic sensitivity have not been estimated yet. To perform a multicentre validation study of the Italian version of the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R). Analysis of inter-rater reliability, concurrent validity and diagnostic sensitivity of the scale. One Intensive Care Unit, 8 Post-acute rehabilitation centres and 2 Long-term facilities Twenty-seven professionals (physicians, N.=11; psychologists, N.=5; physiotherapists, N.=3; speech therapists, N.=6; nurses, N.=2) from 11 Italian Centres. CRS-R and Disability Rating Scale (DRS) applied to 122 patients with clinical diagnosis of Vegetative State (VS) or Minimally Conscious State (MCS). CRS-R has good-to-excellent inter-rater reliability for all subscales, particularly for the communication subscale. The Italian version of the CRS-R showed a high sensitivity and specificity in detecting MCS with reference to clinical consensus diagnosis. The CRS-R showed good concurrent validity with the Disability Rating Scale, which had very low specificity with reference to clinical consensus diagnosis. The Italian version of the CRS-R is a valid scale for use from the sub-acute to chronic stages of DoC. It can be administered reliably by all members of the rehabilitation team with different specialties, levels of experience and settings. The present study promote use of the Italian version of the CRS-R to improve diagnosis of DoC patients, and plan tailored rehabilitation treatment.
Validation of a modified PENELOPE Monte Carlo code for applications in digital and dual-energy mammography

Science.gov (United States)

Del Lama, L. S.; Cunha, D. M.; Poletti, M. E.

2017-08-01

The presence and morphology of microcalcification clusters are the main point to provide early indications of breast carcinomas. However, the visualization of those structures may be jeopardized due to overlapping tissues even for digital mammography systems. Although digital mammography is the current standard for breast cancer diagnosis, further improvements should be achieved in order to address some of those physical limitations. One possible solution for such issues is the application of the dual-energy technique (DE), which is able to highlight specific lesions or cancel out the tissue background. In this sense, this work aimed to evaluate several quantities of interest in radiation applications and compare those values with works present in the literature to validate a modified PENELOPE code for digital mammography applications. For instance, the scatter-to-primary ratio (SPR), the scatter fraction (SF) and the normalized mean glandular dose (DgN) were evaluated by simulations and the resulting values were compared to those found in earlier studies. Our results present a good correlation for the evaluated quantities, showing agreement equal or better than 5% for the scatter and dosimetric-related quantities when compared to the literature. Finally, a DE imaging chain was simulated and the visualization of microcalcifications was investigated.
Advancements and applications of plasma arc centrifugal treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eschenbach, R.C.; Leland, L.B.; Chen, W.M.

1997-01-01

A process using a transferred arc plasma to heat material charged into a spinning tube inside a sealed, water-cooled container has been applied to radioactive and hazardous waste treatment in several countries. Inorganic material in the feed is melted into a leach-resistant slag, while organic material is vaporized and reacted to form carbon dioxide and water vapor. Any acid gases formed plus particulates are removed in a gas cleanup system. Design features and their relations to design objectives are described. Current and near-future applications are reported for treating nuclear power plant wastes and for remediating contamination from past nuclear weapons activities
SU-F-T-80: A Mobile Application for Intra-Operative Electron Radiotherapy Treatment Planning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Williams, C; Crowley, E; Wolfgang, J

2016-01-01

Purpose: Intraoperative electron radiotherapy (IORT) poses a unique set of challenges for treatment planning. Planning must be performed in a busy operating room environment over a short timeframe often with little advance knowledge of the treatment depth or applicator size. Furthermore, IORT accelerators can have a large number of possible applicators, requiring extensive databooks that must be searched for the appropriate dosimetric parameters. The goal of this work is to develop a software tool to assist in the planning process that is suited to the challenges faced in the IORT environment. Methods: We developed a mobile application using HTML5 and Javascript that can be deployed to tablet devices suitable for use in the operating room. The user selects the desired treatment parameters cone diameter, bevel angle, and energy (a total of 141 datasets) and desired bolus. The application generates an interactive display that allows the user to dynamically select points on the depth-dose curve and to visualize the shape of the corresponding isodose contours. The user can indicate a prescription isodose line or depth. The software performs a monitor unit calculation and generates a PDF report. Results: We present our application, which is now used routinely in our IORT practice. It has been employed successfully in over 23 cases. The interactivity of the isodose distributions was found to be of particular use to physicians who are less-frequent IORT users, as well as for the education of residents and trainees. Conclusion: This software has served as a useful tool in IORT planning, and demonstrates the need for treatment planning tools that are designed for the specialized challenges encountered in IORT. This software is the subject of a license agreement with the IntraOp Medical Corporation. This software is the subject of a license agreement between Massachusetts General Hospital / Partners Healthcare and the IntraOp Medical Corporation. CLW is consulting on
SU-F-T-80: A Mobile Application for Intra-Operative Electron Radiotherapy Treatment Planning

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Williams, C [Brigham and Women’s Hospital & Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA (United States); Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA (United States); Crowley, E; Wolfgang, J [Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA (United States); Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA (United States)

2016-06-15

Purpose: Intraoperative electron radiotherapy (IORT) poses a unique set of challenges for treatment planning. Planning must be performed in a busy operating room environment over a short timeframe often with little advance knowledge of the treatment depth or applicator size. Furthermore, IORT accelerators can have a large number of possible applicators, requiring extensive databooks that must be searched for the appropriate dosimetric parameters. The goal of this work is to develop a software tool to assist in the planning process that is suited to the challenges faced in the IORT environment. Methods: We developed a mobile application using HTML5 and Javascript that can be deployed to tablet devices suitable for use in the operating room. The user selects the desired treatment parameters cone diameter, bevel angle, and energy (a total of 141 datasets) and desired bolus. The application generates an interactive display that allows the user to dynamically select points on the depth-dose curve and to visualize the shape of the corresponding isodose contours. The user can indicate a prescription isodose line or depth. The software performs a monitor unit calculation and generates a PDF report. Results: We present our application, which is now used routinely in our IORT practice. It has been employed successfully in over 23 cases. The interactivity of the isodose distributions was found to be of particular use to physicians who are less-frequent IORT users, as well as for the education of residents and trainees. Conclusion: This software has served as a useful tool in IORT planning, and demonstrates the need for treatment planning tools that are designed for the specialized challenges encountered in IORT. This software is the subject of a license agreement with the IntraOp Medical Corporation. This software is the subject of a license agreement between Massachusetts General Hospital / Partners Healthcare and the IntraOp Medical Corporation. CLW is consulting on
STOPP (Screening Tool of Older Person's Prescriptions) and START (Screening Tool to Alert doctors to Right Treatment). Consensus validation.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Gallagher, P

2012-02-03

OBJECTIVE: Older people experience more concurrent illnesses, are prescribed more medications and suffer more adverse drug events than younger people. Many drugs predispose older people to adverse events such as falls and cognitive impairment, thus increasing morbidity and health resource utilization. At the same time, older people are often denied potentially beneficial, clinically indicated medications without a valid reason. We aimed to validate a new screening tool of older persons\\' prescriptions incorporating criteria for potentially inappropriate drugs called STOPP (Screening Tool of Older Persons\\' Prescriptions) and criteria for potentially appropriate, indicated drugs called START (Screening Tool to Alert doctors to Right, i.e. appropriate, indicated Treatment). METHODS: A Delphi consensus technique was used to establish the content validity of STOPP\\/START. An 18-member expert panel from academic centers in Ireland and the United Kingdom completed two rounds of the Delphi process by mail survey. Inter-rater reliability was assessed by determining the kappa-statistic for measure of agreement on 100 data-sets. RESULTS: STOPP is comprised of 65 clinically significant criteria for potentially inappropriate prescribing in older people. Each criterion is accompanied by a concise explanation as to why the prescribing practice is potentially inappropriate. START consists of 22 evidence-based prescribing indicators for commonly encountered diseases in older people. Inter-rater reliability is favorable with a kappa-coefficient of 0.75 for STOPP and 0.68 for START. CONCLUSION: STOPP\\/START is a valid, reliable and comprehensive screening tool that enables the prescribing physician to appraise an older patient\\'s prescription drugs in the context of his\\/her concurrent diagnoses.
What is validation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clark, H.K.

1985-01-01

Criteria for establishing the validity of a computational method to be used in assessing nuclear criticality safety, as set forth in ''American Standard for Nuclear Criticality Safety in Operations with Fissionable Materials Outside Reactors,'' ANSI/ANS-8.1-1983, are examined and discussed. Application of the criteria is illustrated by describing the procedures followed in deriving subcritical limits that have been incorporated in the Standard
The application of RNAi-based treatments for inflammatory bowel disease

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olesen, Morten Tobias Jarlstad; Gonzalez, Borja Ballarin; Howard, Ken

2014-01-01

in which small interfering RNA (siRNA) mediates specific downregulation of key molecular targets of the IBD inflammatory process may offer a precise, potent and safer alternative to conventional treatments. This review describes the aetiology of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis and the cellular...... and molecular basis for current treatments to highlight target candidates for an RNAi-based approach. Promising preclinical studies support an RNAi application; however, optimal siRNA designs that maximise potency and development of enabling technologies for site- and cellular-specific delivery......Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic, relapsing, idiopathic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract with no permanent cure. Present immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory therapies are often ineffective and associated with severe side effects. An RNA interference (RNAi)-based approach...
Modeling and simulation of maintenance treatment in first-line non-small cell lung cancer with external validation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Han, Kelong; Claret, Laurent; Sandler, Alan; Das, Asha; Jin, Jin; Bruno, Rene

2016-01-01

Maintenance treatment (MTx) in responders following first-line treatment has been investigated and practiced for many cancers. Modeling and simulation may support interpretation of interim data and development decisions. We aimed to develop a modeling framework to simulate overall survival (OS) for MTx in NSCLC using tumor growth inhibition (TGI) data. TGI metrics were estimated using longitudinal tumor size data from two Phase III first-line NSCLC studies evaluating bevacizumab and erlotinib as MTx in 1632 patients. Baseline prognostic factors and TGI metric estimates were assessed in multivariate parametric models to predict OS. The OS model was externally validated by simulating a third independent NSCLC study (n = 253) based on interim TGI data (up to progression-free survival database lock). The third study evaluated pemetrexed + bevacizumab vs. bevacizumab alone as MTx. Time-to-tumor-growth (TTG) was the best TGI metric to predict OS. TTG, baseline tumor size, ECOG score, Asian ethnicity, age, and gender were significant covariates in the final OS model. The OS model was qualified by simulating OS distributions and hazard ratios (HR) in the two studies used for model-building. Simulations of the third independent study based on interim TGI data showed that pemetrexed + bevacizumab MTx was unlikely to significantly prolong OS vs. bevacizumab alone given the current sample size (predicted HR: 0.81; 95 % prediction interval: 0.59–1.09). Predicted median OS was 17.3 months and 14.7 months in both arms, respectively. These simulations are consistent with the results of the final OS analysis published 2 years later (observed HR: 0.87; 95 % confidence interval: 0.63–1.21). Final observed median OS was 17.1 months and 13.2 months in both arms, respectively, consistent with our predictions. A robust TGI-OS model was developed for MTx in NSCLC. TTG captures treatment effect. The model successfully predicted the OS outcomes of an independent study based on interim
Modeling and simulation of maintenance treatment in first-line non-small cell lung cancer with external validation.

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Kelong; Claret, Laurent; Sandler, Alan; Das, Asha; Jin, Jin; Bruno, Rene

2016-07-13

Maintenance treatment (MTx) in responders following first-line treatment has been investigated and practiced for many cancers. Modeling and simulation may support interpretation of interim data and development decisions. We aimed to develop a modeling framework to simulate overall survival (OS) for MTx in NSCLC using tumor growth inhibition (TGI) data. TGI metrics were estimated using longitudinal tumor size data from two Phase III first-line NSCLC studies evaluating bevacizumab and erlotinib as MTx in 1632 patients. Baseline prognostic factors and TGI metric estimates were assessed in multivariate parametric models to predict OS. The OS model was externally validated by simulating a third independent NSCLC study (n = 253) based on interim TGI data (up to progression-free survival database lock). The third study evaluated pemetrexed + bevacizumab vs. bevacizumab alone as MTx. Time-to-tumor-growth (TTG) was the best TGI metric to predict OS. TTG, baseline tumor size, ECOG score, Asian ethnicity, age, and gender were significant covariates in the final OS model. The OS model was qualified by simulating OS distributions and hazard ratios (HR) in the two studies used for model-building. Simulations of the third independent study based on interim TGI data showed that pemetrexed + bevacizumab MTx was unlikely to significantly prolong OS vs. bevacizumab alone given the current sample size (predicted HR: 0.81; 95 % prediction interval: 0.59-1.09). Predicted median OS was 17.3 months and 14.7 months in both arms, respectively. These simulations are consistent with the results of the final OS analysis published 2 years later (observed HR: 0.87; 95 % confidence interval: 0.63-1.21). Final observed median OS was 17.1 months and 13.2 months in both arms, respectively, consistent with our predictions. A robust TGI-OS model was developed for MTx in NSCLC. TTG captures treatment effect. The model successfully predicted the OS outcomes of an independent study
Application for verification of monitor units of the treatment planning system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suero Rodrigo, M. A.; Marques Fraguela, E.

2011-01-01

Current estimates algorithms achieve acceptable degree of accuracy. However, operate on the basis of un intuitive models. It is therefore necessary to verify the calculation of monitor units of the treatment planning system (TPS) with those obtained by other independent formalisms. To this end, we have developed an application based on factorization formalism that automates the calculation of dose.
Validation of Serious Games

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katinka van der Kooij

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The application of games for behavioral change has seen a surge in popularity but evidence on the efficacy of these games is contradictory. Anecdotal findings seem to confirm their motivational value whereas most quantitative findings from randomized controlled trials (RCT are negative or difficult to interpret. One cause for the contradictory evidence could be that the standard RCT validation methods are not sensitive to serious games’ effects. To be able to adapt validation methods to the properties of serious games we need a framework that can connect properties of serious game design to the factors that influence the quality of quantitative research outcomes. The Persuasive Game Design model [1] is particularly suitable for this aim as it encompasses the full circle from game design to behavioral change effects on the user. We therefore use this model to connect game design features, such as the gamification method and the intended transfer effect, to factors that determine the conclusion validity of an RCT. In this paper we will apply this model to develop guidelines for setting up validation methods for serious games. This way, we offer game designers and researchers handles on how to develop tailor-made validation methods.
Selenium isotope studies in plants. Development and validation of a novel geochemical tool and its application to organic samples

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Banning, Helena

2016-03-12

Selenium (Se), being an essential nutrient and a toxin, enters the food chain mainly via plants. Selenium isotope signatures were proved to be an excellent redox tracer, making it a promising tool for the exploration of the Se cycle in plants. The analytical method is sensitive on organic samples and requires particular preparation methods, which were developed and validated in this study. Plant cultivation setups revealed the applicability of these methods to trace plant internal processes.
Application of ceramic membranes to SAGD produced water treatment for enhanced recycle and reuse

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Minnich, K. [Veolia Water Solutions and Technologies, Mississauga, ON (Canada)

2009-07-01

Drivers for using ceramic membranes in steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) include reduced investment cost; alternative treatment technologies that reduce energy and greenhouse gas emissions; and ceramic membranes can be chemically and steam cleaned. This presentation discussed the application of ceramic membranes to SAGD produced water treatment for enhanced recycle and reuse. The presentation illustrated conventional ceramic membranes as well as surface enhanced membranes and provided background information on oil separation. Other topics that were discussed included issues regarding desalter bottoms de-oiling; challenges in de-oiling oil sands produced water; CeraMem surface enhanced membranes; surface facilities and ceramic membrane opportunities; and water treatment using ceramic membranes. The presentation concluded with a discussion of the application of ceramic membranes to SAGD next steps such as a demonstration test of industrial prototype membranes for de-oiling, and pilot testing of ceramic desilication. tabs., figs.
Validation of Align Technology's Treat III digital model superimposition tool and its case application.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, R J; Kuo, E; Choi, W

2003-01-01

An assessment of the efficacy and accuracy of three-dimensional computer-based predictive orthodontic systems requires that new methods of treatment analysis be developed and validated. Invisalign is a digitally fabricated, removable orthodontic appliance that has been commercially available since 1999. It is made up of two main components: 1) computerized graphical images of a patient's teeth moving through a series of stages from initial to final position; 2) pressure formed clear plastic appliances made from stereolithography models of the images in the first component. The manufacturer of Invisalign (Align Technology, Inc.) has created a software tool that can be used to superimpose digital models to evaluate treatment outcomes in three dimensions. Using this software, research was conducted to determine if a single operator could repeatedly superimpose two identical digital models using 12 selected points from the palatal rugae over 10 trials. The tool was then applied to one subject's orthodontic treatment. EXPERIMENT VARIABLES: The output from this tool includes rotations, translations and morphological changes. For this study, translations and rotations were chosen. The results showed that the digital superimposition was reproducible, and that after multiple trials, the superimposition error decreased. The average error in x, y, z, Rx, Ry and Rz after 10 trials was determined to approach approximately 0.2 mm in translation and less than 1 degree in rotation, with a standard deviation of 0.15 mm and 0.7 mm, respectively. The treatment outcome from a single Invisalign-treated bicuspid extraction case was also evaluated tooth-by-tooth in x, y, z, Rx, Ry and Rz dimensions. Using the palate, as a stable reference seemed to work well and the evaluation of the single case showed that many, but not all, of the planned movements occurred.
Issues of verification and validation of application-specific integrated circuits in reactor trip systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Battle, R.E.; Alley, G.T.

1993-01-01

Concepts of using application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) in nuclear reactor safety systems are evaluated. The motivation for this evaluation stems from the difficulty of proving that software-based protection systems are adequately reliable. Important issues concerning the reliability of computers and software are identified and used to evaluate features of ASICS. These concepts indicate that ASICs have several advantages over software for simple systems. The primary advantage of ASICs over software is that verification and validation (V ampersand V) of ASICs can be done with much higher confidence than can be done with software. A method of performing this V ampersand V on ASICS is being developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The purpose of the method's being developed is to help eliminate design and fabrication errors. It will not solve problems with incorrect requirements or specifications
Objective aesthetic performance of Icon treatment by deep infiltration: a case report

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fabrizio Guerra

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Enamel hypomineralization is characterized by decreased refractive index of the lesion surface as compared to the surrounding sound enamel. Icon® treatment has been recently successfully used for the cosmetic treatment of enamel demineralizations seen in white spot lesions (WSLs and developmental defects of enamel (DDE. On the other hand, cases of molar incisal hypomineralization (MIH, deep lesions of traumatic origin, and those associated with severe fluorosis do not have the same response to this type of treatment. The application of a new deep Icon® infiltrative technique is proposed and the aesthetic results are validated by using a spectrophotometric approach as previously described by our group.

Validation techniques of agent based modelling for geospatial simulations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Darvishi

2014-10-01

Full Text Available One of the most interesting aspects of modelling and simulation study is to describe the real world phenomena that have specific properties; especially those that are in large scales and have dynamic and complex behaviours. Studying these phenomena in the laboratory is costly and in most cases it is impossible. Therefore, Miniaturization of world phenomena in the framework of a model in order to simulate the real phenomena is a reasonable and scientific approach to understand the world. Agent-based modelling and simulation (ABMS is a new modelling method comprising of multiple interacting agent. They have been used in the different areas; for instance, geographic information system (GIS, biology, economics, social science and computer science. The emergence of ABM toolkits in GIS software libraries (e.g. ESRI’s ArcGIS, OpenMap, GeoTools, etc for geospatial modelling is an indication of the growing interest of users to use of special capabilities of ABMS. Since ABMS is inherently similar to human cognition, therefore it could be built easily and applicable to wide range applications than a traditional simulation. But a key challenge about ABMS is difficulty in their validation and verification. Because of frequent emergence patterns, strong dynamics in the system and the complex nature of ABMS, it is hard to validate and verify ABMS by conventional validation methods. Therefore, attempt to find appropriate validation techniques for ABM seems to be necessary. In this paper, after reviewing on Principles and Concepts of ABM for and its applications, the validation techniques and challenges of ABM validation are discussed.
Validation techniques of agent based modelling for geospatial simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Darvishi, M.; Ahmadi, G.

2014-10-01

One of the most interesting aspects of modelling and simulation study is to describe the real world phenomena that have specific properties; especially those that are in large scales and have dynamic and complex behaviours. Studying these phenomena in the laboratory is costly and in most cases it is impossible. Therefore, Miniaturization of world phenomena in the framework of a model in order to simulate the real phenomena is a reasonable and scientific approach to understand the world. Agent-based modelling and simulation (ABMS) is a new modelling method comprising of multiple interacting agent. They have been used in the different areas; for instance, geographic information system (GIS), biology, economics, social science and computer science. The emergence of ABM toolkits in GIS software libraries (e.g. ESRI's ArcGIS, OpenMap, GeoTools, etc) for geospatial modelling is an indication of the growing interest of users to use of special capabilities of ABMS. Since ABMS is inherently similar to human cognition, therefore it could be built easily and applicable to wide range applications than a traditional simulation. But a key challenge about ABMS is difficulty in their validation and verification. Because of frequent emergence patterns, strong dynamics in the system and the complex nature of ABMS, it is hard to validate and verify ABMS by conventional validation methods. Therefore, attempt to find appropriate validation techniques for ABM seems to be necessary. In this paper, after reviewing on Principles and Concepts of ABM for and its applications, the validation techniques and challenges of ABM validation are discussed.
Validation-driven protein-structure improvement

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Touw, W.G.

2016-01-01

High-quality protein structure models are essential for many Life Science applications, such as protein engineering, molecular dynamics, drug design, and homology modelling. The WHAT_CHECK model validation project and the PDB_REDO model optimisation project have shown that many structure models in
Three-dimensional all-speed CFD code for safety analysis of nuclear reactor containment: Status of GASFLOW parallelization, model development, validation and application

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Xiao, Jianjun, E-mail: jianjun.xiao@kit.edu [Institute of Nuclear and Energy Technologies, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 3640, 76021 Karlsruhe (Germany); Travis, John R., E-mail: jack_travis@comcast.com [Engineering and Scientific Software Inc., 3010 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87505 (United States); Royl, Peter, E-mail: peter.royl@partner.kit.edu [Institute of Nuclear and Energy Technologies, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 3640, 76021 Karlsruhe (Germany); Necker, Gottfried, E-mail: gottfried.necker@partner.kit.edu [Institute of Nuclear and Energy Technologies, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 3640, 76021 Karlsruhe (Germany); Svishchev, Anatoly, E-mail: anatoly.svishchev@kit.edu [Institute of Nuclear and Energy Technologies, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 3640, 76021 Karlsruhe (Germany); Jordan, Thomas, E-mail: thomas.jordan@kit.edu [Institute of Nuclear and Energy Technologies, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 3640, 76021 Karlsruhe (Germany)

2016-05-15

Highlights: • 3-D scalable semi-implicit pressure-based CFD code for containment safety analysis. • Robust solution algorithm valid for all-speed flows. • Well validated and widely used CFD code for hydrogen safety analysis. • Code applied in various types of nuclear reactor containments. • Parallelization enables high-fidelity models in large scale containment simulations. - Abstract: GASFLOW is a three dimensional semi-implicit all-speed CFD code which can be used to predict fluid dynamics, chemical kinetics, heat and mass transfer, aerosol transportation and other related phenomena involved in postulated accidents in nuclear reactor containments. The main purpose of the paper is to give a brief review on recent GASFLOW code development, validations and applications in the field of nuclear safety. GASFLOW code has been well validated by international experimental benchmarks, and has been widely applied to hydrogen safety analysis in various types of nuclear power plants in European and Asian countries, which have been summarized in this paper. Furthermore, four benchmark tests of a lid-driven cavity flow, low Mach number jet flow, 1-D shock tube and supersonic flow over a forward-facing step are presented in order to demonstrate the accuracy and wide-ranging capability of ICE’d ALE solution algorithm for all-speed flows. GASFLOW has been successfully parallelized using the paradigms of Message Passing Interface (MPI) and domain decomposition. The parallel version, GASFLOW-MPI, adds great value to large scale containment simulations by enabling high-fidelity models, including more geometric details and more complex physics. It will be helpful for the nuclear safety engineers to better understand the hydrogen safety related physical phenomena during the severe accident, to optimize the design of the hydrogen risk mitigation systems and to fulfill the licensing requirements by the nuclear regulatory authorities. GASFLOW-MPI is targeting a high
Effect of various bleaching treatments on shear bond strength of different universal adhesives and application modes

Science.gov (United States)

2018-01-01

Objectives The aim of this in vitro study was to evaluate the bond strength of 2 universal adhesives used in different application modes to bleached enamel. Materials and Methods Extracted 160 sound human incisors were used for the study. Teeth were divided into 4 treatment groups: No treatment, 35% hydrogen peroxide, 16% carbamid peroxide, 7.5% carbamid peroxide. After bleaching treatments, groups were divided into subgroups according to the adhesive systems used and application modes (n = 10): 1) Single Bond Universal, etch and rinse mode; 2) Single Bond Universal, self-etch mode; 3) Gluma Universal, etch and rinse mode; 4) Gluma Universal, self-etch mode. After adhesive procedures nanohybrid composite resin cylinders were bonded to the enamel surfaces. All specimens were subjected to shear bond strength (SBS) test after thermocycling. Data were analyzed using a 3-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey post hoc test. Results No significant difference were found among bleaching groups (35% hydrogen peroxide, 16% carbamid peroxide, 7.5% carbamid peroxide, and no treatment groups) in the mean SBS values. There was also no difference in SBS values between Single Bond Universal and Gluma Universal at same application modes, whereas self-etch mode showed significantly lower SBS values than etch and rinse mode (p adhesives was enhanced with the etch and rinse mode application to bleached enamel and non-bleached enamel. PMID:29765900
Validity and Reliability of Assessing Body Composition Using a Mobile Application.

Science.gov (United States)

Macdonald, Elizabeth Z; Vehrs, Pat R; Fellingham, Gilbert W; Eggett, Dennis; George, James D; Hager, Ronald

2017-12-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the validity and reliability of the LeanScreen (LS) mobile application that estimates percent body fat (%BF) using estimates of circumferences from photographs. The %BF of 148 weight-stable adults was estimated once using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Each of two administrators assessed the %BF of each subject twice using the LS app and manually measured circumferences. A mixed-model ANOVA and Bland-Altman analyses were used to compare the estimates of %BF obtained from each method. Interrater and intrarater reliabilities values were determined using multiple measurements taken by each of the two administrators. The LS app and manually measured circumferences significantly underestimated (P < 0.05) the %BF determined using DXA by an average of -3.26 and -4.82 %BF, respectively. The LS app (6.99 %BF) and manually measured circumferences (6.76 %BF) had large limits of agreement. All interrater and intrarater reliability coefficients of estimates of %BF using the LS app and manually measured circumferences exceeded 0.99. The estimates of %BF from manually measured circumferences and the LS app were highly reliable. However, these field measures are not currently recommended for the assessment of body composition because of significant bias and large limits of agreements.
Validation of a cylindrical phantom for verification of radiotherapy treatments in head and neck with special techniques

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vargas, Nicolas M.; Garcia, Marcia; Piriz, Gustavo; Perez, Niurka

2011-01-01

Verification of radiotherapy treatments in head and neck requires, among other things, small volume chambers and a phantom to reproduce the geometry and density of the anatomical structure. New documents from the ICRU (International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements), Report 83, established the need for quality control in radiotherapy with special techniques such as IMRT (intensity-modulated radiation therapy). In this study, we built a cylindrical acrylic phantom with standing water, containing seven measuring points in the transverse plane and free location (0-20 cm) in the longitudinal plane. These points of measurement are constituted by cavities for the accommodation of the ionization chamber of 7 mm of mayor diameter (semi flex, pinpoint with build cup). The results of the phantom validation yielded percentage differences less than 1% in fixed beams and less than 2.5% in arc therapy for TPS Eclipse calculation. The preparation of this phantom, particularly made to verify the head and neck treatments, was simple and reliable for checking the dose in radiotherapy with fixed beams and/or special techniques such as arc therapy or IMRT, so that will be sent to various radiotherapy centers in the country for dosimetric verification in such treatments. (author)
Validation of a cylindrical phantom for verification of radiotherapy treatments in head and neck with special techniques

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vargas, Nicolas M.; Garcia, Marcia, E-mail: nimoralesv@gmail.com [Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco (Chile). Dept. de Ciencias Fisicas; Piriz, Gustavo [Instituto Nacional del Cancer, Santiago (Chile). Fisica Medica; Perez, Niurka [Instituto de Salud Publica, Santiago (Chile). QA Radioterapia. Inst. de Salud Publica

2011-07-01

Verification of radiotherapy treatments in head and neck requires, among other things, small volume chambers and a phantom to reproduce the geometry and density of the anatomical structure. New documents from the ICRU (International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements), Report 83, established the need for quality control in radiotherapy with special techniques such as IMRT (intensity-modulated radiation therapy). In this study, we built a cylindrical acrylic phantom with standing water, containing seven measuring points in the transverse plane and free location (0-20 cm) in the longitudinal plane. These points of measurement are constituted by cavities for the accommodation of the ionization chamber of 7 mm of mayor diameter (semi flex, pinpoint with build cup). The results of the phantom validation yielded percentage differences less than 1% in fixed beams and less than 2.5% in arc therapy for TPS Eclipse calculation. The preparation of this phantom, particularly made to verify the head and neck treatments, was simple and reliable for checking the dose in radiotherapy with fixed beams and/or special techniques such as arc therapy or IMRT, so that will be sent to various radiotherapy centers in the country for dosimetric verification in such treatments. (author)
DNA Commission of the International Society for Forensic Genetics: Recommendations on the validation of software programs performing biostatistical calculations for forensic genetics applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Coble, M D; Buckleton, J; Butler, J M; Egeland, T; Fimmers, R; Gill, P; Gusmão, L; Guttman, B; Krawczak, M; Morling, N; Parson, W; Pinto, N; Schneider, P M; Sherry, S T; Willuweit, S; Prinz, M

2016-11-01

The use of biostatistical software programs to assist in data interpretation and calculate likelihood ratios is essential to forensic geneticists and part of the daily case work flow for both kinship and DNA identification laboratories. Previous recommendations issued by the DNA Commission of the International Society for Forensic Genetics (ISFG) covered the application of bio-statistical evaluations for STR typing results in identification and kinship cases, and this is now being expanded to provide best practices regarding validation and verification of the software required for these calculations. With larger multiplexes, more complex mixtures, and increasing requests for extended family testing, laboratories are relying more than ever on specific software solutions and sufficient validation, training and extensive documentation are of upmost importance. Here, we present recommendations for the minimum requirements to validate bio-statistical software to be used in forensic genetics. We distinguish between developmental validation and the responsibilities of the software developer or provider, and the internal validation studies to be performed by the end user. Recommendations for the software provider address, for example, the documentation of the underlying models used by the software, validation data expectations, version control, implementation and training support, as well as continuity and user notifications. For the internal validations the recommendations include: creating a validation plan, requirements for the range of samples to be tested, Standard Operating Procedure development, and internal laboratory training and education. To ensure that all laboratories have access to a wide range of samples for validation and training purposes the ISFG DNA commission encourages collaborative studies and public repositories of STR typing results. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.
Development, Verification and Validation of Parallel, Scalable Volume of Fluid CFD Program for Propulsion Applications

Science.gov (United States)

West, Jeff; Yang, H. Q.

2014-01-01

There are many instances involving liquid/gas interfaces and their dynamics in the design of liquid engine powered rockets such as the Space Launch System (SLS). Some examples of these applications are: Propellant tank draining and slosh, subcritical condition injector analysis for gas generators, preburners and thrust chambers, water deluge mitigation for launch induced environments and even solid rocket motor liquid slag dynamics. Commercially available CFD programs simulating gas/liquid interfaces using the Volume of Fluid approach are currently limited in their parallel scalability. In 2010 for instance, an internal NASA/MSFC review of three commercial tools revealed that parallel scalability was seriously compromised at 8 cpus and no additional speedup was possible after 32 cpus. Other non-interface CFD applications at the time were demonstrating useful parallel scalability up to 4,096 processors or more. Based on this review, NASA/MSFC initiated an effort to implement a Volume of Fluid implementation within the unstructured mesh, pressure-based algorithm CFD program, Loci-STREAM. After verification was achieved by comparing results to the commercial CFD program CFD-Ace+, and validation by direct comparison with data, Loci-STREAM-VoF is now the production CFD tool for propellant slosh force and slosh damping rate simulations at NASA/MSFC. On these applications, good parallel scalability has been demonstrated for problems sizes of tens of millions of cells and thousands of cpu cores. Ongoing efforts are focused on the application of Loci-STREAM-VoF to predict the transient flow patterns of water on the SLS Mobile Launch Platform in order to support the phasing of water for launch environment mitigation so that vehicle determinantal effects are not realized.
Validation of OpenFoam for heavy gas dispersion applications

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mack, A.; Spruijt, M.P.N.

2013-01-01

In the present paper heavy gas dispersion calculations were performed with OpenFoam. For a windtunnel test case, numerical data was validated with experiments. For a full scale numerical experiment,a code to code comparison was performed with numerical results obtained from Fluent. The validationwas
Application and validation of case-finding algorithms for identifying individuals with human immunodeficiency virus from administrative data in British Columbia, Canada.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bohdan Nosyk

Full Text Available To define a population-level cohort of individuals infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV in the province of British Columbia from available registries and administrative datasets using a validated case-finding algorithm.Individuals were identified for possible cohort inclusion from the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (CfE drug treatment program (antiretroviral therapy and laboratory testing datasets (plasma viral load (pVL and CD4 diagnostic test results, the BC Centre for Disease Control (CDC provincial HIV surveillance database (positive HIV tests, as well as databases held by the BC Ministry of Health (MoH; the Discharge Abstract Database (hospitalizations, the Medical Services Plan (physician billing and PharmaNet databases (additional HIV-related medications. A validated case-finding algorithm was applied to distinguish true HIV cases from those likely to have been misclassified. The sensitivity of the algorithms was assessed as the proportion of confirmed cases (those with records in the CfE, CDC and MoH databases positively identified by each algorithm. A priori hypotheses were generated and tested to verify excluded cases.A total of 25,673 individuals were identified as having at least one HIV-related health record. Among 9,454 unconfirmed cases, the selected case-finding algorithm identified 849 individuals believed to be HIV-positive. The sensitivity of this algorithm among confirmed cases was 88%. Those excluded from the cohort were more likely to be female (44.4% vs. 22.5%; p<0.01, had a lower mortality rate (2.18 per 100 person years (100PY vs. 3.14/100PY; p<0.01, and had lower median rates of health service utilization (days of medications dispensed: 9745/100PY vs. 10266/100PY; p<0.01; days of inpatient care: 29/100PY vs. 98/100PY; p<0.01; physician billings: 602/100PY vs. 2,056/100PY; p<0.01.The application of validated case-finding algorithms and subsequent hypothesis testing provided a strong framework for
The Dutch Measure for quantification of Treatment Resistance in Depression (DM-TRD) : an extension of the Maudsley Staging Method

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Peeters, Frenk P. M. L.; Ruhe, Henricus G.; Wichers, Marieke; Abidi, Latifa; Kaub, Karin; van der Lande, H. Josephine; Spijker, Jan; Huibers, Marcus J. H.; Schene, Aart H.

2016-01-01

Background: Treatment resistant depression (TRD) is common in daily practice. An empirical, widely accepted and applicable measure to quantify TRD is lacking. Previously, the Maudsley Staging Method (MSM) showed good validity. We aimed to improve the MSM by refining and extending its items resulting
An application of baseflow isolation and passive wetland treatment to watershed restoration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hoover, K.L.; Rightnour, T.A.; Zug, F.R. III

1999-01-01

smaller passive wetland treatment system which treats only the contaminated portion of water in the stream channel while allowing clean runoff water to pass through the project area without contacting the contaminated waters. In addition to cost savings, application of baseflow interception and passive wetland treatment on this site has resulted in a much lower environmental impact than conventional treatment approaches. This remediation approach is also directly applicable to watersheds impacted by non-point source baseflow contamination due to coal mine drainage. Separation of baseflow from uncontaminated surface flow can greatly reduce the quantity of water to be treated and provide accurate treatment system design data. Low maintenance passive treatment is particularly suited to the remote sites typical of coal mining regions, and reliable passive technologies are well documented for applications to acid and alkaline mine drainage and coal combustion byproduct disposal leachate
Requirements to MRI and MRS data to be applicable for radiation treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Torresin, A.; Brambilla, M.; Colombo, P.; Minella, M.; Monti, A.; Moscato, A.

2012-01-01

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) use for Radiotherapy planning began in the 1980 and is still developing today. MRI is now an important morphological and functional imaging able to open new diagnostic and planning scenario. As new technologies become more complex, their best clinical application often becomes very difficult. The intent of this paper is to highlight methods and requirements necessary to apply MRI in radiation treatments. The concept of image is still in progress, following the evolution of human body knowledge. Many different methods to get diagnostic information of a tumour will be acquired; MRI images will be more and more important in the next future. The combination of information from complementary imaging modalities is expected to have a great benefit in cancer treatment. This fact is particularly relevant for target definition, which remains, one of the most important sources of error in Radiotherapy. Anatomical imaging with CT and MRI produces different gross tumour volumes. Functional imaging with modalities such as MRI and PET will generally reveal an even different volume. Thus a decision has to be taken about how to combine such information in clinical applications. The solutions of these new problems are 'in progress' and a lot of researches in clinical applications are in discussion
Land Application of Wastes: An Educational Program. Treatment Systems, Effluent Qualities, and Costs - Module 4, Objectives, Script, and Booklet.

Science.gov (United States)

Clarkson, W. W.; And Others

This module describes the following conventional treatment systems and evaluates their use as pretreatment steps for land application: preliminary, primary, secondary, disinfection, and advanced waste treatment. Effluent qualities are summarized, a brief discussion of application systems is given, and cost comparisons are discussed in some detail.…
MARS Validation Plan and Status

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahn, Seung-hoon; Cho, Yong-jin

2008-01-01

The KINS Reactor Thermal-hydraulic Analysis System (KINS-RETAS) under development is directed toward a realistic analysis approach of best-estimate (BE) codes and realistic assumptions. In this system, MARS is pivoted to provide the BE Thermal-Hydraulic (T-H) response in core and reactor coolant system to various operational transients and accidental conditions. As required for other BE codes, the qualification is essential to ensure reliable and reasonable accuracy for a targeted MARS application. Validation is a key element of the code qualification, and determines the capability of a computer code in predicting the major phenomena expected to occur. The MARS validation was made by its developer KAERI, on basic premise that its backbone code RELAP5/MOD3.2 is well qualified against analytical solutions, test or operational data. A screening was made to select the test data for MARS validation; some models transplanted from RELAP5, if already validated and found to be acceptable, were screened out from assessment. It seems to be reasonable, but does not demonstrate whether code adequacy complies with the software QA guidelines. Especially there may be much difficulty in validating the life-cycle products such as code updates or modifications. This paper presents the plan for MARS validation, and the current implementation status
Definition and Validation of “Favorable High-Risk Prostate Cancer”: Implications for Personalizing Treatment of Radiation-Managed Patients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Muralidhar, Vinayak; Chen, Ming-Hui; Reznor, Gally; Moran, Brian J.; Braccioforte, Michelle H.; Beard, Clair J.; Feng, Felix Y.; Hoffman, Karen E.; Choueiri, Toni K.; Martin, Neil E.; Sweeney, Christopher J.; Trinh, Quoc-Dien; Nguyen, Paul L.

2015-01-01

Purpose: To define and validate a classification of favorable high-risk prostate cancer that could be used to personalize therapy, given that consensus guidelines recommend similar treatments for all radiation-managed patients with high-risk disease. Methods and Materials: We studied 3618 patients with cT1-T3aN0M0 high-risk or unfavorable intermediate-risk prostate adenocarcinoma treated with radiation at a single institution between 1997 and 2013. Favorable high-risk was defined as T1c disease with either Gleason 4 + 4 = 8 and prostate-specific antigen 20 ng/mL. Competing risks regression was used to determine differences in the risk of prostate cancer–specific mortality (PCSM) after controlling for baseline factors and treatment. Our results were validated in a cohort of 13,275 patients using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare linked database. Results: Patients with favorable high-risk disease had significantly better PCSM than other men with high-risk disease (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR] 0.42, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.18-0.996, P=.049) and similar PCSM as men with unfavorable intermediate-risk disease (AHR 1.17, 95% CI 0.50-2.75, P=.710). We observed very similar results within the SEER-Medicare cohort (favorable high-risk vs other high-risk: AHR 0.21, 95% CI 0.11-0.41, P<.001; favorable high-risk vs unfavorable intermediate-risk: AHR 0.67, 95% CI 0.33-1.36, P=.268). Conclusions: Patients with favorable high-risk prostate cancer have significantly better PCSM than other patients with high-risk disease and similar PCSM as those with unfavorable intermediate-risk disease, who are typically treated with shorter-course androgen deprivation therapy. This new classification system may allow for personalization of treatment within high-risk disease, such as consideration of shorter-course androgen deprivation therapy for favorable high-risk disease.
Definition and Validation of “Favorable High-Risk Prostate Cancer”: Implications for Personalizing Treatment of Radiation-Managed Patients

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Muralidhar, Vinayak [Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (United States); Chen, Ming-Hui [Department of Statistics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut (United States); Reznor, Gally [Center for Surgery and Public Health, Brigham and Women' s Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (United States); Moran, Brian J.; Braccioforte, Michelle H. [Prostate Cancer Foundation of Chicago, Westmont, Illinois (United States); Beard, Clair J. [Department of Radiation Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women' s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts (United States); Feng, Felix Y. [Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan (United States); Hoffman, Karen E. [Department of Radiation Oncology, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas (United States); Choueiri, Toni K. [Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women' s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (United States); Martin, Neil E. [Department of Radiation Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women' s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts (United States); Sweeney, Christopher J. [Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women' s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (United States); Trinh, Quoc-Dien [Department of Urology, Brigham and Women' s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts (United States); Nguyen, Paul L., E-mail: pnguyen@LROC.harvard.edu [Department of Radiation Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women' s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts (United States)

2015-11-15

Purpose: To define and validate a classification of favorable high-risk prostate cancer that could be used to personalize therapy, given that consensus guidelines recommend similar treatments for all radiation-managed patients with high-risk disease. Methods and Materials: We studied 3618 patients with cT1-T3aN0M0 high-risk or unfavorable intermediate-risk prostate adenocarcinoma treated with radiation at a single institution between 1997 and 2013. Favorable high-risk was defined as T1c disease with either Gleason 4 + 4 = 8 and prostate-specific antigen <10 ng/mL or Gleason 6 and prostate-specific antigen >20 ng/mL. Competing risks regression was used to determine differences in the risk of prostate cancer–specific mortality (PCSM) after controlling for baseline factors and treatment. Our results were validated in a cohort of 13,275 patients using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare linked database. Results: Patients with favorable high-risk disease had significantly better PCSM than other men with high-risk disease (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR] 0.42, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.18-0.996, P=.049) and similar PCSM as men with unfavorable intermediate-risk disease (AHR 1.17, 95% CI 0.50-2.75, P=.710). We observed very similar results within the SEER-Medicare cohort (favorable high-risk vs other high-risk: AHR 0.21, 95% CI 0.11-0.41, P<.001; favorable high-risk vs unfavorable intermediate-risk: AHR 0.67, 95% CI 0.33-1.36, P=.268). Conclusions: Patients with favorable high-risk prostate cancer have significantly better PCSM than other patients with high-risk disease and similar PCSM as those with unfavorable intermediate-risk disease, who are typically treated with shorter-course androgen deprivation therapy. This new classification system may allow for personalization of treatment within high-risk disease, such as consideration of shorter-course androgen deprivation therapy for favorable high-risk disease.
Grout treatment facility dangerous waste permit application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1988-01-01

This section briefly describes the Hanford Site, provides a general description of the site operations and administration, provides an overview of the contents of this Grout Treatment Facility (GTF) Permit Application, and gives a list of acronyms and abbreviations used in the document. The decision was made to use the checklist as a locator reference instead of using the checklist section numbers as paragraph section numbers because several different types of waste management units, some of which are not addressed in the checklists, are part of the GTF. The GTF is a waste management unit within the Hanford Site facility. In May 1988, permit application was filed that identified the GTF as an existing facility. The GTF mixes dry cementitious solids with liquid mixed wastes (containing both dangerous and radioactive constituents) produced by Hanford Site operations. In addition to the design and operating features of the GTF that are intended to meet the requirements of dangerous waste regulations, many additional design and operating features are necessary to comply with radioactive waste management practices. The GTF design features and practices are intended to keep operational exposure to radionuclides and dangerous substances ''as low as reasonably achievable'' (ALARA) and to provide a disposal system that protects the environment for at least 10,000 yr. In some instances, ALARA practices present difficulties when complying with requirements of dangerous waste regulations

Tinnitus therapy using tailor-made notched music delivered via a smartphone application and Ginko combined treatment: A pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, So Young; Chang, Mun Young; Hong, Min; Yoo, Sun-Gil; Oh, Dongik; Park, Moo Kyun

2017-10-01

Notched music therapy has been suggested to be effective for relieving tinnitus. We have developed a smartphone application using tailor-made notched music for tinnitus patients. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of this smartphone application on reducing tinnitus. In addition, we investigated the predictive factors for tinnitus treatment outcome using this smartphone application. A total of 26 patients who were chronically distressed by tinnitus with a ≥18 Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) score were recruited from March 2013 to March 2015 (National Clinical Trial (NCT) Identifier Number 01663467). Patients were instructed to listen to tailor-made notched music through our smartphone application for 30-60min per day and were prescribed Ginkgo biloba for 3 months. Treatment outcome was evaluated using the THI, a visual analogue scale that measures the effects of tinnitus in terms of loudness, noticeable time, annoyance, and disruption of daily life. Demographic data, including age, sex, duration of tinnitus, and pre-treatment scores on questionnaires such as the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), State Trait Anxiety Inventory (TAI), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) scores were compared between the effective and non-effective groups according to the differences between their pre- and post-treatment THI scores. Smartphone application-delivered notched music therapy and Ginko combined treatment improved the THI score from 33.9±18.9 to 23.1±15.2; the effect was particularly marked for the emotional score of the THI. Improvement in the THI score was positively correlated with the initial THI score (P=0.001, adjusted estimated value=0.49, 95% confidence interval=0.25-0.73). Chronic tinnitus patients who underwent smartphone application-delivered notched music therapy and Ginko combined treatment showed improved THI scores, particularly the emotional score of the THI. A smartphone application-delivered therapy and Ginko combined treatment may be more
MEVA--An Interactive Visualization Application for Validation of Multifaceted Meteorological Data with Multiple 3D Devices.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carolin Helbig

differences between simulation runs. In an iterative development process, our easy-to-use application was developed in close cooperation with meteorologists and visualization experts. The usability of the application has been validated with user tests. We report on how this application supports the users to prove and disprove existing hypotheses and discover new insights. In addition, the application has been used at public events to communicate research results.
In-Situ Load System for Calibrating and Validating Aerodynamic Properties of Scaled Aircraft in Ground-Based Aerospace Testing Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Commo, Sean A. (Inventor); Lynn, Keith C. (Inventor); Landman, Drew (Inventor); Acheson, Michael J. (Inventor)

2016-01-01

An In-Situ Load System for calibrating and validating aerodynamic properties of scaled aircraft in ground-based aerospace testing applications includes an assembly having upper and lower components that are pivotably interconnected. A test weight can be connected to the lower component to apply a known force to a force balance. The orientation of the force balance can be varied, and the measured forces from the force balance can be compared to applied loads at various orientations to thereby develop calibration factors.
The validation index: a new metric for validation of segmentation algorithms using two or more expert outlines with application to radiotherapy planning.

Science.gov (United States)

Juneja, Prabhjot; Evans, Philp M; Harris, Emma J

2013-08-01

Validation is required to ensure automated segmentation algorithms are suitable for radiotherapy target definition. In the absence of true segmentation, algorithmic segmentation is validated against expert outlining of the region of interest. Multiple experts are used to overcome inter-expert variability. Several approaches have been studied in the literature, but the most appropriate approach to combine the information from multiple expert outlines, to give a single metric for validation, is unclear. None consider a metric that can be tailored to case-specific requirements in radiotherapy planning. Validation index (VI), a new validation metric which uses experts' level of agreement was developed. A control parameter was introduced for the validation of segmentations required for different radiotherapy scenarios: for targets close to organs-at-risk and for difficult to discern targets, where large variation between experts is expected. VI was evaluated using two simulated idealized cases and data from two clinical studies. VI was compared with the commonly used Dice similarity coefficient (DSCpair - wise) and found to be more sensitive than the DSCpair - wise to the changes in agreement between experts. VI was shown to be adaptable to specific radiotherapy planning scenarios.
WE-EF-BRD-00: New Developments in Hybrid MR-Treatment: Applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2015-06-15

MRI-guided treatment is a growing area of medicine, particularly in radiotherapy and surgery. The exquisite soft tissue anatomic contrast offered by MRI, along with functional imaging, makes the use of MRI during therapeutic procedures very attractive. Challenging the utility of MRI in the therapy room are many issues including the physics of MRI and the impact on the environment and therapeutic instruments, the impact of the room and instruments on the MRI; safety, space, design and cost. In this session, the applications and challenges of MRI-guided treatment will be described. The session format is: Past, present and future: MRI-guided radiotherapy from 2005 to 2025: Jan Lagendijk Battling Maxwell’s equations: Physics challenges and solutions for hybrid MRI systems: Paul Keall I want it now!: Advances in MRI acquisition, reconstruction and the use of priors to enable fast anatomic and physiologic imaging to inform guidance and adaptation decisions: Yanle Hu MR in the OR: The growth and applications of MRI for interventional radiology and surgery: Rebecca Fahrig Learning Objectives: To understand the history and trajectory of MRI-guided radiotherapy To understand the challenges of integrating MR imaging systems with linear accelerators To understand the latest in fast MRI methods to enable the visualisation of anatomy and physiology on radiotherapy treatment timescales To understand the growing role and challenges of MRI for image-guided surgical procedures My disclosures are publicly available and updated at: http://sydney.edu.au/medicine/radiation-physics/about-us/disclosures.php.
WE-EF-BRD-00: New Developments in Hybrid MR-Treatment: Applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2015-01-01

MRI-guided treatment is a growing area of medicine, particularly in radiotherapy and surgery. The exquisite soft tissue anatomic contrast offered by MRI, along with functional imaging, makes the use of MRI during therapeutic procedures very attractive. Challenging the utility of MRI in the therapy room are many issues including the physics of MRI and the impact on the environment and therapeutic instruments, the impact of the room and instruments on the MRI; safety, space, design and cost. In this session, the applications and challenges of MRI-guided treatment will be described. The session format is: Past, present and future: MRI-guided radiotherapy from 2005 to 2025: Jan Lagendijk Battling Maxwell’s equations: Physics challenges and solutions for hybrid MRI systems: Paul Keall I want it now!: Advances in MRI acquisition, reconstruction and the use of priors to enable fast anatomic and physiologic imaging to inform guidance and adaptation decisions: Yanle Hu MR in the OR: The growth and applications of MRI for interventional radiology and surgery: Rebecca Fahrig Learning Objectives: To understand the history and trajectory of MRI-guided radiotherapy To understand the challenges of integrating MR imaging systems with linear accelerators To understand the latest in fast MRI methods to enable the visualisation of anatomy and physiology on radiotherapy treatment timescales To understand the growing role and challenges of MRI for image-guided surgical procedures My disclosures are publicly available and updated at: http://sydney.edu.au/medicine/radiation-physics/about-us/disclosures.php
The Effects of NBF Gingival Gel Application in the Treatment of the Erosive Lichen Planus: Case Report

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mirjana Popovska

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The therapy of erosive lichen planus (ELP has been particular problem in the treatment of oral lesions. This case of ELP in male patient 29 years old was treated with topic application of the NBF gingival gel, three times a day after meal, previously rinsed with Clorhexidine gluconate 0.12%. After 5 days of treatment, initial improvements were recorded, and after two weeks of application of the NBF gingival gel we observed significant improvement. Clinical monitoring after the fifth day showed mild epithelialization of the eroded mucosa, yet still present erythematous base of the lesion. After the second week the erythema area was significantly reduced and the eroded surfaces of the mucosa were minimal, measured less than 0.5 mm. After the third week there were no erosions to detect on the oral mucosa, yet still present vague redness, which completely pulled after the fourth week. Treatment ended after the fifth week when the topical application of the NBF gingival gel was terminated, and therapy was done, and clinically achieved effects remained stable even after the third month of the treatment. Topic application of the NBF gingival gel with ELP patients showed positive clinical effects in relatively short time period.
The Effects of NBF Gingival Gel Application in the Treatment of the Erosive Lichen Planus: Case Report.

Science.gov (United States)

Popovska, Mirjana; Fidovski, Jasmin; Mindova, Sonja; Dirjanska, Katerina; Ristoska, Stevica; Stefanovska, Emilija; Radojkova-Nikolovska, Vera; Mitic, Kristina; Rusevska, Biljana

2016-03-15

The therapy of erosive lichen planus (ELP) has been particular problem in the treatment of oral lesions. This case of ELP in male patient 29 years old was treated with topic application of the NBF gingival gel, three times a day after meal, previously rinsed with Clorhexidine gluconate 0.12%. After 5 days of treatment, initial improvements were recorded, and after two weeks of application of the NBF gingival gel we observed significant improvement. Clinical monitoring after the fifth day showed mild epithelialization of the eroded mucosa, yet still present erythematous base of the lesion. After the second week the erythema area was significantly reduced and the eroded surfaces of the mucosa were minimal, measured less than 0.5 mm. After the third week there were no erosions to detect on the oral mucosa, yet still present vague redness, which completely pulled after the fourth week. Treatment ended after the fifth week when the topical application of the NBF gingival gel was terminated, and therapy was done, and clinically achieved effects remained stable even after the third month of the treatment. Topic application of the NBF gingival gel with ELP patients showed positive clinical effects in relatively short time period.
Dosimetric accuracy of a treatment planning system for actively scanned proton beams and small target volumes: Monte Carlo and experimental validation

Science.gov (United States)

Magro, G.; Molinelli, S.; Mairani, A.; Mirandola, A.; Panizza, D.; Russo, S.; Ferrari, A.; Valvo, F.; Fossati, P.; Ciocca, M.

2015-09-01

This study was performed to evaluate the accuracy of a commercial treatment planning system (TPS), in optimising proton pencil beam dose distributions for small targets of different sizes (5-30 mm side) located at increasing depths in water. The TPS analytical algorithm was benchmarked against experimental data and the FLUKA Monte Carlo (MC) code, previously validated for the selected beam-line. We tested the Siemens syngo® TPS plan optimisation module for water cubes fixing the configurable parameters at clinical standards, with homogeneous target coverage to a 2 Gy (RBE) dose prescription as unique goal. Plans were delivered and the dose at each volume centre was measured in water with a calibrated PTW Advanced Markus® chamber. An EBT3® film was also positioned at the phantom entrance window for the acquisition of 2D dose maps. Discrepancies between TPS calculated and MC simulated values were mainly due to the different lateral spread modeling and resulted in being related to the field-to-spot size ratio. The accuracy of the TPS was proved to be clinically acceptable in all cases but very small and shallow volumes. In this contest, the use of MC to validate TPS results proved to be a reliable procedure for pre-treatment plan verification.
Dosimetric accuracy of a treatment planning system for actively scanned proton beams and small target volumes: Monte Carlo and experimental validation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Magro, G; Molinelli, S; Mairani, A; Mirandola, A; Panizza, D; Russo, S; Valvo, F; Fossati, P; Ciocca, M; Ferrari, A

2015-01-01

This study was performed to evaluate the accuracy of a commercial treatment planning system (TPS), in optimising proton pencil beam dose distributions for small targets of different sizes (5–30 mm side) located at increasing depths in water. The TPS analytical algorithm was benchmarked against experimental data and the FLUKA Monte Carlo (MC) code, previously validated for the selected beam-line. We tested the Siemens syngo ® TPS plan optimisation module for water cubes fixing the configurable parameters at clinical standards, with homogeneous target coverage to a 2 Gy (RBE) dose prescription as unique goal. Plans were delivered and the dose at each volume centre was measured in water with a calibrated PTW Advanced Markus ® chamber. An EBT3 ® film was also positioned at the phantom entrance window for the acquisition of 2D dose maps. Discrepancies between TPS calculated and MC simulated values were mainly due to the different lateral spread modeling and resulted in being related to the field-to-spot size ratio. The accuracy of the TPS was proved to be clinically acceptable in all cases but very small and shallow volumes. In this contest, the use of MC to validate TPS results proved to be a reliable procedure for pre-treatment plan verification. (paper)
Guidelines for the verification and validation of expert system software and conventional software: Validation scenarios. Volume 6

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mirsky, S.M.; Hayes, J.E.; Miller, L.A.

1995-03-01

This report is the sixth volume in a series of reports describing the results of the Expert System Verification and Validation (V ampersand V) project which is jointly funded by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Electric Power Research Institute. The ultimate objective is the formulation of guidelines for the V ampersand V of expert systems for use in nuclear power applications. This activity was concerned with the development of a methodology for selecting validation scenarios and subsequently applying it to two expert systems used for nuclear utility applications. Validation scenarios were defined and classified into five categories: PLANT, TEST, BASICS, CODE, and LICENSING. A sixth type, REGRESSION, is a composite of the others and refers to the practice of using trusted scenarios to ensure that modifications to software did not change unmodified functions. Rationale was developed for preferring scenarios selected from the categories in the order listed and for determining under what conditions to select scenarios from other types. A procedure incorporating all of the recommendations was developed as a generalized method for generating validation scenarios. The procedure was subsequently applied to two expert systems used in the nuclear industry and was found to be effective, given that an experienced nuclear engineer made the final scenario selections. A method for generating scenarios directly from the knowledge base component was suggested
Guidelines for the verification and validation of expert system software and conventional software: Validation scenarios. Volume 6

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mirsky, S.M.; Hayes, J.E.; Miller, L.A. [Science Applications International Corp., McLean, VA (United States)

1995-03-01

This report is the sixth volume in a series of reports describing the results of the Expert System Verification and Validation (V&V) project which is jointly funded by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Electric Power Research Institute. The ultimate objective is the formulation of guidelines for the V&V of expert systems for use in nuclear power applications. This activity was concerned with the development of a methodology for selecting validation scenarios and subsequently applying it to two expert systems used for nuclear utility applications. Validation scenarios were defined and classified into five categories: PLANT, TEST, BASICS, CODE, and LICENSING. A sixth type, REGRESSION, is a composite of the others and refers to the practice of using trusted scenarios to ensure that modifications to software did not change unmodified functions. Rationale was developed for preferring scenarios selected from the categories in the order listed and for determining under what conditions to select scenarios from other types. A procedure incorporating all of the recommendations was developed as a generalized method for generating validation scenarios. The procedure was subsequently applied to two expert systems used in the nuclear industry and was found to be effective, given that an experienced nuclear engineer made the final scenario selections. A method for generating scenarios directly from the knowledge base component was suggested.
Simulation codes and the impact of validation/uncertainty requirements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sills, H.E.

1995-01-01

Several of the OECD/CSNI members have adapted a proposed methodology for code validation and uncertainty assessment. Although the validation process adapted by members has a high degree of commonality, the uncertainty assessment processes selected are more variable, ranaing from subjective to formal. This paper describes the validation and uncertainty assessment process, the sources of uncertainty, methods of reducing uncertainty, and methods of assessing uncertainty.Examples are presented from the Ontario Hydro application of the validation methodology and uncertainty assessment to the system thermal hydraulics discipline and the TUF (1) system thermal hydraulics code. (author)
Measuring Participants' Attitudes Toward Mobile Device Conference Applications in Continuing Medical Education: Validation of an Instrument.

Science.gov (United States)

Wittich, Christopher M; Wang, Amy T; Fiala, Justin A; Mauck, Karen F; Mandrekar, Jayawant N; Ratelle, John T; Beckman, Thomas J

2016-01-01

Mobile device applications (apps) may enhance live CME courses. We aimed to (1) validate a measure of participant attitudes toward using a conference app and (2) determine associations between participant characteristics and attitudes toward CME apps with conference app usage. We conducted a cross-sectional validation study of participants at the Mayo Clinic Selected Topics in Internal Medicine Course. A conference app was developed that included presentation slides, note-taking features, search functions, social networking with other attendees, and access to presenter information. The CME app attitudes survey instrument (CMEAPP-10) was designed to determine participant attitudes toward conference apps. Of the 602 participants, 498 (82.7%) returned surveys. Factor analysis revealed a two-dimensional model for CMEAPP-10 scores (Cronbach α, 0.97). Mean (SD) CMEAPP-10 scores (maximum possible score of five) were higher for women than for men (4.06 [0.91] versus 3.85 [0.92]; P = .04). CMEAPP-10 scores (mean [SD]) were significantly associated (P = .02) with previous app usage as follows: less than once per month, 3.73 (1.05); monthly, 3.41 (1.16); weekly, 4.03 (0.69); and daily or more, 4.06 (0.89). Scores were unrelated to participant age, specialty, practice characteristics, or previous app use. This is the first validated measure of attitudes toward CME apps among course participants. App usage was higher among younger participants who had previously used educational or professional apps. Additionally, attitudes were more favorable among women and those who had previously used apps. These findings have important implications regarding efforts to engage participants with portable and accessible technology.
Construction and use of an applicator of the afterloading type for treatment of the uterine cervix

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miola, U.J.; Vizeu, D.M.; Moura, A.M.S.; Petito, J.W.

The construction of an afterloading type applicator for treatment of cancer of the uterine cervix is described. The technique of intercavitary treatment of cancer of the uterine cervix used in the Osvaldo Cruz Institute of Radiotherapy (Brazil) is also discribed [pt
Soil treatment by vibroflottation – Application to protection structures of DjenDjen port, Jijel, Algeria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

KHELALFA HOUSSAM

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Soil treatment by vibroflotation is a recent technique for improving soil with poor geo-mechanical properties. In addition, this treatment minimizes the risk of liquefaction and the instability of the caisson. This work allows us to establish a two-dimensional numerical simulation of a real vibroflotation test, based on our model and our hypothesis of modeling this mechanism in finite elements. On the other hand, the work consists in making a two-dimensional numerical study of the stability of the caisson carried out on the treated soil, in order to verify its influence on the stability of the structure. The calculation results will be compared with in-situ measurements to validate the numerical model.
[Clinical application evaluation of Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Otolaryngology in Traditional Chinese Medicine].

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Yu-Qi; Liu, Meng-Yu; Li, Chun; Shi, Nan-Nan; Wang, Yue-Xi; Wang, Li-Ying; Zhao, Xue-Yao; Kou, Shuang; Han, Xue-Jie; Wang, Yan-Ping

2017-09-01

This study is to assess the Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Otolaryngology in Traditional Chinese Medicine in clinical application and provide evidence for further guideline revision. The assessment was divided into applicability assessment and practicability assessment. The applicability assessment based on questionnaire survey and the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioners were asked to independently fill the Questionnaire for Applicability Assessment on the Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment in Traditional Chinese Medicine. The practicability assessment was based on prospective case investigation and analysis method and the TCM practitioners-in-charge filled the Case Investigation Questionnaire for Practicability Assessment on the Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment in Traditional Chinese Medicine. The data were analyzed in descriptive statistics. 151 questionnaires were investigated for applicability assessment and 1 016 patients were included for practicability assessment. The results showed that 88.74% of them were familiar with the guidelines and 45.70% used them. The guidelines quality and related items were similar in applicability assessment and practicability assessment, and scored highly as more than 85.00% except the "recuperating and prevention". The results suggested that the quality of Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Otolaryngology in Traditional Chinese Medicine was high and could better guide the clinical practice. The "recuperating and prevention" part should be improved and the evidence data should be included in future guideline revision, so that the clinical utilization rate could be increased. Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.
Application of Irradiation. Application to polymer processing, exhaust gas treatment, sterilization of medical instruments and food

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sawai, Takeshi; Sawai, Teruko

2000-03-01

Many fields such as industry, agriculture, medical treatment and environment use radiation. This report explained some examples of irradiation applications. Radiation source is {sup 60}Co {gamma}-ray. Polymer industry use radiation for radiation curing (thermally stable polymer), tire, expanded polymer, radiation induced graft copolymerization and electron beam curing. On environmental conservation, radiation is used for elimination of NOx and SOx in exhaust combustion gas. In the medical treatment, radiation is applied to sterilization of medical instruments, that occupied about 50% volume, and blood for transfusion, which is only one method to prevent GVHD after transfusion. On agriculture, irradiation to spice, dry vegetable, frozen kitchen, potato and garlic are carried out in 30 countries. However, potato is only a kind food in Japan. Radiation breeding and pest control are put in practice. (S.Y.)
Validation of hand and foot anatomical feature measurements from smartphone images

Science.gov (United States)

Amini, Mohammad; Vasefi, Fartash; MacKinnon, Nicholas

2018-02-01

A smartphone mobile medical application, previously presented as a tool for individuals with hand arthritis to assess and monitor the progress of their disease, has been modified and expanded to include extraction of anatomical features from the hand (joint/finger width, and angulation) and foot (length, width, big toe angle, and arch height index) from smartphone camera images. Image processing algorithms and automated measurements were validated by performing tests on digital hand models, rigid plastic hand models, and real human hands and feet to determine accuracy and reproducibility compared to conventional measurement tools such as calipers, rulers, and goniometers. The mobile application was able to provide finger joint width measurements with accuracy better than 0.34 (+/-0.25) millimeters. Joint angulation measurement accuracy was better than 0.50 (+/-0.45) degrees. The automatically calculated foot length accuracy was 1.20 (+/-1.27) millimeters and the foot width accuracy was 1.93 (+/-1.92) millimeters. Hallux valgus angle (used in assessing bunions) accuracy was 1.30 (+/-1.29) degrees. Arch height index (AHI) measurements had an accuracy of 0.02 (+/-0.01). Combined with in-app documentation of symptoms, treatment, and lifestyle factors, the anatomical feature measurements can be used by both healthcare professionals and manufacturers. Applications include: diagnosing hand osteoarthritis; providing custom finger splint measurements; providing compression glove measurements for burn and lymphedema patients; determining foot dimensions for custom shoe sizing, insoles, orthotics, or foot splints; and assessing arch height index and bunion treatment effectiveness.
ASTEC code development, validation and applications for severe accident management within the CESAM European project - 15392

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Dorsselaere, J.P.; Chatelard, P.; Chevalier-Jabet, K.; Nowack, H.; Herranz, L.E.; Pascal, G.; Sanchez-Espinoza, V.H.

2015-01-01

ASTEC, jointly developed by IRSN and GRS, is considered as the European reference code since it capitalizes knowledge from the European research on the domain. The CESAM project aims at its enhancement and extension for use in severe accident management (SAM) analysis of the nuclear power plants (NPP) of Generation II-III presently under operation or foreseen in near future in Europe, spent fuel pools included. Within the CESAM project 3 main types of research activities are performed: -) further validation of ASTEC models important for SAM, in particular for the phenomena being of importance in the Fukushima-Daichi accidents, such as reflooding of degraded cores, pool scrubbing, hydrogen combustion, or spent fuel pools behaviour; -) modelling improvements, especially for BWR or based on the feedback of validation tasks; and -) ASTEC applications to severe accident scenarios in European NPPs in order to assess prevention and mitigation measures. An important step will be reached with the next major ASTEC V2.1 version planned to be delivered in the first part of 2015. Its main improvements will concern the possibility to simulate in details the core degradation of BWR and PHWR and a model of reflooding of severely degraded cores. A new user-friendly Graphic User Interface will be available for plant analyses

Content validation applied to job simulation and written examinations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saari, L.M.; McCutchen, M.A.; White, A.S.; Huenefeld, J.C.

1984-08-01

The application of content validation strategies in work settings have become increasingly popular over the last few years, perhaps spurred by an acknowledgment in the courts of content validation as a method for validating employee selection procedures (e.g., Bridgeport Guardians v. Bridgeport Police Dept., 1977). Since criterion-related validation is often difficult to conduct, content validation methods should be investigated as an alternative for determining job related selection procedures. However, there is not yet consensus among scientists and professionals concerning how content validation should be conducted. This may be because there is a lack of clear cut operations for conducting content validation for different types of selection procedures. The purpose of this paper is to discuss two content validation approaches being used for the development of a licensing examination that involves a job simulation exam and a written exam. These represent variations in methods for applying content validation. 12 references
Application of advanced validation concepts to oxide fuel performance codes: LIFE-4 fast-reactor and FRAPCON thermal-reactor fuel performance codes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Unal, C., E-mail: cu@lanl.gov [Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States); Williams, B.J. [Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States); Yacout, A. [Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Avenue, Lemont, IL 60439 (United States); Higdon, D.M. [Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States)

2013-10-15

Highlights: ► The application of advanced validation techniques (sensitivity, calibration and prediction) to nuclear performance codes FRAPCON and LIFE-4 is the focus of the paper. ► A sensitivity ranking methodology narrows down the number of selected modeling parameters from 61 to 24 for FRAPCON and from 69 to 35 for LIFE-4. ► Fuel creep, fuel thermal conductivity, fission gas transport/release, crack/boundary, and fuel gap conductivity models of LIFE-4 are identified for improvements. ► FRAPCON sensitivity results indicated the importance of the fuel thermal conduction and the fission gas release models. -- Abstract: Evolving nuclear energy programs expect to use enhanced modeling and simulation (M and S) capabilities, using multiscale, multiphysics modeling approaches, to reduce both cost and time from the design through the licensing phases. Interest in the development of the multiscale, multiphysics approach has increased in the last decade because of the need for predictive tools for complex interacting processes as a means of eliminating the limited use of empirically based model development. Complex interacting processes cannot be predicted by analyzing each individual component in isolation. In most cases, the mathematical models of complex processes and their boundary conditions are nonlinear. As a result, the solutions of these mathematical models often require high-performance computing capabilities and resources. The use of multiscale, multiphysics (MS/MP) models in conjunction with high-performance computational software and hardware introduces challenges in validating these predictive tools—traditional methodologies will have to be modified to address these challenges. The advanced MS/MP codes for nuclear fuels and reactors are being developed within the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program of the US Department of Energy (DOE) – Nuclear Energy (NE). This paper does not directly address challenges in calibration/validation
Circulating tumor cells: clinical validity and utility.

Science.gov (United States)

Cabel, Luc; Proudhon, Charlotte; Gortais, Hugo; Loirat, Delphine; Coussy, Florence; Pierga, Jean-Yves; Bidard, François-Clément

2017-06-01

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are rare tumor cells and have been investigated as diagnostic, prognostic and predictive biomarkers in many types of cancer. Although CTCs are not currently used in clinical practice, CTC studies have accumulated a high level of clinical validity, especially in breast, lung, prostate and colorectal cancers. In this review, we present an overview of the current clinical validity of CTCs in metastatic and non-metastatic disease, and the main concepts and studies investigating the clinical utility of CTCs. In particular, this review will focus on breast, lung, colorectal and prostate cancer. Three major topics concerning the clinical utility of CTC are discussed-(1) treatment based on CTCs used as liquid biopsy, (2) treatment based on CTC count or CTC variations, and (3) treatment based on CTC biomarker expression. A summary of published or ongoing phase II and III trials is also presented.
Individualized prediction of perineural invasion in colorectal cancer: development and validation of a radiomics prediction model.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Yanqi; He, Lan; Dong, Di; Yang, Caiyun; Liang, Cuishan; Chen, Xin; Ma, Zelan; Huang, Xiaomei; Yao, Su; Liang, Changhong; Tian, Jie; Liu, Zaiyi

2018-02-01

To develop and validate a radiomics prediction model for individualized prediction of perineural invasion (PNI) in colorectal cancer (CRC). After computed tomography (CT) radiomics features extraction, a radiomics signature was constructed in derivation cohort (346 CRC patients). A prediction model was developed to integrate the radiomics signature and clinical candidate predictors [age, sex, tumor location, and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) level]. Apparent prediction performance was assessed. After internal validation, independent temporal validation (separate from the cohort used to build the model) was then conducted in 217 CRC patients. The final model was converted to an easy-to-use nomogram. The developed radiomics nomogram that integrated the radiomics signature and CEA level showed good calibration and discrimination performance [Harrell's concordance index (c-index): 0.817; 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 0.811-0.823]. Application of the nomogram in validation cohort gave a comparable calibration and discrimination (c-index: 0.803; 95% CI: 0.794-0.812). Integrating the radiomics signature and CEA level into a radiomics prediction model enables easy and effective risk assessment of PNI in CRC. This stratification of patients according to their PNI status may provide a basis for individualized auxiliary treatment.
Validity and Reliability of the Achilles Tendon Total Rupture Score

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ganestam, Ann; Barfod, Kristoffer; Klit, Jakob

2013-01-01

study was to validate a Danish translation of the ATRS. The ATRS was translated into Danish according to internationally adopted standards. Of 142 patients, 90 with previous rupture of the Achilles tendon participated in the validity study and 52 in the reliability study. The ATRS showed moderately......The best treatment of acute Achilles tendon rupture remains debated. Patient-reported outcome measures have become cornerstones in treatment evaluations. The Achilles tendon total rupture score (ATRS) has been developed for this purpose but requires additional validation. The purpose of the present...... = .07). The limits of agreement were ±18.53. A strong correlation was found between test and retest (intercorrelation coefficient .908); the standard error of measurement was 6.7, and the minimal detectable change was 18.5. The Danish version of the ATRS showed moderately strong criterion validity...
Biomaterials recycling: bioglasses obtained from reuse of hydroxyapatite (HA) bovine bone with term exceeded validity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Silva, A.C.; Santos, S.C.; Braga, F.J.C.; Aparecida, A.H.

2012-01-01

The hydroxyapatite (HA) is a reference bioceramic for bone replacement and regeneration medical practice, becoming one of the most produced and researched bone graft material. Since it is a material for biomedical application, the manufacture and storage of this bioceramic must comply with severe conservation criteria, and its validity date is the lawful major factor for disposal. Materials with the exceeded expiration date are usually discarded and incinerated, resulting in ash, environmental contamination and energy expenditure. This study evaluates the possibility of reuse of bovine HA collected after its validity date as raw material to obtain bioglass, aiming to natural resources saving and environmental emissions mitigation. 45S5 similar compositions were obtained by melting the materials at 1500 ° C, followed by rapid cooling and annealing thermal treatment (500 ° C for 2h), analytical grade chemical reagents were used to set the final composition. The obtained materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and hydrolysis resistance techniques. The results of comparative chemical resistance (Hydrolytic) tests indicate the potential use of the materials developed for bone replacement applications. (author)
The problem of fouling in submerged membrane bioreactors - Model validation and experimental evidence

Science.gov (United States)

Tsibranska, Irene; Vlaev, Serafim; Tylkowski, Bartosz

2018-01-01

Integrating biological treatment with membrane separation has found a broad area of applications and industrial attention. Submerged membrane bioreactors (SMBRs), based on membrane modules immersed in the bioreactor, or side stream ones connected in recycle have been employed in different biotechnological processes for separation of thermally unstable products. Fouling is one of the most important challenges in the integrated SMBRs. A number of works are devoted to fouling analysis and its treatment, especially exploring the opportunity for enhanced fouling control in SMBRs. The main goal of the review is to provide a comprehensive yet concise overview of modeling the fouling in SMBRs in view of the problematics of model validation, either by real system measurements at different scales or by analysis of the obtained theoretical results. The review is focused on the current state of research applying computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling techniques.
Validations and applications of the FEAST code

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Xu, Z.; Tayal, M.; Lau, J.H.; Evinou, D. [Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Mississauga, Ontario (Canada); Jun, J.S. [Korea Atomic Energy Research Inst. (Korea, Republic of)

1999-07-01

The FEAST (Finite Element Analysis for STresses) code is part of a suite of computer codes that are used to assess the structural integrity of CANDu fuel elements and bundles. A detailed validation of the FEAST code was recently performed. The FEAST calculations are in good agreement with a variety of analytical solutions (18 cases) for stresses, strains and displacements. This consistency shows that the FEAST code correctly incorporates the fundamentals of stress analysis. Further, the calculations of the FEAST code match the variations in axial and hoop strain profiles, measured by strain gauges near the sheath-endcap weld during an out-reactor compression test. The code calculations are also consistent with photoelastic measurements in simulated endcaps. (author)
Validations and applications of the FEAST code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu, Z.; Tayal, M.; Lau, J.H.; Evinou, D.; Jun, J.S.

1999-01-01

The FEAST (Finite Element Analysis for STresses) code is part of a suite of computer codes that are used to assess the structural integrity of CANDu fuel elements and bundles. A detailed validation of the FEAST code was recently performed. The FEAST calculations are in good agreement with a variety of analytical solutions (18 cases) for stresses, strains and displacements. This consistency shows that the FEAST code correctly incorporates the fundamentals of stress analysis. Further, the calculations of the FEAST code match the variations in axial and hoop strain profiles, measured by strain gauges near the sheath-endcap weld during an out-reactor compression test. The code calculations are also consistent with photoelastic measurements in simulated endcaps. (author)
Validation of the prosthetic esthetic index

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Özhayat, Esben B; Dannemand, Katrine

2014-01-01

OBJECTIVES: In order to diagnose impaired esthetics and evaluate treatments for these, it is crucial to evaluate all aspects of oral and prosthetic esthetics. No professionally administered index currently exists that sufficiently encompasses comprehensive prosthetic esthetics. This study aimed...... to validate a new comprehensive index, the Prosthetic Esthetic Index (PEI), for professional evaluation of esthetics in prosthodontic patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The content, criterion, and construct validity; the test-retest, inter-rater, and internal consistency reliability; and the sensitivity...... furthermore distinguish between participants and controls, indicating sufficient sensitivity. CONCLUSION: The PEI is considered a valid and reliable instrument involving sufficient aspects for assessment of the professionally evaluated esthetics in prosthodontic patients. CLINICAL RELEVANCE...
Social validity in single-case research: A systematic literature review of prevalence and application.

Science.gov (United States)

Snodgrass, Melinda R; Chung, Moon Y; Meadan, Hedda; Halle, James W

2018-03-01

Single-case research (SCR) has been a valuable methodology in special education research. Montrose Wolf (1978), an early pioneer in single-case methodology, coined the term "social validity" to refer to the social importance of the goals selected, the acceptability of procedures employed, and the effectiveness of the outcomes produced in applied investigations. Since 1978, many contributors to SCR have included social validity as a feature of their articles and several authors have examined the prevalence and role of social validity in SCR. We systematically reviewed all SCR published in six highly-ranked special education journals from 2005 to 2016 to establish the prevalence of social validity assessments and to evaluate their scientific rigor. We found relatively low, but stable prevalence with only 28 publications addressing all three factors of the social validity construct (i.e., goals, procedures, outcomes). We conducted an in-depth analysis of the scientific rigor of these 28 publications. Social validity remains an understudied construct in SCR, and the scientific rigor of social validity assessments is often lacking. Implications and future directions are discussed. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
SWAT application in intensive irrigation systems: Model modification, calibration and validation

Science.gov (United States)

Dechmi, Farida; Burguete, Javier; Skhiri, Ahmed

2012-11-01

SummaryThe Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is a well established, distributed, eco-hydrologic model. However, using the study case of an agricultural intensive irrigated watershed, it was shown that all the model versions are not able to appropriately reproduce the total streamflow in such system when the irrigation source is outside the watershed. The objective of this study was to modify the SWAT2005 version for correctly simulating the main hydrological processes. Crop yield, total streamflow, total suspended sediment (TSS) losses and phosphorus load calibration and validation were performed using field survey information and water quantity and quality data recorded during 2008 and 2009 years in Del Reguero irrigated watershed in Spain. The goodness of the calibration and validation results was assessed using five statistical measures, including the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE). Results indicated that the average annual crop yield and actual evapotranspiration estimations were quite satisfactory. On a monthly basis, the values of NSE were 0.90 (calibration) and 0.80 (validation) indicating that the modified model could reproduce accurately the observed streamflow. The TSS losses were also satisfactorily estimated (NSE = 0.72 and 0.52 for the calibration and validation steps). The monthly temporal patterns and all the statistical parameters indicated that the modified SWAT-IRRIG model adequately predicted the total phosphorus (TP) loading. Therefore, the model could be used to assess the impacts of different best management practices on nonpoint phosphorus losses in irrigated systems.
Application of validation data for assessing spatial interpolation methods for 8-h ozone or other sparsely monitored constituents

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Joseph, John; Sharif, Hatim O.; Sunil, Thankam; Alamgir, Hasanat

2013-01-01

The adverse health effects of high concentrations of ground-level ozone are well-known, but estimating exposure is difficult due to the sparseness of urban monitoring networks. This sparseness discourages the reservation of a portion of the monitoring stations for validation of interpolation techniques precisely when the risk of overfitting is greatest. In this study, we test a variety of simple spatial interpolation techniques for 8-h ozone with thousands of randomly selected subsets of data from two urban areas with monitoring stations sufficiently numerous to allow for true validation. Results indicate that ordinary kriging with only the range parameter calibrated in an exponential variogram is the generally superior method, and yields reliable confidence intervals. Sparse data sets may contain sufficient information for calibration of the range parameter even if the Moran I p-value is close to unity. R script is made available to apply the methodology to other sparsely monitored constituents. -- Highlights: •Spatial interpolation methods were tested for thousands of sparse ozone data sets. •A particular single-parameter ordinary kriging was found to be generally superior. •A Moran I p-value in the training set is not helpful in selecting the method. •The sum of the squares of the residuals is helpful in selecting the method. •R script is available for application to other sites and constituents. -- Spatial interpolation methods were compared for thousands of subsets of data for 8-h ozone using R script applicable to other constituents as well, and available from the authors
Validation of a Rapid Bacteria Endospore Enumeration System for Planetary Protection Application

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Fei; Kern, Roger; Kazarians, Gayane; Venkateswaran, Kasthuri

NASA monitors spacecraft surfaces to assure that the presence of bacterial endospores meets strict criteria at launch, to minimize the risk of inadvertent contamination of the surface of Mars. Currently, the only approved method for enumerating the spores is a culture based assay that requires three days to produce results. In order to meet the demanding schedules of spacecraft assembly, a more rapid spore detection assay is being considered as an alternate method to the NASA standard culture-based assay. The Millipore Rapid Microbiology Detection System (RMDS) has been used successfully for rapid bioburden enumeration in the pharmaceutical and food industries. The RMDS is rapid and simple, shows high sensitivity (to 1 colony forming unit [CFU]/sample), and correlates well with traditional culture-based methods. It combines membrane filtration, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) bioluminescence chemistry, and image analysis based on photon detection with a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) camera. In this study, we have optimized the assay conditions and evaluated the use of the RMDS as a rapid spore detection tool for NASA applications. In order to select for spores, the samples were subjected to a heat shock step before proceeding with the RMDS incubation protocol. Seven species of Bacillus (nine strains) that have been repeatedly isolated from clean room environments were assayed. All strains were detected by the RMDS in 5 hours and these assay times were repeatedly demonstrated along with low image background noise. Validation experiments to compare the Rapid Sore Assay (RSA) and NASA standard assay (NSA) were also performed. The evaluation criteria were modeled after the FDA Guideline of Process Validation, and Analytical Test Methods. This body of research demonstrates that the Rapid Spore Assay (RSA) is quick, and of equivalent sensitivity to the NASA standard assay, potentially reducing the assay time for bacterial endospores from over 72 hours to less than 8 hours
Frontier of Advanced Accelerator Applications and Medical Treatments Using Nuclear Techniques. Abstract

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2015-01-01

To address the challenges of research-based practice, developing advanced accelerator applications, and medical treatments using nuclear tecniqoes, researchers from Rajamakala University of Technology Lanna, Office of Atoms for Peace, and Chiang Mai University have joined in hosting this conference. Nuclear medicine, amedical specialty, diagnoses and treats diseases in a safe and painless way. Nuclear techniques can determine medical information that may otherwise be unavailable, require surgery, or necessitate more expensive and invasive diagnostic tests. Advance in nuclear techniques also offer the potential to detect abnormalities at earlier stages, leasding to earlier treatment and a more successful prognosis.
MoO3 trapping layers with CF4 plasma treatment in flash memory applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kao, Chuyan Haur; Chen, Hsiang; Chen, Su-Zhien; Chen, Chian Yu; Lo, Kuang-Yu; Lin, Chun Han

2014-01-01

Highlights: • MoO 3 -based flash memories have been fabricated. • CF4 plasma treatment could enhance good memory performance. • Material analyses confirm that plasma treatment eliminated defects. • Fluorine atoms might fix the dangling bonds. - Abstract: In this research, we used MoO 3 with CF 4 plasma treatment as charge trapping layer in metal-oxide-high-k -oxide-Si-type memory. We analyzed material properties and electrical characteristics with multiple analyses. The plasma treatment could increase the trapping density, reduce the leakage current, expand band gap, and passivate the defect to enhance the memory performance. The MoO 3 charge trapping layer memory with suitable CF 4 plasma treatment is promising for future nonvolatile memory applications
Application of OMEGA Monte Carlo codes for radiation therapy treatment planning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ayyangar, Komanduri M.; Jiang, Steve B.

1998-01-01

The accuracy of conventional dose algorithms for radiosurgery treatment planning is limited, due to the inadequate consideration of the lateral radiation transport and the difficulty of acquiring accurate dosimetric data for very small beams. In the present paper, some initial work on the application of Monte Carlo method in radiation treatment planning in general, and in radiosurgery treatment planning in particular, has been presented. Two OMEGA Monte Carlo codes, BEAM and DOSXYZ, are used. The BEAM code is used to simulate the transport of particles in the linac treatment head and radiosurgery collimator. A phase space file is obtained from the BEAM simulation for each collimator size. The DOSXYZ code is used to calculate the dose distribution in the patient's body reconstructed from CT slices using the phase space file as input. The accuracy of OMEGA Monte Carlo simulation for radiosurgery dose calculation is verified by comparing the calculated and measured basic dosimetric data for several radiosurgery beams and a 4 x 4 cm 2 conventional beam. The dose distributions for three clinical cases are calculated using OMEGA codes as the dose engine for an in-house developed radiosurgery treatment planning system. The verification using basic dosimetric data and the dose calculation for clinical cases demonstrate the feasibility of applying OMEGA Monte Carlo code system to radiosurgery treatment planning. (author)
Treatment Readiness as a Determinant of Treatment Participation in a Prison-Based Rehabilitation Program: An Exploratory Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Bosma, Anouk Q; Kunst, Maarten J J; Dirkzwager, Anja J E; Nieuwbeerta, Paul

2017-06-01

The current study had three aims. First, it measured treatment readiness among offenders who entered the Prevention of Recidivism program. This is a prison-based rehabilitation program in the Netherlands that aims to lower re-offending rates among offenders with a prison sentence of at least for months and that is carried out during the final months of incarceration. Second, the study evaluated whether treatment readiness was associated with treatment participation. Third, the study examined whether treatment readiness measured with a validated instrument predicted treatment participation above and beyond a clinical assessment of treatment readiness, currently used as a criterion to include offenders in rehabilitation programs. To address these aims, data were used from the fourth wave of a research project studying the effects of imprisonment on the life of detainees in the Netherlands. Results indicated that treatment readiness as measured with a validated instrument was a significant predictor of treatment participation. Also, the current study showed that treatment readiness measured with a validated instrument improved the prediction of treatment participation above and beyond a clinical assessment of treatment readiness. Outcomes were discussed in light of study limitations and implications.
Update of Standard Practices for New Method Validation in Forensic Toxicology.

Science.gov (United States)

Wille, Sarah M R; Coucke, Wim; De Baere, Thierry; Peters, Frank T

2017-01-01

International agreement concerning validation guidelines is important to obtain quality forensic bioanalytical research and routine applications as it all starts with the reporting of reliable analytical data. Standards for fundamental validation parameters are provided in guidelines as those from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the German speaking Gesellschaft fur Toxikologie und Forensische Chemie (GTFCH) and the Scientific Working Group of Forensic Toxicology (SWGTOX). These validation parameters include selectivity, matrix effects, method limits, calibration, accuracy and stability, as well as other parameters such as carryover, dilution integrity and incurred sample reanalysis. It is, however, not easy for laboratories to implement these guidelines into practice as these international guidelines remain nonbinding protocols, that depend on the applied analytical technique, and that need to be updated according the analyst's method requirements and the application type. In this manuscript, a review of the current guidelines and literature concerning bioanalytical validation parameters in a forensic context is given and discussed. In addition, suggestions for the experimental set-up, the pros and cons of statistical approaches and adequate acceptance criteria for the validation of bioanalytical applications are given. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.
Surface treatments for biological, chemical and physical applications

CERN Document Server

Karaman, Mustafa

2017-01-01

A step-by-step guide to the topic with a mix of theory and practice in the fields of biology, chemistry and physics. Straightforward and well-structured, the first chapter introduces fundamental aspects of surface treatments, after which examples from nature are given. Subsequent chapters discuss various methods to surface modification, including chemical and physical approaches, followed by the characterization of the functionalized surfaces. Applications discussed include the lotus effect, diffusion barriers, enzyme immobilization and catalysis. Finally, the book concludes with a look at future technology advances. Throughout the text, tutorials and case studies are used for training purposes to grant a deeper understanding of the topic, resulting in an essential reference for students as well as for experienced engineers in R&D.

Atomistic simulations of ultra-short pulse laser ablation of aluminum: validity of the Lambert-Beer law

Science.gov (United States)

Eisfeld, Eugen; Roth, Johannes

2018-05-01

Based on hybrid molecular dynamics/two-temperature simulations, we study the validity of the application of Lambert-Beer's law, which is conveniently used in various modeling approaches of ultra-short pulse laser ablation of metals. The method is compared to a more rigorous treatment, which involves solving the Helmholtz wave equation for different pulse durations ranging from 100 fs to 5 ps and a wavelength of 800 nm. Our simulations show a growing agreement with increasing pulse durations, and we provide appropriate optical parameters for all investigated pulse durations.
APPLICATION OF CHEMICAL PRE-TREATMENT ON THE POLISHED SURFACE OF ALUMINIUM ALLOYS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pavel Kraus

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This paper reports the preparation and characterization of thin transparent nanolayers with phase composition ZrF4 and different modification of SiO2 with special focus on affecting the surface roughness of the material and the way of exclusion of the thin nanolayer on the surface of the polished aluminium material. The thin nanolayer was prepared by the sol-gel method. The final treatment based on PTFE was applied on the surface of some samples. This treatment is suitable for increasing wear resistance. The films were characterized with help of SEM microscopy and EDS analysis. The surface roughness was measured with classical surface roughness tester. The results on this theme have already published but not on the polished surface of the aluminium material. The results from the experiment show the problems with application of these nanolayers because a cracks were found on the surface of the material and deformations of the layer after application of the PTFE final layer. The surface layer formation is discussed.
Grout treatment facility dangerous waste permit application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1988-01-01

This section briefly describes the Hanford Site, provides a general description of the site operations and administration, provides an overview of the contents of this Grout Treatment Facility (GTF) Permit Application, and gives a list of acronyms and abbreviations used in the document. The decision was made to use the checklist as a locator reference instead of using the checklist section numbers as paragraph section numbers because several different types of waste management units, some of which are not addressed in the checklists, are part of the GTF. The GTF is a waste management unit within the Hanford Site facility. In May 1988, a permit application was filed that identified the GTF as an existing facility. The GTF mixes dry cementitious solids with liquid mixed wastes (containing both dangerous and radioactive constituents) produced by Hanford Site operations. In addition to the design and operating features of the GTF that are intended to meet the requirements of dangerous waste regulations, many additional design and operating features are necessary to comply with radioactive waste management practices. The GTF design features and practices are intended to keep operational exposure to radionuclides and dangerous substances ''as low as reasonably achievable'' (ALARA) and to provide a disposal system that protects the environment for at least 10,000 yr. In some instances, ALARA practices present difficulties when complying with requirements of dangerous waste regulations. This volume contains 2 appendices covering engineering drawings and operating procedures
Grout treatment facility dangerous waste permit application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1988-01-01

This section briefly describes the Hanford Site, provides a general description of the site operations and administration, provides an overview of the contents of this Grout Treatment Facility (GTF) Permit Application, and gives a list of acronyms and abbreviations used in the document. The decision was made to use the checklist as a locator reference instead of using the checklist section numbers as paragraph section numbers because several different types of waste management units, some of which are not addressed in the checklists, are part of the GTF. The GTF is a waste management unit within the Hanford Site facility. In May 1988, a permit application was filed that identified the GTF as an existing facility. The GTF mixes dry cementitious solids with liquid mixed wastes (containing both dangerous and radioactive constitutents) produced by Hanford Site operations. In addition to the design and operating features of the GTF that are intended to meet the requirements of dangerous waste regulations, many additional design and operating features are necessary to comply with radioactive waste management practices. The GTF design features and practices are intended to keep operational exposure to radionuclides and dangerous substances ''as low as reasonably achievable'' (ALARA) and to provide a disposal system that protects the environment for at least 10,000 yr. In some instances, ALARA practices present difficulties when complying with requirements of dangerous waste regulations. This volume contains 2 Appendices covering engineering drawings and operating procedures
Grout Treatment Facility dangerous waste permit application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1988-01-01

This section briefly describes the Hanford Site, provides a general description of the site operations and administration, provides an overview of the contents of this Grout Treatment Facility (GTF) Permit Application, and gives a list of acronyms and abbreviations used in the document. The decision was made to use the checklist as a locator reference instead of using the checklist section numbers as paragraph section numbers because several different types of waste management units, some of which are not addressed in the checklists, are part of the GTF. The GTF is a waste management unit within the Hanford Site facility. In May 1988, a permit application was filed that identified the GTF as an existing facility. The GTF mixes dry cementitious solids with liquid wastes (containing both dangerous and radioactive constituents) produced by Hanford Site operations. In addition to the design and operating features of the GTF that are intended to meet the requirements of dangerous waste regulations, many additional design and operating features are necessary to comply with radioactive waste management practices. The GTF design features and practices are intended to keep operational exposure to radionuclides and dangerous substances ''as low as reasonably achievable'' (ALARA) and to provide a disposal system that protects the environment for at least 10,000 yr. In some instances, ALARA practices present difficulties when complying with requirements of dangerous waste regulations. This volume contains 14 Appendices. Topics include Engineering Drawings, Maps, Roads, Toxicity Testing, and Pilot-Scale Testing
A support system in virtual reality for effective hyperthermia treatments. Heating properties of needle applicator for brain tumors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shindo, Yasuhiro; Iseki, Yuya; Nakane, Kazuya; Mimoto, Naoki; Kubo, Mitsunori; Kato, Kazuo; Takahashi, Hideaki; Uzuka, Takeo; Fujii, Yukihiko

2011-01-01

This paper describes the effectiveness of the developed simulator system for performing an effective hyperthermia treatment with a needle applicator in virtual reality (VR). The human brain is protected by the skull, which makes it difficult to non-invasively heat deep brain tumors with electromagnetic energy. Generally, needle applicators were used in clinical practice to heat brain tumors. However, some problems exist. One is that this heating method has a small heating area around the needle. In order to expand the heating area of a needle applicator, we developed a new type of needle applicator made from a shape memory alloy (SMA). The thermal properties of the SMA were checked experimentally using the developed heating system. As a result, the proposed needle applicator made of SMA is useful to create a wider heating area inside a tumor. Another problem is that medical doctors find it difficult to put a needle applicator into a target point inside of tumors. Therefore, a support system for performing an effective hyperthermia treatment is required in the clinic. In this paper, first, we constructed an anatomical 3-D model from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and X-ray computed tomography (CT) images by using 3-D computer aided design (CAD) software. Second, we presented the finite element method (FEM) model which is divided into non-linear elements on 3-D computer graphics (CG). Finally, we calculated temperature distributions using the 3-D FEM model with blood perfusion during hyperthermia treatments. From these results, it was found that the proposed VR system is effective for performing hyperthermia treatments. (author)
The Effects of NBF Gingival Gel Application in the Treatment of the Erosive Lichen Planus: Case Report

OpenAIRE

Popovska, Mirjana; Fidovski, Jasmin; Mindova, Sonja; Dirjanska, Katerina; Ristoska, Stevica; Stefanovska, Emilija; Radojkova-Nikolovska, Vera; Mitic, Kristina; Rusevska, Biljana

2016-01-01

The therapy of erosive lichen planus (ELP) has been particular problem in the treatment of oral lesions. This case of ELP in male patient 29 years old was treated with topic application of the NBF gingival gel, three times a day after meal, previously rinsed with Clorhexidine gluconate 0.12%. After 5 days of treatment, initial improvements were recorded, and after two weeks of application of the NBF gingival gel we observed significant improvement. Clinical monitoring after the fifth day show...
Need for certification of household water treatment products: examples from Haiti.

Science.gov (United States)

Murray, Anna; Pierre-Louis, Jocelyne; Joseph, Flaurine; Sylvain, Ginelove; Patrick, Molly; Lantagne, Daniele

2015-04-01

To evaluate four household water treatment (HWT) products currently seeking approval for distribution in Haiti, through the application of a recently-developed national HWT product certification process. Four chemical treatment products were evaluated against the certification process validation stage by verifying international product certifications confirming treatment efficacy and reviewing laboratory efficacy data against WHO HWT microbiological performance targets; and against the approval stage by confirming product composition, evaluating treated water chemical content against national and international drinking water quality guidelines and reviewing packaging for dosing ability and usage directions in Creole. None of the four evaluated products fulfilled validation or approval stage requirements. None was certified by an international agency as efficacious for drinking water treatment, and none had data demonstrating its ability to meet WHO HWT performance targets. All product sample compositions differed from labelled composition by >20%, and no packaging included complete usage directions in Creole. Product manufacturers provided information that was inapplicable, did not demonstrate product efficacy, and was insufficient to ensure safe product use. Capacity building is needed with country regulatory agencies to objectively evaluate HWT products. Products should be internationally assessed against WHO performance targets and also locally approved, considering language, culture and usability, to ensure effective HWT. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Treatment Response to an Intensive Summer Treatment Program for Adolescents with ADHD

Science.gov (United States)

Sibley, Margaret H.; Smith, Bradley H.; Evans, Steven W.; Pelham, William E.; Gnagy, Elizabeth M.

2012-01-01

Objective: There are presently almost no empirically validated treatments for adolescents with ADHD. However, in childhood, behavioral treatments for ADHD typically include behavioral parent training, classroom interventions, and intensive child-directed interventions. Method: The present investigation examines treatment gains following an 8-week…
Application of Multimodality Imaging Fusion Technology in Diagnosis and Treatment of Malignant Tumors under the Precision Medicine Plan.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Shun-Yi; Chen, Xian-Xia; Li, Yi; Zhang, Yu-Ying

2016-12-20

The arrival of precision medicine plan brings new opportunities and challenges for patients undergoing precision diagnosis and treatment of malignant tumors. With the development of medical imaging, information on different modality imaging can be integrated and comprehensively analyzed by imaging fusion system. This review aimed to update the application of multimodality imaging fusion technology in the precise diagnosis and treatment of malignant tumors under the precision medicine plan. We introduced several multimodality imaging fusion technologies and their application to the diagnosis and treatment of malignant tumors in clinical practice. The data cited in this review were obtained mainly from the PubMed database from 1996 to 2016, using the keywords of "precision medicine", "fusion imaging", "multimodality", and "tumor diagnosis and treatment". Original articles, clinical practice, reviews, and other relevant literatures published in English were reviewed. Papers focusing on precision medicine, fusion imaging, multimodality, and tumor diagnosis and treatment were selected. Duplicated papers were excluded. Multimodality imaging fusion technology plays an important role in tumor diagnosis and treatment under the precision medicine plan, such as accurate location, qualitative diagnosis, tumor staging, treatment plan design, and real-time intraoperative monitoring. Multimodality imaging fusion systems could provide more imaging information of tumors from different dimensions and angles, thereby offing strong technical support for the implementation of precision oncology. Under the precision medicine plan, personalized treatment of tumors is a distinct possibility. We believe that multimodality imaging fusion technology will find an increasingly wide application in clinical practice.
In vitro application of Fe/MgO nanoparticles as magnetically mediated hyperthermia agents for cancer treatment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chalkidou, A. [Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54 124 Thessaloniki (Greece); Molecular Oncology Laboratory, Theagenio Cancer Hospital, Alexandrou Simeonidi Street 2, 54 007 Thessaloniki (Greece); Simeonidis, K. [Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54 124 Thessaloniki (Greece); Angelakeris, M., E-mail: agelaker@auth.g [Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54 124 Thessaloniki (Greece); Samaras, T. [Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54 124 Thessaloniki (Greece); Martinez-Boubeta, C. [Departament d' Electronica, Universitat de Barcelona, Marti i Franques 1, Barcelona 08028 (Spain); Balcells, Ll. [ICMAB-CSIC, Campus UAB, Bellaterra 08193 (Spain); Papazisis, K. [Molecular Oncology Laboratory, Theagenio Cancer Hospital, Alexandrou Simeonidi Street 2, 54 007 Thessaloniki (Greece); Dendrinou-Samara, C. [Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54 124 Thessaloniki (Greece); Kalogirou, O. [Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54 124 Thessaloniki (Greece)

2011-03-15

In this work we study the heating efficiency of Fe/MgO magnetic core/biocompatible shell nanoparticles and their in vitro application in magnetic hyperthermia on cancer cells. Different human breast cancer cell lines were used to assess the suitability of nanoparticles for in vivo application. The experiments revealed a very good cytotoxicity profile and significant uptake efficiency together with relatively high specific absorption rates and fast thermal response, features that are crucial for adequate thermal efficiency and minimum duration of treatment. - Research highlights: > Fe/MgO magnetic core/shell nanoparticles and their in vitro application for magnetic hyperthermia. > Very good cytotoxicity profile and significant uptake efficiency in three human breast cancer cell lines. > SAR values and fast thermal response guarantee adequate thermal efficiency and minimum treatment duration.
BACTERIAL LYSATES FOR TOPICAL APPLICATION IN PREVENTION AND TREATMENT OF CHRONIC TONSILLITIS AMONG CHILDREN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T.I. Garashchenko

2006-01-01

Full Text Available The authors have carried on the research of the influence Imudon exerts (during topical application on the run of chronic tonsillitis among 48 children aged between 5 and 10 years old, being dispensary registrants. The sublingual application of a medicine 6 pills daily within 20 days demonstrated the frequency reduction of chronic tonsillitis acerbations by 2.9 times, as well as the reduction of total need in systemic antibacterial treatment by 10 times. Apart from that, the frequency of S. pyogenes group a exposure reduced by 3 times. The researchers noticed the tendency to normalization of pharynx biocenosis. Thus, Imudon may be recommended for the daily courses of treatment to the people, suffering from chronic tonsillitis, palatine tonsil auxesis and recurrent tonsillo-pharyngites.Key words: chronic tonsillitis, children, prevention, bacterial lysates.
Fabrication and Water Treatment Application of Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs)-Based Composite Membranes: A Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Lining; Dong, Xinfa; Chen, Mingliang; Zhu, Li; Wang, Chaoxian; Yang, Fenglin; Dong, Yingchao

2017-03-18

Membrane separation technology is widely explored for various applications, such as water desalination and wastewater treatment, which can alleviate the global issue of fresh water scarcity. Specifically, carbon nanotubes (CNTs)-based composite membranes are increasingly of interest due to the combined merits of CNTs and membrane separation, offering enhanced membrane properties. This article first briefly discusses fabrication and growth mechanisms, characterization and functionalization techniques of CNTs, and then reviews the fabrication methods for CNTs-based composite membranes in detail. The applications of CNTs-based composite membranes in water treatment are comprehensively reviewed, including seawater or brine desalination, oil-water separation, removal of heavy metal ions and emerging pollutants as well as membrane separation coupled with assistant techniques. Furthermore, the future direction and perspective for CNTs-based composite membranes are also briefly outlined.
Fabrication and Water Treatment Application of Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs-Based Composite Membranes: A Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lining Ma

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Membrane separation technology is widely explored for various applications, such as water desalination and wastewater treatment, which can alleviate the global issue of fresh water scarcity. Specifically, carbon nanotubes (CNTs-based composite membranes are increasingly of interest due to the combined merits of CNTs and membrane separation, offering enhanced membrane properties. This article first briefly discusses fabrication and growth mechanisms, characterization and functionalization techniques of CNTs, and then reviews the fabrication methods for CNTs-based composite membranes in detail. The applications of CNTs-based composite membranes in water treatment are comprehensively reviewed, including seawater or brine desalination, oil-water separation, removal of heavy metal ions and emerging pollutants as well as membrane separation coupled with assistant techniques. Furthermore, the future direction and perspective for CNTs-based composite membranes are also briefly outlined.
Validation of a physically based catchment model for application in post-closure radiological safety assessments of deep geological repositories for solid radioactive wastes.

Science.gov (United States)

Thorne, M C; Degnan, P; Ewen, J; Parkin, G

2000-12-01

The physically based river catchment modelling system SHETRAN incorporates components representing water flow, sediment transport and radionuclide transport both in solution and bound to sediments. The system has been applied to simulate hypothetical future catchments in the context of post-closure radiological safety assessments of a potential site for a deep geological disposal facility for intermediate and certain low-level radioactive wastes at Sellafield, west Cumbria. In order to have confidence in the application of SHETRAN for this purpose, various blind validation studies have been undertaken. In earlier studies, the validation was undertaken against uncertainty bounds in model output predictions set by the modelling team on the basis of how well they expected the model to perform. However, validation can also be carried out with bounds set on the basis of how well the model is required to perform in order to constitute a useful assessment tool. Herein, such an assessment-based validation exercise is reported. This exercise related to a field plot experiment conducted at Calder Hollow, west Cumbria, in which the migration of strontium and lanthanum in subsurface Quaternary deposits was studied on a length scale of a few metres. Blind predictions of tracer migration were compared with experimental results using bounds set by a small group of assessment experts independent of the modelling team. Overall, the SHETRAN system performed well, failing only two out of seven of the imposed tests. Furthermore, of the five tests that were not failed, three were positively passed even when a pessimistic view was taken as to how measurement errors should be taken into account. It is concluded that the SHETRAN system, which is still being developed further, is a powerful tool for application in post-closure radiological safety assessments.
Spatial and Semantic Validation of Secondary Food Source Data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lyseen, Anders Knørr; Hansen, Henning Sten

2014-01-01

Governmental and commercial lists of food retailers are often used to measure food environments and foodscapes for health and nutritional research. Information about the validity of such secondary food source data is relevant to understanding the potential and limitations of its application....... This study assesses the validity of two government lists of food retailer locations and types by comparing them to direct field observations, including an assessment of whether pre-classification of the directories can reduce the need for field observation. Lists of food retailers were obtained from......-classification was measured through the calculation of PPV, sensitivity and negative prediction value (NPV). The application of either CVR or Smiley as a measure of the food environment would result in a misrepresentation. The pre-classification based on the food retailer names was found to be a valid method for identifying...
[Pay attention to the standardized application of new techniques in surgical treatment of thyroid disease].

Science.gov (United States)

Tian, W; Xi, H Q; Wang, B

2017-08-01

The continuous development and application of new technology in thyroid surgery has promoted the rapid improvement of thyroid surgery. New technology in the field of thyroid surgery has developed rapidly. The application of neural monitoring technology has enabled the thyroid surgery to enter an accurate era. Imtraoperative neuromonitoring and continuous intraoperative neuromonitoring have made the recurrent laryngeal nerve protection more secure. Nano-carbon parathyroid gland negative imaging technology could identify parathyroid gland more precise. However, when the nano-carbon was used, the injection time, position and dosage should be grasped so as to achieve the best effect of negative imaging. Endoscopic and robotic thyroid surgery could meet the demand of cosmetic. "Treatment first, beauty second" is still the principle to be strictly followed. Do not blindly expand indications and pursue endoscopic surgery. Energy surgical instruments' update made the operation more efficient, while the instruments have some disadvantages. Thyroid surgeon must correctly understand the working principle of new energy devices and use them rationally. Through grasping the working principle and application skills of new technology in clinical work, definiting its advantages and disadvantages, adhereing to the "reasonable choice, standard application" principle, learning the pioneers' experience, the application of new thyroid diagnosis and treatment technology could be more reasonable and safe.
CIPS Validation Data Plan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dinh, Nam

2012-01-01

This report documents analysis, findings and recommendations resulted from a task 'CIPS Validation Data Plan (VDP)' formulated as an POR4 activity in the CASL VUQ Focus Area (FA), to develop a Validation Data Plan (VDP) for Crud-Induced Power Shift (CIPS) challenge problem, and provide guidance for the CIPS VDP implementation. The main reason and motivation for this task to be carried at this time in the VUQ FA is to bring together (i) knowledge of modern view and capability in VUQ, (ii) knowledge of physical processes that govern the CIPS, and (iii) knowledge of codes, models, and data available, used, potentially accessible, and/or being developed in CASL for CIPS prediction, to devise a practical VDP that effectively supports the CASL's mission in CIPS applications.
Application of nanotechnology in cancers prevention, early detection and treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Patel, Shraddha P; Patel, Parshottambhai B; Parekh, Bhavesh B

2014-01-01

Use of nanotechnology in medical science is a rapidly developing area. New opportunities of diagnosis, imaging and therapy have developed due to recent rapid advancement by nanotechnology. The most common areas to be affected are diagnostic, imaging and targeted drug delivery in gastroenterology, oncology, cardiovascular medicine, obstetrics and gynecology. Mass screening with inexpensive imaging might be possible in the near future with the help of nanotechnology. This review paper provides an overview of causes of cancer and the application of nanotechnology in cancer prevention, detection and treatment.
Structural redundancy of data from wastewater treatment systems. Determination of individual balance equations.

Science.gov (United States)

Spindler, A

2014-06-15

Although data reconciliation is intensely applied in process engineering, almost none of its powerful methods are employed for validation of operational data from wastewater treatment plants. This is partly due to some prerequisites that are difficult to meet including steady state, known variances of process variables and absence of gross errors. However, an algorithm can be derived from the classical approaches to data reconciliation that allows to find a comprehensive set of equations describing redundancy in the data when measured and unmeasured variables (flows and concentrations) are defined. This is a precondition for methods of data validation based on individual mass balances such as CUSUM charts. The procedure can also be applied to verify the necessity of existing or additional measurements with respect to the improvement of the data's redundancy. Results are given for a large wastewater treatment plant. The introduction aims at establishing a link between methods known from data reconciliation in process engineering and their application in wastewater treatment. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

European Validation of the Integral Code ASTEC (EVITA)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Allelein, H.-J.; Neu, K.; Dorsselaere, J.P. Van

2005-01-01

The main objective of the European Validation of the Integral Code ASTEC (EVITA) project is to distribute the severe accident integral code ASTEC to European partners in order to apply the validation strategy issued from the VASA project (4th EC FWP). Partners evaluate the code capability through validation on reference experiments and plant applications accounting for severe accident management measures, and compare results with reference codes. The basis version V0 of ASTEC (Accident Source Term Evaluation Code)-commonly developed and basically validated by GRS and IRSN-was made available in late 2000 for the EVITA partners on their individual platforms. Users' training was performed by IRSN and GRS. The code portability on different computers was checked to be correct. A 'hot line' assistance was installed continuously available for EVITA code users. The actual version V1 has been released to the EVITA partners end of June 2002. It allows to simulate the front-end phase by two new modules:- for reactor coolant system 2-phase simplified thermal hydraulics (5-equation approach) during both front-end and core degradation phases; - for core degradation, based on structure and main models of ICARE2 (IRSN) reference mechanistic code for core degradation and on other simplified models. Next priorities are clearly identified: code consolidation in order to increase the robustness, extension of all plant applications beyond the vessel lower head failure and coupling with fission product modules, and continuous improvements of users' tools. As EVITA has very successfully made the first step into the intention to provide end-users (like utilities, vendors and licensing authorities) with a well validated European integral code for the simulation of severe accidents in NPPs, the EVITA partners strongly recommend to continue validation, benchmarking and application of ASTEC. This work will continue in Severe Accident Research Network (SARNET) in the 6th Framework Programme
Assessment of generalizability, applicability and predictability (GAP) for evaluating external validity in studies of universal family-based prevention of alcohol misuse in young people: systematic methodological review of randomized controlled trials.

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandez-Hermida, Jose Ramon; Calafat, Amador; Becoña, Elisardo; Tsertsvadze, Alexander; Foxcroft, David R

2012-09-01

To assess external validity characteristics of studies from two Cochrane Systematic Reviews of the effectiveness of universal family-based prevention of alcohol misuse in young people. Two reviewers used an a priori developed external validity rating form and independently assessed three external validity dimensions of generalizability, applicability and predictability (GAP) in randomized controlled trials. The majority (69%) of the included 29 studies were rated 'unclear' on the reporting of sufficient information for judging generalizability from sample to study population. Ten studies (35%) were rated 'unclear' on the reporting of sufficient information for judging applicability to other populations and settings. No study provided an assessment of the validity of the trial end-point measures for subsequent mortality, morbidity, quality of life or other economic or social outcomes. Similarly, no study reported on the validity of surrogate measures using established criteria for assessing surrogate end-points. Studies evaluating the benefits of family-based prevention of alcohol misuse in young people are generally inadequate at reporting information relevant to generalizability of the findings or implications for health or social outcomes. Researchers, study authors, peer reviewers, journal editors and scientific societies should take steps to improve the reporting of information relevant to external validity in prevention trials. © 2012 The Authors. Addiction © 2012 Society for the Study of Addiction.
Ultrasound applications and ionizing radiations in water treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Al-Oraby, M.N.A.

2013-01-01

Application of ultrasound irradiation is one of the innovative techniques that was used for improvement of water treatment process and lowering levels of contaminants in waste water. The main mechanism of sonication is based on the cavitation phenomenon which includes the whole procedure of creation, expansion and collapsing of micro bubbles throughout liquid phase when negative pressure is applied to the medium during sonication. Consequently, hydroxyl and hydrogen radicals would be formed by thermal dissociation of water and hydrogen. These radicals penetrate into water and oxidize dissolved organic compounds. Hydrogen peroxide is formed as a consequence of hydroxyl and water radical recombination. During the free radical attack, the cell membranes of microorganisms are ruptured physically. The application of ionizing radiation for the removal of odorific substances and organic pollutants from water is an advanced oxidation process based on fast reactions with hydroxyl radicals formed as a result of radiolysis of water. GEO and MIB are the main responsible organic composites for the taste and odor in water. These compounds and other organic pollutants such as herbicide 2,4-DCP can be removed by different doses of gamma rays depending on magnitude, rate of radiation dose, chemical condition of the process and other factors. (author)
Development of knowledgebase system for assisting signal validation scheme design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kitamura, M.; Baba, T.; Washio, T.; Sugiyama, K.

1987-01-01

The purpose of this study is to develop a knowledgebase system to be used as a tool for designing signal validation schemes. The outputs from the signal validation scheme can be used as; (1) auxiliary signals for detecting sensor failures, (2) inputs to advanced instrumentation such as disturbance analysis and diagnosis system or safety parameter display system, and (3) inputs to digital control systems. Conventional signal validation techniques such as comparison of redundant sensors, limit checking, and calibration tests have been employed in nuclear power plants. However, these techniques have serious drawbacks, e.g. needs for extra sensors, vulnerability to common mode failures, limited applicability to continuous monitoring, etc. To alleviate these difficulties, a new signal validation technique has been developed by using the methods called analytic redundancy and parity space. Although the new technique has been proved feasible as far as preliminary tests are concerned, further developments should be made in order to enhance its practical applicability
Pesticides residues in water treatment plant sludge: validation of analytical methodology using liquid chromatography coupled to Tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moracci, Luiz Fernando Soares

2008-01-01

The evolving scenario of Brazilian agriculture brings benefits to the population and demands technological advances to this field. Constantly, new pesticides are introduced encouraging scientific studies with the aim of determine and evaluate impacts on the population and on environment. In this work, the evaluated sample was the sludge resulted from water treatment plant located in the Vale do Ribeira, Sao Paulo, Brazil. The technique used was the reversed phase liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. Compounds were previously liquid extracted from the matrix. The development of the methodology demanded data processing in order to be transformed into reliable information. The processes involved concepts of validation of chemical analysis. The evaluated parameters were selectivity, linearity, range, sensitivity, accuracy, precision, limit of detection, limit of quantification and robustness. The obtained qualitative and quantitative results were statistically treated and presented. The developed and validated methodology is simple. As results, even exploring the sensitivity of the analytical technique, the work compounds were not detected in the sludge of the WTP. One can explain that these compounds can be present in a very low concentration, can be degraded under the conditions of the water treatment process or are not completely retained by the WTP. (author)
Toward validation of the cepstral spectral index of dysphonia (CSID) as an objective treatment outcomes measure.

Science.gov (United States)

Peterson, Elizabeth A; Roy, Nelson; Awan, Shaheen N; Merrill, Ray M; Banks, Russell; Tanner, Kristine

2013-07-01

To examine the validity of the Cepstral Spectral Index of Dysphonia (CSID) as an objective treatment outcomes measure of dysphonia severity. Pre- and posttreatment samples of sustained vowel and connected speech productions were elicited from 112 patients across six diagnostic categories: unilateral vocal fold paralysis, adductor spasmodic dysphonia, primary muscle tension dysphonia, benign vocal fold lesions, presbylaryngis, and mutational falsetto. Listener ratings of severity in connected speech were compared with a three-factor CSID model consisting of the cepstral peak prominence (CPP), the low-to-high spectral energy ratio, and its standard deviation. Two additional variables, the CPP standard deviation and gender, were included in the five-factor CSID model to estimate severity of vowels. CSID-estimated severity for sustained vowels and connected speech was strongly associated with listener ratings pretreatment, posttreatment, and change observed pre- to posttreatment. Spectrum effects were examined, and severity of dysphonia did not influence the relationship between listener perceived severity and CSID-estimated severity. The results confirm a robust relationship between listener perceived and CSID-derived dysphonia severity estimates in sustained vowels and connected speech across diverse diagnoses and severity levels and support the clinical utility of the CSID as an objective treatment outcomes measure. Copyright © 2013 The Voice Foundation. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.
Translation and validation of the Persian version of the functional assessment of chronic illness therapy-Spiritual well-being scale (FACIT-Sp) among Muslim Iranians in treatment for cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Jafari, Najmeh; Zamani, Ahmadreza; Lazenby, Mark; Farajzadegan, Ziba; Emami, Hamid; Loghmani, Amir

2013-02-01

The Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being (FACIT-Sp) scale is a valid and reliable instrument to provide an inclusive measure of spirituality in research and clinical practice. The aim of this study was to translate and investigate the reliability and validity of the Persian version of the FACIT-Sp. The 12 item spiritual well-being subscale of the FACIT-Sp Version 4 was translated into the Persian language, Farsi, using the FACIT translation methodology. The questionnaire was administered to a diverse sample of 153 patients in treatment for cancer. Internal consistency was assessed by Cronbach's α coefficient, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was applied to assess construct validity, and regression analysis was used to assess the predictor role of the FACIT-Sp in health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Cronbach's α reliability coefficient for the FACIT-Sp subscales ranged from 0.72 to 0.90. The CFA generally replicated the original conceptualization of the three subscales of the FACIT-Sp12 (Peace, Meaning, and Faith). All three subscales significant predicted HRQOL. The Persian version of the FACIT-Sp scale is a reliable and valid tool for the clinical assessment of, and research into, the spiritual well-being of Muslim Iranian and Farsi-speaking patients in other regions of the world who are in treatment for cancer.
WE-DE-201-04: Cross Validation of Knowledge-Based Treatment Planning for Prostate LDR Brachytherapy Using Principle Component Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Roper, J; Ghavidel, B; Godette, K; Schreibmann, E [Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, GA (United States); Chanyavanich, V [Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers, CO (United States)

2016-06-15

Purpose: To validate a knowledge-based algorithm for prostate LDR brachytherapy treatment planning. Methods: A dataset of 100 cases was compiled from an active prostate seed implant service. Cases were randomized into 10 subsets. For each subset, the 90 remaining library cases were registered to a common reference frame and then characterized on a point by point basis using principle component analysis (PCA). Each test case was converted to PCA vectors using the same process and compared with each library case using a Mahalanobis distance to evaluate similarity. Rank order PCA scores were used to select the best-matched library case. The seed arrangement was extracted from the best-matched case and used as a starting point for planning the test case. Any subsequent modifications were recorded that required input from a treatment planner to achieve V100>95%, V150<60%, V200<20%. To simulate operating-room planning constraints, seed activity was held constant, and the seed count could not increase. Results: The computational time required to register test-case contours and evaluate PCA similarity across the library was 10s. Preliminary analysis of 2 subsets shows that 9 of 20 test cases did not require any seed modifications to obtain an acceptable plan. Five test cases required fewer than 10 seed modifications or a grid shift. Another 5 test cases required approximately 20 seed modifications. An acceptable plan was not achieved for 1 outlier, which was substantially larger than its best match. Modifications took between 5s and 6min. Conclusion: A knowledge-based treatment planning algorithm for prostate LDR brachytherapy is being cross validated using 100 prior cases. Preliminary results suggest that for this size library, acceptable plans can be achieved without planner input in about half of the cases while varying amounts of planner input are needed in remaining cases. Computational time and planning time are compatible with clinical practice.
Computer arithmetic and validity theory, implementation, and applications

CERN Document Server

Kulisch, Ulrich

2013-01-01

This is the revised and extended second edition of the successful basic book on computer arithmetic. It is consistent with the newest recent standard developments in the field. The book shows how the arithmetic capability of the computer can be enhanced. The work is motivated by the desire and the need to improve the accuracy of numerical computing and to control the quality of the computed results (validity). The accuracy requirements for the elementary floating-point operations are extended to the customary product spaces of computations including interval spaces. The mathematical properties
Application of neural computing paradigms for signal validation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Upadhyaya, B.R.; Eryurek, E.; Mathai, G.

1989-01-01

Signal validation and process monitoring problems often require the prediction of one or more process variables in a system. The feasibility of applying neural network paradigms to relate one variable with a set of other related variables is studied. The backpropagation network (BPN) is applied to develop models of signals from both a commercial power plant and the EBR-II. Modification of the BPN algorithm is studied with emphasis on the speed of network training and the accuracy of prediction. The prediction of process variables in a Westinghouse PWR is presented in this paper
Determining the distribution of the absorbed dose for a body exposed to Cs-137 using the Monte Carlo method and application in a brachytherapy treatment planning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Randriantsizafy, R.D.

2014-01-01

Brachytherapy is a means of precise and effective cancer treatment. This is due to the nearby sources of ionizing radiation. The precision and efficiency requires a good dosimetry and a good knowledge of the dose distribution in the patient. The aim is to give the right dose of ionizing radiation to destroy the tumor while reducing the dose to sensitive organs such as the bladder , liver, .... The Monte Carlo is a recognized model method for the distribution of radiation in the material. It is used in this work to determine the doses to organs during treatment planning for Cesium -137 brachytherapy. The programming language used is Python . Library outcome of this work is used in a web application BrachyPy, we designed to replace the manual processing in the Cs-137 brachytherapy planning. Model validation is done by comparing the isodose curves of the model with the isodose curves abacus NUCLETRON and the last report of the American Association of Medical Physics (AAPM) on the amendment to the algorithm TG43. [fr
Treatment Fidelity: Its Importance and Reported Frequency in Aphasia Treatment Studies

Science.gov (United States)

Hinckley, Jacqueline J.; Douglas, Natalie F.

2013-01-01

Purpose: Treatment fidelity is a measure of the reliability of the administration of an intervention in a treatment study. It is an important aspect of the validity of a research study, and it has implications for the ultimate implementation of evidence-supported interventions in typical clinical settings. Method: Aphasia treatment studies…
Realtime validation of treatment programs on reconfigurable ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

We present in this work an Algorithm/ Architecture adequation experience to prototype a real time image coder that will be used in surveillance applications. This last uses two algorithms: the first for compression and storage of the filmed scenes, the second to extract the moving objects edges. For the implementation, we ...
Some guidance on preparing validation plans for the DART Full System Models.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gray, Genetha Anne; Hough, Patricia Diane; Hills, Richard Guy (Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM)

2009-03-01

Planning is an important part of computational model verification and validation (V&V) and the requisite planning document is vital for effectively executing the plan. The document provides a means of communicating intent to the typically large group of people, from program management to analysts to test engineers, who must work together to complete the validation activities. This report provides guidelines for writing a validation plan. It describes the components of such a plan and includes important references and resources. While the initial target audience is the DART Full System Model teams in the nuclear weapons program, the guidelines are generally applicable to other modeling efforts. Our goal in writing this document is to provide a framework for consistency in validation plans across weapon systems, different types of models, and different scenarios. Specific details contained in any given validation plan will vary according to application requirements and available resources.
HTML Validation of Context-Free Languages

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Møller, Anders; Schwarz, Mathias Romme

2011-01-01

We present an algorithm that generalizes HTML validation of individual documents to work on context-free sets of documents. Together with a program analysis that soundly approximates the output of Java Servlets and JSP web applications as context-free languages, we obtain a method for statically...... checking that such web applications never produce invalid HTML at runtime. Experiments with our prototype implementation demonstrate that the approach is useful: On 6 open source web applications consisting of a total of 104 pages, our tool finds 64 errors in less than a second per page, with 0 false...
Design and preliminary validation of a mobile application-based expert system to facilitate repair of medical equipment in resource-limited health settings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wong AL

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Alison L Wong,1,2 Kelly M Lacob,1 Madeline G Wilson,1 Stacie M Zwolski,1 Soumyadipta Acharya1 1Center for Bioengineering, Innovation and Design, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; 2Division of Plastic Surgery, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada Background: One of the greatest barriers to safe surgery is the availability of functional biomedical equipment. Biomedical technicians play a major role in ensuring that equipment is functional. Following in-field observations and an online survey, a mobile application was developed to aid technicians in troubleshooting biomedical equipment. It was hypothesized that this application could be used to aid technicians in equipment repair, as modeled by repair of a pulse oximeter.Methods: To identify specific barriers to equipment repair and maintenance for biomedical technicians, an online survey was conducted to determine current practices and challenges. These findings were used to guide the development of a mobile application system that guides technicians through maintenance and repair tasks. A convenience sample of technicians in Ethiopia tested the application using a broken pulse oximeter task and following this completed usability and content validity surveys.Results: Fifty-three technicians from 13 countries responded to the initial survey. The results of the survey showed that technicians find equipment manuals most useful, but these are not easily accessible. Many do not know how to or are uncomfortable reaching out to human resources. Thirty-three technicians completed the broken pulse oximeter task using the application. All were able to appropriately identify and repair the equipment, and post-task surveys of usability and content validity demonstrated highly positive scores (Agree to Strongly Agree on both scales.Discussion: This research demonstrates the need for improved access to resources for technicians and shows that a mobile application can be used to address a gap in
Epigenetics application in the diagnosis and treatment of bladder cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Harb-de la Rosa, Alfredo; Acker, Matthew; Kumar, Raj A; Manoharan, Murugesan

2015-10-01

Bladder cancer is the sixth most common cancer in the Western world. Patients with bladder cancer require close monitoring, which may include frequent cystoscopy and urine cytology. Such monitoring results in significant health care cost. The application of epigenetics may allow for a risk adapted approach and more cost-effective method of monitoring. A number of epigenetic changes have been described for many cancer sites, including the urinary bladder. In this review, we discuss the use of epigenetics in bladder cancer and the potential diagnostic and therapeutic applications. A comprehensive search of the English medical literature was conducted in PubMed using the terms microRNA regulation, DNA methylation, histone modification and bladder cancer. The most important epigenetic changes include DNA methylation, histone modification and microRNA regulation. Both DNA hypomethylation and hypermethylation have been associated with higher rate of cancer. The association of epigenetic changes with bladder cancer has led to the research of its diagnostic and prognostic implications as well as to the development of novel drugs to target these changes with the aim of achieving a survival benefit. Recently, epigenetics has been shown to play a much greater role than previously anticipated in the initiation and propagation of many tumors. The use of epigenetics for the diagnosis and treatment of bladder cancer is an evolving and promising field. The possibility of reversing epigenetic changes may facilitate additional cancer treatment options in the future.
Application of Cervical Vertebral Maturation Stages Index in Orthodontics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Z.Dalili

2005-02-01

Full Text Available Evaluation of skeletal age and determination of growth status had important and special roie in orthodontic treatment planning (such as functional orthopedic treatment and orthognatic surgery and also in stability of it. There were several biologic indicators for the detection of the peak in mandibular growth. Due to the limitations of biological indicators application, idea of new indicators was seemed importantly. Cervical vertebral maturation (CVM method is one of them. At first the detection of the peak in mandibular growth was based on the analysis of the second through sixth cervical vertebrae in six developmental stages. But a few improvements of the original CVM analysis were still needed. In this method, the peak in mandibular growth was determined based on the analysis of the second through fourth cervical vertebrae in five developmental stages. This method is easy, applicable and more valid than hand-wrist analysis method.
Benefit and harm of intensive blood pressure treatment: Derivation and validation of risk models using data from the SPRINT and ACCORD trials.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sanjay Basu

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Intensive blood pressure (BP treatment can avert cardiovascular disease (CVD events but can cause some serious adverse events. We sought to develop and validate risk models for predicting absolute risk difference (increased risk or decreased risk for CVD events and serious adverse events from intensive BP therapy. A secondary aim was to test if the statistical method of elastic net regularization would improve the estimation of risk models for predicting absolute risk difference, as compared to a traditional backwards variable selection approach.Cox models were derived from SPRINT trial data and validated on ACCORD-BP trial data to estimate risk of CVD events and serious adverse events; the models included terms for intensive BP treatment and heterogeneous response to intensive treatment. The Cox models were then used to estimate the absolute reduction in probability of CVD events (benefit and absolute increase in probability of serious adverse events (harm for each individual from intensive treatment. We compared the method of elastic net regularization, which uses repeated internal cross-validation to select variables and estimate coefficients in the presence of collinearity, to a traditional backwards variable selection approach. Data from 9,069 SPRINT participants with complete data on covariates were utilized for model development, and data from 4,498 ACCORD-BP participants with complete data were utilized for model validation. Participants were exposed to intensive (goal systolic pressure < 120 mm Hg versus standard (<140 mm Hg treatment. Two composite primary outcome measures were evaluated: (i CVD events/deaths (myocardial infarction, acute coronary syndrome, stroke, congestive heart failure, or CVD death, and (ii serious adverse events (hypotension, syncope, electrolyte abnormalities, bradycardia, or acute kidney injury/failure. The model for CVD chosen through elastic net regularization included interaction terms suggesting that older
Development, reliability and validity of the Diabetes Illness Representations Questionnaire

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skinner, T. C.; Howells, L.; Greene, S.

2003-01-01

Aims: This article reports on the development and validity of a Diabetes-specific Illness Representations Questionnaire (DIRQ) to assess all five dimensions of an individual's perception of diabetes, for adolescents with Type 1 diabetes mellitus. Methods: There were two development studies. Study 1...... with a diabetes self-efficacy and barriers to adherence questionnaire. Subsequently there were two validation studies. Study 3: participants (n = 44 adolescents and 28 parents) completed the DIRQ and questionnaires assessing their self-care and psychological well-being. Glycaemic control was assessed through...... consist of two subscales, perceived threat and perceived impact, and provide further support for the distinction between treatment effectiveness to control diabetes and treatment effectiveness to prevent complications. Along with the validation studies, the results indicate that the questionnaire scales...

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