On the matched pairs sign test using bivariate ranked set sampling: an application to environmental issues

The matched pairs sign test using bivariate ranked set sampling (BVRSS) is introduced and investigated. We show that this test is asymptotically more efficient than its counterpart sign test based on a bivariate simple random sample (BVSRS). The asymptotic null distribution and the efficiency of the test are derived. The Pitman asymptotic relative efficiency is used to compare the asymptotic performance of the matched pairs sign test using BVRSS versus using BVSRS. For small sample sizes, the bootstrap method is used to estimate P-values. Numerical comparisons are used to gain insight about the efficiency of the BVRSS sign test compared to the BVSRS sign test. Our numerical and theoretical results indicate that using BVRSS for the matched pairs sign test is substantially more efficient than using BVSRS. Illustration using palm trees data from sultanate of Oman is provided.Key words: Bootstrap method, bivariate ranked set sample, power of the test, P-value of the test, Pitman’s relative efficiency, sign test

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Effect of electricity tariff on the optimum insulation-thickness in building walls as determined by a dynamic heat-transfer model

Thermal insulation is one of the most effective energy-conservation measures in buildings. Despite the widespread use of insulation materials in recent years, little is known regarding their optimum thickness under dynamic thermal conditions. Insulated concrete blocks are among the units most commonly used in the construction of building walls in Saudi Arabia. Typically, the insulation layer thickness is fixed at a value in the range 2.5-7.5 cm, regardless of the climatic conditions, type and cost of insulation material, and other economic parameters. In the present study, a numerical model based on a finite-volume, time-dependent implicit procedure, which has been previously validated, is used to compute the yearly cooling and heating transmission loads under steady periodic conditions through a typical building wall, for different insulation thicknesses. The transmission loads, calculated by using the climatic conditions of Riyadh for a west-facing wall, are fed into an economic model in order to determine the optimum thickness of insulation (Lopt). The latter corresponds to the minimum total cost, which includes the cost of insulation material and its installation plus the present value of energy consumption cost over the lifetime of the building. The optimum insulation thickness depends on the electricity tariff as well as the cost of insulation material, lifetime of the building, inflation and discount rates, and coefficient of performance of the air-conditioning equipment. In the present study, the effect of electricity tariff on the computed optimum insulation thickness is investigated. Different average electricity tariffs are considered; namely, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 SR/kWh (designated as Cases 1-5, respectively; 1 US$ = 3.75 Saudi Riyals). Results using moulded polystyrene as an insulating material show that the values of Lopt are: 4.8, 7.2, 10.9, 13.7 and 16.0 cm for Cases 1-5. Under the conditions of optimal insulation thickness for each electricity tariff, Case 1 gives the lowest total cost of 17.4 SR/m2, while Case 5 gives the highest total cost of 53.1 SR/m2. Corresponding thermal performance characteristics in terms of yearly total and peak transmission loads, R-value, time lag and decrement factor are presented.Insulated building walls Optimum insulation-thickness Dynamic heat-transmission R-value Electricity tariff