A Review and Classification of Approaches for Dealing with Uncertainty in Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for Healthcare Decisions

The Author(s) 2015. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is increasingly used to support decisions in healthcare involving multiple and conflicting criteria. Although uncertainty is usually carefully addressed in health eco-nomic evaluations, whether and how the different sources of uncertainty are dealt with and with what methods in MCDA is less known. The objective of this study is to review how uncertainty can be explicitly taken into account in MCDA and to discuss which approach may be appro-priate for healthcare decision makers. A literature review was conducted in the Scopus and PubMed databases. Two reviewers independently categorized studies according to research areas, the type of MCDA used, and the approach used to quantify uncertainty. Selected full text articles wer

Comparison of anti Chlamydia antibodies in tubal and non-tubal infertile patients

Background and purpose: Chlamydia trachomatis infection is one of the most prevalent bacterial sexually transmitted infection in most countries. This organism may stay in genital tract for long time and cause subtle yet progressive damage in fallopian tubes. In this study we evaluate the correlation between chlamydia antibodies and tubal and other factors of infertility.Materials and Methods: In this case control study, 28 patients with tubal factor infertility, 28 patients with non tubal factor infertility and 30 normal patients were enroled. Presence or absence of tubal factor was assessed by direct vision via laparscopy, then titres of IgA and IgG were evaluated in all of them using ELISA method in the same labratory. Data were recoded and analyzed using SPSS software and chi-square, Fisher's exact, T-test and Mann- Whitney test.Results: Positive titre of IgG was higher in tubal factor infertility but it was not statistically significant between three groups (p>0.294). Positive titres of IgA were more common in non tubal factor infertility (p=0.007). Though positive and negative titres of IgA (P=0.224) and IgG (P=0.273) were not statistically different in fertile and infertile patients. Positive and negative titres of IgA and IgG were also not statistically different in patients with or without PID (p>0.05).Conclusion: No correlation was found between the positive titres of IgG and IgA against Chlamydia and tubal factor infertility

Efeitos da velocidade e da direção do vento na uniformidade de aplicação de água de sistemas autopropelidos Effects of wind speed and direction on water application uniformity of traveler irrigation systems

A velocidade e a direção de incidência do vento, em relação ao eixo de deslocamento do aspersor, são variáveis apresentadas em vários trabalhos como fatores importantes para a determinação da uniformidade de aplicação de água dos equipamentos autopropelidos de irrigação. No entanto, em razão das dificuldades de se conduzir estudos de campo com canhões hidráulicos sob condições controladas de direção e velocidade do vento, as recomendações de espaçamento entre carreadores, em sua maioria, consideram apenas o efeito da velocidade do vento, sem mencionar a direção de sua incidência. Neste trabalho, a aplicação de coeficientes semiempíricos do modelo Richards & Weatherhead, ajustados com base em ensaios de campo do canhão PLONA RL-250, possibilitou realizar, por meio de simulações digitais, uma análise quantitativa dos efeitos da velocidade e da direção do vento sobre a uniformidade de aplicação de água dos sistemas autopropelidos. As simulações indicaram que, na medida em que a incidência do vento passa de perpendicular para paralela ao eixo de deslocamento, os efeitos prejudiciais da velocidade do vento sobre a uniformidade são ampliados. Desta forma, fica evidenciado que tanto a direção como a velocidade do vento devem ser consideradas nas recomendações de espaçamento entre carreadores.<br>Wind velocity and its direction, in relation to the sprinkler travel axis, are pointed out as key factors in determining water application uniformity of traveler irrigation machines. However, due to difficulties in running field tests with rain guns under controlled wind conditions, most towpath spacing recommendations consider only wind velocity without mentioning its direction. In this study, the application of semi-empirical parameters from RICHARDS & WEATERHEAD model's, adjusted based on field tests with the rain gun PLONA RL-250, provided with the help of computer simulation, the data necessary for a quantitative analysis about the effects of wind velocity and direction on water application uniformity of traveler irrigation systems. Simulations indicated that as wind direction moves from perpendicular to parallel to the sprinkler travel axis, the deleterious effects of wind velocity are enhanced. Therefore, these results demonstrated that both wind direction and wind speed must be considered on towpath spacing recommendations