An Empirical Study of Scoring Methods for the Conover Driving Attitude Inventory

The measurement of driving attitudes has followed in the wake of various studies and statistical data indicating that improper attitudes are responsible for an unduly high percentage of accidents. Certain of these tests have limitations, one of which is an economical method of scoring. Conover (Conover, 1947) used a scoring method such that the values 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, are assigned respectively to the responses designated as; most displeasing, displeasing, indifferent, pleasing, and most pleasing, for the positive items, and to avoid negative scores the values 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, are assigned respectively to the same responses; most displeasing, displeasing, indifferent, pleasing, and very pleasing, on the negative items. Summing the positive items according to the values given and the negative items by the reverse scoring system, the score for an individual is obtained. The Conover Driving Attitude Inventory is designed to measure the attitudes of individuals toward factors shown to be important in safe driving. An individual\u27s attitude toward specific factors, as indicated by his response to the items of the scale may be considered to constitute his attitude toward safe driving in general. In other words it is a test of one\u27s reactions to everyday driving experiences while behind the wheel. One-hundred fifty items make up the scale, thirty-five of which are considered positive items, thirty negative, and the remaining eighty-five are considered as fillers

Evaluation of the Birmingham IBS symptom questionnaire

Abstract Background Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a chronic/common condition that causes a significant effect on the individual (reduced quality of life), society (time lost off work) and health services. Comparison of studies evaluating the management of IBS has been hindered by the lack of a widely adopted validated symptom score. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a disease specific score to measure the symptoms of patients with IBS. Methods A self-administered 14-item symptom questionnaire (based on Rome II criteria) was mailed to 533 persons included in a prevalence study of IBS. The reliability of each underlying dimension identified was measured by Cronbach's α. Validity was assessed by comparing symptom scores with concurrent IBS specific quality of life (QoL) scores. Reproducibility was measured by the test-retest method and responsiveness measured by effect size. Results 379 (71%) questionnaires were returned. The underlying dimensions identified were pain, diarrhoea and constipation. Cronbach's α was 0.74 for pain, 0.90 for diarrhoea and 0.79 for constipation. Pain and diarrhoea dimensions had good external validity (r = -0.3 to -0.6), constipation dimension had moderate external validity (r = -0.2 to -0.3). All dimensions were reproducible (ICCs 0.75 to 0.81). Effect sizes of 0.27 to 0.53 were calculated for those with a reported improvement in symptoms. Conclusion The Birmingham IBS Symptom Questionnaire has been developed and tested. It has been shown to be suitable for self-completion and acceptable to patients. The questionnaire has 3 internal dimensions which have good reliability, external validity and are responsive to a change in health status.</p

Development and preliminary validation of a Greek-language outpatient satisfaction questionnaire with principal components and multi-trait analyses

BACKGROUND: In the recent years there is a growing interest in Greece concerning the measurement of the satisfaction of patients who are visiting the outpatient clinics of National Health System (NHS) general acute hospitals. The aim of this study is therefore to develop a patient satisfaction questionnaire and provide its preliminary validation. METHODS: A questionnaire in Greek has been developed by literature review, researchers' on the spot observation and interviews. Pretesting has been followed by telephone surveys in two short-term general NHS hospitals in Macedonia, Greece. A proportional stratified random sample of 285 subjects and a second random sample of 100 outpatients, drawn on March 2004, have been employed for the analysis. These have resulted in scale creation via Principal Components Analysis and psychometric testing for internal consistency, test-retest and interrater reliability as well as construct validity. RESULTS: Four summated scales have emerged regarding the pure outpatient component of the patients' visits, namely medical examination, hospital environment, comfort and appointment time. Cronbach's alpha coefficients and Pearson, Spearman and intraclass correlations indicate a high degree of scale reliability and validity. Two other scales -lab appointment time and lab experience- capture the apparently distinct yet complementary visitor experience related to the radiographic and laboratory tests. Psychometric tests are equally promising, however, some discriminant validity differences lack statistical significance. CONCLUSION: The instrument appears to be reliable and valid regarding the pure outpatient experience, whereas more research employing larger samples is required in order to establish the apparent psychometric properties of the complementary radiographic and laboratory-testing process, which is only relevant to about 25% of the subjects analysed here

Klf15 Is Critical for the Development and Differentiation of Drosophila Nephrocytes

Insect nephrocytes are highly endocytic scavenger cells that represent the only invertebrate model for the study of human kidney podocytes. Despite their importance, nephrocyte development is largely uncharacterised. This work tested whether the insect ortholog of mammalian Kidney Krüppel-Like Factor (Klf15), a transcription factor required for mammalian podocyte differentiation, was required for insect nephrocyte development. It was found that expression of Drosophila Klf15 (dKlf15, previously known as Bteb2) was restricted to the only two nephrocyte populations in Drosophila, the garland cells and pericardial nephrocytes. Loss of dKlf15 function led to attrition of both nephrocyte populations and sensitised larvae to the xenotoxin silver nitrate. Although pericardial nephrocytes in dKlf15 loss of function mutants were specified during embryogenesis, they failed to express the slit diaphragm gene sticks and stones and did not form slit diaphragms. Conditional silencing of dKlf15 in adults led to reduced surface expression of the endocytic receptor Amnionless and loss of in vivo scavenger function. Over-expression of dKlf15 increased nephrocyte numbers and rescued age-dependent decline in nephrocyte function. The data place dKlf15 upstream of sns and Amnionless in a nephrocyte-restricted differentiation pathway and suggest dKlf15 expression is both necessary and sufficient to sustain nephrocyte differentiation. These findings explain the physiological relevance of dKlf15 in Drosophila and imply that the role of KLF15 in human podocytes is evolutionarily conserve

Measuring the impact of cancer: a comparison of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and breast cancer survivors

Introduction Self-report instruments such as the Impact of Cancer (IOC) are designed to measure quality of life (QOL) impacts that cancer survivors attribute to their cancer experience. Generalizability of QOL findings across dis-tinct diagnostic categories of survivors is untested. W

Event-Related Potential Correlates of Performance-Monitoring in a Lateralized Time-Estimation Task

Performance-monitoring as a key function of cognitive control covers a wide range of diverse processes to enable goal directed behavior and to avoid maladjustments. Several event-related brain potentials (ERP) are associated with performance-monitoring, but their conceptual background differs. For example, the feedback-related negativity (FRN) is associated with unexpected performance feedback and might serve as a teaching signal for adaptational processes, whereas the error-related negativity (ERN) is associated with error commission and subsequent behavioral adaptation. The N2 is visible in the EEG when the participant successfully inhibits a response following a cue and thereby adapts to a given stop-signal. Here, we present an innovative paradigm to concurrently study these different performance-monitoring-related ERPs. In 24 participants a tactile time-estimation task interspersed with infrequent stop-signal trials reliably elicited all three ERPs. Sensory input and motor output were completely lateralized, in order to estimate any hemispheric processing preferences for the different aspects of performance monitoring associated with these ERPs. In accordance with the literature our data suggest augmented inhibitory capabilities in the right hemisphere given that stop-trial performance was significantly better with left- as compared to right-hand stop-signals. In line with this, the N2 scalp distribution was generally shifted to the right in addition to an ipsilateral shift in relation to the response hand. Other than that, task lateralization affected neither behavior related to error and feedback processing nor ERN or FRN. Comparing the ERP topographies using the Global Map Dissimilarity index, a large topographic overlap was found between all considered components.With an evenly distributed set of trials and a split-half reliability for all ERP components ≥.85 the task is well suited to efficiently study N2, ERN, and FRN concurrently which might prove useful for group comparisons, especially in clinical populations