A lightweight approach to technical risk estimation via probabilistic impact analysis.

ABSTRACT An evolutionary development approach is increasingly commonplace in industry but presents increased difficulties in risk management, for both technical and organizational reasons. In this context, technical risk is the product of the probability of a technical event and the cost of that event. This paper presents a technique for more objectively assessing and communicating technical risk in an evolutionary development setting that (1) operates atop weaklyestimated knowledge of the changes to be made, (2) analyzes the past change history and current structure of a system to estimate the probability of change propagation, and (3) can be discussed vertically within an organization both with development staff and high-level management. A tool realizing this technique has been developed for the Eclipse IDE

Novel verbal fluency scores and structural brain imaging for prediction of cognitive outcome in mild cognitive impairment

AbstractIntroductionThe objective of this study was to assess the utility of novel verbal fluency scores for predicting conversion from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to clinical Alzheimer's disease (AD).MethodVerbal fluency lists (animals, vegetables, F, A, and S) from 107 MCI patients and 51 cognitively normal controls were transcribed into electronic text files and automatically scored with traditional raw scores and five types of novel scores computed using methods from machine learning and natural language processing. Additional scores were derived from structural MRI scans: region of interest measures of hippocampal and ventricular volumes and gray matter scores derived from performing ICA on measures of cortical thickness. Over 4 years of follow-up, 24 MCI patients converted to AD. Using conversion as the outcome variable, ensemble classifiers were constructed by training classifiers on the individual groups of scores and then entering predictions from the primary classifiers into regularized logistic regression models. Receiver operating characteristic curves were plotted, and the area under the curve (AUC) was measured for classifiers trained with five groups of available variables.ResultsClassifiers trained with novel scores outperformed those trained with raw scores (AUC 0.872 vs 0.735; P < .05 by DeLong test). Addition of structural brain measurements did not improve performance based on novel scores alone.ConclusionThe brevity and cost profile of verbal fluency tasks recommends their use for clinical decision making. The word lists generated are a rich source of information for predicting outcomes in MCI. Further work is needed to assess the utility of verbal fluency for early AD

Refactoring references for library migration

Bibliography: p. 105-11

Effect of mineral trioxide aggregate as a direct pulp capping agent in cariously exposed permanent teeth

Aims and Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) when used as a pulp capping agent in permanent teeth with carious exposure (≤1mm) after root formation is completed. Materials and Methods: Clinical follow-up was performed on 32 mandibular molars with deep occlusal caries, in patients in the age group range of 18 to 42 years. Carious pulpal exposures were treated by direct pulp capping with MTA, followed by a base of light cure glass ionomer cement and restored with amalgam. Clinical and radiographic examinations were carried out periodically at 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18 and 24 months. Results: After 24 months clinical and radiographic follow-up, it was found that 25 (out of 32) patients had successful outcome. However, two patients failed to return for evaluation after permanent restoration, and five patients exhibited clinical failure. Conclusions: Mineral trioxide aggregate was found to be an effective material when used for direct pulp capping in permanent teeth. However, further investigations with a larger sample size are needed to support these findings

Refactoring References for Library Migration - Appendix

This report is a companion to the paper “Refactoring References for Library Migration” published at the ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Systems, Programming, Languages, and Applications: Software for Humanity (SPLASH) 2010. It provides the detailed results mentioned therein.N

A lightweight approach to technical risk estimation via probabilistic impact analysis

ABSTRACT An evolutionary development approach is increasingly commonplace in industry but presents increased difficulties in risk management, for both technical and organizational reasons. In this context, technical risk is the product of the probability of a technical event and the cost of that event. This paper presents a technique for more objectively assessing and communicating technical risk in an evolutionary development setting that (1) operates atop weaklyestimated knowledge of the changes to be made, (2) analyzes the past change history and current structure of a system to estimate the probability of change propagation, and (3) can be discussed vertically within an organization both with development staff and high-level management. A tool realizing this technique has been developed for the Eclipse IDE

Increase in the use of inhaled nitric oxide in neonatal intensive care units in England: a retrospective population study

Objective To describe temporal changes in inhaled nitric oxide (iNO) use in English neonatal units between 2010 and 2015.Design Retrospective analysis using data extracted from the National Neonatal Research Database.Setting All National Health Service neonatal units in England.Patients Infants of all gestational ages born 2010–2015 admitted to a neonatal unit and received intensive care.Main outcome measures Proportion of infants who received iNO; age at initiation and duration of iNO use.Results 4.9% (6346/129 883) of infants received iNO; 31% (1959/6346) were born &lt;29 weeks, 18% (1152/6346) 29–33 weeks and 51% (3235/6346)&gt;34 weeks of gestation. Between epoch 1 (2010–2011) and epoch 3 (2014–2015), there was (1) an increase in the proportion of infants receiving iNO: &lt;29 weeks (4.9% vs 15.9%); 29–33 weeks (1.1% vs 4.8%); &gt;34 weeks (4.5% vs 5.0%), (2) increase in postnatal age at iNO initiation: &lt;29 weeks 10 days vs 18 days; 29–33 weeks 2 days vs 10 days, (iii) reduction in iNO duration: &lt;29 weeks (3 days vs 2 days); 29–33 weeks (2 days vs 1 day).Conclusions Between 2010 and 2015, there was an increase in the use of iNO among infants admitted to English neonatal units. This was most notable among the most premature infants with an almost fourfold increase. Given the cost of iNO therapy, limited evidence of efficacy in preterm infants and potential for harm, we suggest that exposure to iNO should be limited, ideally to infants included in research studies (either observational or randomised placebo-controlled trial) or within a protocolised pathway. Development of consensus guidelines may also help standardise practice