Publication bias in situ

BACKGROUND: Publication bias, as typically defined, refers to the decreased likelihood of studies' results being published when they are near the null, not statistically significant, or otherwise "less interesting." But choices about how to analyze the data and which results to report create a publication bias within the published results, a bias I label "publication bias in situ" (PBIS). DISCUSSION: PBIS may create much greater bias in the literature than traditionally defined publication bias (the failure to publish any result from a study). The causes of PBIS are well known, consisting of various decisions about reporting that are influenced by the data. But its impact is not generally appreciated, and very little attention is devoted to it. What attention there is consists largely of rules for statistical analysis that are impractical and do not actually reduce the bias in reported estimates. PBIS cannot be reduced by statistical tools because it is not fundamentally a problem of statistics, but rather of non-statistical choices and plain language interpretations. PBIS should be recognized as a phenomenon worthy of study – it is extremely common and probably has a huge impact on results reported in the literature – and there should be greater systematic efforts to identify and reduce it. The paper presents examples, including results of a recent HIV vaccine trial, that show how easily PBIS can have a large impact on reported results, as well as how there can be no simple answer to it. SUMMARY: PBIS is a major problem, worthy of substantially more attention than it receives. There are ways to reduce the bias, but they are very seldom employed because they are largely unrecognized

Numerical simulation of a new type of cross flow tidal turbine using OpenFOAM - Part II: Investigation of turbine-to-turbine interaction

Copyright © 2013 Elsevier. NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Renewable Energy. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Renewable Energy, Volume 50 (2013), DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2012.08.064Prediction of turbine-to-turbine interaction represents a significant challenge in determining the optimized power output from a tidal stream farm, and this is an active research area. This paper presents a detailed work which examines the influence of surrounding turbines on the performance of a base case (isolated turbine). The study was conducted using a new CFD based, Immersed Body Force (IBF) model, which was validated in the first paper, and an open source CFD software package OpenFOAM was used for the simulations. The influence of the surrounding turbines was investigated using randomly chosen initial lateral and longitudinal spacing among the turbines. The initial spacing was then varied to obtain four configurations to examine the relative effect that positioning can have on the performance of the base turbine

How patients and clinicians experience the utility of a personalized clinical feedback system in routine practice

The objective was to explore how a person-adaptive clinical feedback system (CFS) effects its users, and how meaning and relevance are negotiated. We conducted a 10-month case-study of the implementation and practice of Norse Feedback, a personalized CFS. The data material consisted of 12 patient interviews, 22 clinician interviews, 23 field notes, and 16 archival documents. We identified four main categories or themes: (i) patients' use of clinical feedback for enhanced awareness and insight; (ii) patients work to make clinical feedback a communication mode; (iii) patients and clinicians negotiate clinical feedback as a way to influence treatment; and (iv) clinical feedback requires an interactive sense-making effort. Patients and therapists produced the meaning and relevance of the CFS by interpreting the CFS measures to reflect the unique patient experience of the patient-therapist relationship. Patients regarded CFS as a tool to inform therapy with important issues. Patients became more self-aware and prepared for therapy. [Abstract copyright: © 2020 The Authors. Journal of Clinical Psychology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Demonstration and Comparison of Operation of Photomultiplier Tubes at Liquid Argon Temperature

Liquified noble gases are widely used as a target in direct Dark Matter searches. Signals from scintillation in the liquid, following energy deposition from the recoil nuclei scattered by Dark Matter particles (e.g. WIMPs), should be recorded down to very low energies by photosensors suitably designed to operate at cryogenic temperatures. Liquid Argon based detectors for Dark Matter searches currently implement photo multiplier tubes for signal read-out. In the last few years PMTs with photocathodes operating down to liquid Argon temperatures (87 K) have been specially developed with increasing Quantum Efficiency characteristics. The most recent of these, Hamamatsu Photonics Mod. R11065 with peak QE up to about 35%, has been extensively tested within the R&D program of the WArP Collaboration. During these testes the Hamamatsu PMTs showed superb performance and allowed obtaining a light yield around 7 phel/keVee in a Liquid Argon detector with a photocathodic coverage in the 12% range, sufficient for detection of events down to few keVee of energy deposition. This shows that this new type of PMT is suited for experimental applications, in particular for new direct Dark Matter searches with LAr-based experiments

A Toy Model for Testing Finite Element Methods to Simulate Extreme-Mass-Ratio Binary Systems

Extreme mass ratio binary systems, binaries involving stellar mass objects orbiting massive black holes, are considered to be a primary source of gravitational radiation to be detected by the space-based interferometer LISA. The numerical modelling of these binary systems is extremely challenging because the scales involved expand over several orders of magnitude. One needs to handle large wavelength scales comparable to the size of the massive black hole and, at the same time, to resolve the scales in the vicinity of the small companion where radiation reaction effects play a crucial role. Adaptive finite element methods, in which quantitative control of errors is achieved automatically by finite element mesh adaptivity based on posteriori error estimation, are a natural choice that has great potential for achieving the high level of adaptivity required in these simulations. To demonstrate this, we present the results of simulations of a toy model, consisting of a point-like source orbiting a black hole under the action of a scalar gravitational field.Comment: 29 pages, 37 figures. RevTeX 4.0. Minor changes to match the published versio

"Clone Wars": Episode II - The Next Generation: The Copyright Implications relating to 3D Printing and Computer-Aided Design (CAD) Files

The future market potential of 3D printing will rest on the dissemination of Computer Aided Design (CAD) files. Without clear instructions from a CAD file, a 3D printer will not function. In fact, “a 3D printer without an attached computer and a good design file is as useless as an iPod without music”. The importance of CAD-based design files, therefore, cannot be underestimated. Drawing on UK and EU copyright laws and their application to 3D printing and CAD files, this paper will, first, question whether CAD files can be protected by copyright law before considering the copyright implications thrown up by the modification of CAD files as a result of scanning and the use of online tools. Highlighting some of the challenges for rights holders and users existent in the present law the paper advocates new business models over a premature call for stringent intellectual property laws before concluding with some recommendations for the future

Dynamic inundation simulation of storm water interaction between sewer system and overland flows

Copyright © 2002 Taylor & FrancisThis is the Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in the Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers (2002), available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/02533839.2002.9670691An improved urban inundation model, coupling a 2D non‐inertia overland flow model with a storm water management model, is adopted to simulate inundation in urban areas. The model computes, not only the overland runoff and the water overflow through manholes where surface runoff exceeds the capacity of storm sewers, but also the bidirectional flow interactions between sewers and overland runoff. The model was verified by a typhoon event in Nov. 2000, which resulted in serious inundation in the Mucha area of Taipei City. The result shows that the present model indeed improves simulation accuracy over the earlier model, and can be used to provide a more reliable flood mitigation design

Applying formal methods to standard development: the open distributed processing experience

Since their introduction, formal methods have been applied in various ways to different standards. This paper gives an account of these applications, focusing on one application in particular: the development of a framework for creating standards for Open Distributed Processing (ODP). Following an introduction to ODP, the paper gives an insight into the current work on formalising the architecture of the Reference Model of ODP (RM-ODP), highlighting the advantages to be gained. The different approaches currently being taken are shown, together with their associated advantages and disadvantages. The paper concludes that there is no one all-purpose approach which can be used in preference to all others, but that a combination of approaches is desirable to best fulfil the potential of formal methods in developing an architectural semantics for OD

Advances in the treatment of hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis: A review

Introduction: Amyloid transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTR) is a progressive and often fatal disease caused by the buildup of mutated (hereditary ATTR [hATTR]; also known as ATTR variant [ATTRv]) or normal transthyretin (wild-type ATTR) throughout the body. Two new therapies-inotersen, an antisense oligonucleotide therapy, and patisiran, an RNA interference therapy-received marketing authorization and represent a significant advance in the treatment of amyloidosis. Herein, we describe the clinical presentation of ATTR, commonly used procedures in its diagnosis, and current treatment landscape for ATTR, with a focus on hATTR. Methods: A PubMed search from 2008 to September 2018 was conducted to review the literature on ATTR. Results: Until recently, there have been few treatment options for polyneuropathy of hATTR. Inotersen and patisiran substantially reduce the amyloidogenic precursor protein transthyretin and have demonstrated efficacy in patients with early- and late-stage disease and in slowing or improving neuropathy progression. In contrast, established therapies, such as liver transplantation, typically reserved for patients with early-stage disease, and tafamidis, indicated for the treatment of early-stage disease in Europe, or diflunisal, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug that is used off-label, are associated with side effects and/or unclear efficacy in certain patient populations. Thus, inotersen and patisiran are positioned to be the preferred therapeutic modalities. Conclusions: Important differences between inotersen and patisiran, including formulation, dosing, requirements for premedications, and safety monitoring, require an understanding and knowledge of each treatment for informed decision making.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Young people, crime and school exclusion: a case of some surprises

During the 1990s the number of young people being permanently excluded from schools in England and Wales increased dramatically from 2,910 (1990/91) to a peak of 12,700 (1996/97). Coinciding with this rise was a resurgence of the debate centring on lawless and delinquent youth. With the publication of Young People and Crime (Graham and Bowling 1995) and Misspent Youth (Audit Commission 1996) the 'common sense assumption' that exclusion from school inexorably promoted crime received wide support, with the school excludee portrayed as another latter day 'folk devil'. This article explores the link between school exclusion and juvenile crime, and offers some key findings from a research study undertaken with 56 young people who had experience of being excluded from school. Self-report interview questions reveal that whilst 40 of the young people had offended, 90% (36) reported that the onset of their offending commenced prior to their first exclusion. Moreover, 50 (89.2% of the total number of young people in the sample), stated that they were no more likely to offend subsequent to being excluded and 31 (55.4%) stated that they were less likely to offend during their exclusion period. Often, this was because on being excluded, they were 'grounded' by their parents