Combining speed and accuracy in cognitive psychology: is the Inverse Efficiency Score (IES) a better dependent variable than the mean Reaction Time (RT) and the Percentage of Errors (PE)?

Experiments in cognitive psychology usually return two dependent variables: the percentage of errors and the reaction time of the correct responses. Townsend and Ashby (1978, 1983) proposed the inverse efficiency score (IES) as a way to combine both measures and, hence, to provide a better summary of the findings. In this article we examine the usefulness of IES by applying it to existing datasets. Although IES does give a better summary of the findings in some cases, mostly the variance of the measure is increased to such an extent that it becomes less interesting. Against our initial hopes, we have to conclude that it is not a good idea to limit the statistical analyses to IES without further checking the data

Medical Image Data and Datasets in the Era of Machine Learning-Whitepaper from the 2016 C-MIMI Meeting Dataset Session.

At the first annual Conference on Machine Intelligence in Medical Imaging (C-MIMI), held in September 2016, a conference session on medical image data and datasets for machine learning identified multiple issues. The common theme from attendees was that everyone participating in medical image evaluation with machine learning is data starved. There is an urgent need to find better ways to collect, annotate, and reuse medical imaging data. Unique domain issues with medical image datasets require further study, development, and dissemination of best practices and standards, and a coordinated effort among medical imaging domain experts, medical imaging informaticists, government and industry data scientists, and interested commercial, academic, and government entities. High-level attributes of reusable medical image datasets suitable to train, test, validate, verify, and regulate ML products should be better described. NIH and other government agencies should promote and, where applicable, enforce, access to medical image datasets. We should improve communication among medical imaging domain experts, medical imaging informaticists, academic clinical and basic science researchers, government and industry data scientists, and interested commercial entities

The ostium primum or partial atrioventricular septal defect

peer reviewedaudience: researcher, professional, studentOften assimilated to simple inter-atrial communication, the ostium primum, or partial atrio-ventricular septal defect, is an entity that is characterized by a different embryological mechanism and requires some specific surgical expertise. Basically, knowledge of the morphology of the common atrioventricular valve with 5 components, the topography of the A-V node and His bundle, and the ventricular consequences of the absence of atrio-ventricular septal structures must be taken into account

USMC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT EDUCATION SNCO DEGREE COMPLETION PROGRAM ACCOUNTING DEGREE

The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is required by the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 to provide annual financial reports to stakeholders. For fiscal year 2021 and prior, independent auditors of these reports have produced a disclaimer of opinion with numerous material weaknesses and departures from standards in financial reporting and internal controls. Our thesis analyzed one course of action to improve Marine Corps auditability. Would better participation and utilization of the Staff Non-Commissioned Officer Degree Program (SNCODP), specifically the baccalaureate degree in accounting, improve the Marine Corps capability to achieve an unmodified audit opinion? Our methodology consisted of a task comparison, a capabilities comparison, and a cost benefit analysis (CBA). The task comparison reviewed the Marine Corps' requirements to be completed by technically competent personnel. The capabilities comparison reviewed attributes of each specialized personnel. The CBA analyzed which personnel type was the most cost effective. Our data was primarily sourced from GAO, Navy, and Marine Corps publications, as well as publicly accessible costing information. Results of our thesis show that the SNCODCP produces the most versatile individual for the job, but hiring a General Standard employee was a more cost-effective option to improve.Captain, United States Marine CorpsCaptain, United States Marine CorpsApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Overcoming Barriers to the Use of Osteopathic Manipulation Techniques in the Emergency Department

Background: Osteopathic Manipulation Techniques (OMT) have been shown to be effective therapeutic modalities in various clinical settings, but appear to be underutilized in the emergency department (ED) setting.Objective: To examine barriers to the use of OMT in the ED and provide suggestions to ameliorate these barriers.Methods: Literature reviewResults: While the medical literature cites numerous obstacles to the use of OMT in the ED setting, most can be positively addressed through education, careful planning, and ongoing research into use of these techniques. Recent prospective clinical trials of OMT have demonstrated the utility of these modalities.Conclusion: Osteopathic Manipulation Techniques are useful therapeutic modalities that could be utilized to a greater degree in the ED. As the number of osteopathic emergency physicians increases, the opportunity to employ these techniques should increase.[WestJEM. 2009;10:184-189.

Efficient shared memory message passing for inter-VM communications

Thanks to recent advances in virtualization technologies, it is now possible to benefit from the flexibility brought by virtual machines at little cost in terms of CPU performance. However on HPC clusters some overheads remain which prevent widespread usage of virtualization. In this article, we tackle the issue of inter-VM MPI communications when VMs are located on the same physical machine. To achieve this we introduce a virtual device which provides a simple message passing API to the guest OS. This interface can then be used to implement an efficient MPI library for virtual machines. The use of a virtual device makes our solution easily portable across multiple guest operating systems since it only requires a small driver to be written for this device. We present an implementation based on Linux, the KVM hypervisor and Qemu as its userspace device emulator. Our implementation achieves near native performance in terms of MPI latency and bandwidth

Cost-eff ectiveness of female human papillomavirus vaccination in 179 countries: a PRIME modelling study

Background Introduction of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in settings with the highest burden of HPV is not universal, partly because of the absence of quantitative estimates of country-specifi c eff ects on health and economic costs. We aimed to develop and validate a simple generic model of such eff ects that could be used and understood in a range of settings with little external support. Methods We developed the Papillomavirus Rapid Interface for Modelling and Economics (PRIME) model to assess cost-eff ectiveness and health eff ects of vaccination of girls against HPV before sexual debut in terms of burden of cervical cancer and mortality. PRIME models incidence according to proposed vaccine effi cacy against HPV 16/18, vaccine coverage, cervical cancer incidence and mortality, and HPV type distribution. It assumes lifelong vaccine protection and no changes to other screening programmes or vaccine uptake. We validated PRIME against existing reports of HPV vaccination cost-eff ectiveness, projected outcomes for 179 countries (assuming full vaccination of 12-year-old girls), and outcomes for 71 phase 2 GAVI-eligible countries (using vaccine uptake data from the GAVI Alliance). We assessed diff erences between countries in terms of cost-eff ectiveness and health eff ects. Findings In validation, PRIME reproduced cost-eff ectiveness conclusions for 24 of 26 countries from 17 published studies, and for all 72 countries in a published study of GAVI-eligible countries. Vaccination of a cohort of 58 million 12-year-old girls in 179 countries prevented 690 000 cases of cervical cancer and 420 000 deaths during their lifetime (mostly in low-income or middle-income countries), at a net cost of US$4 billion. HPV vaccination was very cost eff ective (with every disability-adjusted life-year averted costing less than the gross domestic product per head) in 156 (87%) of 179 countries. Introduction of the vaccine in countries without national HPV vaccination at present would prevent substantially more cases of cervical cancer than in countries with such programmes, although the disparity has narrowed since 2012. If 71 phase 2 GAVI-eligible countries adopt vaccination according to forecasts, then in 2070 GAVI Alliance-funded vaccination could prevent 200 000 cases of cervical cancer and 100 000 deaths in some of the highest-burden countries. Interpretation Large between-country disparities exist for HPV vaccination, with countries with the most to gain yet to introduce national HPV vaccination. Support from the GAVI Alliance could help to reduce such disparities, but a substantial burden will remain even after presently projected vaccine introductions