1,100 research outputs found
Optimal search strategies for identifying sound clinical prediction studies in EMBASE
BACKGROUND: Clinical prediction guides assist clinicians by pointing to specific elements of the patient's clinical presentation that should be considered when forming a diagnosis, prognosis or judgment regarding treatment outcome. The numbers of validated clinical prediction guides are growing in the medical literature, but their retrieval from large biomedical databases remains problematic and this presents a barrier to their uptake in medical practice. We undertook the systematic development of search strategies ("hedges") for retrieval of empirically tested clinical prediction guides from EMBASE. METHODS: An analytic survey was conducted, testing the retrieval performance of search strategies run in EMBASE against the gold standard of hand searching, using a sample of all 27,769 articles identified in 55 journals for the 2000 publishing year. All articles were categorized as original studies, review articles, general papers, or case reports. The original and review articles were then tagged as 'pass' or 'fail' for methodologic rigor in the areas of clinical prediction guides and other clinical topics. Search terms that depicted clinical prediction guides were selected from a pool of index terms and text words gathered in house and through request to clinicians, librarians and professional searchers. A total of 36,232 search strategies composed of single and multiple term phrases were trialed for retrieval of clinical prediction studies. The sensitivity, specificity, precision, and accuracy of search strategies were calculated to identify which were the best. RESULTS: 163 clinical prediction studies were identified, of which 69 (42.3%) passed criteria for scientific merit. A 3-term strategy optimized sensitivity at 91.3% and specificity at 90.2%. Higher sensitivity (97.1%) was reached with a different 3-term strategy, but with a 16% drop in specificity. The best measure of specificity (98.8%) was found in a 2-term strategy, but with a considerable fall in sensitivity to 60.9%. All single term strategies performed less well than 2- and 3-term strategies. CONCLUSION: The retrieval of sound clinical prediction studies from EMBASE is supported by several search strategies
Large Chiral Diffeomorphisms on Riemann Surfaces and W-algebras
The diffeomorphism action lifted on truncated (chiral) Taylor expansion of a
complex scalar field over a Riemann surface is presented in the paper under the
name of large diffeomorphisms. After an heuristic approach, we show how a
linear truncation in the Taylor expansion can generate an algebra of symmetry
characterized by some structure functions. Such a linear truncation is
explicitly realized by introducing the notion of Forsyth frame over the Riemann
surface with the help of a conformally covariant algebraic differential
equation. The large chiral diffeomorphism action is then implemented through a
B.R.S. formulation (for a given order of truncation) leading to a more
algebraic set up. In this context the ghost fields behave as holomorphically
covariant jets. Subsequently, the link with the so called W-algebras is made
explicit once the ghost parameters are turned from jets into tensorial ghost
ones. We give a general solution with the help of the structure functions
pertaining to all the possible truncations lower or equal to the given order.
This provides another contribution to the relationship between KdV flows and
W-diffeomorphimsComment: LaTeX file, 31 pages, no figure. Version to appear in J. Math. Phys.
Work partly supported by Region PACA and INF
Bring Your Online Students Closer: Instructional Design Tips to Create Engaging Videos
How can online students feel inclusive and engaged in their learning environment? This presentation will focus on the techniques and tips of creating engaging educational videos with your laptop, cell phone or other type of video device. This session will address ways to create more interactive and interesting online experiences for students through the use of instructional videos. It will also discuss best practices for creating engaging online learning and establishing a supportive online course community
DRAFT IMECE2006-13074 SSEM-AG COMPUTER MODEL FOR OPTIMIZATION OF POLYMER EXTRUSION
ABSTRACT The optimization of an extrusion process is a conflicting, multi-objective problem. It is complicated by the number of variables (screw/die geometry, operating conditions, material data) and their non-linear relations, as well as by the opposing criteria, for example extrusion throughput and power consumption. It is difficult to find the global optimum for the process avoiding local optima. There are two approaches to solve the problem, experimental and using a mathematical model of extrusion. Optimization techniques based on an experimentation are time-consuming and very expensive. In this paper we present an optimization methodology based on the Genetic Algorithms (AG), where response surface is given by the extrusion model. A mathematical Single-Screw Extrusion Model SSEM developed at the Warsaw University of Technology is used to predict the extruder behavior, and AG approach is used for optimization. An integrated SSEM-AG system was developed to study optimization of the single-screw extrusion process. Three design criteria (output variables) are selected for optimization: maximum extrusion throughput, minimum power consumption and low melt temperature. As input variables, screw speed, barrel temperature and screw channel depth are chosen
Biopython: freely available Python tools for computational molecular biology and bioinformatics
Summary: The Biopython project is a mature open source international collaboration of volunteer developers, providing Python libraries for a wide range of bioinformatics problems. Biopython includes modules for reading and writing different sequence file formats and multiple sequence alignments, dealing with 3D macro molecular structures, interacting with common tools such as BLAST, ClustalW and EMBOSS, accessing key online databases, as well as providing numerical methods for statistical learning.
Availability: Biopython is freely available, with documentation and source code at www.biopython.org under the Biopython license.
Contact: All queries should be directed to the Biopython mailing lists, see www.biopython.org/wiki/[email protected]
Discrete Laplace Cycles of Period Four
We study discrete conjugate nets whose Laplace sequence is of period four.
Corresponding points of opposite nets in this cyclic sequence have equal
osculating planes in different net directions, that is, they correspond in an
asymptotic transformation. We show that this implies that the connecting lines
of corresponding points form a discrete W-congruence. We derive some properties
of discrete Laplace cycles of period four and describe two explicit methods for
their construction
Guidelines for choosing between multi-item and single-item scales for construct measurement: A predictive validity perspective
Establishing predictive validity of measures is a major concern in marketing research. This paper investigates the conditions favoring the use of single items versus multi-item scales in ter
Further search for a neutral boson with a mass around 9 MeV/c2
Two dedicated experiments on internal pair conversion (IPC) of isoscalar M1
transitions were carried out in order to test a 9 MeV/c2 X-boson scenario. In
the 7Li(p,e+e-)8Be reaction at 1.1 MeV proton energy to the predominantly T=0
level at 18.15 MeV, a significant deviation from IPC was observed at large pair
correlation angles. In the 11B(d,n e+e-)12C reaction at 1.6 MeV, leading to the
12.71 MeV 1+ level with pure T=0 character, an anomaly was observed at 9
MeV/c2. The compatibility of the results with the scenario is discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, 2 table
Invariants of pseudogroup actions: Homological methods and Finiteness theorem
We study the equivalence problem of submanifolds with respect to a transitive
pseudogroup action. The corresponding differential invariants are determined
via formal theory and lead to the notions of k-variants and k-covariants, even
in the case of non-integrable pseudogroup. Their calculation is based on the
cohomological machinery: We introduce a complex for covariants, define their
cohomology and prove the finiteness theorem. This implies the well-known
Lie-Tresse theorem about differential invariants. We also generalize this
theorem to the case of pseudogroup action on differential equations.Comment: v2: some remarks and references addee
Hamiltonian evolutions of twisted gons in \RP^n
In this paper we describe a well-chosen discrete moving frame and their
associated invariants along projective polygons in \RP^n, and we use them to
write explicit general expressions for invariant evolutions of projective
-gons. We then use a reduction process inspired by a discrete
Drinfeld-Sokolov reduction to obtain a natural Hamiltonian structure on the
space of projective invariants, and we establish a close relationship between
the projective -gon evolutions and the Hamiltonian evolutions on the
invariants of the flow. We prove that {any} Hamiltonian evolution is induced on
invariants by an evolution of -gons - what we call a projective realization
- and we give the direct connection. Finally, in the planar case we provide
completely integrable evolutions (the Boussinesq lattice related to the lattice
-algebra), their projective realizations and their Hamiltonian pencil. We
generalize both structures to -dimensions and we prove that they are
Poisson. We define explicitly the -dimensional generalization of the planar
evolution (the discretization of the -algebra) and prove that it is
completely integrable, providing also its projective realization
- âŠ