Background: Disease prevalence is rarely explicitly considered in the early stages of the development of novel prognostic tests. Rather, researchers use the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) as the key metric to gauge and report predictive performance ability. Because this statistic does not account for disease prevalence, proposed tests may not appropriately address clin...

The diagnostic value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) or real-time elastography (RTE) alone, as well as a combination of CEUS and RTE, in distinguishing benign from malignant thyroid nodules was investigated. Between August 2012 and June 2014, a total of 97 consecutive patients (50 male and 47 female patients; mean age, 48.6±12.4; age range, 27-70 years) with thyroid nodules referred for ...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the value of conventional ultrasound and contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in determining the severity of active Crohn's disease. METHODS Thirty-seven patients who were considered to be in active period of Crohn's disease were included. Conventional ultrasound was employed to measure the thicknesses of interior, exterior and the whole bowel walls. Qualitative and quant...

The genome sequence of a Polish isolate of Agrotis segetum nucleopolyhedrovirus (AgseNPV-A) was determined and analysed. The circular genome is composed of 147,544 bp and has a G+C content of 45.7 mol%. It contains 153 putative, non-overlapping open reading frames (ORFs) encoding predicted proteins of more than 50 aa, together making up 89.8 % of the genome. The remaining 10.2 % of the DNA cons...

A real option analysis of dry-grind corn ethanol plants compared to a standard net present value analysis (NPV) shows that the option values increase entry prices and lower exit prices of investment and disinvestment considerably. For a large plant, the gross margin of ethanol price over the corn price for a gallon of ethanol using NPV shows that entry will occur with a $0.45 margin and shutdow...

Ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy cytology (FNAB-C) is able to detect approximately 63% of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC). The measurement of calcitonin in the needle washout (FNAB-CT) could improve its accuracy. Sixty-two FNAB-C were performed in 38 patients. Serum calcitonin (sCT) was measured before performing FNAB-C. After obtaining a FNAB-C specimen, the needle was washed ...

BACKGROUND Guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommends one or two questions as a possible screening method for depression. Ultra-short (one-, two-, three- or four-item) tests have appeal due to their simple administration but their accuracy has not been established. AIM To determine whether ultra-short screening instruments accurately detect depression i...

EnergyPlus V9.0 simulations of a typical small office building prototype in five USA cities (Albuquerque, Atlanta, Buffalo, San Diego, Rochester) indicate that adding cool roof (albedo 0.6) for an aged grey 0.2) would reduce the annual energy and cost all hot dry or humid Diego) severe cold mixed (Buffalo, Rochester). The CO2, SO2, NOX savings are positive selected cities. This work considers e...

OBJECTIVES To assess whether MRI can exclude axillary lymph node metastasis, potentially replacing sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB), and consequently eliminating the risk of SLNB-associated morbidity. METHODS PubMed, Cochrane, Medline and Embase databases were searched for relevant publications up to July 2014. Studies were selected based on predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria and in...