this study aims at comparing the performance of logistic regression, maximum entropy, and multilayer perceptron techniques in preparing the predictive habitat distribution map of amygdalus scoparia in rangelands of qom province. for this purpose, vegetation sampling was done using random systematic methods after identifying pure habitats of this species. for soil sampling, eight profiles were e...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to investigate the reproducibility of intra- and inter-observer interpretation of [(18)F]choline positron emission tomography/computed tomography examinations in patients suffering from biochemically recurrent prostate cancer following curative treatment. METHODS A total of 60 patients with biochemical recurrence after curative treatment were included in t...

Paired nasopharyngeal aspirate (NPA) and midturbinate flocked-swab specimens from 153 children with respiratory symptoms were examined by the direct fluorescent antibody (DFA) technique. Seventy-four infants (49%) had a viral infection documented by DFA. The flocked-swab specimens had 93% sensitivity and 96.7% agreement with the NPA specimens, with a kappa coefficient of 93.4% (95% confidence i...

In order to have clarity in the satellite images we have used Particle Swarm Optimization technique. When incorporated with traditional clustering algorithms, problems such as local optima and sensitivity to initialization, are reduced, thus exploring a greater area using global search. This segmented image is further classified using Kappa coefficient. Keywords— Particle Swarm Optimization(PSO...

The need to measure the degree of agreement among R raters who independently classify n subjects within K nominal categories is frequent in many scientific areas. most popular measures are Cohen's kappa (R = 2), Fleiss' kappa, Conger's and Hubert's $\geq$ 2) coefficients, which have several defects. In 2004, delta coefficient was defined for case 2, did not defects coefficient. This article ext...

182 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Statistical notes for clinical researchers: Evaluation of measurement error 2: Dahlberg...

Methods Observational retrospective study. All HIV naive patients who started HAART from 1996 to 2006 were included. Concordance between FIB-4 and APRI scores was assessed using the weighted kappa coefficient. Rates of transition from lower classes to higher classes were estimated by Kaplan-Meier analysis. Cox regression models were applied to assess possible predictors both at baseline and dur...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether responses to dynamic case-vignettes accurately reflect actual practices in complex emergency situations. We hypothesized that when obstetricians were faced with vignette of emergency situation identical to one they previously managed, they would report the management strategy they actually used. On the other hand, there is no reason to suppose that their response t...

BACKGROUND Accurate and reliable radiographic classifications of the relative severity and outcome of Legg-Calve-Perthes disease are essential in the study of that disease. As part of a prospective multicenter study, we sought to define more clearly the lateral pillar classification of severity and the Stulberg classification of outcome; we sought especially to define the borderlines between cl...

Establishment of a national multiple sclerosis (MS) surveillance registry (MSSR) is a primary goal of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) MS Center of Excellence. The initial query of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) databases identified 25,712 patients (labeled "VHA MS User Cohort") from fiscal years 1998 to 2002 based on International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinic...