INTRODUCTION We conducted an external validation study to examine the correlation of a previously published claims-based index for rheumatoid arthritis severity (CIRAS) with disease activity score in 28 joints calculated by using C-reactive protein (DAS28-CRP) and the multi-dimensional health assessment questionnaire (MD-HAQ) physical function score. METHODS Patients enrolled in the Brigham a...

In this paper, the predictive capability of surface and untargeted intramuscular electromyography (EMG) was compared with respect to wrist-joint torque to quantify which type of measurement better represents joint torque during multiple degrees-of-freedom (DoF) movements for possible application in prosthetic control. Ten able-bodied subjects participated in the study. Surface and intramuscular...

BACKGROUND One of the most immediate and important functional consequences of many oral disorders is a reduction in chewing ability. The ability to chew is not only an important dimension of oral health, but is increasingly recognized as being associated with general health status. Whether perceived chewing ability and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) are correlated to a similar deg...

The Kendall (1955) rank correlation coefficient evaluates the degree of similarity between two sets of ranks given to a same set of objects. This coefficient depends upon the number of inversions of pairs of objects which would be needed to transform one rank order into the other. In order to do so, each rank order is represented by the set of all pairs of objects (e.g., [a,b] and [b,a] are the...

Measurements of texture properties related to tenderness at different locations within deboned broiler breast fillets have been used to validate techniques for texture analysis and establish correlations between different texture evaluation methods. However, it has been demonstrated that meat texture can vary from location to location within individual muscles. The objective of our study was to...

OBJECTIVE To determine the psychometric worth of Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQs) and Short-Essay Questions (SEQs) used in internal summative assessment of undergraduate ophthalmology annual send-up examination and to ascertain the quality of items using subjective measures. STUDY DESIGN Correlational analytical study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Fatima Jinnah Medical College, Lahore, from ...

Mixing patterns in large self-organizing networks, such as the Internet, the World Wide Web, social, and biological networks are often characterized by degreedegree dependencies between neighboring nodes. In assortative networks, the degreedegree dependencies are positive (nodes with similar degrees tend to connect to each other), whereas in disassortative networks, these dependencies are negat...

BACKGROUND Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are a serious problem among the nursing staff. Mental workload is the major cause of MSDs among nursing staff. The aim of this study was to investigate the mental workload dimensions and their association with MSDs among nurses of Alzahra Hospital, affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. MATERIALS AND METHODS This descriptive cross-sec...

objectives: this study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the srt that was performed in 4-6 year-old persian-speaking children. the srt is a nonword repetition task that assesses phonological working memory and was designed by shriberg in 2008. methods: the present research was a non-experimental study with a methodological design. the content validity of the task was evaluated by...