BACKGROUND Despite rapid task-shifting and scale-up of HIV testing services in high HIV prevalence countries, studies evaluating accuracy remain limited. This study aimed to assess overall accuracy level and factors associated with accuracy in HIV rapid testing in Zambia. METHODS Accuracy was investigated among rural and urban HIV testing sites participating in two annual national HIV profici...

After World War II, the Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck developed hundreds of playgrounds in the city of Amsterdam. These public playgrounds were located in parks, squares, and derelict sites, and consisted of minimalistic aesthetic play equipment that was supposed to stimulate the creativity of children. Over the last decades, these playgrounds have been studied by sociologists, theorists of art...

Amyloid β1-42 (Aβ1-42), total tau (t-tau), and phosphorylated tau (p-tau) are the main cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Detection of AD is critically important in view of the growing number of potential new drugs that may influence the course of the disease in its early phases. However, cut-off levels for these CSF biomarkers have not yet bee...

In this issue of Pediatrics, Bourgeois et al describe wide variation in emergency department (ED) admission rates for common conditions across 35 US children’s hospitals. The greatest variation was observed for concussion, with adjusted admission rates ranging from 5% to 72%; the least was in “bronchiolitis and RSV pneumonia” and “pneumonia not elsewhere classified,” for which rates ranged from...

BACKGROUND Proficiency testing (PT), or external quality assessment (EQA), is intended to verify on a recurring basis that laboratory results conform to expectations for the quality required for patient care. CONTENT Key factors for interpreting PT/EQA results are knowledge of the commutability of the samples used and the process used for target value assignment. A commutable PT/EQA sample de...

We are concerned with function approximation and image representation using Iterated Function Systems (IFS) over L p (X;): An N-map IFS with grey level maps (IFSM), to be denoted as (w;), is a set w of N contraction maps w i : X ! X over a compact metric space (X; d) (the \base space") with an associated set of maps i : R ! R. Associated with each IFSM is a contractive operator T with xed point...

BACKGROUND The IFCC Committee for Standardization of Thyroid Function Tests aims at equivalence of laboratory test results for free thyroxine (FT4) and thyrotropin (TSH). OBJECTIVES This report describes the phase III method comparison study with clinical samples representing a broad spectrum of thyroid disease. The objective was to expand the feasibility work and explore the impact of standa...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to develop a scale to measure motivation to improve Internet addiction. Motivation is known to be important to treat Internet addiction successfully. The reliability of the scale was assessed, and its concurrent validity was evaluated. METHODS Ninety-two adolescents participated in this study. The basic demographic characteristics were recorded and the ...

This article reviews international standardization activities on optical interfaces over the last four years. Standardization is the key to the cost-effective manufacture, purchase, and installation of largecapacity high-speed optical network elements. This article mainly focuses on the activities related to wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) interfaces in ITU-T (International Telecommunica...

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) poses multiple challenges to traditional standardization, due the complexity, dynamics, and accelerating speed technological progress. need for a timely availability standards calls new approaches tools enhance standardization processes smart manufacturing. Industry development organizations worldwide are seeking solutions. Testbeds have been acknowledge...