Elicitation methods in decision-making under risk allow us to infer the utilities of outcomes as well as the probability weights from the observed preferences of an individual. An optimally efficient elicitation method is proposed, which takes the inevitable distortion of preferences by random errors into account and minimizes the effect of such errors on the inferred utility and probability we...

Malnutrition is widely prevalent among patients on hemodialysis. Malnutrition can be estimated using a fully quantitative scoring system Subjective Global Assessment-Dialysis Malnutrition Score which is simple, reliable and dynamic. The primary objective of the study was to assess the severity of malnutrition in patients with end stage renal disease and undergoing hemodialysis in a tertiary car...

currently, one of the most important challenges to smes is financing as their managers are faced with many problems in this area. in this study the barriers to smes financing were identified by using q methodology which is a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. after literature review and conduct of interviews with 12 executive managers of smes, 64 barriers were identified to th...

BACKGROUND Foot and ankle injuries are frequent in emergency departments. Although only a few patients with foot and ankle sprain present fractures and the fracture patterns are almost always simple, lack of fracture diagnosis can lead to poor functional outcomes. AIM The present study aims to evaluate the reliability of the Ottawa ankle rules and the orthopedic surgeon subjective perception ...

BACKGROUND An injectable medical device containing stable hybrid cooperative complexes of high- and low-molecular-weight hyaluronic acid (HA) has been developed with characteristics suited for a global improvement of facial esthetics. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the HA product performance in improving some key facial esthetic features. The study employed clinical scales, subjective evaluations, and...

Markov logic is a rich language that allows one to specify a knowledge base (called a Markov logic network or MLN) as a set of weighted first-order logic formulas, and to define a probability distribution over truth assignments to ground atoms using this knowledge base. Unless the knowledge base satisfies certain special conditions, the weight of a formula cannot be related to the probability o...

BACKGROUND The interaction between motivation to eat, eating behavior traits, and gut peptides after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery is not fully understood. METHODS Appetite and hormone responses to a fixed liquid preload were assessed in 12 obese (body mass index 45 ± 1.9 kg/m(2)) participants immediately before and 3 days, 2 months, and 1 year after RYGB surgery. Subjective appetit...