This study presents a new adaptive multistage testing method that replaces the preassembled test module with a test module assembled on the fly after each stage. In this method, a test module for each stage is shaped to come as close as possible to the normal density function of the interim proficiency estimate and its standard error. We will hereafter call the new method ‘multistage test by sh...

Background In the UK, cancer antigen 125 (CA125) test is recommended as a first-line investigation in women with symptoms of possible ovarian cancer. Aim To compare time between initial primary care CA125 and diagnosis, tumour morphology, stage normal (<35 U/ml) abnormal (?35 levels prior to diagnosis. Design setting Retrospective cohort study using English registry data. Method Associations...

In this study, Bayes' theorem was used to determine the probability of a patient having Lyme disease (LD), given a positive test result obtained using commercial test kits in clinically diagnosed patients. In addition, an algorithm was developed to extend the theorem to the two-tier test methodology. Using a disease prevalence of 5%-75% in samples sent for testing by clinicians, evaluated with ...

Many risk factors for the development of pressure ulcers (PUs) in the general hospital population have been identified, but consensus is lacking on specific PU risk factors for critical care patients. A prospective, descriptive study was conducted to determine the incidence of and risk factors for PU development among high-risk patients (Braden risk scale score <12) admitted to an intensive car...

Background: It is known that acetylation level of the nuclear histones in cloned embryos is lower compare to normally developed embryos. Histone deacetylas inhibitors (HDACi) with improvement of acetylation level in these embryos can affect embryo quality in pre-implantation stage and expression level of different genes especially developmental genes. Materials and Methods: In this research, SA...

In cancer chemoprevention studies, the identification of better antitumor-promoting agents is highly desired because they may have a wider applicability against the development of clinical cancers. Both epidemiological and animal studies have suggested that microchemicals present in the diet and several herbs and plants with diversified pharmacological properties are useful agents for the preve...

A two-stage production process assumes that the first stage transforms external inputs to a number of intermediate measures, which then are used as inputs to the second stage that produces the final outputs. The fundamental approaches to two-stage network data envelopment analysis are the multiplicative and the additive efficiencydecomposition approaches. Both they assume a series relationship ...

The call center industry is a relatively new in Bangladesh. Only telecommunications and very few organizations are now providing customer service and support via call centers. Call centers do not exist for the customer to physically interact with, apart from via the telephone. The nature of the service encounter between the call center and customer is predominantly undertaken by using technolog...

A new optimal two stages decoding algorithm for linear block codes is presented. At first stage, the minimum sufficient test set Ŝ is estimated. With the minimum sufficient test set, decoding complexity can be greatly reduced while maintaining the optimal performance. At the second stage, ordered processing is performed over the estimated minimum sufficient test set Ŝ to find the optimal soluti...

BACKGROUND In Alzheimer's disease (AD) research patients are usually recruited from clinical practice, memory clinics or nursing homes. Lack of standardised inclusion and diagnostic criteria is a major concern in current AD studies. The aim of the study was to explore whether patient characteristics differ between study samples recruited from general practice and from a population based screeni...