In order to compare the last version of the Respiratory Virus Panel (RVP) Fast assay for human Adenovirus (hAdv) detection with a specific real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), which is considered the gold standard for hAdv detection, nasopharyngeal samples collected from 309 children (age range, four months to eight years) with respiratory tract infection were tested using the RVP Fast v...

The aim of this study was to assess interobserver agreement of ultrasound parameters for portal hypertension in hepatosplenic mansonic schistosomiasis. Spleen size, diameter of the portal, splenic and superior mesenteric veins and presence of thrombosis and cavernous transformation were determined by three radiologists in blinded and independent fashion in 30 patients. Interobserver agreement w...

PURPOSE To evaluate the diagnostic agreement between the cytopathology reports issued by accredited laboratories and those obtained by quality control. METHODS We calculated the overall agreement and Cohen's kappa coefficients of a convenience sample of smears selected monthly by the Information System of Cervical Cancer (SISCOLO) for External Quality Control of the 15 laboratories that perfo...

Our study evaluated the reliability of the Crowe and Hartofilakidis classification systems for developmental dysplasia of the hip in adults. The anteroposterior radiographs of the pelvis of 145 patients with 209 osteoarthritic hips were examined twice by three experienced hip surgeons from three European countries and the abnormal hips were rated using both classifications. The inter- and intra...

The authors developed the Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors Interview (SITBI) and evaluated its psychometric properties. The SITBI is a structured interview that assesses the presence, frequency, and characteristics of a wide range of self-injurious thoughts and behaviors, including suicidal ideation, suicide plans, suicide gestures, suicide attempts, and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). Thi...

In order to measure the similarity between two partitions coming from the same data set, we study extensions of the RV-coefficient, the kappa coefficient proposed by Cohen (in case of partitions with same number of classes), and the D2 coefficient proposed by Popping. We find that the RV coefficient is identical to the Janson and Vegelius index. We compare the result coming from kappa’s coeffic...

In contrast to spectroscopy at longer wavelengths, typical attributes of ultraviolet resonance Raman (UVRR) spectroscopy of biologic tissue are higher absorption coefficient, mu, and higher photobleaching rate, kappa. This study was aimed at measuring mu and kappa during UVRR spectroscopy of human colon tissue at 251 nm. mu was used to estimate the penetration depth of the excitation light; kap...

We study the distribution function P (rho) of the effective resistance rho in two- and three-dimensional random resistor networks of linear size L in the hopping percolation model. In this model each bond has a conductivity taken from an exponential form sigma proportional to exp (-kappar) , where kappa is a measure of disorder and r is a random number, 0< or = r < or =1 . We find that in both ...