The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, the positive predictive value (PPV) curve and the negative predictive value (NPV) curve are three measures of performance for a continuous diagnostic biomarker. The ROC, PPV and NPV curves are often estimated empirically to avoid assumptions about the distributional form of the biomarkers. Recently, there has been a push to incorporate group se...

One of the most common performance measures in selection and management of projects is the Net Present Value (NPV). In the paper, we study a case when initial data about the NPV parameters (cash flows and the discount rate) are represented in the form of intervals supplied by experts. A method for computing the NPV based on using random set theory is proposed and three conditions of independenc...

OBJECTIVE To determine the value of positron emission tomography (PET) with contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) in assessing the need for neck dissection by retrospectively reviewing the pathology reports of patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING Tertiary medical center. PATIENTS Se...

OBJECTIVES We hypothesized that a period of cuirass negative pressure ventilation (NPV) would augment the cardiac output of patients in the early postoperative period after complete correction of tetralogy of Fallot (TOF). BACKGROUND Diastolic right ventricular dysfunction can lead to a low-output state in an important minority of patients after TOF repair. In these patients, the diastolic pu...

Many bloodstream infections (BSI) in patients with central venous catheters (CVC) are not catheter-related (CR). Assessment of catheter involvement without catheter withdrawal has not been studied in candidemia. We assessed the value of conservative techniques to evaluate catheters as the origin of candidemia in patients with CVC in a prospective cohort study (superficial Gram stain and culture...

This paper deals with resource unconstrained project scheduling problems with the objective of maximizing the net present value (NPV) of project cash flows. Here we present a heuristic algorithm named as differential procedure (Dif_AOA).&#10In order to evaluate the efficiency of this algorithm, networks with node numbers between 10-1000 and network complexity coefficients between 1.3-6.6 have ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Previous studies quantifying moderate and severe carotid stenosis by direct millimeter measures on CT angiography (CTA) did not consider how prevalence and gender may influence classification cutoff values. MATERIALS AND METHODS Three hundred nineteen carotid arteries were evaluated in consecutive patients with known or suspected carotid artery disease. Millimeter measu...

To assess the physiologic effects of continuous negative extrathoracic pressure (CNEP), negative pressure ventilation (NPV), and negative extrathoracic end-expiratory pressure (NEEP) added to NPV in patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), we measured in seven patients ventilatory pattern, arterial blood gases, respiratory mechanics, and pressure- time p...

INTRODUCTION The study explored the potential economic benefit of an expanded screening program of immigrants before entrance to Cyprus as a policy to reduce the overall cost of tuberculosis (TB). Thus, the aim of this study is to study whether screening all immigrants coming from countries (including European Union countries) with high incidence of tuberculosis would be in the economic interes...