scholarly journals Development of a Brief Pre-Implementation Screening Tool to Identify Teachers Who Are at Risk for Not Implementing Intervention Curriculum and High-Implementing Teachers

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Wang ◽  
Bonita Stanton ◽  
Sonja Lunn ◽  
Pooja Patel ◽  
Veronica Koci ◽  
...  

Few questionnaires have been developed to screen for potentially poor implementers of school-based interventions. This study combines teacher characteristics, perceptions, and teaching/training experiences to develop a short screening tool that can identify potential “low-performing” or “high-performing” teachers pre-implementation. Data were gathered from 208 teachers and 4,411 students who participated in the national implementation of an evidence-based HIV intervention in The Bahamas. Sensitivity and specificity were evaluated for the detection of “low-performing” and “high-performing” teachers. The validity of the screening tool was assessed using receiver operating characteristics analysis. The School Pre-implementation Screening Tool consists of seven predictive factors: duration as teacher, working site, attendance at training workshops, training in interactive teaching, perceived importance of the intervention, comfort in teaching the curriculum, and program priority. The sensitivity and specificity were 74% and 57% in identifying “low-performing” teachers and 81% and 65% with “high-performing” teachers. The screening tool demonstrated an acceptable/good validity (area under the receiver operating characteristics curve was 0.68 for “low-performing teachers” and 0.78 for “high-performing” teachers). Our brief screening tool can facilitate teacher training and recruitment of engaged teachers in implementation of school-based interventions.

2021 ◽  
pp. 112067212110601
Author(s):  
Abdelrahman Salman ◽  
Taym Darwish ◽  
Ali Ali ◽  
Marwan Ghabra ◽  
Rafea Shaaban

Aim To estimate the sensitivity and specificity of topographic and tomographic corneal parameters as determined by Sirius (CSO, Florence, Italy) in discriminating keratoconus (KC) and suspect keratoconus from normal cornea. Method In this retrospective case-series study, keratoconus screening indices were measured using Sirius tomographer. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves were used to determine the test's overall predictive accuracy (area under the curve) and to identify optimal cut-off points to maximize sensitivity and specificity in differentiating keratoconus and suspect keratoconus from normal corneas. Results Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analyses showed high predictive accuracy for Symmetry Index back (SIb), Keratoconus Vertex front (KVf), Symmetry Index front (SIf), Keratoconus Vertex back (KVb), Apex Keratometry (Curve-Apex) and Minimum corneal Thickness (ThkMin) to distinguish keratoconus from normal (area under the curve > 0.9, all). Symmetry Index back was identified as the best diagnostic parameter for detecting suspect keratoconus with AUC of 0.86. Highest specificity to detect keratoconus and suspect keratoconus was seen for SIb, 99.87% and 84.66%, respectively. These values were associated with optimal cut-off points of 0.46 D for keratoconus and 0.12 D for suspect keratoconus. Conclusion Sirius parameters evaluated in the study were effective to differentiate keratoconus from normal corneas. However, Symmetry Index back was the index with the highest ability to detect suspect keratoconus.


Stroke ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (Suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seena Dehkharghani ◽  
Maarten G Lansberg ◽  
Chitra Venkatsubramanian ◽  
carlo W cereda ◽  
Fabricio O Lima ◽  
...  

Background: Identification of large vessel occlusion (LVO) is paramount in the urgent evaluation of acute ischemic stroke (AIS). Emergent interpretation of large and high-complexity data sets, however, may impose strains upon imaging and clinical workflows, motivating development of fast and accurate computer-aided approaches to facilitate LVO detection in the emergency setting. This study investigates the performance of a fully automated LVO detection platform in a mixed cohort of stroke subjects with and without LVO on head and neck CT angiography (CTA). Methods: CTA from two cerebrovascular trials were enriched with cases from eleven global sites. Imaging and clinical variables were balanced between populations including in LVO positivity and across demographic and imaging environments to the extent achievable. Independent and fully blinded review for intracranial ICA or MCA M1 LVO was performed by two subspecialty neuroradiologists. A novel, user-independent imaging analysis application ( RAPID-LVO , iSchemaview inc) was used to predict LVO presence, location, and overall performance relative to reader consensus. Any discordance between readers was adjudicated by a blinded tertiary reader with subspecialty training. Sensitivity, specificity, and receiver-operating characteristics were determined by an independent statistician. Performance thresholds were set a priori, including a lower bound of the 95% CI of sensitivity and specificity of ≥0.8 at mean times-to-notification <3.5 minutes. Results: 217 CTA (median age 65.5, 53% male, 109 LVO(+)) were included. Lower confidence limits of sensitivity and specificity exceeded 90% (sensitivity 0.963, 95% CI 0.909-0.986; specificity 0.981, 95% CI 0.935-0.995), surpassing pre-specified performance benchmarks. Subgroup analyses revealed no decrement in performance relative to subject age or sex, vendor systems, or location of the examination within or outside the United States. The area under the receiver operating characteristics curve was 0.99 (95% CI: 0.971-0.999) and average time-to-notification was 3.18 minutes. Conclusion: RAPID-LVO offers fast, highly accurate, and fully user-independent large vessel occlusion detection across all tested clinical and imaging environments.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rifka Chamali ◽  
Rana Emam ◽  
Ziyad Mahfoud ◽  
Hassen Al-Amin

Abstract Background Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a severe form of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) that affects the functioning and includes various physical, depressive, and anxiety symptoms. The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview, Module U (MINI-U), assesses the diagnostic criteria for probable PMDD. The Premenstrual Symptoms Screening Tool (PSST) measures the severity of these symptoms and provides scores from which we can diagnose PMS and PMDD. The purpose of this study is to obtain the cut-offs from PSST that would fit well with the diagnosis of PMDD using the MINI-U as a gold standard. Methods We administered the Arabic MINI-U and PSST independently to Arab women (N = 194) in Doha, Qatar. The Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the PSST ordinal scores between those who answered Yes vs No on the corresponding MINI-U items. These comparisons were followed by Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) analyses using the MINI-U answers as the gold standard to determine the cut-off scores on the PSST, in addition to their sensitivity and specificity measures Results The rating of PSST scores for participants who answered Yes in the MINI-U varied from 1.5 (not at all to mild) to 3 (moderate). Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) analyses showed that all areas under the curves (AUCs) were significant with the cut-off scores on the corresponding PSST items. Conclusion This cross-validation gives reassurance that the severity measures of PSST can recognize patients with moderate/severe PMS and PMDD who would benefit from immediate treatment instead of waiting another two months. Keywords Premenstrual Symptoms Screening Tool, Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder, Arabs, cross-validation


Diagnostica ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 179-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Mustapha ◽  
Renate Rau

Zusammenfassung. Cut-Off-Werte ermöglichen eine ökonomische, binäre Beurteilung von Summenscores. Für Beanspruchungsfragebögen, die personenbezogene Merkmale erfragen, sind Cut-Off-Werte häufig vorhanden und in der klinischen Diagnostik unerlässlich. Für die Bewertung von Arbeitsmerkmalen sind Cut-Off-Werte ebenfalls wünschenswert. Bislang fehlen sie jedoch für die Beurteilung von Arbeitsmerkmalen wie Arbeitsintensität und Tätigkeitsspielraum. Zwischen 2006 und 2016 wurden daher in verschiedenen Branchen 801 objektive Arbeitsplatzanalysen durchgeführt, welche eine Unterteilung in gut und schlecht gestalteten Tätigkeitsspielraum sowie gut und schlecht gestaltete Arbeitsintensität nach DIN EN ISO 6385 (2016) ermöglichen. Anhand dieser Unterteilung wurden mit der Receiver-Operating-Characteristics-Analyse Cut-Off-Werte für den subjektiv-bedingungsbezogen Fragebogen zum Erleben von Arbeitsintensität und Tätigkeitsspielraum (FIT; Richter et al., 2000 ) ermittelt. Für den Tätigkeitsspielraum weisen Summenscores ≤ 22 und für die Arbeitsintensität Summenscores ≥ 15 auf eine schlechte Gestaltung des jeweiligen Arbeitsmerkmals hin. Anhand einer weiteren Stichprobe von 1 076 Arbeitenden konnte gezeigt werden, dass Arbeitende mit schlecht gestaltetem Tätigkeitspielraum vital erschöpfter sowie weniger engagiert sind und Arbeitende mit schlecht gestalteter Arbeitsintensität eine höhere Erholungsunfähigkeit sowie vitale Erschöpfung aufweisen.


Diagnostics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1128
Author(s):  
Jeanne Hersant ◽  
Pierre Ramondou ◽  
Francine Thouveny ◽  
Mickael Daligault ◽  
Mathieu Feuilloy ◽  
...  

The level of pulse amplitude (PA) change in arterial digital pulse plethysmography (A-PPG) that should be used to diagnose thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) is debated. We hypothesized that a modification of the Roos test (by moving the arms forward, mimicking a prayer position (“Pra”)) releasing an eventual compression that occurs in the surrender/candlestick position (“Ca”) would facilitate interpretation of A-PPG results. In 52 subjects, we determined the optimal PA change from rest to predict compression at imaging (ultrasonography +/− angiography) with receiver operating characteristics (ROC). “Pra”-PA was set as 100%, and PA was expressed in normalized amplitude (NA) units. Imaging found arterial compression in 23 upper limbs. The area under ROC was 0.765 ± 0.065 (p < 0.0001), resulting in a 91.4% sensitivity and a 60.9% specificity for an increase of fewer than 3 NA from rest during “Ca”, while results were 17.4% and 98.8%, respectively, for the 75% PA decrease previously proposed in the literature. A-PPG during a “Ca+Pra” test provides demonstrable proof of inflow impairment and increases the sensitivity of A-PPG for the detection of arterial compression as determined by imaging. The absence of an increase in PA during the “Ca” phase of the “Ca+Pra” maneuver should be considered indicative of arterial inflow impairment.


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