A Comparison of the Measured Properties of Annular Cement with Ultrasonic Cement Evaluation Logs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dave Gardner ◽  
Hans Joakim Skadsem ◽  
Katherine Beltrán-Jiménez ◽  
Amit Govil ◽  
Guillermo Obando Palacio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pressure Sensors ◽  
Potential Effect ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Bulk Properties ◽  
Fluid Seepage ◽  
Cement Sheath ◽  
Casing Pressure ◽  
Seepage Measurements

Abstract Different measurement methods have been utilized to investigate the quality of the cement sheath inside two cemented sandwich sections including high-resolution ultrasonic cement evaluation logs, analysis of samples, mechanical loading, and fluid seepage measurements. The sections were recovered from a North Sea well during a permanent plug and abandonment operation. The measurements have been analyzed with an aim to describe in detail the spatial variations in the cement properties and relate them to the logs. Ultrasonic cement evaluation logs were recorded to map the acoustic properties of the annular cement in the casing sections. Logging passes were recorded using different annular fluids and with different internal casing pressures to investigate the potential effect on the casing to cement bond response. The casing annulus was pressure tested using water and gas, and seepage rates were recorded whilst varying the annulus and the inner casing pressures. The sections tested were instrumented with an array of annulus pressure sensors. On one section, strain gauges were installed on the casing outer surface to record the transfer of strain through the cement sheath to the outer casing. The eccentricity of the inner casing was up to 70% compared with the outer casing which results in a substantial variation of the cement sheath thickness. Accordingly, the pressure sensors and strain gauge arrays were positioned to capture both axial and azimuthal variations of the cement sealing properties. Cement mechanical, chemical, and acoustic bulk properties were also measured on core plugs taken from the cement sheath. The log recordings and sensor measurements showed that the cement sheath properties vary considerably, both along the section length and from the narrow to the wide side of the annulus in the casing sandwich sections. The sealing quality of the cement sheath measured by pressure testing could be correlated with the log response. We observed a nearly linear reduction in seepage rates when increasing the inner casing pressure due to the reduction in size of the annular leakage path. Analysis of bulk properties confirm the presence of cement defects such as mud contamination and microannuli. The logs identified features related to the test cell construction that demonstrated the log spatial resolution and enabled an accurate spatial comparison to be made between the logs and cement sheath sealing properties. A comprehensive data set has been recorded on casing in casing-cemented sandwich sections with axial and azimuthal variations in the cement sheath quality. The data analysis has improved the understanding of the cement sheath mechanical properties, the seal quality, and the response of the ultrasonic cement evaluation logs.

scholarly journals Calling for improved quality in the registration of traditional Chinese medicine during the public health emergency: a survey of trial registries for COVID-19, H1N1, and SARS

Trials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhuoran Kuang ◽  
◽  
Xiaoyan Li ◽  
Jianxiong Cai ◽  
Yaolong Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Trial ◽  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Chinese Medicine ◽  
Traditional Chinese Medicine ◽  
Secondary Outcome ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Clinical Trial Registry ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Diagnosis Criteria

Abstract Objective To assess the registration quality of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) clinical trials for COVID-19, H1N1, and SARS. Method We searched for clinical trial registrations of TCM in the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) and Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) on April 30, 2020. The registration quality assessment is based on the WHO Trial Registration Data Set (Version 1.3.1) and extra items for TCM information, including TCM background, theoretical origin, specific diagnosis criteria, description of intervention, and outcomes. Results A total of 136 records were examined, including 129 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (COVID-19) and 7 H1N1 influenza (H1N1) patients. The deficiencies in the registration of TCM clinical trials (CTs) mainly focus on a low percentage reporting detailed information about interventions (46.6%), primary outcome(s) (37.7%), and key secondary outcome(s) (18.4%) and a lack of summary result (0%). For the TCM items, none of the clinical trial registrations reported the TCM background and rationale; only 6.6% provided the TCM diagnosis criteria or a description of the TCM intervention; and 27.9% provided TCM outcome(s). Conclusion Overall, although the number of registrations of TCM CTs increased, the registration quality was low. The registration quality of TCM CTs should be improved by more detailed reporting of interventions and outcomes, TCM-specific information, and sharing of the result data.

Simple Index to Assess the Calibration Quality of Safety Performance Functions Based on Multiple Goodness-of-Fit Metrics

2021 ◽  
pp. 036119812110088
Author(s):  
Raul E. Avelar ◽  
Karen Dixon ◽  
Boniphace Kutela ◽  
Sam Klump ◽  
Beth Wemple ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Goodness Of Fit ◽  
Synthetic Data ◽  
Calibration Procedure ◽  
Safety Performance ◽  
Absolute Deviation ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Safety Database ◽  
Simple Index ◽  
Safety Performance Functions

The calibration of safety performance functions (SPFs) is a mechanism included in the Highway Safety Manual (HSM) to adjust SPFs in the HSM for use in intended jurisdictions. Critically, the quality of the calibration procedure must be assessed before using the calibrated SPFs. Multiple resources to aid practitioners in calibrating SPFs have been developed in the years following the publication of the HSM 1st edition. Similarly, the literature suggests multiple ways to assess the goodness-of-fit (GOF) of a calibrated SPF to a data set from a given jurisdiction. This paper uses the calibration results of multiple intersection SPFs to a large Mississippi safety database to examine the relations between multiple GOF metrics. The goal is to develop a sensible single index that leverages the joint information from multiple GOF metrics to assess overall quality of calibration. A factor analysis applied to the calibration results revealed three underlying factors explaining 76% of the variability in the data. From these results, the authors developed an index and performed a sensitivity analysis. The key metrics were found to be, in descending order: the deviation of the cumulative residual (CURE) plot from the 95% confidence area, the mean absolute deviation, the modified R-squared, and the value of the calibration factor. This paper also presents comparisons between the index and alternative scoring strategies, as well as an effort to verify the results using synthetic data. The developed index is recommended to comprehensively assess the quality of the calibrated intersection SPFs.

scholarly journals Leveraging Road Characteristics and Contributor Behaviour for Assessing Road Type Quality in OSM

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 436
Author(s):  
Amerah Alghanim ◽  
Musfira Jilani ◽  
Michela Bertolotto ◽  
Gavin McArdle
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Classification Accuracy ◽  
Supervised Machine Learning ◽  
Machine Learning Techniques ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Semantic Inference ◽  
Road Type ◽  
The Impact

Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) is often collected by non-expert users. This raises concerns about the quality and veracity of such data. There has been much effort to understand and quantify the quality of VGI. Extrinsic measures which compare VGI to authoritative data sources such as National Mapping Agencies are common but the cost and slow update frequency of such data hinder the task. On the other hand, intrinsic measures which compare the data to heuristics or models built from the VGI data are becoming increasingly popular. Supervised machine learning techniques are particularly suitable for intrinsic measures of quality where they can infer and predict the properties of spatial data. In this article we are interested in assessing the quality of semantic information, such as the road type, associated with data in OpenStreetMap (OSM). We have developed a machine learning approach which utilises new intrinsic input features collected from the VGI dataset. Specifically, using our proposed novel approach we obtained an average classification accuracy of 84.12%. This result outperforms existing techniques on the same semantic inference task. The trustworthiness of the data used for developing and training machine learning models is important. To address this issue we have also developed a new measure for this using direct and indirect characteristics of OSM data such as its edit history along with an assessment of the users who contributed the data. An evaluation of the impact of data determined to be trustworthy within the machine learning model shows that the trusted data collected with the new approach improves the prediction accuracy of our machine learning technique. Specifically, our results demonstrate that the classification accuracy of our developed model is 87.75% when applied to a trusted dataset and 57.98% when applied to an untrusted dataset. Consequently, such results can be used to assess the quality of OSM and suggest improvements to the data set.

scholarly journals Novel Assistive Device for Tomographic Ultrasound Neck Imaging vs. Freehand

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 28-31
Author(s):  
Marcel Köhler ◽  
Elmer Jeto Gomes Ataide ◽  
Jens Ziegle ◽  
Axel Boese ◽  
Michael Friebe
Keyword(s):  
Computed Tomography ◽  
Image Quality ◽  
Diagnostic Procedures ◽  
Assistive Device ◽  
Volume Data ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Scanning Method ◽  
Neck Area ◽  
2D Ultrasound

AbstractFor assessing clinically relevant structures in the neck area, especially the thyroid, it has been shown that 3D or tomographic ultrasound (3D US or tUS) is able to outperform standard 2D ultrasound [1] and computed tomography [2] for certain diagnostic procedures. However, when using a freehand and unassisted scanning method to acquire a 3D US volume data set in this area overlapping image slices, a variation of the probe angulation or differences in training might lead to unusable scanning results. Based on previous works [3] [4] we propose the design - with subsequent testing - of an assistive device that is able to aid physicians during the tUS scanning process on the neck. To validate the feasibility and efficacy we compared the image quality of both freehand and assisted scanning.

Cost effectiveness in palliative care setting

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-71
Author(s):  
Henry O’Lawrence ◽  
Rohan Chowlkar
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Palliative Care ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Hospice Care ◽  
Home Health ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Care Services ◽  
The Cost

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine the cost effectiveness of palliative care on patients in a home health and hospice setting. Secondary data set was utilized to test the hypotheses of this study. Home health care and hospice care services have the potential to avert hospital admissions in patients requiring palliative care, which significantly affects medicare spending. With the aging population, it has become evident that demand of palliative care will increase four-fold. It was determined that current spending on end-of-life care is radically emptying medicare funds and fiscally weakening numerous families who have patients under palliative care during life-threatening illnesses. The study found that a majority of people registering for palliative and hospice care settings are above the age group of 55 years old. Design/methodology/approach Different variables like length of stay, mode of payment and disease diagnosis were used to filter the available data set. Secondary data were utilized to test the hypothesis of this study. There are very few studies on hospice and palliative care services and no study focuses on the cost associated with this care. Since a very large number of the USA, population is turning 65 and over, it is very important to analyze the cost of care for palliative and hospice care. For the purpose of this analysis, data were utilized from the National Home and Hospice Care Survey (NHHCS), which has been conducted periodically by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. Descriptive statistics, χ2 tests and t-tests were used to test for statistical significance at the p<0.05 level. Findings The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was utilized for this result. H1 predicted that patients in the age group of 65 years and up have the highest utilization of home and hospice care. This study examined various demographic variables in hospice and home health care which may help to evaluate the cost of care and the modes of payments. This section of the result presents the descriptive analysis of dependent, independent and covariate variables that provide the overall national estimates on differences in use of home and hospice care in various age groups and sex. Research limitations/implications The data set used was from the 2007 NHHCS survey, no data have been collected thereafter, and therefore, gap in data analysis may give inaccurate findings. To compensate for this gap in the data set, recent studies were reviewed which analyzed cost in palliative care in the USA. There has been a lack of evidence to prove the cost savings and improved quality of life in palliative/hospice care. There is a need for new research on the various cost factors affecting palliative care services as well as considering the quality of life. Although, it is evident that palliative care treatment is less expensive as compared to the regular care, since it eliminates the direct hospitalization cost, but there is inadequate research to prove that it improves the quality of life. A detailed research is required considering the additional cost incurred in palliative/hospice care services and a cost-benefit analysis of the same. Practical implications While various studies reporting information applicable to the expenses and effect of family caregiving toward the end-of-life were distinguished, none of the previous research discussed this issue as their central focus. Most studies addressed more extensive financial effect of palliative and end-of-life care, including expenses borne by the patients themselves, the medicinal services framework and safety net providers or beneficent/willful suppliers. This shows a significant hole in the current writing. Social implications With the aging population, it has become evident that demand of palliative/hospice care will increase four-fold. The NHHCS have stopped keeping track of the palliative care requirements after 2007, which has a negative impact on the growing needs. Cost analysis can only be performed by analyzing existing data. This review has recognized a huge niche in the evidence base with respect to the cost cares of giving care and supporting a relative inside a palliative/hospice care setting. Originality/value The study exhibited that cost diminishments in aggressive medications can take care of the expenses of palliative/hospice care services. The issue of evaluating result in such a physically measurable way is complicated by the impalpable nature of large portions of the individual components of outcome. Although physical and mental well-being can be evaluated to a certain degree, it is significantly more difficult to gauge in a quantifiable way, the social and profound measurements of care that help fundamentally to general quality of care.

scholarly journals Great differences in performance and outcome of high-throughput sequencing data analysis platforms for fungal metabarcoding

MycoKeys ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 29-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sten Anslan ◽  
R. Henrik Nilsson ◽  
Christian Wurzbacher ◽  
Petr Baldrian ◽  
Leho Tedersoo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Throughput ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
Computation Time ◽  
Potential Effect ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Sequencing Data ◽  
Operational Taxonomic Units ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing Data ◽  
Recent Developments

Along with recent developments in high-throughput sequencing (HTS) technologies and thus fast accumulation of HTS data, there has been a growing need and interest for developing tools for HTS data processing and communication. In particular, a number of bioinformatics tools have been designed for analysing metabarcoding data, each with specific features, assumptions and outputs. To evaluate the potential effect of the application of different bioinformatics workflow on the results, we compared the performance of different analysis platforms on two contrasting high-throughput sequencing data sets. Our analysis revealed that the computation time, quality of error filtering and hence output of specific bioinformatics process largely depends on the platform used. Our results show that none of the bioinformatics workflows appears to perfectly filter out the accumulated errors and generate Operational Taxonomic Units, although PipeCraft, LotuS and PIPITS perform better than QIIME2 and Galaxy for the tested fungal amplicon dataset. We conclude that the output of each platform requires manual validation of the OTUs by examining the taxonomy assignment values.

scholarly journals On self-neglect and safeguarding adult reviews: diminishing returns or adding value?

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Preston-Shoot
Keyword(s):  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
National Database ◽  
Service Improvement ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Core Data ◽  
The Core

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to update the core data set of self-neglect serious case reviews (SCRs) and safeguarding adult reviews (SARs), and accompanying thematic analysis; second, to respond to the critique in the Wood Report of SCRs commissioned by Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) by exploring the degree to which the reviews scrutinised here can transform and improve the quality of adult safeguarding practice. Design/methodology/approach Further published reviews are added to the core data set from the websites of Safeguarding Adults Boards (SABs) and from contacts with SAB independent chairs and business managers. Thematic analysis is updated using the four domains employed previously. The findings are then further used to respond to the critique in the Wood Report of SCRs commissioned by LSCBs, with implications discussed for Safeguarding Adult Boards. Findings Thematic analysis within and recommendations from reviews have tended to focus on the micro context, namely, what takes place between individual practitioners, their teams and adults who self-neglect. This level of analysis enables an understanding of local geography. However, there are other wider systems that impact on and influence this work. If review findings and recommendations are to fully answer the question “why”, systemic analysis should appreciate the influence of national geography. Review findings and recommendations may also be used to contest the critique of reviews, namely, that they fail to engage practitioners, are insufficiently systemic and of variable quality, and generate repetitive findings from which lessons are not learned. Research limitations/implications There is still no national database of reviews commissioned by SABs so the data set reported here might be incomplete. The Care Act 2014 does not require publication of reports but only a summary of findings and recommendations in SAB annual reports. This makes learning for service improvement challenging. Reading the reviews reported here against the strands in the critique of SCRs enables conclusions to be reached about their potential to transform adult safeguarding policy and practice. Practical implications Answering the question “why” is a significant challenge for SARs. Different approaches have been recommended, some rooted in systems theory. The critique of SCRs challenges those now engaged in SARs to reflect on how transformational change can be achieved to improve the quality of adult safeguarding policy and practice. Originality/value The paper extends the thematic analysis of available reviews that focus on work with adults who self-neglect, further building on the evidence base for practice. The paper also contributes new perspectives to the process of conducting SARs by using the analysis of themes and recommendations within this data set to evaluate the critique that reviews are insufficiently systemic, fail to engage those involved in reviewed cases and in their repetitive conclusions demonstrate that lessons are not being learned.

Testing the Efficacy and the Potential Effect on Indoor Air Quality of a Transparent Self-Cleaning TiO2-Coated Glass through the Degradation of a Fluoranthene Layer

1999 ◽  
Vol 38 (10) ◽  
pp. 3878-3885 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginie Roméas ◽  
Pierre Pichat ◽  
Chantal Guillard ◽  
Thierry Chopin ◽  
Corinne Lehaut
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Indoor Air Quality ◽  
Indoor Air ◽  
Potential Effect ◽  
Coated Glass ◽  
Self Cleaning

scholarly journals A SELF-ORGANIZING MAP FOR MIXED CONTINUOUS AND CATEGORICAL DATA

2011 ◽  
pp. 24-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicoleta Rogovschi ◽  
Mustapha Lebbah ◽  
Younès Bennani
Keyword(s):  
Clustering Algorithm ◽  
Clustering Algorithms ◽  
Mixed Data ◽  
Categorical Variables ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Self Organizing Map ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Public Data ◽  
Self Organizing

Most traditional clustering algorithms are limited to handle data sets that contain either continuous or categorical variables. However data sets with mixed types of variables are commonly used in data mining field. In this paper we introduce a weighted self-organizing map for clustering, analysis and visualization mixed data (continuous/binary). The learning of weights and prototypes is done in a simultaneous manner assuring an optimized data clustering. More variables has a high weight, more the clustering algorithm will take into account the informations transmitted by these variables. The learning of these topological maps is combined with a weighting process of different variables by computing weights which influence the quality of clustering. We illustrate the power of this method with data sets taken from a public data set repository: a handwritten digit data set, Zoo data set and other three mixed data sets. The results show a good quality of the topological ordering and homogenous clustering.

scholarly journals Overshooting Americanisation. Accent Stylisation in Pop Singing – Acoustic Properties of the Bath and Trap Vowels in Focus

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Konert-Panek
Keyword(s):  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Phonetic Features

The paper addresses the problem of overshoot involved in singing accent stylisation. Selected phonetic features indexed as “American” and “Cockney” are analysed in the singing and speaking styles of a British vocalist, Adele. Overshoot, understood as a greater frequency or an exaggerated quality of a given feature, is characteristic of staged performance (Bell and Gibson 2011; Coupland 2007). PRAAT is used to establish the acoustic properties (F1 and F2) of the BATH and TRAP vowels, as well as the presence or absence of the BATH-TRAP split. The results show that Americanisation regarding the BATH-TRAP split in singing is present and the Americanised vowel tokens are “overshot”, having higher F2 frequency compared with the regular British TRAP vowel.

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