Evolutionary Lagrangian Inverse Modeling for PM10 Pollutant Dispersion

2010 ◽  
pp. 293-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Victoria Toro
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Evolutionary Computation ◽  
Inverse Modeling ◽  
Evolutionary Model ◽  
Pollutant Dispersion ◽  
Time Behavior ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Over Time

One of the main concerns when it comes to mitigating the effects of the concentration of the particulate matter PMx in an area of study is the fact to determine its behavior over time, overcoming both physical and mathematical limitations in terms of a phenomenon of dispersion. Therefore, this chapter develops and analyzes a model based on the principles of evolutionary computation (EC) in order to determine the space-time behavior of the concentration of the particulate matter PMx in a study area. The proposed model has three submodels within an integrated solution, which constitute the individual to evolve. The transformation of the possible solutions or generational population is made by using an asynchronous evolutionary model, due to genetic dependency between substructures. The proposed model was validated for configurations of n sources of emissions and m monitoring stations that measure the quality of the air in a study area.

scholarly journals Pearls for Interpreting Neurosurgical Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: Lessons From a Collaborative Effort

Neurosurgery ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor M Lu ◽  
Christopher S Graffeo ◽  
Avital Perry ◽  
Michael J Link ◽  
Fredric B Meyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Reviews ◽  
Evidence Based Medicine ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Cranial Neuralgia ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
Based Medicine ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Systematic reviews and meta-analyses in the neurosurgical literature have surged in popularity over the last decade. It is our concern that, without a renewed effort to critically interpret and appraise these studies as high or low quality, we run the risk of the quality and value of evidence-based medicine in neurosurgery being misinterpreted. Correspondingly, we have outlined 4 major domains to target in interpreting neurosurgical systematic reviews and meta-analyses based on the lessons learned by a collaboration of clinicians and academics summarized as 4 pearls. The domains of (1) heterogeneity, (2) modeling, (3) certainty, and (4) bias in neurosurgical systematic reviews and meta-analyses were identified as aspects in which the authors’ approaches have changed over time to improve robustness and transparency. Examples of how and why these pearls were adapted were provided in areas of cranial neuralgia, spine, pediatric, and neuro-oncology to demonstrate how neurosurgical readers and writers may improve their interpretation of these domains. The incorporation of these pearls into practice will empower neurosurgical academics to effectively interpret systematic reviews and meta-analyses, enhancing the quality of our evidence-based medicine literature while maintaining a critical focus on the needs of the individual patients in neurosurgery.

scholarly journals Patient-related healthcare disparities in the quality of acute hip fracture care: a 10-year nationwide population-based cohort study

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. e051424
Author(s):  
Pia Kjær Kristensen ◽  
Anne Mette Falstie-Jensen ◽  
Morten Madsen ◽  
Søren Paaske Johnsen
Keyword(s):  
Hip Fracture ◽  
Quality Care ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Nutritional Risk ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Process Measures ◽  
Fracture Care ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Over Time

ObjectivesTo characterise and quantify possible patient-related disparities in hip fracture care including temporal changes.DesignPopulation-based cohort study.SettingAll Danish hospitals treating patients with hip fracture.Participants60 275 hip fracture patients from 2007 to 2016.InterventionsQuality of care was defined as fulfilment of eligible care process measures for the individual patient recommended by an expert panel. Using yearly logistic regression models, we predicted the individual patient’s probability for receiving high-quality care, resulting in a distribution of adjusted probabilities based on age, sex, comorbidity, fracture type, education, family mean income, migration status, cohabitation status, employment status, nursing home residence and type of municipality. Based on the distribution, we identified best-off patients (ie, the 10% of patients with the highest probability) and worst-off patients (ie, the 10% of patients with the lowest probability). We evaluated disparities in quality of care by measuring the distance in fulfilment of outcomes between the best-off and worst-off patients.Primary and secondary outcome measuresThe primary outcome was fulfilment of all-or-none, defined as receiving all relevant process measures. Secondary outcomes were fulfilment of the individual process measures including preoperative optimisation, early surgery, early mobilisation, assessment of pain, basic mobility, nutritional risk and need for antiosteoporotic medication, fall prevention and a postdischarge rehabilitation programme.ResultsThe proportion of patients receiving high-quality care varied over time for both best-off and worst-off patients. The absolute difference in percentage points between the best-off and worst-off patients for receiving all-or-none of the eligible process measures was 12 (95% CI 6 to 18) in 2007 and 23 (95% CI 19 to 28) in 2016. Disparities were consistent for a range of care processes, including assessment of pain, mobilisation within 24 hours, assessment of need for antiosteoporotic medication and nutritional risk assessment.ConclusionsDisparity of care between best-off and worst-off patients remained substantial over time.

scholarly journals Consistency of children's dietary choices: annual repeat measures from 5 to 13 years (EarlyBird 49)

2011 ◽  
Vol 106 (5) ◽  
pp. 725-731 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alissa E. Frémeaux ◽  
Joanne Hosking ◽  
Brad S. Metcalf ◽  
Alison N. Jeffery ◽  
Linda D. Voss ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dietary Patterns ◽  
Dietary Habits ◽  
Healthy Children ◽  
Single Measure ◽  
Dietary Choices ◽  
Congruence Coefficient ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Individual Choices ◽  
Over Time

The objective of the present study was to explore the consistency of dietary choices made by children as they grow up. The dietary habits of 342 healthy children were reported annually from 5 to 13 years on a forty-five-item FFQ and analysed by factor analysis. The same two principal dietary patterns – ‘Healthy’ and ‘Unhealthy’ – emerged each year, and their consistency was assessed using Tucker's congruence coefficient (φ). Individual dietary z-scores for both of these patterns were then calculated every year for each child, and their consistency was measured by Pearson's correlation coefficient (r). Linear mixed-effects modelling was used to investigate individual trends and to quantify reliability of the individual dietary z-scores. Dietary patterns were moderately consistent and systematic over time (0·65 ≤ φHealthy ≤ 0·76; 0·62 ≤ φUnhealthy ≤ 0·78). Individual choices were also consistent year-on-year (0·64 ≤ rHealthy ≤ 0·71; 0·57 ≤ rUnhealthy ≤ 0·68). Reliability rose from 70 % with a single measure to over 90 % with four consecutive measures. The quality of diet diminished over time in 29 % of the children and improved in only 14 %. Dietary habits appear to be set early and seldom improve spontaneously.

scholarly journals Co-researchers in motion: a journey of evolving relationships. A critical reflection on the co-operation between two older adults and a nurse researcher

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Jan S. Jukema ◽  
◽  
Jacqueline van Alphen ◽  
Jopie Jorritsma ◽  
Miranda Snoeren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Dynamic Search ◽  
Critical Understanding ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Over Time

Background: There is a growing amount of research in which older adults contribute as co-researchers. The quality of this research depends, among other factors, on the nature of relationships between professional researchers and co-researchers. Reflections on these relationships can offer structured insight into this form of research. Aim: Our reflection on the co-operation between two older adults and a nurse researcher aims to share the lessons learned based on a critical understanding of our journey. Our main questions are: 1. How has the relationship developed over time, including in terms of mutuality and equality? 2. Which moments have been decisive in this development? Conclusion: We regard our co-operative relationship as a ‘dynamic search’. The meaning of mutuality and equality may change over time and so enrich the relationships. There is a need for further understanding into how these values can be nurtured in different configurations of researchers and co-researchers. Implications for practice: Evolving relations can be nurtured through deliberative sharing of the perceptions, expectations and experiences of the researchers and co-researchers Combining a formal working atmosphere with informal moments helps the research team respond to the individual needs of its members To enhance equality and mutuality, it is important to appreciate and value everyone’s contribution rather than concentrating on ‘what ’or ‘how ’individuals contribute

Reliability of Pipeline Affected by Corrosion and Third Parts

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge L. Alamilla ◽  
Oscar Flores-Maci´as ◽  
Alejandro Vargas
Keyword(s):  
Probability Function ◽  
Safety Margin ◽  
Structural Safety ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Pipeline Segment ◽  
Corrosion Defects ◽  
Pressure Stress ◽  
Corrosion State ◽  
Over Time

An approach to evaluate the structural safety of pipelines affected by corrosion and third parts is presented. This formulation is applied when the information about the corrosion state of the system is available. This information includes: the total number of detected corrosion defects, depth and length of each measured defect. The probabilistic model considers the detected and undetected corrosion, and generation of new corrosion defects over time. In other words, the model takes into account the corrosion state of the system and the quality of the inspection tool. The failure is defined by a safety margin that is evaluated in terms of pressure stress. The undetected defects and the generation of new defects are modeled by a Poisson process. The contribution of failure by third parts to the failure probability is taken into account in a simplified way. For this case the probability function is obtained from the reported failures. The proposed model is applied to a pipeline segment in which reliability indexes over time are represented in terms of reliability functions that characterize the probability distribution between failures.

scholarly journals Health-related quality of life after Gamma Knife radiosurgery in patients with 1–10 brain metastases

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eline Verhaak ◽  
Wietske C. M. Schimmel ◽  
Karin Gehring ◽  
Wilco H. M. Emons ◽  
Patrick E. J. Hanssens ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Gamma Knife Radiosurgery ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Related Quality ◽  
Patient Level ◽  
Related Quality ◽  
Health Related ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Purpose Increasingly more patients with multiple (> 4) brain metastases (BM) are being treated with stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). Preserving patients’ health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important treatment goal. The aim of this study was to assess (individual) changes in HRQoL in patients with 1–10 BM over time. Methods A total of 92 patients were assessed before (n = 92) and at 3 (n = 66), 6 (n = 53), and 9 (n = 41) months after Gamma Knife radiosurgery (GKRS), using the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Brain (FACT-Br). The course of HRQoL was analyzed using linear mixed models. Clinical minimally important differences were used to evaluate individual changes. Results At group level, patients’ physical well-being worsened, whereas emotional well-being improved over 9 months. Scores on other HRQoL subscales did not change significantly. Number (1–3 versus 4–10) and volume (small, medium, and large) of BM did not influence HRQoL over time, except for the subscale additional concerns; medium intracranial tumor volume was associated with less additional concerns. On the individual level as well, physical well-being declined while emotional well-being improved in most patients over 9 months after GKRS. At patient level, however, most patients had both declines as well as improvements in the different HRQoL aspects. Conclusion Our results indicate that even in patients with up to 10 BM, both at group and individual subscale level, aspects of HRQoL remained stable over nine months after GKRS, except for an improvement in emotional well-being and a decline in physical well-being. Nevertheless, HRQoL scores varied considerably at the individual patient level. Trail registration number ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02953756, November 3, 2016.

A NOVEL EVOLUTIONARY ALGORITHM ENSEMBLE FOR GLOBAL NUMERICAL OPTIMIZATION

2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (04) ◽  
pp. 1350022
Author(s):  
YONGYONG NIU ◽  
ZIXING CAI ◽  
MIN JIN
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Algorithm ◽  
Evolutionary Computation ◽  
Numerical Optimization ◽  
Global Numerical Optimization ◽  
Covariance Matrix Adaptation ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Benchmark Test Functions ◽  
Adaptation Evolution ◽  
Better Than

In the past few years, evolutionary algorithm ensembles have gradually attracted more and more attention in the community of evolutionary computation. This paper proposes a novel evolutionary algorithm ensemble for global numerical optimization, named NEALE. In order to make a good tradeoff between the exploration and exploitation, NEALE is composed of two constituent algorithms, i.e., the composite differential evolution (CoDE) and the covariance matrix adaptation evolution strategy (CMA-ES). During the evolution, CoDE aims at probing more promising regions and refining the overall quality of the population, while the purposes of CMA-ES are to accelerate the convergence speed and to enhance the accuracy of the solutions. In addition, NEALE encourages the interaction between the constituent algorithms. In NEALE, the interaction is controlled by a predefined generation number and different interaction strategies are designed according to the features of the constituent algorithms. The performance of NEALE has been tested on 25 benchmark test functions developed for the special session on real-parameter optimization of the 2005 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (IEEE CEC2005). Compared with other state-of-the-art evolutionary algorithms and the individual constituent algorithms, NEALE performs significantly better than them.

scholarly journals One-Year Quality of Life Trends in Early-Stage Lung Cancer Patients After Lobectomy

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Marzorati ◽  
Ketti Mazzocco ◽  
Dario Monzani ◽  
Francesca Pavan ◽  
Monica Casiraghi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Lung Cancer ◽  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Perioperative Complications ◽  
Care Process ◽  
Lung Cancer Patients ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Type Of Surgery ◽  
Over Time

Objective: Quality of Life (QoL) is an important predictor of patient's recovery and survival in lung cancer patients. The aim of the present study is to identify 1-year trends of lung cancer patients' QoL after robot-assisted or traditional lobectomy and investigate whether clinical (e.g., pre-surgery QoL, type of surgery, and perioperative complications) and sociodemographic variables (e.g., age) may predict these trends.Methods: An Italian sample of 176 lung cancer patients undergoing lobectomy completed the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire—Core 30 (QLQ-C30) at the pre-hospitalization (t0), 30 days (t1), 4 months (t2), 8 months (t3), and 12 months (t4) after surgery. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics (age, gender, perioperative complications, and type of surgery) were also collected. The individual change over time of the 15 dimensions of the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the effects of pre-surgery scores of QoL dimensions, type of surgery, perioperative complications, and age on patients' QoL after surgery were studied with the individual growth curve (IGC) models.Results: Patients had a good recovery after lobectomy: functioning subscales improved over time, while most of the symptoms became less severe over the care process. Perioperative complications, type of surgery, pre-surgery status, and age significantly affected these trends, thus becoming predictors of patients' QoL.Conclusion: This study highlights different 1-year trends of lung cancer patients' QoL. The measurement of pre- and post-surgery QoL and its clinical and sociodemographic covariables would be necessary to better investigate patients' care process and implement personalized medicine in lung cancer hospital divisions.

scholarly journals Applying implicit knowledge for enterprise architectural transformation

2020 ◽  
Vol 217 ◽  
pp. 07012
Author(s):  
Igor Petrov ◽  
Tatyana Larinina ◽  
Natalia Samosudova
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Implicit Knowledge ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Useful Knowledge ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Architectural Transformation ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Internal Relationships

The study describes a simulation model for the formalization of implicit knowledge about the team. The existing algorithms and methods of work to increase the amount of useful knowledge about the human capital of the organization do not allow obtaining knowledge about the development of the team and internal relationships. The effectiveness of architectural transformations directly depends on the quality of human capital management. The proposed model formalizes relations in the organization and proposes to form one of 4 strategies for personnel development, considering the individual characteristics of each of the employees. The article introduces the concepts of types of thinking and their connection to the life cycle of an organization. The study showed that the assessment of the organization’s personnel composition reveals the hidden cause-effect relationships between the effectiveness of the team and the stages of the organization’s life cycle.

Trends in the quality of abstracts of articles describing randomized controlled cancer trials (RCTs) from 1975–2004

2007 ◽  
Vol 25 (18_suppl) ◽  
pp. 6541-6541
Author(s):  
D. W. Cescon ◽  
C. M. Booth ◽  
L. Wang ◽  
I. F. Tannock ◽  
M. K. Krzyzanowska
Keyword(s):  
Primary Endpoint ◽  
Consort Statement ◽  
Quality Of Reporting ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Intervention Treatment ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Assess Quality ◽  
Composite Scores ◽  
Over Time

6541 Background: Busy oncologists may rely on abstracts to obtain most of their information from published reports. Here we evaluate the quality of abstracts in articles reporting RCTs, and whether quality of reporting has changed over time. Methods: Reports of RCTs evaluating systemic therapy for breast, colorectal and non-small cell lung cancer published 1975–2004 in 6 major journals were identified. The quality of abstracts was evaluated using a scale which awards 1 point for full and 1/2 point for partial reporting of each of 6 items: study rationale, statement of primary endpoint, description of intervention, treatment effect size, P-values or confidence intervals (CI), and toxicity. The scale was a modification of one previously developed to assess quality of reporting of conference abstracts. Trends in the reporting of individual items and composite scores were evaluated over three 10-year periods (1975–84, 1985–94, 1995–2004) using descriptive statistics. Results: Of 326 eligible articles, 319 had an abstract. Unstructured abstracts were common before 1994 ( Table ). The minimum and maximum quality scores assigned were 0.5 and 6/6. Median quality scores improved significantly with time (from 2.5 to 4.5/6, P < .001), as did inclusion of each of the individual items (P < .001). In the most recent 10-year period, three variables were adequately reported in less than half of abstracts (primary endpoint 38.0%, rationale 38.6%, toxicity 40.4%). Since the publication of the revised CONSORT statement in 2001, reporting of these items has improved (58.2%, 47.8%, 44.8% for 2002–2004). Conclusions: Quality of abstracts for published RCTs has improved over time, but deficiencies still exist. Items requiring improved reporting include identification of the primary endpoint, description of rationale, and a summary of toxicity. No significant financial relationships to disclose. [Table: see text]

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