Window on Resources: November 2001

2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 184-190

Accelerated Math Kit is a “task-level learning information system” designed to generate individualized assignments or assessments for middle-grades students. The teacher assigns objectives, which are found in the software's libraries, to classes or individual students. The program then prints personalized multiplechoice exercises, practice assignments, tests, or diagnostic tests. When students complete activities, they can scan their answers back into the computer using the AccelScan optical-mark scanner, or they can type in their answers using the keyboard. The program automatically scores the activity and produces a report for the student and teacher. It can generate the next practice assignment, exercise, or test or diagnostic test for each student, taking into account the objectives already mastered and any newly assigned objectives.

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirill A. Popkov

AbstractWe prove that, for n ⩾ 2, any n-place Boolean function may be implemented by a two-pole contact circuit which is irredundant and allows a diagnostic test with length not exceeding n + k(n − 2) under at most k contact breaks. It is shown that with k = k(n) ⩽ 2n−4, for almost all n-place Boolean functions, the least possible length of such a test is at most 2k + 2.


2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. e22234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sook Won Ryu ◽  
In Bum Suh ◽  
Se-Min Ryu ◽  
Kyu Sung Shin ◽  
Hyon-Suk Kim ◽  
...  

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (03) ◽  
pp. 199-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kingsley Nnanna Ukwaja ◽  
Olufemi B Aina ◽  
Ademola A Talabi

Introduction: Malaria and pneumonia account for 40% of mortality among children under five years of age in sub-Saharan Africa. Due to lack of diagnostic facilities, their management is based on the integrated management of childhood illnesses (IMCI) strategy. Symptoms of malaria and pneumonia overlap in African children, necessitating dual IMCI classifications at health centres and treatment with both antibiotics and antimalarials. This study determined the prevalence of malaria-pneumonia symptom overlap and confirmed the diagnosis of malaria in these cases using a rapid diagnostic test. Methodology: Consecutive consultations of 1,216 children (two months to five years old) were documented over a three-month period in a comprehensive health centre. Malaria rapid diagnostic tests were conducted only for children who had symptom overlap. Results: Of the 1,216 children enrolled, 1,090 (90%) reported cough or fever. Among the children fulfilling the malaria case definition, 284 (30%) also met the pneumonia case definition. Twenty-three percent (284) of all children enrolled met the criteria for both malaria and pneumonia. However, only 130 (46%) of them had a positive result for malaria using a malaria rapid diagnostic test. During a malaria-pneumonia overlap, female children (chi-square 5.9, P = 0.01) and children ≥ one year (chi-square 4.8, P = 0.003) were more likely to seek care within two days of fever. Conclusion: Dual treatment with antimalarials and antibiotics in children with malaria-pneumonia overlap may result in unnecessary over-prescription of antimalarial medications. Use of rapid diagnostic tests in their management can potentially avoid over-prescribing of malaria medications.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 276-291
Author(s):  
Mawaddah Mawaddah ◽  
Yandi Heryandi

This study aims to: (1) find out the misconceptions experienced by students in the material of similarity and congruence by using three-tier diagnostic tests based on open-ended questions. (2) find out the large percentage of students' misconceptions on the similarity and congruence material using a three-tier diagnostic test based on open-ended questions. The research method used was descriptive qualitative. The data collection instruments used were clinical interviews and three-tier diagnostic tests based on open-ended questions. This study was conducted in the SMP Negeri 2 Palimanan. The research subjects were selected using purposive sampling techniques so that 33 students were selected from 330 students. The results of the analysis of the three-tier diagnostic test based on open-ended questions showed that (1) the misconceptions that occurred in the material of similarity and congruence of 2D shapes included pure misconceptions, false positives, and false negatives. (2) the percentage of misconceptions experienced in the material of similarity and congruence 2D shapes as a whole was 50.2% with a large percentage of pure misconceptions 32.4%, false-positive 15.6%, and false-negative 2.2%


BMJ Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. e018557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack W O’Sullivan ◽  
Ali Albasri ◽  
Brian D Nicholson ◽  
Rafael Perera ◽  
Jeffrey K Aronson ◽  
...  

BackgroundHealth systems are currently subject to unprecedented financial strains. Inappropriate test use wastes finite health resources (overuse) and delays diagnoses and treatment (underuse). As most patient care is provided in primary care, it represents an ideal setting to mitigate waste.ObjectiveTo identify overuse and underuse of diagnostic tests in primary care.DesignSystematic review and meta-analysis.Data sources and eligibility criteriaWe searched MEDLINE and Embase from January 1999 to October 2017 for studies that measured the inappropriateness of any diagnostic test (measured against a national or international guideline) ordered for adult patients in primary care.ResultsWe included 357 171 patients from 63 studies in 15 countries. We extracted 103 measures of inappropriateness (41 underuse and 62 overuse) from included studies for 47 different diagnostic tests.The overall rate of inappropriate diagnostic test ordering varied substantially (0.2%–100%)%).17 tests were underused >50% of the time. Of these, echocardiography (n=4 measures) was consistently underused (between 54% and 89%, n=4). There was large variation in the rate of inappropriate underuse of pulmonary function tests (38%–78%, n=8).Eleven tests were inappropriately overused >50% of the time. Echocardiography was consistently overused (77%–92%), whereas inappropriate overuse of urinary cultures, upper endoscopy and colonoscopy varied widely, from 36% to 77% (n=3), 10%–54% (n=10) and 8%–52% (n=2), respectively.ConclusionsThere is marked variation in the appropriate use of diagnostic tests in primary care. Specifically, the use of echocardiography (both underuse and overuse) is consistently poor. There is substantial variation in the rate of inappropriate underuse of pulmonary function tests and the overuse of upper endoscopy, urinary cultures and colonoscopy.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42016048832.


2002 ◽  
Vol 126 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-27
Author(s):  
Dana Marie Grzybicki ◽  
Thomas Gross ◽  
Kim R. Geisinger ◽  
Stephen S. Raab

Abstract Context.—Measuring variation in clinician test ordering behavior for patients with similar indications is an important focus for quality management and cost containment. Objective.—To obtain information from physicians and nonphysicians regarding their test-ordering behavior and their knowledge of test performance characteristics for diagnostic tests used to work up patients with lung lesions suspicious for cancer. Design.—A self-administered, voluntary, anonymous questionnaire was distributed to 452 multiple-specialty physicians and 500 nonphysicians in academic and private practice in Pennsylvania, Iowa, and North Carolina. Respondents indicated their estimates of test sensitivities for multiple tests used in the diagnosis of lung lesions and provided their test selection strategy for case simulations of patients with solitary lung lesions. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the χ2 test. Results.—The response rate was 11.2%. Both physicians and nonphysicians tended to underestimate the sensitivities of all minimally invasive tests, with the greatest underestimations reported for sputum cytology and transthoracic fine-needle aspiration biopsy. There was marked variation in sequential test selection for all the case simulations and no association between respondent perception of test sensitivity and their selection of first diagnostic test. Overall, the most frequently chosen first diagnostic test was bronchoscopy. Conclusions.—Physicians and nonphysicians tend to underestimate the performance of diagnostic tests used to evaluate solitary lung lesions. However, their misperceptions do not appear to explain the wide variation in test-ordering behavior for patients with lung lesions suspicious for cancer.


Author(s):  
Xenia Naidenova

This chapter summarizes some methods of inferring approximate diagnostic tests. Considering the sets of approximately minimal diagnostic tests as “characteristic portraits” of object classes we have developed a model of commonsense reasoning by analogy. The system DEFINE of analogical inference with some results of its application is described. Mining approximate functional, implicative dependencies and association rules is based on the same criteria and on applying the same algorithm realized in the Diagnostic Test Machine described shortly in this chapter. Some results of inferring “crisp” and approximate tests with the use of Diagnostic Test Machine are give in Appendix to this chapter.


1985 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 574-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
K Linnet

Abstract The precision of estimates of the sensitivity of diagnostic tests is evaluated. "Sensitivity" is defined as the fraction of diseased subjects with test values exceeding the 0.975-fractile of the distribution of control values. An estimate of the sensitivity is subject to sample variation because of variation of both control observations and patient observations. If gaussian distributions are assumed, the 0.95-confidence interval for a sensitivity estimate is up to +/- 0.15 for a sample of 100 controls and 100 patients. For the same sample size, minimum differences of 0.08 to 0.32 of sensitivities of two tests are established as significant with a power of 0.90. For some published diagnostic test evaluations the median sample sizes for controls and patients were 63 and 33, respectively. I show that, to obtain a reasonable precision of sensitivity estimates and a reasonable power when two tests are being compared, the number of samples should in general be considerably larger.


Diagnostics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
John Peabody ◽  
Mary Tran ◽  
David Paculdo ◽  
Czarlota Valdenor ◽  
Trever Burgon ◽  
...  

Demonstrating clinical utility for diagnostic tests and securing coverage and reimbursement requires high quality and, ideally, randomized controlled trial (RCT) data. Traditional RCTs are often too costly, slow, and cumbersome for diagnostic firms. Alternative data options are needed. We evaluated four RCTs using virtual patients to demonstrate clinical utility. Each study used a similar pre-post intervention, two round design to facilitate comparison. Representative samples of physicians were recruited and randomized into control and intervention arms. All physicians were asked to care for their virtual patients during two assessment rounds, separated by a multi-week time interval. Between rounds, intervention physicians reviewed educational materials on the diagnostic test. All physician responses were scored against evidence-based care criteria. RCTs using virtual patients can demonstrate clinical utility for a variety of diagnostic test types, including: (1) an advanced multi-biomarker blood test, (2) a chromosomal microarray, (3) a proteomic assay analysis, and (4) a multiplex immunofluorescence imaging platform. In two studies, utility was demonstrated for all targeted patient populations, while in the other two studies, utility was only demonstrated for a select sub-segment of the intended patient population. Of these four tests, two received positive coverage decisions from Palmetto, one utilized the study results to support commercial payer adjudications, and the fourth company went out of business. RCTs using virtual patients are a cost-effective approach to demonstrate the presence or absence of clinical utility.


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