Essay Review: Evidence-Based Analysis of the COVID Pandemic

This short book suggests plausible answers to much of what has seemed inexplicable or unbelievable about what governments, the World Health Organization, and popular media have disseminated about the officially declared global pandemic. The author is a recently graduated Swedish physician who recognized even during his training that many of the generally accepted shibboleths about medical matters are not evidence-based; are often, in fact, contrary to the available evidence. Irrespective of his suggestions about COVID, several points in this book are important for everyone to know: Modern medicine focuses on the handling of emergencies but says “extremely little about how to avoid chronic disease and maximize long term health” (p. 7). More than half of the widely accepted recommendations about nutrition are nonsense, without any basis in solid evidence (p. 8): to eat more fruit, fish, vegetables, whole-grain cereals, and less salt, saturated fat, or meat. Much purportedly scientific medical information stems from inappropriate use of surrogate endpoints and improper statistical analyses (pp. 34–39): The usual criterion for statistical significance (p ≤ 0.05) is arbitrary and very weak. The typical marketing ploy of citing relative rather than absolute risks is highly misleading (pp. 40–46). How deadly is COVID?

Multi-Criteria Group Decision-Making for Selection of Green Suppliers under Bipolar Fuzzy PROMETHEE Process

The preference ranking organization method for enrichment of evaluations (PROMETHEE) method considers a significant outranking class of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), as it is easy to deal with its simple computations. In the PROMETHEE, different preference functions are used according to the type and nature of attributes or criteria that demonstrate the clearness and reliability of this method. This study provides a new version of the PROMETHEE method using bipolar fuzzy information, named the bipolar fuzzy PROMETHEE method. Bipolar fuzzy sets or numbers constitute an asymmetrical relationship between two judgmental factors of human reasoning. Vague and imprecise knowledge is characterized by bipolar fuzzy linguistic terms which are further represented in the form of trapezoidal bipolar fuzzy numbers. The trapezoidal bipolar fuzzy numbers are used by analysts to assign the preferences of alternatives on the basis of criteria. Further, a ranking function of bipolar fuzzy numbers is considered to access the crisp real preferences of alternatives. The entropy weighting information is employed to calculate the weights of attributes by considering the condition of normality. A numerical example such as the selection of green suppliers by using the bipolar fuzzy PROMETHEE is performed on the basis of the usual criterion preference function in order to explain the procedure of the proposed method. Comparable results are derived by using the combination of linear and level preference functions. The results obtained by using different types of preference functions are the same, representing the authenticity of the proposed bipolar fuzzy PROMETHEE method.

Donor Site Evaluation After Osteochondral Autograft Transplantation for Capitellar Osteochondritis Dissecans

Background: Osteochondral autograft transplantation (OAT) for capitellar osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) requires harvesting of tissue from the asymptomatic knee joint. However, donor site morbidity (DSM) in such cases remains unclear. Purpose: To evaluate DSM and postoperative radiographic findings in patients undergoing OAT for advanced capitellar OCD. Study Design: Case series; Level of evidence, 4. Methods: Eighty-six juvenile athletes underwent OAT for advanced capitellar OCD. The 2000 International Knee Documentation Committee subjective score, rate of return to sports, and symptoms in the donor knee were assessed at a mean follow-up of 86 months (range, 28-185 months). Additionally, 49 of the 86 patients were assessed by radiographic and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings of the knee donor site. DSM was defined according to the usual criterion (persistent symptoms for >1 year or the need for subsequent intervention) and a stricter criterion (the presence of any symptoms, such as effusion, patellofemoral complaints, crepitation, unspecified disturbance, stiffness, pain/instability during activities, and osteoarthritic change). The stricter criterion was also used to allocate patients into a DSM group and a no-DSM group. Results: Two and 11 patients were determined to have DSM according to the usual and stricter criteria, respectively. All patients returned to the competitive level of their sports. The mean International Knee Documentation Committee score was 99.0. MRI findings showed abnormal signal intensity in 17 patients (35%) and hypertrophic changes in 11 patients (22%) at the donor harvest sites. The MOCART (magnetic resonance observation of cartilage repair tissue) score was higher in the no-DSM group (mean, 68.2) than in the DSM group (mean, 52.9) ( P = .027). Conclusion: OAT for juvenile athletes with advanced capitellar OCD provided good clinical outcomes. The DSM rate was relatively low (2.3%) with the usual criterion but high (12.8%) with the stricter criterion. MRI showed an abnormal signal intensity and hypertrophy in some cases.

Gravitational reduction of the wave function based on Bohmian quantum potential

In objective gravitational reduction of the wave function of a quantum system, the classical limit of the system is obtained in terms of the objective properties of the system. On the other hand, in Bohmian quantum mechanics the usual criterion for getting classical limit is the vanishing of the quantum potential or the quantum force of the system, which suffers from the lack of an objective description. In this regard, we investigated the usual criterion of getting the classical limit of a free particle in Bohmian quantum mechanics. Then we argued how it is possible to have an objective gravitational classical limit related to the Bohmian mechanical concepts like quantum potential or quantum force. Also we derived a differential equation related to the wave function reduction. An interesting connection will be made between Bohmian mechanics and gravitational concepts.

ON THE SECURITY OF MICROAGGREGATION WITH INDIVIDUAL RANKING: ANALYTICAL ATTACKS

Microaggregation is a statistical disclosure control technique. Raw microdata (i.e. individual records) are grouped into small aggregates prior to publication. With fixed-size groups, each aggregate contains k records to prevent disclosure of individual information. Individual ranking is a usual criterion to reduce multivariate microaggregation to univariate case: the idea is to perform microaggregation independently for each variable in the record. Using distributional assumptions, we show in this paper how to find interval estimates for the original data based on the microaggregated data. Such intervals can be considerably narrower than intervals resulting from subtraction of means, and can be useful to detect lack of security in a microaggregated data set. Analytical arguments given in this paper confirm recent empirical results about the unsafety of individual ranking microaggregation.

Millimeter and Submillimeterwave Receivers

Various types of receivers can be used for millimeter and submillimeterwave astronomy. The choices are amplifiers or mixer detectors. For the millimeter band, in the past, maser and paramp devices have been successfully used, but in the last few years HEMT amplifiers have proved to be the best option up to about 40 GHz, because they are inexpensive, quite low noise (about 1-2 K/GHz), stable and wideband. However, currently, above ~40 GHz the best performance is obtained from mixer receivers and this review will address that topic only. When used in either interferometers or in single dish spectroscopy, the receivers measure simultaneously the amplitude and phase of the astronomical signal and are therefore fundamentally limited by the quantum noise inherent in the measurement process, which increases linearly with frequency. A receiver which achieves a noise temperature within a factor of 10 of this limit is considered to be well optimized, so that the usual criterion for the noise temperature characterizing a single side-band receiver is that it should be ≲ 10hv/k or equivalently ≲ 0.5 K/GHz.

Fracture mechanics in design and service: ‘living with defects’ - Fracture mechanics as an aid to design and operation of nuclear plant

Fracture mechanics analyses are an important part of nuclear plant design, supplementing the conventional design protection against failure to cover the possibility of the presence of crack-like defects. The degree of detail and accuracy required for a particular application depends on the possible consequences of a failure and whether the assessment is concerned with plant safety or with aspects of reliability. In the former case, a conservative approach is necessary and the prevention of initiation is the usual criterion. This approach is typified by the safety assessment applied to pressurized water reactor pressure vessels, which is outlined and discussed in relation to elastic plastic approaches and the importance of plant transient conditions, material properties (especially in weldments) and possible defect distributions. Fracture mechanics can help in defining quality control and quality assurance procedures, including both requirements for mechanical property appraisal and nondestructive testing. The latter aspects extend into operation, in respect of monitoring of plant conditions, surveillance of changes in material properties and the use of periodic inspection and plant condition monitoring techniques. A number of examples are quoted and recommendations made to permit improved fracture mechanics assessments.

Accountability in Vocational Rehabilitation: Difficulties with the “26 Closure” as a Criterion

The authors draw on their experience in vocational rehabilitation and as continuing educators to look at the task of accountability in vocational rehabilitation. The “26 closure” is recognized as a usual criterion in State V. R. agencies. While not suggesting that the “26 closure” is a completely ineffective criterion, the authors see it as a problem and look at the various aspects and implications of the problem for counselors. The problem is also analyzed from the standpoint of those who must deal with it, namely administrators, supervisors, and educators. Many, often unwittingly, contribute to the problem because of legislative pressures, trends to measure and demon state effectiveness, and differing philosophical points of view. The authors conclude by offering some ameliorative approaches that include employing better-chosen terms; more open communication that explains agency, counselor, and client needs; in-service and continuing education to foster better understanding and improving practice skills; and the development of a multiple-measure system that would reflect a counselor's quantitative performance by counting the number of clients found eligible or ineligible, the number started in rehabilitation service programs, the number rehabilitated, and the number served but not rehabilitated. The multiple criteria for effective counseling would measure the client's movement through the case process rather than merely reflect the completion of the process as a rehabilitated client.

Velocity Distribution of Secondary π Mesons Produced in Interactions of 70 GeV/c Protons with the Nuclei (CNO) and (Ag, Br)

One hundred nuclear interactions produced by 70 GeV/c protons with photoemulsion nuclei have been analyzed. The velocity distribution of the secondary π mesons produced in these interactions was studied. A Gaussian type function is observed to simulate the experimental data which confirms the usual criterion of isotropy in the center of mass frame.

THE EXCRETION OF C-16 OXYGENATED NEUTRAL STEROID SULPHATES AND DEHYDROEPIANDROSTERONE SULPHATE IN NORMAL PREGNANCY, AND A COMPARISON WITH THEIR EXCRETION BY ENDOCRINOLOGICALLY NORMAL SUBJECTS OF BOTH SEXES

ABSTRACT The respective mean 24 h urinary excretions of sulphoconjugated 16α-hydroxydehydroepiandrosterone, 16-oxo-androstenediol, and dehydroepiandrosterone were found to be 1040, 230, and 668 μg/24 h for normal males, and 621, 209, and 304 μg/24 h for normal non-pregnant females. None of the differences in mean steroid excretions between males and non-pregnant females was statistically significant according to the usual criterion for significance (P < 0.05). The mean excretions of sulphoconjugated 16α-hydroxydehydroepiandrosterone, 16-oxo-androstenediol and dehydroepiandrosterone between the 10th week of normal pregnancy and term were 1300, 505 and 226 μg/24 h respectively. No significant trend in the excretions of these neutral steroid sulphates between the 10th week of pregnancy and term could be detected. The increased excretion of both C-16 oxygenated steroid sulphates in pregnancy was highly significant (P < 0.001). In contrast, the statistical significance of the difference in excretion of dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate between pregnant and non-pregnant females could not be established. There did not appear to be any relationship between the excretion of 16α-hydroxydehydroepiandrosterone sulphate and oestriol in normal pregnancy. The results are considered to be consistent with a limited transplacental passage of neutral steroids from the foetoplacental to maternal circulation.