Multireader receiver operating characteristic studies: a comparison of study designs

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: Traditionally, multireader receiver operating characteristic (ROC) studies have used a "paired-case, paired-reader" design. The statistical power of such a design for inferences about the relative accuracies of the tests was assessed and compared with alternative designs. METHODS: The noncentrality parameter of an F statistic was used to compute power as a function of the reader and patient sample sizes and the variability and correlation between readings. RESULTS: For a fixed-power and Type I error rate, the traditional design reduces the number of verified cases required. A hybrid design, in which each reader interprets a different sample of patients, reduces the number of readers, total readings, and reading required per reader. The drawback is a substantial increase in the number of verified cases. CONCLUSION: The ultimate choice of study design depends on the nature of the tests being compared, limiting resources, a priori knowledge of the magnitude of the correlations and variability and logistic complexity.     

Medical specialists prefer to withdraw familiar technologies when discontinuing life support

OBJECTIVE: To assess how members of different specialties vary in their decisions about which form of life support to withdraw. The hypothesis was that each specialty would be more comfortable withdrawing its "own" form of life support relative to other forms and other specialties. DESIGN: Mail survey. SETTING: 24 medical centers. PARTICIPANTS: 225 specialists in six specialties and 225 comparison physicians randomly matched according to percentage of time devoted to clinical practice. MEASUREMENTS: The six specialties were linked with six life-sustaining technologies related to their special expertise: 1) pulmonologists with mechanical ventilation, 2) nephrologists with hemodialysis, 3) gastroenterologists with tube feedings, 4) hematologists with blood products, 5) cardiologists with intravenous vasopressors, and 6) infectious disease specialists with antibiotics. The subjects ranked different forms of life support in the order in which they would prefer to withdraw them. They also expressed their preferences in response to hypothetical clinical vignettes. RESULTS: In five of the six specialties, the specialists had a relative preference for withdrawing their "own" form of life support, compared with the preferences of the comparison physicians. Overall, the physicians tended to prefer withdrawing a form of life support closely linked with their own specialty. CONCLUSIONS: Just as some specialist physicians tend to reach for different technologies first in treating patients, they also tend to reach for different technologies first when ceasing treatment. Specialists' preferences for different ways to withdraw life support not only may reflect a special understanding of the limits of certain technologies, but also may reveal how ingrained are physicians' patterns of practice.     

基于层次化可塑性回声状态网络的混沌时间序列预测

为了提高回声状态网络对于混沌时间序列特征提取与预测的能力,提出一种层次化可塑性回声状态网络模型.该模型将多个储备池顺序连接,通过逐层特征变换的方式增强对非线性多尺度动态特征的提取能力.同时,引入神经科学中的内在可塑性机制模拟真实生物神经元的放电率分布,以最大化神经元的信息传递为目标对储备池进行预训练.层次化可塑性回声状态网络不仅能够增加模型的容量,降低随机投影所带来的不稳定性,而且也为理解储备池的表示、处理、记忆及储存操作提供一种新的思路.仿真实验结果表明,相比于其他7种改进的回声状态网络模型,所提出的模型在人造数据和真实数据所构成的混沌时间序列预测任务中均能取得最优的预测精度.     

“互联网+”背景下厨房系统的设计服务模式

目的构建"互联网+"背景下厨房系统的设计服务模式。方法在分析"互联网+"内涵的基础上,比较传统"微笑曲线"模式和"互联网+制造业"模式下工业设计切入模式的差异,构建"互联网+"背景下整体厨房云设计服务系统的功能目标、服务流程和生长模式。结论在"互联网+"背景下,厨房系统不仅实现了开放协同的定制设计,而且还实现了从产品形象一致性到用户体验一致性的设计转型,有助于快速创新和解决产能过剩问题。     

载体Al/Si比对Cu-ZnO-ZrO2催化剂上CO2加氢合成甲醇的影响

用直接合成法制备了不同铝硅物质的量比Al-SBA-15(β)(β=n(Al)/n(Si)=0,0.02,0.03,0.05)介孔分子筛,并采用浸渍法制备了金属负载量m=35%的CZZ/Al-SBA-15(β)负载型介孔催化剂,考察了Al/Si比对负载催化剂结构和性能的影响。采用N_2吸附-脱附、X射线衍射(XRD)、H_2程序升温还原(H_2-TPR)、CO_2吸附(CO_2-TPD)、NH3吸附(NH3-TPD)和透射电子显微镜(TEM)等手段对样品进行了表征,在固定床反应器上评价了其CO_2加氢合成甲醇的催化性能。实验结果表明,CZZ/Al-SBA-15(β)具有介孔结构,Al的引入不但增加了载体表面酸性位点,同时还提高了催化剂表面铜分散度(DCu%)和铜比表面积(SCu)以及促进了Cu~+-O-Zn活性位的形成,从而大大提高了催化剂的活性。其中CZZ/Al-SBA-15(0.03)催化剂的甲醇选择性达到26%,与不掺铝的CZZ/Al-SBA-15(0)催化剂相比,甲醇选择性提高了11%,但随着掺Al量的继续增加,酸性太强,CO_2吸附能力下降,活性反而降低。     

液体苯系物等类油物质吸附材料综述

近年来,苯系物等类油物质泄漏事故频发。由于苯系物多数具有极强的毒性和挥发性,因此苯系物比原油等重油泄漏事故引发的危害更大。考虑到苯系物和油类物质理化性质的相似性,对苯系物泄漏事故的应急处置办法可以参考溢油事故的处置办法。通过对溢油事故中常用的无机类吸附材料、有机高分子吸附材料和天然高分子吸附材料的研究现状和应用前景进行了综述,希望能够为相关科研工作者解决苯系物泄漏的应急处置提供思路,促进该领域的快速发展。     

Genetic effects of 1,3-butadiene and associated risk for heritable damage

A summary of the results of the studies conducted in the EU Project "Multi-endpoint analysis of genetic damage induced by 1,3-butadiene and its major metabolites in somatic and germ cells of mice, rats and man" is presented. Results of the project are summarized on the detection of DNA and hemoglobin adducts, on the cytotoxic and clastogenic effects in somatic and germinal cells of mice and rats, on the induction of somatic mutations at the hprt locus of experimental rodents and occupationally exposed workers, on the induction of dominant lethal mutations in mice and rats, and on heritable translocations induced in mice, after exposure to butadiene (BD) or its major metabolites, butadiene monoepoxide (BMO), diepoxybutane (DEB) and butadiene diolepoxide (BDE). The primary goal of this project was to collect experimental data on the genetic effects of BD in order to estimate the germ cell genetic risk to humans of exposure to BD. To achieve this, the butadiene exposure are based on data for heritable translocations and bone marrow micronuclei induced in mice and chromosome aberrations observed in lymphocytes of exposed workers. A doubling dose for heritable translocations in human germ cells of 4900 ppm/h is estimated, which, assuming cumulative BD exposure over the sensitive period of spermatogenesis, corresponds to 5-6 weeks of continuous exposure at the workplace to 20-25 ppm. Alternatively, the rate of heritable translocation induction per ppm/h of BD exposure is estimated to be approximately 0.8 per million live born, compared to a spontaneous incidence of balanced translocations in humans of approximately 800 per million live born. These estimates have large confidence intervals and are only intended to indicate orders of magnitude of human genetic risk. These risk estimates are based on data from germ cells of BD-exposed male mice. The demonstration that clastogenic damage was induced by DEB in preovulatory oocytes at doses which were not ovotoxic implies that additional studies on the response of mammalian female germ cells to BD and its metabolites are needed. The basic assumption of the above genetic risk estimates is that experimental mouse data obtained after BD exposure can be extrapolated to humans. Several points exist in the present report and in the literature which contradict this assumption: (1) the level of BMO-hemoglobin adducts was significantly elevated in BD-exposed workers; however, it was considerably lower than would have been predicted from comparable rat and mouse exposures; (2) the concentrations of the metabolites DEB and BMO were significantly higher in mouse than in rat blood after BD exposure. Thus, while metabolism of BD is qualitatively similar in the two species, it is quantitatively different; (3) no increase of HPRT mutations was shown in 19 workers exposed on average to 1.8 ppm of BD, while in a different population of workers from a US plant exposed on average to 3.5 ppm of BD, a significant increase of HPRT variants was detected; and (4) data from cancer bioassays and cancer epidemiology suggest that rat is a more appropriate model than mouse for human cancer risk from BD exposure. However, the dominant lethal study in rats gave a negative result. At present, we do not know which BD metabolite(s) may be responsible for the genetic effects even though the bifunctional alkylating agent DEB is the most likely candidate for the induction of clastogenic events. Unfortunately, methods to measure DEB adducts in hemoglobin or DNA are only presently being developed. Despite these several uncertainties the use of the mouse genetic data is regarded as a justifiable and conservative approach to human genetic risk estimation given the considerable heterogeneity observed in the biotransformation of BD in humans.     

The syndrome of depressive depersonalization

Nineteen patients (9 men, 10 women aged 22--38 years) with depressions were examined. The phenomena of anesthesia of ideatoric functions dominated in clinical picture of such depression. This depression is defined as the depression of estrangement. Psychopathologic differentiation of mental estrangement in the structure of depression and in similar disorders of self-consciousness which were formed in depressions under conditions of "transitional syndrome" (according to G.Gross) is outlined. This syndrome is characterised by irreversible negative disorders of "defective depersonalization". The following signs permit to distinguish depression of estrangement from "transitional syndrome": partiality of the estrangement's phenomenon; connection between psychopathologic formations and pathology of imagination (figurative expressiveness, demonstrativity, lability to psychogenic and medical actions); conformity of the syndrome's structure and characteristics of premanifested personality's structure (combination of hyperthymic features with histrionic and/or narcissic ones). "Apperceptive anesthesia" is suggested for designation of the variant of the depression described.     

The Ashkenazic Jewish Bloom syndrome mutation blmAsh is present in non-Jewish Americans of Spanish ancestry

Bloom syndrome (BS) is more frequent in the Ashkenazic Jewish population than in any other. There the predominant mutation, referred to as "blmAsh," is a 6-bp deletion and 7-bp insertion at nucleotide position 2281 in the BLM cDNA. Using a convenient PCR assay, we have identified blmAsh on 58 of 60 chromosomes transmitted by Ashkenazic parents to persons with BS. In contrast, in 91 unrelated non-Ashkenazic persons with BS whom we examined, blmAsh was identified only in 5, these coming from Spanish-speaking Christian families from the southwestern United States, Mexico, or El Salvador. These data, along with haplotype analyses, show that blmAsh was independently established through a founder effect in Ashkenazic Jews and in immigrants to formerly Spanish colonies. This striking observation underscores the complexity of Jewish history and demonstrates the importance of migration and genetic drift in the formation of human populations.     

虚拟MIMO传感器网络中一种联合网络效用和生存时间优化的分布式算法

虚拟(协作式)MIMO技术被认为是传感器网络中有效的节能解决方案之一,然而,现有虚拟MIMO传输策略的设计大多只关注如何有效降低网络能耗,而很少关注反映网络性能的其他指标,例如网络效用(Network Utility),该指标反映了网络数据采集和传输量的多少.为了联合优化网络效用和网络生存时间这两个网络性能参数.本文首先分析虚拟MIMO传输能耗特点,然后基于网络效用最大化(Network Utility Maximization)思想对虚拟MIMO传感器网络进行联合网络生存时间和网络效用的优化建模.在该模型的求解过程中,通过使用对偶分解技术将原需要集中计算的优化问题分解为可以在不同节点上进行计算的子优化问题,并得出一种联合优化网络效用和生存时间的分布式优化算法.该算法的仿真结果显示,网络中的虚拟MIMO节点仅需要交互邻居节点信息,通过有限次的迭代计算,就能收敛到全局最优的发送速率以及功率值.从而使系统总的效用和网络生存时间之间能够达到帕累托(Pareto)最优平衡.