Scores Used (score + used)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Libcitations: A measure for comparative assessment of book publications in the humanities and social sciences

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 6 2009
Howard D. White
Bibliometric measures for evaluating research units in the book-oriented humanities and social sciences are underdeveloped relative to those available for journal-oriented science and technology. We therefore present a new measure designed for book-oriented fields: the "libcitation count." This is a count of the libraries holding a given book, as reported in a national or international union catalog. As librarians decide what to acquire for the audiences they serve, they jointly constitute an instrument for gauging the cultural impact of books. Their decisions are informed by knowledge not only of audiences but also of the book world (e.g., the reputations of authors and the prestige of publishers). From libcitation counts, measures can be derived for comparing research units. Here, we imagine a match-up between the departments of history, philosophy, and political science at the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney in Australia. We chose the 12 books from each department that had the highest libcitation counts in the Libraries Australia union catalog during 2000 to 2006. We present each book's raw libcitation count, its rank within its Library of Congress (LC) class, and its LC-class normalized libcitation score. The latter is patterned on the item-oriented field normalized citation score used in evaluative bibliometrics. Summary statistics based on these measures allow the departments to be compared for cultural impact. Our work has implications for programs such as Excellence in Research for Australia and the Research Assessment Exercise in the United Kingdom. It also has implications for data mining in OCLC's WorldCat. [source]


Mental Health and Social Care Needs of Older People with Intellectual Disabilities

JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES, Issue 3 2005
Andre Strydom
Background, Older people with intellectual disabilities (ID) are a growing population but their age-related needs are rarely considered and community services are still geared towards the younger age group. We aimed to examine the mental health and social care needs of this new service user group. Methods, We identified all adults with ID without Down syndrome (DS) aged 65+ living in the London boroughs of Camden and Islington. The Psychiatric Assessment Schedule for Adults with a Developmental Disability (PASADD) checklist was used to detect psychiatric disorder, the Vineland behaviour scale (maladaptive domain) for problem behaviours and the Dementia Questionnaire for persons with Mental Retardation (DMR) to screen for dementia. Carers reported health problems and disability. Needs were measured with the Camberwell Assessment of Need for adults with Intellectual Disabilities (CANDID-S). Results, A total of 23 older people with ID (13 had mild ID and nine more severe ID) and their carers participated in the survey. In which, 74% had one or more psychiatric symptoms; 30% were previously known with a diagnosis of mental illness. One-third of the older people screened positive for dementia (range: 17,44%, depending on sensitivity of DMR scores used). Three quarters of the group had physical health problems, 74% had poor sight, 22% had hearing loss and 30% had mobility problems. Carers rated unmet needs for accommodation (22%), day activities, and eyesight and hearing. The people with ID rated unmet needs to be social relationships (44%), information and physical health. Conclusion, Older people with ID without DS have considerable prevalence of health problems and psychiatric disorders, including symptoms of functional decline and dementia. Such symptoms are often not recognised and further research into their needs is a priority. [source]


Increasing the Reliability of Ability-Achievement Difference Scores: An Example Using the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children

JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT, Issue 1 2002
John C. Caruso
In this study, we focused on increasing the reliability of ability-achievement difference scores using the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (KABC) as an example. Ability-achievement difference scores are often used as indicators of learning disabilities, but when they are derived from traditional equally weighted ability and achievement scores, they have suboptimal psychometric properties because of the high correlations between the scores. As an alternative to equally weighted difference scores, we examined an orthogonal reliable component analysis, (RCA) solution and an oblique principal component analysis (PCA) solution for the standardization sample of the KABC (among 5- to 12-year-olds). The components were easily identifiable as the simultaneous processing, sequential processing, and achievement constructs assessed by the KABC. As judged via the score intercorrelations, all three types of scores had adequate convergent validity, while the orthogonal RCA scores had superior discriminant validity, followed by the oblique PCA scores. Differences between the orthogonal RCA scores were more reliable than differences between the oblique PCA scores, which were in turn more reliable than differences between the traditional equally weighted scores. The increased reliability with which the KABC differences are assessed with the orthogonal RCA method has important practical implications, including narrower confidence intervals around difference scores used in individual administrations of the KABC. [source]


Systematic determination of ion score cutoffs based on calculated false positive rates: application for identifying ubiquitinated proteins by tandem mass spectrometry

JOURNAL OF MASS SPECTROMETRY (INCORP BIOLOGICAL MASS SPECTROMETRY), Issue 3 2008
Julian Vasilescu
Abstract We report a simple approach for determining ion score cutoffs that permit the confident identification of ubiquitinated proteins by tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). Initial experiments involving the analysis of gel bands containing multi-Ubiquitin chains with quadrupole time-of-flight and quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometers revealed that standard ion score cutoffs used for database searching were not sufficiently stringent. We also found that false positive and false negative rates (FPR and FNR) varied significantly depending on the cutoff scores used and that appropriate cutoffs could only be determined following a systematic evaluation of false positive rates. When standard cutoff scores were used for the analysis of complex mixtures of ubiquitinated proteins, unacceptably high FPR were observed. Finally, we found that FPR for ubiquitinated proteins are affected by the size of the protein database that is searched. These observations may be applicable for the study of other post-translational modifications. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Psychometric performance and clinical meaningfulness of the Patient Assessment of Constipation , Quality of Life questionnaire in prucalopride (RESOLOR®) trials for chronic constipation

NEUROGASTROENTEROLOGY & MOTILITY, Issue 2 2010
D. Dubois
Abstract Background, The Patient Assessment of Constipation,Quality of Life (PAC-QOL) is a self-reported questionnaire measuring health-related quality of life (HRQL) of constipated patients and was used as secondary endpoint in three identical double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled Phase III clinical trials. These 12-week trials in subjects with severe chronic constipation evaluated the effects of prucalopride, a selective 5-HT4 agonist given orally once daily. Methods, To consolidate the main treatment effect results observed in the prucalopride trial populations, analyses were undertaken on the pooled data of the three trials to confirm the psychometric properties of the PAC-QOL and to provide guidance for the interpretation of the clinical significance of its scores. Key Results, The evaluation of the psychometric properties confirmed the PAC-QOL reliability, validity and responsiveness to measure the impact of chronic constipation symptoms on HRQL in the prucalopride trials. The 1-point improvement in PAC-QOL scores used as target response level for the main treatment effect analyses was validated as a relevant definition of response for treatment group comparisons. Cumulative distribution curves, drawn for each treatment group to provide more complete information on treatment effects than single minimal important difference point estimates, demonstrated consistent superior effects of prucalopride over placebo on all PAC-QOL scores. Conclusions & Inferences, The PAC-QOL questionnaire is a useful measurement tool to assess, from a patient perspective, the potential therapeutic value of chronic constipation treatments in clinical trials and, by directly reflecting the patient's own perspective on constipation and its treatment, eventually also for informing daily medical practice. [source]


Simple bedside assessment of level of consciousness: comparison of two simple assessment scales with the Glasgow Coma scale,

ANAESTHESIA, Issue 1 2004
A. F. McNarry
Summary Neurological assessment is an essential component of early warning scores used to identify seriously ill ward patients. We investigated how two simple scales (ACDU , Alert, Confused, Drowsy, Unresponsive; and AVPU , Alert, responds to Voice, responds to Pain, Unresponsive) compared to each other and also to the more complicated Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS). Neurosurgical nurses recorded patients' conscious level with each of the three scales. Over 7 months, 1020 analysable measurements were collected. Both simple scales identified distinct GCS ranges, although some overlap occurred (p < 0.001). Median GCS scores associated with AVPU were 15, 13, 8 and 6 and for ACDU were 15, 13, 10 and 6. The median values of ACDU were more evenly distributed than AVPU and may therefore be better at identifying early deteriorations in conscious level when they occur in critically ill ward patients. [source]