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Validation Strategies (validation + strategy)
Selected AbstractsThe Search for Animal Models of Epileptogenesis and Pharmacoresistance: Are There Biologic Barriers to Simple Validation Strategies?EPILEPSIA, Issue 11 2002F. Edward Dudek No abstract is available for this article. [source] Validation of Numerical Ground Water Models Used to Guide Decision MakingGROUND WATER, Issue 2 2004Ahmed E. Hassan Many sites of ground water contamination rely heavily on complex numerical models of flow and transport to develop closure plans. This complexity has created a need for tools and approaches that can build confidence in model predictions and provide evidence that these predictions are sufficient for decision making. Confidence building is a long-term, iterative process and the author believes that this process should be termed model validation. Model validation is a process, not an end result. That is, the process of model validation cannot ensure acceptable prediction or quality of the model. Rather, it provides an important safeguard against faulty models or inadequately developed and tested models. If model results become the basis for decision making, then the validation process provides evidence that the model is valid for making decisions (not necessarily a true representation of reality). Validation, verification, and confirmation are concepts associated with ground water numerical models that not only do not represent established and generally accepted practices, but there is not even widespread agreement on the meaning of the terms as applied to models. This paper presents a review of model validation studies that pertain to ground water flow and transport modeling. Definitions, literature debates, previously proposed validation strategies, and conferences and symposia that focused on subsurface model validation are reviewed and discussed. The review is general and focuses on site-specific, predictive ground water models used for making decisions regarding remediation activities and site closure. The aim is to provide a reasonable starting point for hydrogeologists facing model validation for ground water systems, thus saving a significant amount of time, effort, and cost. This review is also aimed at reviving the issue of model validation in the hydrogeologic community and stimulating the thinking of researchers and practitioners to develop practical and efficient tools for evaluating and refining ground water predictive models. [source] Content Validation Is Useful for Many Things, but Validity Isn't One of ThemINDUSTRIAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2009KEVIN R. MURPHY Content-oriented validation strategies establish the validity of selection tests as predictors of performance by comparing the content of the tests with the content of the job. These comparisons turn out to have little if any bearing on the predictive validity of selection tests. There is little empirical support for the hypothesis that the match between job content and test content influences validity, and there are often structural factors in selection (e.g., positive correlations among selection tests) that strongly limit the possible influence of test content on validity. Comparisons between test content and job content have important implications for the acceptability of testing, the defensibility of tests in legal proceedings, and the transparency of test development and validation, but these comparisons have little if any bearing on validity. [source] Methods for HPV detection in exfoliated cell and tissue specimensAPMIS, Issue 6-7 2010PETER J.F. SNIJDERS Snijders PJF, Heideman DAM, Meijer CJLM. Methods for HPV detection in exfoliated cell and tissue specimens. APMIS 2010; 118: 520,528. Given the causal involvement of high-risk human papillomaviruses (HPVs) in cervical cancer and a subset of squamous cell carcinomas of other anogenital regions as well as the oropharynx, much attention has been focused on the development and application of HPV detection assays. HPV detection assays are almost exclusively based on the detection of viral nucleic acids, mostly viral DNA. The HPV detection methods that are nowadays in use can broadly be subdivided into target amplification methods and signal amplification methods. In this review, several principles of various methodologies are explained and examples of some commonly used HPV detection assays are given. In addition, attention is paid to the use of HPV assays for detecting clinically meaningful HPV infections, i.e. infections related to (pre)cancerous lesions, e.g. cervical cancer screening purposes. For the latter, it is important that HPV tests are clinically validated according to validation strategies as outlined in guidelines. [source] Validation of MCADD newborn screeningCLINICAL GENETICS, Issue 2 2009EM Maier Medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (MCADD) represents a potentially fatal fatty acid ,-oxidation disorder. Newborn screening (NBS) by tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) has been implemented worldwide, but is associated with unresolved questions regarding population heterogeneity, burden on healthy carriers, cut-off policies, false-positive and negative rates. In a retrospective case-control study, 333 NBS samples showing borderline acylcarnitine patterns but not reaching recall criteria were genotyped for the two most common mutations (c.985A>G/c.199C>T) and compared with genotypes and acylcarnitines of 333 controls, 68 false-positives, and 34 patients. c.985A>G was more frequently identified in the study group and false-positives compared to controls (1:4.3/1:2.3 vs. 1:42), whereas c.199C>T was found more frequently only within the false-positives (1:23). Biochemical criteria were devised to differentiate homozygous (c.985A>G), compound heterozygous (c.985A>G/c.199C>T), and heterozygous individuals. Four false-negatives were identified because our initial algorithm required an elevation of octanoylcarnitine (C8) and three secondary markers in the initial and follow-up sample. The new approach allowed a reduction of false-positives (by defining high cut-offs: 1.4 ,mol/l for C8; 7 for C8/C12) and false-negatives (by sequencing the ACADM gene of few suspicious samples). Our validation strategy is able to differentiate healthy carriers from patients doubling the positive predictive value (42,88%) and to target NBS to MCADD-subsets with potentially higher risk of adverse outcome. It remains controversial, if NBS programs should aim at identifying all subsets of all diseases included. Because the natural course of milder variants cannot be assessed by observational studies, our strategy could serve as a general model for evaluation of MS/MS-based NBS. [source] |