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Assessing Risk (assessing + risk)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Psychology22%
Medical Sciences22%
Life Sciences22%

Selected Abstracts

Environmental Hazards: Assessing Risk and Reducing Disaster (Fifth Edition) by Keith Smith and David N. Petley

THE CANADIAN GEOGRAPHER/LE GEOGRAPHE CANADIEN, Issue 2 2010
BRENDA MURPHY
No abstract is available for this article. [source]

Human Subjects Protections in Biomedical Enhancement Research: Assessing Risk and Benefit and Obtaining Informed Consent

THE JOURNAL OF LAW, MEDICINE & ETHICS, Issue 3 2008
Maxwell J. Mehlman
The protection of human subjects in biomedical research relies on two principal mechanisms: assessing and comparing the risks and potential benefits of proposed research, and obtaining potential subjects' informed consent. While these have been discussed extensively in the literature, no attention has been paid to whether the processes should be different when the objective of an experimental biomedical intervention is to improve individual appearance, performance, or capability ("enhancement research") rather than to prevent, cure, or mitigate disease ("health-oriented research"). This essay examines this question in order to ensure that subjects in biomedical enhancement research receive adequate protection. [source]

Assessing risk of violent behavior among veterans with severe mental illness,

JOURNAL OF TRAUMATIC STRESS, Issue 1 2008
Eric B. Elbogen
Although empirical research has examined factors associated with increased violence risk among individuals with severe mental illness (SMI) and among veterans without SMI, less attention has been devoted to identifying violence risk factors among veterans with SMI. Using multivariable analysis of a large pooled sample of individuals with SMI, this study examines violence risk factors of N = 278 veterans with SMI. In multivariate modeling, violence by veterans with SMI was associated with head injury, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance abuse, and homelessness. Results support the view clinicians assessing violence risk among veterans with SMI should consider a combination of characteristics empirically related to violence by non-veterans with SMI (e.g., homelessness) and veterans without SMI (e.g., PTSD). [source]

Assessing risk in adolescent sexual offenders: recommendations for clinical practice

BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES & THE LAW, Issue 6 2009
Michael J. Vitacco Ph.D.
Accurately predicting the likelihood that an adolescent with a sex offense history will reoffend is a precarious task that carries with it the potential for extreme consequences for the adolescent offender (e.g., lifelong public registration). Recently implemented laws regarding adolescent sex offenders are dramatically upstream of current knowledge. Several of these laws were ostensibly based on the misassumption that clinicians could accurately identify adolescents at the greatest risk for sexual recidivism. However, predicting which adolescents are at greatest risk to sexually recidivate is severely constrained by limited knowledge about which predictors are most accurately linked to sexual recidivism and uncertainty over how to best make use of instruments designed to predict recidivism. This paper reviews research on risk assessment and provides a set of recommendations for conducting risk assessments with adolescent sex offenders. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

4351: Using the OHTS-EGPS risk calculator with OctopusTM visual field testing

ACTA OPHTHALMOLOGICA, Issue 2010
AM STEVENS
Purpose Assessing risk in ocular hypertensive (OHT)patients is not only of clinical importance for the patients with regard to their possible glaucomatous field damage but has major repercussions on their quality of life when making decisions about the use of eye drops for longer periods. Clinicians are not that good in estimating the risk hence the need for instruments to help them make a more evidence-based decision. The EGPS group states that a methodological difference " of using in a quarter of the patients another type of perimeter could explain the Hasard Ratio for the Pattern Standard Deviation (PSD) of 1.66 in EGPS and 1.27 in OHTS . Hence our interest to recalculate a conversion of the Octopus G1 program ( mostly used for glaucoma ) to the Humphrey 30-2 in a Group of ocular hypertensives conform the inclusions of the OHTS thus providing a way to use the calculator more accurately. Methods 50 OHT patients recruited using the OHTS criteria were tested both with the Humphrey 30-2 program and the Octopus G1 program. The Humphrey PSD values were plotted against the square root of the Loss of Variance (sLV) and a conversion formula was calculated Results Our data generated the following conversion formula: Y = 0.4X + 1.1 Conclusion Our conversion permits a proper use of the risk calculator in OHT patients. There has been an attempt to convert the values from Humphrey 30-2 to Octopus 32 by Monhart based on the results of a study by Langerhorst. Another approach could be based on the algorithm described by Zeyen using HFA 24-2 and G1 Octopus but proves difficult to use in daily practice. EGPS simply used "converted" indices by taking the square root of LV for PSD. Our formula is based on the same population as OHTS but yields different results [source]

Assessing risks of metals added to soils in Europe and North America

ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY & CHEMISTRY, Issue 3 2006
Joseph Gorsuch
First page of article [source]

Assessing risks from threats to process plants: Threat and vulnerability analysis

PROCESS SAFETY PROGRESS, Issue 4 2002
Paul Baybutt
Process security management addresses threats from terrorist and criminal acts against plants that may result in the release of hazardous materials. The risk of such threats must be assessed to determine if existing security measures and safeguards are adequate or need improvement. Risk assessment is the heart of a process security program. Process plants need straight forward and easily applied methods to assess security risks using techniques that can be employed in a variety of situations and at varying levels of detail. This paper describes an approach that accomplishes these objectives. Threat analysis is the first step. It is used to identify the sources and types of threats and their likelihood. The approach described in this paper involves the consideration of motivations and capabilities of adversaries and the rating of facility security factors to develop a threat profile. Once specific threats have been identified, process vulnerability analysis is used to identify threat scenarios, i.e., how threats could be realized. Plants and processes are divided into sectors, and each credible threat within each sector is considered. Vulnerabilities are identified by brainstorming the ways barriers can be penetrated and process containment breached. Checklists are used to guide the brainstorming, and scenario consequences are recorded. Existing security measures and safeguards are listed, and any recommendations for improvements to reduce the likelihood and severity of terrorist and criminal acts are made for consideration by management based on the nature of the threat, process vulnerabilities, possible consequences, and existing security measures and safeguards. Risk rankings are performed as part of the analyses. [source]

A review of factors predicting perioperative death and early outcome in hepatopancreaticobiliary cancer surgery

HPB, Issue 6 2010
Chris D. Mann
Abstract Objectives:, In the context of comparisons of surgical outcomes, risk adjustment is the retrospective adjustment of a provider's or a surgeon's results for case mix and/or hospital volume. It allows accurate, meaningful inter-provider comparison. It is therefore an essential component of any audit and quality improvement process. The aim of this study was to review the literature to identify those factors known to affect prognosis in hepatobiliary and pancreatic cancer surgery. Methods:, PubMed was used to identify studies assessing risk in patients undergoing resection surgery, rather than bypass surgery, for hepatobiliary and pancreatic cancer. Results:, In total, 63 and 68 papers, pertaining to 24 609 and 63 654 patients who underwent hepatic or pancreatic resection for malignancy, respectively, were identified. Overall, 22 generic preoperative factors predicting outcome on multivariate analysis, including demographics, blood results, preoperative biliary drainage and co-morbidities, were identified, with tumour characteristics proving disease-specific factors. Operative duration, transfusion, operative extent, vascular resection and additional intra-abdominal procedures were also found to be predictive of early outcome. Conclusions:, The development of a risk adjustment model will allow for the identification of those factors with most influence on early outcome and will thus identify potential targets for preoperative optimization and allow for the development of a multicentre risk prediction model. [source]

Detection, survival rates and dynamics of a cryptic plant, Asclepias meadii: applications of mark-recapture models to long-term monitoring studies

JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2009
Helen M. Alexander
Summary 1Analysis of population trajectories is central to assessing risk in populations of conservation concern. In animal studies, researchers realize that probabilities of detection of individuals are often less than one. Plants can also escape detection due to dormancy, herbivory, or observer error, but such information is rarely incorporated into population studies. 2We monitored a population of Asclepias meadii, a rare long-lived prairie perennial. Despite standardized methods, numbers of observed plants fluctuated greatly from 1992 to 2006. Individual plants often had periods of 1,5 years between initial and final sighting when no stems were found. To determine the actual population trajectories, we estimated rates of survival and population growth using mark-recapture models. We also estimated initial and resighting probabilities of detection. In 2007, we repeated surveys to identify reasons for low detection probabilities. 3We estimated 95% annual survival and a population growth rate of 1.023. Probabilities of initial detection were low (typically from 0.120 to 0.311 depending on prairie burn treatment), whereas average probability of detection for marked plants was 0.728. 4Comparisons of survival estimates from 15- and 8-year data sets revealed that survival estimates decline in the final years of a multi-year period, probably due to heterogeneity in encounter histories. 5By conducting three different surveys in 2007, we found that both herbivory over a multiple-week period and observer error contributed substantially to gaps in detection. 6Synthesis. Probabilities of detection that are less than one complicate interpretation of population dynamics, whether of mobile animals or inconspicuous plants. Our work illustrates three general points that could apply to many plant population studies: (i) mark-recapture models may provide insights on vital rates and population trajectories despite the extreme variability in count data that can arise because of low detectability, (ii) probabilities of initial detection can be quantified and can be considerably less than probabilities of resighting, and (iii) repeated surveys can help researchers determine the degree to which dormancy, herbivory, or observer error contribute to low probabilities of detection. Consideration of these points can improve the design and analysis of monitoring programs. [source]