Abnormal Items Research Articles

Expected Error Rates in the Detection Problem of Abnormal Items When There Exist Both Categorical and Continuous Variables and Parameters are Unknown

Expected Error Rates in the Detection Problem of Abnormal Items When There Exist Both Categorical and Continuous Variables and Parameters are Unknown

Power Properties in the Detection Problem of Abnormal Items When There Exist Both Categorical and Continuous Variables and Parameters Are Estimated

Power Properties in the Detection Problem of Abnormal Items When There Exist Both Categorical and Continuous Variables and Parameters Are Estimated

Diagnosis and treatment of congenital cytomegalovirus infection in neonates

Obiective To summarize the main clinical features, diagnosis and treatment of congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infected neonates. Methods Serum CMV antibodies were tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and urine CMV-DNA was detected by fluorescent real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. From Jan. 2007 to Dec. 2008,145 neonates were diagnosed as congenital CMV infection. Effects and side effects were observed in 56 of 101 symptomatic patients treated with ganciclovir. Results The main clinical manifestations and abnormal laboratory items in symptomatic infection included pathologic jaundice, hepatosplenomegaly, interstitial pneumonitis, petechiae, poor suck, thrombocytopenia, elevated glutamic-pyruvic transaminase. There were 87 patients(60.0%) had positive urine CMV-DNA, 43(29.7%) had positive CMV-IgM, 21(14.5%) had 4 times increase of CMV-IgG titers within 2 weeks after birth, 13 patients showed positive CMV-DNA in urine or CMV-IgM in serum and their serum CMV IgG levels were more than doubled compared to their mothers. There was significant improvement in clinical and laboratory findings after ganciclovir treatment with minimal side effects including lightly decreasing of granulocyte and platelet, but without damage of liver and kidney function. Conclnsions Neonatal congenital CMV infection might lead to multiple organs damage and had various clinical features. Urine CMV-DNA test might have higher positive rate in infected neonates. The other evidence for the diagnosis is positive CMV-IgM and 4 times increasing of CMV-IgG titers. Over two times of the CMV-IgG level in the neonates than in the mothers is one of the laboratory findings also. Ganciclovir is effective in the treatment of symptomatic CMV infection. Key words: Cytomegalovirus infections; Infant, newborn; Ganciclovir

Detection of Abnormal Items using Likelihood Ratio Test when Mixed Categorical and Continuous Variables are Observed

Detection of Abnormal Items using Likelihood Ratio Test when Mixed Categorical and Continuous Variables are Observed

Droughts and big baths of Australian agricultural firms

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine whether Australian agricultural firms display big bath behaviour during droughts by recognising extraordinary and abnormal losses. It is hypothesised that Australian agricultural firms are more likely to report big bath losses in drought years than in non‐drought years and, in a given drought year, agricultural firms are more likely to report big bath losses than firms in other industries.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analyse 405 firm‐years data for agricultural firms over 1980‐1995. For comparison, they also analyse matched‐pair samples of 17 and 30 non‐agricultural firms for the drought years of 1983 and 1995, and matched‐pair samples of 19 non‐agricultural firms for the non‐drought years of 1986 and 1990, respectively. Both univariate and multivariate analyses are used to test the hypotheses.FindingsIt is found that agricultural firms are more likely to take big baths in drought years than in non‐drought years. Further, in a given drought year, agricultural firms are more likely to take big baths than non‐agricultural firms. Further analyses of sales, profitability, and extraordinary and abnormal items support the idea that big baths reflect managerial opportunism rather than the economic consequences of droughts.Originality/valuePrevious studies have not investigated the impact of natural calamities like flood and drought on accounting choices. This paper makes an original contribution to the accounting literature by documenting evidence on the extent to which an act of nature, over which management has little or no control, can influence accounting choices.

The Rise and Demise of Abnormal Items

Before 2001, Australian companies reported abnormal items on the face of the income statement or by way of note. In response to perceived abuses in classifying items as abnormal, AASB 1018 was reissued in October 1999 with the reference to abnormal items removed. We analyse the implications of the changes to accounting standard requirements relating to abnormal items, and examine whether there is empirical evidence of opportunistic classification of operating profit items as abnormal. Our results suggest that some companies may have opportunistically classified large expense items as ‘abnormal’ to boost their reported ‘normal’ earnings number.

Prevalence of Delayed Neurodevelopment in Children from Bogotá, Colombia, South America

Background: Undiagnosed children with neurodevelopment delay disorders (NDD) frequently experience school difficulties, leading to school desertion or academic failure with subsequent familial, social and work-related problems. Methods: In 2004–2005, we conducted a cross-sectional study to determine the prevalence of developmental delay among preschoolers in Bogotá (Colombia); convenience samples in several socioeconomic areas of the city were screened to define the prevalence of NDD. Parents and teachers were interviewed to identify children with possible NDD. Selected children were evaluated with a neurodevelopmental abbreviated scale (EAD-1). Results: We screened 2,043 preschool children aged <60 months; 288 suspected cases were examined individually using the EAD-1 scale. One or more abnormal items (alert category) were found in 67 (23.3%) children, for an estimated prevalence of 32.8‰ children <5 years of age, including deficits in gross motor function (9.3‰), personal-social interactions (9.8‰), fine motor skills (10.3‰), auditory language delay (18.6‰) and overall delay (10.8‰). Conclusions: There is limited information regarding the prevalence of neurodevelopmental delay in nonindustrialized countries. The prevalence obtained in Bogotá, Colombia, is within the expected range; however, we identified NDD among apparently healthy children from nurseries and kindergartens, who had previously been undiagnosed and untreated. Lack of evaluation of developmental milestones in children in Colombia is a substantial public health problem that will require effective intervention.

A Review and Analysis of the Mahalanobis—Taguchi System

The Mahalanobis–Taguchi system (MTS) is a relatively new collection of methods proposed for diagnosis and forecasting using multivariate data. The primary proponent of the MTS is Genichi Taguchi, who is very well known for his controversial ideas and methods for using designed experiments. The MTS results in a Mahalanobis distance scale used to measure the level of abnormality of “abnormal” items compared to a group of “normal” items. First, it must be demonstrated that a Mahalanobis distance measure based on all available variables on the items is able to separate the abnormal items from the normal items. If this is the case, then orthogonal arrays and signal-to-noise ratios are used to select an “optimal” combination of variables for calculating the Mahalanobis distances. Optimality is defined in terms of the ability of the Mahalanobis distance scale to match a prespecified or estimated scale that measures the severity of the abnormalities. In this expository article, we review the methods of the MTS and use a case study based on medical data to illustrate them. We identify some conceptual, operational, and technical issues with the MTS that lead us to advise against its use.

Psychosocial evaluation on the correct recollection of periodic medical checkups of workers. 2. Long-term change in the recalled results of medical checkups

A self-administered questionnaire study of 333 workers (male 253, female 80) in a manufacturing company was carried out one month after informing the workers of the results of their medical checkups in 1993. The questionnaire included several items such as recalled abnormal findings of health examination and ways of overcoming the abnormal findings, recalled results of their medical checkups in 1992, self-confidence in their recollection of the results, and the usefulness of medical checkups. The following were investigated: the relationship between actual as well as recalled results of medical checkups in 1992 and the recollection of them after one year, the effects of examinations after medical checkups in 1992 on their recollection of the checkup results after one year, the effects of actual as well as recalled 1992 checkup results on the recollection of the results one month after informing the workers of the results of their medical checkups in 1993, assurance of correct recollection of the results, the relationship between the usefulness of medical checkups, explanation of abnormal findings and the percentage of correct answers to the results of medical checkups in 1993 one month after informing the workers of their results. It was found that the percentage of correct answers to the results after one year was significantly lower than that after one month in 1992. The rate decreased with the increase in the number of abnormal items in medical checkups. Moreover, the rate also decreased when the results were abnormal. Further examinations in addition to the medical checkups influenced their recollection somewhat after one year. The results that the workers still remembered in 1992 had a stronger effect on their recalling the results one month after informing them in 1993 than the actual results in 1992. The workers' confidence in their recollection of the results was untrustworthy in the same way as their recollection of the results, and they were not able to maintain the recollection of the correct results, although many of the workers realized the usefulness of the medical checkups. Our results suggest that explanation of abnormal medical findings in 1993 was effective because the percentage of partial concordance between actual and recalled results was much higher in the workers who received the explanation than in the workers who did not receive it.

Influence of gestational age, birth weight, and asphyxia on neonatal neurobehavioral performance

The objectives of this study were to determine the influence of birth weight, gestational age, and asphyxia on neurobehavioral performance at 40 weeks conceptional age, and to demonstrate that this performance may differ in preterm high-risk infants when using low-risk preterm rather than healthy term infant norms. A cross-sectional comparative design was used to compare neurologic behavior in healthy and highrisk newborns at 40 weeks conceptional age using the Einstein Neonatal Neurobehavioral Assessment Scale. Seventy-four high-risk newborns were selected from a consecutive sample of asphyxiated, very-low-birth-weight, and small-for-gestational-age neonates. Controls did not fulfill any of the high-risk criteria and had no pre- or perinatal complications. There were 37 healthy term and 17 low-risk preterm controls. Statistically significant differences occurred between highrisk newborns and term controls for the total score ( P < .001) as well as for most individual items ( P < .05). Analysis of high-risk subgroups revealed that small-for-gestational-age and term asphyxiated newborns had the most abnormal responses. When comparing test performance between preterm high-risk and term controls, the majority of test items achieved significance ( P < .05); however, when compared to low-risk preterm controls, fewer items were abnormal, and the probability level on abnormal items was less significant than expected. This disparity in interpretation of neurobehavioral status in preterm high-risk neonates using a preterm versus term reference sample warrants further investigation. Appropriate normative standards for preterm infants require definition because it may increase the utility of the neonatal neurologic examination and its prognostic value.

SURGICAL CASES OF GASTRIC CANCER IN PATIENTS OVER 80 YEARS OLD

Twenty-two elderly (over 80 years old) gastric cancer patients undergone operations were subjected to a review of the preoperative examination results, types of operation, complication rate, and hosptial mortality. Early gastric cancers of protruded type and advanced gastric cancers of Type Borrmann 3 in lower third (region A) were common. The resection rate was 95.5%; the curative resection rate, 55.6%; the complication rate, 45.5%; hospital mortality, 18.2%; and operative mortality, 4.5%. In the preoperative examinations, the highest incidence of abnormal data was shown at the lung (68.2%), followed by those at the liver and the heart. The pulmonary complications occupied 70% of the postoperative complications. In the group having four or more abnormal items in the preoperative examinations, the complication rate was 71.4%, and hospital mortality rate was 42.9%. There were no significant correlations between the resected area of R-number (extent of lymph node removal), and complication rate or hospital mortality. The five-year survival rate of curative resection cases was a favorable 77.8%. For enhancement of the operative result, the determination of an adequate region for resection and selective dissection of associated lymph nodes are both necessary, depending on the general status and local findings. Temporary gastrostomy with fine calibre tube, as well as forbiding smoking, chest physiotherapy, and tracheal cleaning, was beneficial to prevent pulmonary complications.

椎骨脳底動脈循環不全に対する神経耳科的診断について

We attempted to set criteria for the diagnosis of vertebro-basilar insufficiency (V.B.I.) based upon neurotological findings by reviewing the literature and by analyzing our own clinical experience.The criteria are as follows : i) Vertigo or dizziness in association with symptomes caused by some disorder of the central nervous system, such as syncope, motor weakness, glove and stocking paresthesia, visual disturbances, altered consciousness, etc. ii) Abnormal eye movements in the gaze nystagmus test, which could indicate some lesion in the central nervous system. Quite often one might see a vertical down beat nystagmus in the head hanging position of Stenger's maneuver. iii) Saccadic or ataxic ocular pursuit in the eye tracking test, iv) Abnormal findings of the optokinetic after nystagums test, which could suggest some disorder in the central nervous system, usually decreased optokinetic after nystagmus v) Abnormal x-ray findings in the cervical spine, e.g. cervical spondylosis.Diseases which could cause vertigo or dizziness other then V.B.I. should be ruled out.A partient with abnormalities of all five items has definite V.B.I., one with four or three abnormal items has probable V.B.I., and one with two items has possible V.B.I., To establish these criteria of V.B.I., we analyzed 250 partients with vertigo experienced during the past three years. Peripheral vertigo was pressent in 39% and central vertigo in 23%. V.B.I. was diagnosed in 20% of the 250 patients.Our recent experience with 77 patients with V.B I. was also analyzed statistically.