Measure Of Domain Research Articles

The added value of frailty assessment as the premorbid stroke status on activities of daily living in patients with acute stroke, stratified by stroke severity

BackgroundThe modified Rankin scale (mRS) is extensively used for premorbid evaluation in patients with stroke; however, its limited capacity to assess functional status highlights the need for additional indicators such as frailty. AimsThis study aimed to assess the impact of the premorbid mRS score and frailty on daily living (ADL) activities at hospital discharge, focusing on varying stroke severities. MethodsThis single-centre, prospective cohort study included patients with acute stroke aged ≥60 years. Key metrics included the frailty index for frailty assessment or mRS for functional status premorbid and the functional independence measure of the motor domain (FIM-M) at discharge for ADL outcomes. The patients were categorized into mild (0–4), moderate (5–15), and severe (16–42) groups based on the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale. Multiple hierarchical linear regression analyses were performed for each group to evaluate the influence of mRS and frailty on FIM-M scores. ResultsIn the mild stroke group, significant associations were observed with premorbid mRS3 (β = −0.183, p = 0.004), mRS4 (β = −0.234, p < 0.001), and frailty status (β = −0.227, p = 0.005) and FIM-M scores. Premorbid frailty did not show a significant association with the FIM-M scores in the moderate or severe stroke group. Frailty status notably contributed to changes in R², particularly in the mild stroke group (R² change = 0.031, p = 0.002). However, such changes were not evident in the other stroke severity groups. ConclusionThis study emphasizes the importance of incorporating frailty assessments into premorbid evaluations, particularly when considering ADL outcomes in patients with mild stroke. Conversely, the significance of frailty in moderate-to-severe stroke was less evident.

Dynamic aperture studies for vertical fixed field accelerators

Vertical orbit excursion Fixed Field Accelerators (vFFAs) feature highly nonlinear magnetic fields and strong transverse motion coupling. The detailed study of their Dynamic Aperture (DA) requires computation codes allowing long-term tracking and advanced analysis tools to take the transverse motion linear and nonlinear coupling into account. This coupling completely transforms the beam dynamics compared to a linear uncoupled motion, and an explicit definition of the DA is needed to characterize the performance and limitations of these lattices. A complete study of the DA in the 4D phase space in highly nonlinear and strongly coupled machines must give a measure of the stability domain but also means to assess the operating performance in the physical coupled space. This work presents a complete set of methods to perform such detailed analysis. These methods were explored and compared to compute and characterize the DA of an example vFFA lattice. The whole procedure can be further applied to evaluate DA using realistic models of the magnetic fields, including fringe fields and errors.

Examining Validity for the Pharmacy Affective Domain Situational Judgment Test

Objective. With the integration of the affective domain in the pharmacy accreditation standards, it is important for programs to have methods for formatively assessing student competency in these areas. The objective of this study was to examine the validity evidence for a recently developed situational judgment test to assess the affective domain contained in the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) Standards 2016.Methods. After pilot testing items in multiple pharmacy schools, a revised 15-item situational judgment test instrument was developed measuring the affective domain as it relates to the pharmacy profession. The resulting Pharmacy Affective Domain Situational Judgment Test (PAD-S) was administered to students at three institutions and internal structure validity evidence was examined using item descriptives, Cronbach alpha, and results from a Rasch measurement model.Results. There were 559 valid responses included in the study. The items were of varying difficulty, with Rasch results confirming the hierarchy of items and suggesting that items were contributing to the measure. The Cronbach alpha was 0.70, suggesting acceptable reliability. However, the reliability items from the Rasch model were lower (0.65 and 0.66), indicating that the ranking of ability was limited, which may be due to fewer items of high difficulty.Conclusion. Overall, the PAD-S performed well as a measure of the affective domain. The PAD-S may be a useful formative instrument as part of a comprehensive assessment plan and may be less resource intensive than other measures.

$$L^{p}$$–$$L^{q}$$ Boundedness of Fourier Multipliers on Fundamental Domains of Lattices in $$\mathbb {R}^d$$

In this paper we study the \(L^{p}\)–\(L^{q}\) boundedness of Fourier multipliers on the fundamental domain of a lattice in \(\mathbb {R}^{d}\) for \(1< p,q < \infty \) under the classical Hörmander condition. First, we introduce Fourier analysis on lattices and have a look at possible generalisations. We then prove the Hausdorff–Young inequality, Paley’s inequality and the Hausdorff–Young–Paley inequality in the context of lattices. This amounts to a quantitative version of the \(L^{p}\)–\(L^{q}\) boundedness of Fourier multipliers. We will show that this delivers also some \(L^{p}\)-estimates by using some standard Lebesgue space embeddings, which come from the finite measure of the fundamental domain. Moreover, the Paley inequality allows us to prove the Hardy–Littlewood inequality. As an application we treat some Sobolev embedding results, which also indicate the sharpness of our main inequalities.

Infinite growth of solutions of second order complex differential equations with meromorphic coefficients

&lt;abstract&gt;&lt;p&gt;This paper is devoted to studying the growth of solutions of $ f''+A(z)f'+B(z)f = 0 $, where $ A(z) $ and $ B(z) $ are meromorphic functions. With some additional conditions, we show that every non-trivial solution $ f $ of the above equation has infinite order. In addition, we also obtain the lower bound of measure of the angular domain, in which the radial order of $ f $ is infinite.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/abstract&gt;

Predicting compound amenability with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to improve non-targeted analysis.

With the increasing availability of high-resolution mass spectrometers, suspect screening and non-targeted analysis are becoming popular compound identification tools for environmental researchers. Samples of interest often contain a large (unknown) number of chemicals spanning the detectable mass range of the instrument. In an effort to separate these chemicals prior to injection into the mass spectrometer, a chromatography method is often utilized. There are numerous types of gas and liquid chromatographs that can be coupled to commercially available mass spectrometers. Depending on the type of instrument used for analysis, the researcher is likely to observe a different subset of compounds based on the amenability of those chemicals to the selected experimental techniques and equipment. It would be advantageous if this subset of chemicals could be predicted prior to conducting the experiment, in order to minimize potential false-positive and false-negative identifications. In this work, we utilize experimental datasets to predict the amenability of chemical compounds to detection with liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS). The assembled dataset totals 5517 unique chemicals either explicitly detected or not detected with LC-ESI-MS. The resulting detected/not-detected matrix has been modeled using specific molecular descriptors to predict which chemicals are amenable to LC-ESI-MS, and to which form(s) of ionization. Random forest models, including a measure of the applicability domain of the model for both positive and negative modes of the electrospray ionization source, were successfully developed. The outcome of this work will help to inform future suspect screening and non-targeted analyses of chemicals by better defining the potential LC-ESI-MS detectable chemical landscape of interest.

Random sampling and reconstruction of concentrated signals in a reproducing kernel space

In this paper, we consider (random) sampling of signals concentrated on a bounded Corkscrew domain Ω of a metric measure space, and reconstructing concentrated signals approximately from their (un)corrupted sampling data taken on a sampling set contained in Ω. We establish a weighted stability of bi-Lipschitz type for a (random) sampling scheme on the set of concentrated signals in a reproducing kernel space. The weighted stability of bi-Lipschitz type provides a weak robustness to the sampling scheme, however due to the nonconvexity of the set of concentrated signals, it does not imply the unique signal reconstruction. From (un)corrupted samples taken on a finite sampling set contained in Ω, we propose an algorithm to find approximations to signals concentrated on a bounded Corkscrew domain Ω. Random sampling is a sampling scheme where sampling positions are randomly taken according to a probability distribution. Next we show that, with high probability, signals concentrated on a bounded Corkscrew domain Ω can be reconstructed approximately from their uncorrupted (or randomly corrupted) samples taken at i.i.d. random positions drawn on Ω, provided that the sampling size is at least of the order μ(Ω)ln⁡(μ(Ω)), where μ(Ω) is the measure of the concentrated domain Ω. Finally, we demonstrate the performance of proposed approximations to the original concentrated signals when the sampling procedure is taken either with large density or randomly with large size.

Qualitative Study in a Parabolic Equation with Nonstandard Growth Conditions and Singular Medium Void

This paper deals with qualitative properties of solutions in a parabolic equation with nonstandard growth conditions and singular medium void. For the sublinear source, we prove that all solutions are global. For the linear source, the solutions are global provided that the measure of domain is small. For the superlinear source, the solutions blow up at infinite time given the initial data belonging to the unstable set, and blow up in finite time with positive or negative energy, respectively. The exponential decay rates of global solutions are demonstrated as well and the bounds of blow-up time are determined for all dimensions of space domain. At last, we discuss the blow-up rates of solutions.

Performance analysis of a new fractal compression method for medical images based on fixed partition

Applications of image compression have been gaining importance over the years in medical fields. The medical imaging modalities produced a large amount of information on all levels of hospital care. This information, in the form of images, needs to be stored for future references. While compressing the medical images, it is necessary to maintain high diagnostic quality with a high compression rate. Several image compression approaches have been developed towards the direction of the storage space problem in such a way that the doctors accurately and reliably diagnose the patient’s diseases from the reconstructed image after decompression. A high compression ratio is required to reduce the storage space due to the large size of medical images. Fractal image compression is a lossy technique to compress the image in a coded form instead of pixels and is differentiated by its long encoding time with a high compression ratio, resolution-independent, fast decoding, and self-similarity. The main purpose of this paper is to present a comparative performance study of the three coding schemes of fractal compression for grayscale medical images based on fixed partition. The first two coding schemes are based on the pixel-pattern measure and the third scheme is a proposed method based on the fractal dimension for complexity measure of range and domain blocks. The comparative study included encoding time, peak signal to noise ratio, and compression ratio, as a result, has been accomplished.

Cubic Vague Set and its Application in Decision Making.

From the hybrid nature of cubic sets, we develop a new generalized hybrid structure of cubic sets known as cubic vague sets (CVSs). We also define the concept of internal cubic vague sets (ICVSs) and external cubic vague sets (ECVSs) with examples and discuss their interesting properties, including ICVSs and ECVSs under both P and R-Order. Moreover, we prove that the R and R-intersection of ICVSs (or ECVSs) need not be an ICVS (or ECVS). We also derive the different conditions for P-union (P-intersection, R and R-intersection) operations of both ICVSs (ECVSs) to become an ICVS (ECVS). Finally, we introduce a decision-making based on the proposed similarity measure of the CVSs domain and a numerical example is given to elucidate that the proposed similarity measure of CVSs is an important concept for measuring entropy in the information/data. It will be shown that the cubic vague set has the novelty to accurately represent and model two-dimensional information for real-life phenomena that are periodic in nature.

Quantifying Sex-Based Disparities in Liver Allocation

Differences in local organ supply and demand have introduced geographic inequities in the Model for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD) score-based liver allocation system, prompting national debate and patient-initiated lawsuits. No study to our knowledge has quantified the sex disparities in allocation associated with clinical vs geographic characteristics. To estimate the proportion of sex disparity in wait list mortality and deceased donor liver transplant (DDLT) associated with clinical and geographic characteristics. This retrospective cohort study used adult (age ≥18 years) liver-only transplant listings reported to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network from June 18, 2013, through March 1, 2018. Liver transplant waiting list. Primary outcomes included wait list mortality and DDLT. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models were constructed, and inverse odds ratio weighting was used to estimate the proportion of disparity across geographic location, MELD score, and candidate anthropometric and liver measurements. Among 81 357 adults wait-listed for liver transplant only, 36.1% were women (mean [SD] age, 54.7 [11.3] years; interquartile range, 49.0-63.0 years) and 63.9% were men (mean [SD] age, 55.7 [10.1] years; interquartile range, 51.0-63.0 years). Compared with men, women were 8.6% more likely to die while on the waiting list (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.11; 95% CI, 1.04-1.18) and were 14.4% less likely to receive a DDLT (aHR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.84-0.88). In the geographic domain, organ procurement organization was the only variable that was significantly associated with increased disparity between female sex and wait list mortality (22.1% increase; aHR, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.09-1.30); no measure of the geographic domain was associated with DDLT. Laboratory and allocation MELD scores were associated with increases in disparities in wait list mortality: 1.14 (95% CI, 1.09-1.19; 50.1% increase among women) and DDLT: 0.87 (95% CI, 0.86-0.88; 10.3% increase among women). Candidate anthropometric and liver measurements had the strongest association with disparities between men and women in wait list mortality (125.8% increase among women) and DDLT (49.0% increase among women). Our findings suggest that addressing geographic disparities alone may not mitigate sex-based disparities, which were associated with the inability of the MELD score to accurately estimate disease severity in women and to account for candidate anthropometric and liver measurements in this study.

A Note on the Growth of Solutions of Second-Order Complex Linear Differential Equations

The growth of solutions of complex linear differential equation $$f^{\prime \prime }+Af^{\prime }+Bf=0$$ is studied, where A(z) and B(z) are entire functions. With some conditions on A(z) and B(z), we prove that every non-trivial solution f of the equation is of infinite order. Moreover, we obtain the lower bound of measure of angular domain, in which the radial order of f is infinite. Some examples are given to illustrate the results.

Reverse Bonnesen-style inequalities on surfaces of constant curvature

This paper deals with the isoperimetric deficit upper bound for the convex domain in a surface [Formula: see text] of constant curvature [Formula: see text] by the containment measure of a convex domain to contain another convex domain in integral geometry. Some reverse Bonnesen-style inequalities are obtained. In particular, two of them strengthen Zhou’s result in [Formula: see text] and Bottema’s result in the Euclidean plane [Formula: see text].

On the Existence of Weak Solutions for a 1-D Free-Boundary Concrete Carbonation Problem

In this paper we deal with a one-dimensional free-boundary problem arising in the modeling of concrete carbonation process. More precisely, we investigate global existence, uniqueness and large-time behavior of weak solutions for the problem under consideration. We also obtain the existence of a weak solution when the measure of the initial domain vanishes.

Linguistic terms with weakened hedges: A model for qualitative decision making under uncertainty

When expressing the experts’ opinions in qualitative decision making (QDM), linguistic hedges can be considered to modify the force expressed by a predefined linguistic term. If an expert is not sure to select one term, weakened hedges would be a natural way to express the uncertainty. This is usually implemented by using a hedge to modify the most possible term, like the expression “more or less good”. To model the uncertainty implied by hedges in QDM, this paper presents a novel linguistic representational and computational model in which the linguistic expressions take the form of a weakened hedge and a linguistic term, which is named as linguistic term with weakened hedge (LTWH). The syntax of LTWHs is defined by a set of hedges and a set of linguistic terms. The semantics of a LTWH is determined, objectively, based on the semantics of the term and a similarity measure of the reference domain. Accordingly, the negation, order relations and some basic operations of LTWHs are defined. To illustrate the effectiveness of LTWHs in granular computing, the connection to some multi-granularity linguistic models is exploited and a process for unifying multi-granularity linguistic information is developed. The major contritions of this paper are: (1) The proposed model enables a new manner to express and operate uncertain linguistic information in QDM; (2) it possesses clear syntax and semantics and the computational results are very interpretable; and (3) the proposed solution of multi-granularity linguistic unification maintains the semantics of the original linguistic information.

A Generalized Sampling and Preconditioning Scheme for Sparse Approximation of Polynomial Chaos Expansions

In this paper we propose an algorithm for recovering sparse orthogonal polynomials using stochastic collocation. Our approach is motivated by the desire to use generalized polynomial chaos expansions (PCE) to quantify uncertainty in models subject to uncertain input parameters. The standard sampling approach for recovering sparse polynomials is to use Monte Carlo (MC) sampling of the density of orthogonality. However MC methods result in poor function recovery when the polynomial degree is high. Here we propose a general algorithm that can be applied to any admissible weight function on a bounded domain and a wide class of exponential weight functions defined on unbounded domains. Our proposed algorithm samples with respect to the weighted equilibrium measure of the parametric domain, and subsequently solves a preconditioned $\ell^1$-minimization problem, where the weights of the diagonal preconditioning matrix are given by evaluations of the Christoffel function. We present theoretical analysis to motivate the algorithm, and numerical results that show our method is superior to standard Monte Carlo methods in many situations of interest. Numerical examples are also provided that demonstrate that our proposed Christoffel Sparse Approximation algorithm leads to comparable or improved accuracy even when compared with Legendre and Hermite specific algorithms.

A Christoffel function weighted least squares algorithm for collocation approximations

We propose, theoretically investigate, and numerically validate an algorithm for the Monte Carlo solution of least-squares polynomial approximation problems in a collocation frame- work. Our method is motivated by generalized Polynomial Chaos approximation in uncertainty quantification where a polynomial approximation is formed from a combination of orthogonal polynomials. A standard Monte Carlo approach would draw samples according to the density of orthogonality. Our proposed algorithm samples with respect to the equilibrium measure of the parametric domain, and subsequently solves a weighted least-squares problem, with weights given by evaluations of the Christoffel function. We present theoretical analysis to motivate the algorithm, and numerical results that show our method is superior to standard Monte Carlo methods in many situations of interest.

Flip-flop footwear with a moulded foot-bed for the treatment of foot pain: a randomised controlled trial.

BackgroundFoot pain is a common problem affecting up to 1 in 5 adults and is known to adversely affect activities of daily living and health related quality of life. Orthopaedic footwear interventions are used as a conservative treatment for foot pain, although adherence is known to be low, in part due to the perception of poor comfort and unattractiveness of the footwear. The objective of this trial was to assess the efficacy of flip-flop style footwear (Foot Bio-Tec©) with a moulded foot-bed in reducing foot pain compared to participant’s usual footwear.MethodsTwo-arm parallel randomised controlled trial using computer generated random allocation schedule at an Australian university podiatry clinic. 108 volunteers with disabling foot pain were enrolled after responding to an advertisement and eligibility screening. Participants were randomly allocated to receive footwear education and moulded flip-flop footwear to wear as much as they were comfortable with for the next 12 weeks (n = 54) or footwear education and instructions to wear their normal footwear for the next 12 weeks (n = 54). Primary outcome was the pain domain of the Foot Health Status Questionnaire (FHSQ). Secondary outcomes were the foot function and general foot health domains of the FHSQ, a visual analogue scale (VAS) for foot pain and perceived comfort of the intervention footwear.ResultsCompared to the control group, the moulded flip-flop group showed a significant improvement in the primary outcome measure of the FHSQ pain domain (adjusted mean difference 8.36 points, 95 % CI 5.58 to 13.27, p < 0.01). Statistical and clinically significant differences were observed for the secondary measure of foot pain assessed by a VAS and the FSHQ domains of foot function and general foot health. None of the participants reported any pain or discomfort from the intervention footwear and six (footwear group = 4) were lost to follow up.ConclusionsOur results demonstrate that flip-flop footwear with a moulded foot-bed can have a significant effect on foot pain, function and foot health and might be a valuable adjunct therapy for people with foot pain.Trial registration ACTRN12614000933651. Retrospectively registered: 01/09/2014.

The Index of Vulnerability: An anthropological method linking social-ecological systems to mental and physical health outcomes

Researchers need measures of vulnerability that are grounded in explicit theoretical and conceptual frameworks, that are sensitive to local contexts, and that are easy to collect. This paper presents the Index of Vulnerability (IoV), a quantitative yet anthropologically-informed method connecting social-ecological systems to mental and physical health outcomes. The IoV combines measures of five life domains; food insecurity, water insecurity, access to healthcare, social support, and social status. Scores on this index increase for each life domain where the individual falls into a “high risk” category. Thus, individuals with the highest IoV scores are those who are at risk across multiple life domains. This approach makes the IoV malleable to local contexts, as scholars can choose which measure of each life domain is most appropriate for their study population. An anthropological study conducted among 225 Awajún adults living in the Peruvian Amazon from March to November of 2013 showed that men with higher IoV scores had significantly lower summary fat skinfolds, lower triglyceride levels, and a greater probability of reporting moderate to severe somatic symptoms and poor perceived health. Awajún women with higher IoV scores had significantly elevated perceived stress levels and a greater probability of reporting poor perceived health and moderate to severe somatic and depressive symptoms. Importantly, comparing the IoV to its constituent parts shows that it predicts a wider range of mental and physical health outcomes than any of the life domains alone. The IoV is presented here in relation to the broader political-economic and cultural context of the Awajún, forwarding a critical biocultural approach within anthropology, and demonstrating the IoV’s utility for other scholars and practitioners.

Experiences With Coparenting Scale: A Semantic Differential Measure of Postdivorce Coparenting Satisfaction

Using data from 280 divorced or separated parents, we provide initial evidence of the psychometric properties and validity of the Experiences with Coparenting Scale (ECS), an 11-item semantic differential measure of divorced parents’ satisfaction with their coparenting relationships. The ECS consisted of a single factor with high internal reliability. ECS scores were significantly associated with self-reported coparenting behaviors and intentions, even after controlling for demographic variables and participants’ positive feelings about their ex-spouses. Therefore, we conclude that the ECS is a brief measure of the affective domain of postdivorce coparenting. We discuss how the ECS can be used by researchers to enhance their understanding of the development and impacts of postdivorce coparenting and by practitioners as part of family programs for divorced and divorcing parents.