Multi-point Scale Research Articles

Unconscious Processing Contaminates Objective Measures of Conscious Perception: Evidence From the Liminal Prime Paradigm.

Assessing unconscious processing requires a valid measure of conscious perception. However, the two measures most commonly used, subjective reports and forced-choice discrimination, do not always converge: observers can discriminate stimuli rated as invisible better than chance. A debated issue is whether this phenomenon indicates that subjective reports of unawareness are contaminated by conscious perception, or that forced-choice discrimination performance is contaminated by unconscious processing. To address this question, we took advantage of a previously reported dissociation using masked response priming: for primes rated as invisible on a multi-point scale, response priming occurs only for fast trials, whereas for consciously perceived primes, response priming occurs across response times. Here, we replicated this dissociation, confirming that invisibility-reports were not contaminated by conscious perception. Crucially, we measured prime-discrimination performance within the same experiment and found above-chance performance for unseen primes. Together, these findings suggest that forced-choice discrimination performance is contaminated by unconscious processing.

Free-breathing high-resolution respiratory-gated radial stack-of-stars magnetic resonance imaging of the upper abdomen at 7 T.

Ultrahigh field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (≥ 7 T) has the potential to provide superior spatial resolution and unique image contrast. Apart from radiofrequency transmit inhomogeneities in the body at this field strength, imaging of the upper abdomen faces additional challenges associated with motion-induced ghosting artifacts. To address these challenges, the goal of this work was to develop a technique for high-resolution free-breathing upper abdominal MRI at 7 T with a large field of view. Free-breathing 3D gradient-recalled echo (GRE) water-excited radial stack-of-stars data were acquired in seven healthy volunteers (five males/two females, body mass index: 19.6-24.8 kg/m2) at 7 T using an eight-channel transceive array coil. Two volunteers were also examined at 3 T. In each volunteer, the liver and kidney regions were scanned in two separate acquisitions. To homogenize signal excitation, the time-interleaved acquisition of modes (TIAMO) method was used with personalized pairs of B1 shims, based on a 23-s Cartesian fast low angle shot(FLASH) acquisition. Utilizing free-induction decay navigator signals, respiratory-gated images were reconstructed at a spatial resolution of 0.8 × 0.8 × 1.0 mm3. Two experienced radiologists rated the image quality and the impact of B1 inhomogeneity and motion-related artifacts on multipoint scales. The images of all volunteers showcased effective water excitation and were accurately corrected for respiratory motion. The impact of B1 inhomogeneity on image quality was minimal, underscoring the efficacy of the multitransmit TIAMO shim. The high spatial resolution allowed excellent depiction of small structures such as the adrenal glands, the proximal ureter, the diaphragm, and small blood vessels, although some streaking artifacts persisted in liver image data. In direct comparisons with 3 T performed for two volunteers, 7-T acquisitions demonstrated increases in signal-to-noise ratio of 77% and 58%. Overall, this work demonstrates the feasibility of free-breathing MRI in the upper abdomen at submillimeter spatial resolution at a magnetic field strength of 7 T.

Post hoc labeling an acute ECG as ischemic or non-ischemic based on clinical data: A necessary challenge

The ECG is crucial in the prehospital (and early inhospital) phase of patients with symptoms suggestive of myocardial ischemia. Therefore, new algorithms for ECG-based myocardial ischemia detection are continuously being researched. Development and validation of these algorithms require a database of acute ECGs (from the prehospital or emergency department setting) including a representative mix of cases (ischemia present) and controls (no ischemia present). Therefore, for every patient in this mix, the “truth” regarding the actual presence or absence of myocardial ischemia during the recording of the acute ECG has to be determined to compare the newly developed algorithm against. This post hoc adjudication process of determining whether an acute (either prehospitally acquired or acquired in the emergency department) ECG was made under ischemic conditions should use all available clinical data (the clinical diagnosis, cardiac imaging data, and laboratory values) of the subsequent patient's admission.Even with all data at hand, post hoc labeling a patient and their acute ECG as a myocardial ischemia case or control cannot be forced into a binary division between definite cases and definite controls. More specifically, to be used for the development of a new algorithm, the patients' ECG has to be scored for the presence or absence of myocardial ischemia at the exact moment of its recording, which renders the classification even more difficult. For instance, even though it may be plausible that myocardial ischemia was present at a given moment during the patient's admission, this is not necessarily proof that the prehospital (or early inhospital) ECG was also made in ischemic conditions: ischemia can be a fluctuating process (as is, e.g., the case in unstable angina pectoris). Therefore, post hoc classification of an acute ECG in terms of the absence or presence of ischemia requires a multipoint scale ranging between definite ischemic to definite non-ischemic, for instance using a 5-point scale (presumed non-ischemic, probably non-ischemic, uncertain, probably ischemic, presumed ischemic).To summarize, the post hoc adjudication process of ECGs of ambulance (and emergency department) patients cannot result in a binary division into definite cases and controls (i.e., patients with or without myocardial ischemia during the recording of the acute ECG), as myocardial ischemia is often dynamic rather than constant. ECGs could be labeled on a multi-point scale, in which the label represents the probability of the actual presence (or absence) of myocardial ischemia at the exact moment of the recording of that ECG. Further development of algorithms for myocardial ischemia detection should consider this concept.

An Investigation on the Accuracy of Teachers’ Judgments on Students’ School Achievement

Teacher-based assessment of students’ school achievement is a process in which collection of information on students’ performance is needed to allow teachers to understand what and how students achieve. This process involves the development of teachers’ judgments. This study investigated the predictive utility of an informal teacher-made achievement test on teachers’ judgments to students’ academic performance. The study involved 166 primary school students (mean age 11.7) and their respective 46 teachers. Main findings indicated that: 1. teachers’ general judgments did not distinguish the difference between students with low achievement and underachievement, and 2. teachers’ judgments with the use of an academic performance rating scale could differentiate low achieving from underachieving students. It is suggested that the accuracy of teachers’ judgments on students’ school achievement is increased when domain-specific and multi-point scales of students’ academic performance and behavior are used.

Optimal trained long short-term memory for opinion mining: A hybrid semantic knowledgebase approach

This study describes a Hybrid Semantic Knowledgebase-Machine Learning strategy for mining the domain feature-level opinions and categorizing them on a multi-point scale. The proposed work is constructed by following the six major stages: “(a) Pre-processing, (b) Domain Feature Extraction, (c) Sentiment Extraction, (d) Domain Feature-Sentiment Association, (e) Domain Feature Polarity, (f) Knowledgebase Enrichment and (g) Opinion Classification with optimized deep learning model”. The proposed method is divided into several levels, each of which is designed to solve the opinion mining challenges at “domain feature level”. Initially, from the collected reviews, the domain features as well as semantics are extracted. Subsequently, in the Domain feature-sentiment association stage, the extracted filtered domain features are associated with their corresponding extracted sentiments acquired from the Sentiment Extraction phase. Once, the sentiments and the features are associated, the polarity of the feature sentiment pairs are computed using the sentiment aggregation function, which assigns a score to the features based on its proximity. Then, in the Knowledgebase enrichment stage, the initial review knowledgebase was used to bootstrap the domain feature extraction process, which is further enriched with new semantic information related to the analyzed review and the corresponding extracted domain features. Eventually, in the Opinion classification phase, a new optimized deep learning classifier, the optimized Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) is introduced. The optimized LSTM is trained with the semantic information acquired from the enriched knowledge base and the statistical features created by Vector Space Model. Moreover, to enhance the classification accuracy of the LSTM, an Improved Butterfly Optimization Algorithm is introduced to fine-tune the weight of the model. Finally, the performance of the proposed work is evaluated over the conventional models.

Increasing Personnel Competencies in Museums with the Use of Auditing and Controlling

Society is constantly developing and museums must respond to this. Museums’ main tasks include conservation of humanity’s history, which puts high demands on museum staff. The level of care for cultural heritage depends on the quality of staff at the given museums. Thus, HR management can be perceived as a soft museum discipline that can be supplemented with hard management approaches. From here, certain research questions arise, such as: What are the vital factors for HR management in museums, or how can personnel competencies development be continuously improved? The research aim is, therefore, to define for museums the vital factors for personnel competencies development with an emphasis on efficiency improvement. The defined task will be completed using a questionnaire together with a multipoint Likert scale. The research was conducted on a sample of n = 810 museums in EU 27. A personnel competencies model was constructed based on the statistical analysis and using stepwise regression, which points to the importance of auditing and controlling approaches in the management of museums. The outcomes point to a lower than expected impact of the number of employees and the quality of management on the personnel competencies development. The correlation analysis of the variables shows interesting relations that should be used for the development of performance in museums.

INDICATORS OF QUALITY OF LIFE OF PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE STAGE II-IV

Relevance. Chronic diseases have a long duration and a rather slow progression, and people who have such diseases want not only to live longer but also to live better. Therefore, quality of life (QOL) is one of the most important health issues for the treatment of chronic diseases.
 Objective: to determine the features of QOL in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage II-IV.
 Materials and methods. In 171 patients with CKD of II-IV centuries, in addition to general clinical and laboratory studies, QOL was studied using a questionnaire to assess the quality of life of SF-36. The questionnaire contains 36 questions of the main module, supplemented by multi-point scales aimed specifically at patients with CKD. The answers were evaluated in points - from 0 to 100. The higher the score, the better the patient's QOL. The total components were also calculated: physical total component, mental total component, total points. The obtained research data were subjected to statistical processing, which included parametric (t-test for samples with unrelated variants) and non-parametric (Mann-Whitney method) methods, correlation analysis was used.
 Results. Most QOL indicators worsen significantly with the progression of CKD. The indicators of total QOL, as well as the indicator "the impact of the disease on everyday life" are most significantly reduced. Age correlates as much as possible with most indicators of QOL in patients with CKD. With age, the QOL of patients decreases, but the manifestations of the disease increase and the mental and physical condition of patients deteriorate. QOL parameters are probably directly and moderately correlated with hemoglobin levels. Most QOL parameters are significantly moderately correlated with systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure. It is assumed that the correction of anemia and blood pressure control, in addition to a positive effect on disease progression and the occurrence and development of complications, will also improve QOL. There were no significant differences in the assessment of QOL in men and women.
 Conclusions. QOL indicators decrease with the progression of CKD. Age, hemoglobin level, blood pressure affect QOL.

A structural account of the difference between achievements and accomplishments: evidence from Changsha Xiang Chinese

This paper offers an analysis of ka41, an aspectual element in Changsha Xiang Chinese. It is argued that this element occupies a position in the inner-aspectual structure of the clause, between the higher aspectual marker ta21 and the lower elements expressing a lexical result (like clean in wash clean). On the basis of its co-occurrence with various verb types, we treat ka41 as an achievement marker: when present, it blocks any reading in which the denoted event proceeds along a multi-point scale, allowing only the instantaneous, two-point scale reading in which the beginning and the endpoint of the event coincide. On the basis of its syntactic distribution we argue that the syntactic position ka41 occupies is an intermediate aspectual projection (Asp2P) in the inner aspect domain, which is sandwiched between the lowest inner aspectual projection dedicated to telicity and the highest one signaling perfectivity (or realization of the end point). We review the implications of the analysis for the aspectual domain of Mandarin clauses and point out that the intermediate inner aspectual projection (Asp2P) we introduce for Changsha appears to be a suitable syntactic position for the structural analysis of the small set of grammaticalized items generally known as “Phase complements” as well.

A Hybrid Semantic Knowledgebase-Machine Learning Approach for Opinion Mining

Opinion mining tools enable users to efficiently process a large number of online reviews in order to determine the underlying opinions. This paper presents a Hybrid Semantic Knowledgebase-Machine Learning approach for mining opinions at the domain feature level and classifying the overall opinion on a multi-point scale. The proposed approach benefits from the advantages of deploying a novel Semantic Knowledgebase approach to analyse a collection of reviews at the domain feature level and produce a set of structured information that associates the expressed opinions with specific domain features. The information in the knowledgebase is further supplemented with domain-relevant facts sourced from public Semantic datasets, and the enriched semantically-tagged information is then used to infer valuable semantic information about the domain as well as the expressed opinions on the domain features by summarising the overall opinions about the domain across multiple reviews, and by averaging the overall opinions about other cinematic features. The retrieved semantic information represents a valuable resource for modelling a machine learning classifier to predict the numerical rating of each review. Experimental evaluation revealed that the proposed Hybrid Semantic Knowledgebase-Machine Learning approach improved the precision and recall of the extracted domain features, and hence proved suitable for producing an enriched dataset of semantic features that resulted in higher classification accuracy.

Psychotic disorder symptom rating scales: Are dichotomous or multi-point scales more clinically useful?—An ICD-11 field study

Classifications of psychotic disorders are moving towards utilizing dimensional symptom domains as the preferred mechanism for describing psychotic symptomatology. The ICD-11 has proposed six symptom domains (Positive symptoms, Negative symptoms, Depressive symptoms, Manic symptoms, Psychomotor symptoms, and Cognitive symptoms) that would be rated in addition to providing a psychotic disorder diagnosis. This study investigated clinicians' use of dichotomous versus multi-point scales for rating these six domains. Global mental health professionals (n = 273) rated case vignettes using both a 2-point and 4-point version of a rating scale for the six domains. Clinicians were more accurate using the 2-point scale in absolute terms, but after correcting for chance guessing and disagreements, the two versions of the scale were equally accurate. Clinicians believed the 2-point scale would be easier to use, although they also indicated that the 4-point scale would provide richer clinical information. Participants were able to detect the presence of psychotic symptom domains in the vignettes with good reliability with no special training using either scale. We recommend that clinicians and researchers use the version of the scale that best matches their purpose (i.e., to maximize accuracy or enhance case description). Future work should develop the implementation characteristics of the scale to improve its potential for global application.

Bunching of residential building energy performance certificates at threshold values

Energy performance certificates (EPC) provide a measure of and raise awareness of the energy efficiency of homes. The Irish system of energy performance certificates comprises fifteen alpha-numeric grades, which imposes fourteen discrete notches in an otherwise continuous scale. Visual evidence of bunching occurs in the distribution of EPC certificates on the favourable side of EPC grades among homes that have completed energy efficiency retrofits but not in the equivalent distribution of EPC certificates prior to completion of retrofits. Using a regression discontinuity design and estimation of a counter-factual distribution, evidence is found of bunching in the post-works distribution but not the pre-works distribution. We analyse whether statistical evidence exists of drivers of this bunching and whether sources of bunching can be identified. We find that bunching is widespread but not systemic and find discontinuities in the distribution of certain parameters of assessment (i.e. low energy lighting) which suggests their contribution toward bunching. With comparable EPC schemes across Europe the results have policy implications for other countries. Where continuous EPC scales are used, additional energy efficiency improvements may be achieved if a multi-point scale is considered. In countries where multi-point EPC scales are used, bunching of assessments is also likely to occur and quality control measures may be necessary to ensure that the bunching is due to genuine energy efficiency improvements and not a reflection of illicit activity.

Multipoint scales: Mean and median differences and observed significance levels

Researchers in human‐computer interaction (HCI) often use discrete multipoint scales (such as 5‐ or 7‐point scales) to measure user satisfaction and preference. Many knowledgeable authors state that the median is the appropriate measure of central tendency for such ordinal scales, although others challenge this assertion. This article introduces a new point of view, based on a human factors consideration. When decision makers read a usability report or attend a briefing, they may make decisions based on the magnitude of the difference between the measures of central tendency for key dependent variables. A major criterion that should affect the choice of presenting means or medians is the strength of the relationship between this difference and the observed significance levels of appropriate statistical tests. The results from two series of “real‐world” usability studies showed that the mean difference correlated more than the median difference with the observed significance levels (both parametric and non...

Development of a novel EEG rating scale for head injury using dichotomous variables

We developed a new EEG rating scale for electrographic assessment of head injured patients. Phenomena present in posttraumatic EEG were scored as dichotomous variables (present or absent). These phenomena included background activity (alpha, beta, theta, delta), sleep spindles, focal abnormalities, reactivity and variability, epileptiform activity, and specific comatose patterns. Each variable was weighted according to its perceived prognostic value: i.e., normal alpha 10, flat EEG - 10, spindles 4, etc. Combinations of possible scores ranged from + 23 to - 10. Fifty-seven EEGs from different head injured patients were independently and retrospectively analyzed by two investigators. There was a high correlation for intra- ( r = 0.95) and inter- ( r = 0.85) observer rating using the dichotomous test. When patients with scores over 15 (i. e., with reactive alpha) and patients with scores of - 10 (i.e., ECI records) were excluded, the intra-rater and inter-rater correlations were still high (0.81 and 0.76, respectively). There was a high correlation between Glasgow outcome score at discharge and the dichotomous EEG score. This EEG scale scores most major categories of EEG activity, utilizes a multipoint scale for correlation purposes, and allows data to be analyzed in sub-categories (i.e., spindles in coma). The separate weighting score allows for refinement of the scale after data collection (i.e., to fit prospective outcome). We feel that this scale is reproducible and valid, and may be applicable to other patient groups with severely altered EEGs.

Dichotomous and Multipoint Scales Using Bipolar Adjectives

Subjects responded to a set of self-descnptive bipo lar adjectives in either a dichotomous format or a 7-point bipolar rating scale format. In addition, each subject answered a measure of social desirability re sponding rate The responses of over 400 subjects in each format were factor analyzed, followed by a vari max rotation The factor structure for the formats were strikingly similar and closely reflected the traits repre sented by the adjectives. Social desirability was found to be of minimal influence for either format. However, the factors derived from the multipoint format were slightly clearer and accounted for more variance. In addition, trait measures produced by the sum of four adjective scales from a common content dimension were more internally consistent using the multipoint format.