Quality Of Questions Research Articles

Demographic and Clinical Factors Associated with Patient-Reported Remission in Psoriatic Arthritis.

IntroductionAchievement of remission in psoriatic arthritis is a key goal for patients and clinicians, yet definitions of remission may vary. Previous efforts have utilized multidomain measures such as minimal disease activity that assess the status of joints, skin, and function to determine current level of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) disease activity. The goal of this study is to identify factors associated with patient-reported psoriatic arthritis remission.MethodsThe National Psoriasis Foundation conducted a cross-sectional study using an online survey of a random stratified sample of 1570 individuals with psoriatic disease in the USA. Participants were asked about a provider diagnosis of psoriasis and/or psoriatic arthritis, comorbid conditions, and psoriatic arthritis impact and disease activity, and demographic questions. All participants reporting a physician-given diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis were asked if they felt their psoriatic arthritis was in remission (“Do you feel your psoriatic arthritis is in remission?” Yes/No/Unsure) and, if so, length of remission. Individuals with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis reporting a body surface area impacted by psoriasis 3% or less were asked if they felt their psoriasis was in remission. Psoriatic arthritis disease activity and impact was assessed using the nine-question Psoriatic Arthritis Impact of Disease (PsAID-9) instrument and a global PsA-related quality of life question. PsAID-9 scores ≤ 4 were used to indicate acceptable disease state. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with patient-perceived PsA remission.ResultsOf 834 participants with PsA, including 76 (4.8%) with PsA without skin involvement ever, 144 (17.3%) felt their psoriatic arthritis was in remission, with an average remission duration of 43 months. Of those in remission, 116 (78.4%) reported currently using a treatment for their PsA, with most (75.7%) reporting using a biologic therapy for their PsA in the past 12 months. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that patient-perceived psoriatic arthritis remission was independently associated with experiencing acceptable disease state (PsAID-9 ≤ 4), perception of psoriasis remission, lower impact of PsA on global quality of life, and non-white race. Age, sex, body mass index, or biologic use in the last 12 months were not associated with patient-reported PsA remission.ConclusionOverall, patient perception of PsA remission was most strongly associated with patient-reported psoriasis remission.

Pediatric chronic post-surgical pain prevalence, pain scores, and quality-of-life: results of an exploratory patient survey at a single-center tertiary care children's hospital.

Twenty percent of children may develop chronic post-surgical pain (CPSP), but studies investigating pediatric CPSP are limited in scope. In an exploratory patient survey, we sought to assess CPSP prevalence among children of all ages, across a wide range of surgeries, and over an extended period of time after surgery. We conducted a survey study, including patients < 19years of age at the time of their surgery at a single-center, quaternary care academic pediatric hospital. Pediatric patients who underwent surgery from May 2014 to August 2019 were included. Via electronic survey, patients/caregivers were asked whether the child had any pain related to their last surgery at the pediatric hospital. Patients/caregivers who answered yes were asked 11 additional questions about the child's pain and pain-related quality of life. The primary outcome was CPSP prevalence; secondary outcomes were pain scores, quality-of-life scores, and the associations of CPSP with time since surgery, preoperative pain, and patient age. The response rate of completed surveys was 4.0%. 30% of respondents reported CPSP; the median pain score was 4.0 on an 11 point scale (0 to 10). Responses to quality of life questions indicated CPSP negatively impacted many children's lives. Preoperative pain was associated with an odds ratio for CPSP of 1.09 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.58, 2.04], each year after surgery with an odds ratio of 0.94 (95% CI 0.80, 1.10), and each year of age at surgery with an odds ratio of 1.07 (95% CI 1.02, 1.12). While limited by a low response rate, results from this exploratory survey suggest that CPSP is a considerable problem for children who undergo surgery across many specialties, with marked effects on patient well-being even years after surgery.

The Reasoning behind Fake News Assessments: A Linguistic Analysis

This paper investigates how individuals reason about the authenticity of the news content they consume. While researchers have conducted much work on fake news detection and prevention, we know relatively less about how news readers reason about the content that they read. Using data collected through Amazon Mechanical Turk, we analyzed over 1,000 justifications that news readers provided about why they believe (or fail to believe) given news articles. We included both fake and credible articles in our analyses and examined the novelty of the news topic as a possible contingency factor that differentiated the reasoning provided. Based on our psycholinguistic analyses, we found that news readers employ both cognitive and motivated reasoning and that agreement with the ground truth impacts the reasoning more than a news topic’s novelty. Our insights contribute to the literature on news consumption and reasoning in the context of evaluating fake news. Furthermore, this knowledge contribution has implications in areas such as news veracity intervention and tool design. Lastly, we offer a methodological contribution via using linguistic analysis in a novel way to assess the quality of open-ended survey questions.

ITEM ANALYSIS OF MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS: AN ASSESSMENT OF YOUNG LEARNERS

Although English has been taught for decades in Indonesia, the quality of multiple-choice question given to young learners was hardly examined. To touch on the issue, this study aims at determining the quality of 10 multiple-choice questions (MCQs) in a public elementary school in terms of difficulty level (P), discrimination power (D), and distractor efficiency (DE). This study employed a cross-sectional study to obtain information and evaluate MCQs in the students’ tests. It was found the multiple-choice items were efficient in which 80% of them have acceptable difficulty and 20% of them were fairly easy (P 70%). The discrimination index of 8 (80%) items was excellent and 2 of the MCQs were good. Among 40 distractors, 32 (80%) of them were functional distractors while 8 of them were non-functional distractors (NFDs). It can be concluded that most of the difficulty index was acceptable, the items discrimination power was good. In terms of distractor efficiency, two items were completely inefficient. Furthermore, MCQs that are considered poor should be revised, re-tested, and reviewed before incorporating them into the future test. This study hopefully encourages teachers to identify poorly developed MCQs and to improve their quality.

DeepQR: Neural-Based Quality Ratings for Learnersourced Multiple-Choice Questions

Automated question quality rating (AQQR) aims to evaluate question quality through computational means, thereby addressing emerging challenges in online learnersourced question repositories. Existing methods for AQQR rely solely on explicitly-defined criteria such as readability and word count, while not fully utilising the power of state-of-the-art deep-learning techniques. We propose DeepQR, a novel neural-network model for AQQR that is trained using multiple-choice-question (MCQ) datasets collected from PeerWise, a widely-used learnersourcing platform. Along with designing DeepQR, we investigate models based on explicitly-defined features, or semantic features, or both. We also introduce a self-attention mechanism to capture semantic correlations between MCQ components, and a contrastive-learning approach to acquire question representations using quality ratings. Extensive experiments on datasets collected from eight university-level courses illustrate that DeepQR has superior performance over six comparative models.

Qualität forensisch psychiatrischer und psychologischer Gutachten

The quality of court-ordered psychiatric and psychological evaluations has been the focus of substantial debate. The recent development of guidelines for writing expert reports, the improvement of forensic training opportunities for psychologists and psychiatrists and the implementation of a stricter regulation of mental health professionals admitted as experts in court have laid the groundwork for higher quality expert evaluations. Overall, the measures appear to yield a positive effect, although instances of questionable quality remain. The current review illustrates the potential for improvement and underlines the fact that all involved disciplines must act to ensure that only high-quality reports are used in court.

Analisis Soal Ujian Mata Pelajaran Bahasa Arab Kelas 12 di Madrasah Aliyyah

Item analysis is a tool to find out whether the question is sufficient with a good question category or not. In addition, the purpose of item analysis is also to help improve the test through revision or removing ineffective questions, as well as to find out diagnostic information to students whether or not they have understood the material that has been taught. In this case, there are still a lot of student scores that are still below the KKM standard. There is no analysis of the problem so that one will not know whether the question is said to be a good question or not. Meanwhile, the teacher only corrects right and wrong. then not tested first for various reasons. That's why the researcher wanted to analyze the madrasa exam questions made by the teacher himself. In this research, the researcher uses quantitative descriptive method, which is a research that describes the data analysis in numbers. The researcher found that the relationship between questions and language skills included 2 language skills, namely: the ability to "read" 52.5% and "write" 47.5%, included in the sufficient category with a percentage of 50%. The questions that are in accordance with the Basic Competence (KD) include 3 KD, namely KD "3.1" 57.5%. KD “3.2” 20%, and KD “3.3” 22.5%, are in the good category with a percentage of 75%. The quality of the exam questions from the aspect of validity and reliability. Which includes valid questions are 28 questions. Meanwhile, 12 questions that are not valid. The questions made by the teacher have high reliability with the number 0.711 &gt; r table 0.254. The test items are viewed from a higher level of reasoning. The test items showed the level of cognitive domain, C1 "remembered" got 37.5%, C2 "understood" 20%, C3 "applied" 22.5%, C4 "analyzed" 20%. The questions that show the HOTS level are 20%, while the questions that show the LOTS level are 80%.

Strategies and Lessons Learned During Cleaning of Data From Research Panel Participants: Cross-sectional Web-Based Health Behavior Survey Study

BackgroundThe use of web-based methods to collect population-based health behavior data has burgeoned over the past two decades. Researchers have used web-based platforms and research panels to study a myriad of topics. Data cleaning prior to statistical analysis of web-based survey data is an important step for data integrity. However, the data cleaning processes used by research teams are often not reported.ObjectiveThe objectives of this manuscript are to describe the use of a systematic approach to clean the data collected via a web-based platform from panelists and to share lessons learned with other research teams to promote high-quality data cleaning process improvements.MethodsData for this web-based survey study were collected from a research panel that is available for scientific and marketing research. Participants (N=4000) were panelists recruited either directly or through verified partners of the research panel, were aged 18 to 45 years, were living in the United States, had proficiency in the English language, and had access to the internet. Eligible participants completed a health behavior survey via Qualtrics. Informed by recommendations from the literature, our interdisciplinary research team developed and implemented a systematic and sequential plan to inform data cleaning processes. This included the following: (1) reviewing survey completion speed, (2) identifying consecutive responses, (3) identifying cases with contradictory responses, and (4) assessing the quality of open-ended responses. Implementation of these strategies is described in detail, and the Checklist for E-Survey Data Integrity is offered as a tool for other investigators.ResultsData cleaning procedures resulted in the removal of 1278 out of 4000 (31.95%) response records, which failed one or more data quality checks. First, approximately one-sixth of records (n=648, 16.20%) were removed because respondents completed the survey unrealistically quickly (ie, <10 minutes). Next, 7.30% (n=292) of records were removed because they contained evidence of consecutive responses. A total of 4.68% (n=187) of records were subsequently removed due to instances of conflicting responses. Finally, a total of 3.78% (n=151) of records were removed due to poor-quality open-ended responses. Thus, after these data cleaning steps, the final sample contained 2722 responses, representing 68.05% of the original sample.ConclusionsExamining data integrity and promoting transparency of data cleaning reporting is imperative for web-based survey research. Ensuring a high quality of data both prior to and following data collection is important. Our systematic approach helped eliminate records flagged as being of questionable quality. Data cleaning and management procedures should be reported more frequently, and systematic approaches should be adopted as standards of good practice in this type of research.

Differences in measurement quality depending on recall: results for a question about trust in the parliament

A large body of studies estimate the measurement quality of survey questions using multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) experiments. In these experiments, respondents are asked (nearly) identical questions at least twice. Most commonly, this is done within the same survey by, for instance, changing the response scale characteristics. However, it has frequently been argued that the estimates from these experiments might be biased when respondents recall their first answer and base their second answer on the initial one. So far, only little is known about the impact of memory effects on the estimates of measurement quality. In this study, we conducted a MTMM experiment in the probability-based German Internet Panel (N = 4,401) to investigate whether and to what extent measurement quality estimates differ across respondent groups varying in terms of recall. For this purpose, we use a survey question on trust in the German parliament that was asked with three different response scales. The results reveal that the recall of answers and memory effects vary significantly depending on the scales used for the trust in the parliament question. We also found significant differences in measurement quality across different recall groups. However, more refined research is necessary to better understand the association between answer recall and measurement quality estimates.

학습자 주도 질문 활동에 대한 대학생들의 인식 탐구

Objectives This study aims to explore the meaning of college students' experience on the leaner-led questioning activity performed in general English classes. Methods Purposeful sampling which is a technique widely used to a qualitative research was used and in-depth interviews were conducted for the data collection. And a phenomenological method was used for data analysis. Results The essential theme clusters were derived, that is, qualitative change in learning habits, improvement of learning ability, overcoming the limitations of non-face-to-face classes, and transformation from immaturity to maturity. And the contents of the main themes were as follows. First, participants focused on lectures more than usual and engaged in various learning activities on their own. Second, they were able to recognized and supplement the shortcomings and their led questioning activity helped them to improve their knowledge retention and to expand their knowledge. Third, they perceived that there are active interactions between teacher and students and they became more and more active learners. Fourth, they could further develop their question quality by trial and error. Conclusions It was found that learner-led questioning activity helped students to have high willingness to their learning and to improve their long-term knowledge retention as well as to expand their knowledge and to increase their level of academic performance. Although participants had difficulty on generating their own questions, their level of question quality was higher and higher for teachers to teach students to create their own questions. Consequently, this study shows that learner led questioning activity contribute to teachers' practice of Constructivist education and teachers need to encourage students to ask more questions maximizing their learning in the classroom.

Questionable Quality

Household water insecurity is a global problem; one not escaped by residents of high-income nations. In this article, we review a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project conducted in Flint, MI, to document grassroots narratives about the impacts of water insecurity on the lives of women. In 2014, Flint residents found themselves connected to modern water infrastructure that delivered potable water contaminated by lead and pathogens. Through a photovoice method, participating women documented how experiences of water insecurity continues to impact their lives many years after state authorities declared the water crisis to be over. This study adds to a growing literature that highlights how the “adequateness” of water quality is not a stable or self-evident condition for there are different frameworks for water cleanliness, safety, and risk. With attention to methodology, this case study emphasizes the importance of legitimizing the embodied experience of participants through research design and implementation. This CBPR project contributes to the existing toolbox of methods for studying household water insecurity by complementing the growing literature on security metrics with a narrative-focused approach to documenting women’s lived experiences of water insecurity. Finally, the article invites readers to consider how and to what degree to mobilize participatory approaches to understand conditions and lived experiences of resource insecurity without further stigmatizing or exploiting impacted communities.

ITEM ANALYSIS OF UIN ALAUDDIN MAKASSAR INDEPENDENT ENTRANCE EXAMINATION QUESTIONS WITH MODERN TEST THEORY

This study aims to find out how the quality of UMM UIN Alauddin Makassar questions in 2021 in the field of mathematics with the modern test method of the 2-PL model with indicators of difficulty level and differentiating power. This study is a quantitative analysis that emphasizes the analysis of the characteristics of the items empirically. The subjects of the research were the participants of the UIN Alauddin Makassar Independent Entrance Exam in 2021. The objects selected were multiple-choice math questions made by the UMM Alauddin Makassar UMM Question Making Team which consisted of 8 question packages with 5 items for each package. The method used in data collection is the documentation method, by collecting student responses to the 2021 UMM UIN Alauddin Makassar problem in mathematics made by the UMM Alauddin Makassar UMM Question Making Team, which is then analyzed quantitatively based on modern test methods. Based on the results of data analysis using the RStudio application, it is known that the items for the 2021 UIN Alauddin Makassar Independent Entrance Exam, based on the level of difficulty, obtained: (1) easy category items as many as 2 items, namely items number 4 and 5, (2) items very easy category questions as many as 3 items, namely items number 1, 2 and 3. Furthermore, in terms of discriminating power, obtained: (1) very bad category items as many as 3 items, namely item numbers 3, 4 and 5, (2 ) items in the bad category as many as 2 items, namely items number 1 and 2. Thus, it can be stated that overall the questions for the 2021 Alauddin UIN Makassar Mandiri Entrance Exam are not good.

Label accuracy of unregulated cannabidiol (CBD) products: measured concentration vs. label claim

BackgroundThe legalization of hemp in the USA has led to tremendous growth in the availability of hemp-derived products, particularly cannabidiol (CBD) products. The lack of regulatory oversight in this industry has resulted in the marketing and sale of CBD products with questionable ingredients and quality. The aim of the current study was to examine the CBD content in 80 commercially available hemp-derived CBD products purchased from online and local retailers. Epidiolex® was also included in the study as a positive control.MethodsHemp-derived CBD products were selected to represent products readily available to residents of Central Kentucky. The samples were comprised of local and national brands produced in a variety of locations inside and outside of Kentucky. The products were analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS), and the analytical findings were compared to the label claims for CBD content. Descriptive statistics and normal-based confidence intervals were calculated using Microsoft Excel.ResultsThe label claims for CBD content ranged from 7.5 to 60 mg/mL, while LC–MS/MS analysis detected a range of 2.9 to 61.3 mg/mL. Of the 80 products evaluated, 37 contained CBD concentrations that were at least ± 10% different than the concentration listed on the label (range of 0.9 to 30.6 mg/mL from label claim) — 12 products contained < 90%, while 25 products contained > 110%. The degree of concordance for the samples tested using ± 10% tolerance from label claim was 54%.ConclusionsThese data suggest that additional regulation is required to ensure label accuracy as nearly half of the products in this study were not properly labelled (i.e., not within a ± 10% margin of error). Consumers and practitioners should remain cautious of unregulated and often-mislabeled CBD products due to the risks of taking too much CBD (e.g., drug-drug interactions, liver enzyme elevations, increased side effects) and the consequences of taking too little (e.g., no clinical benefits due to underdosing). The results of this study support the continued need for good manufacturing practices and testing standards for CBD products.

The quality of test on National Examination of Natural science in the level of elementary school

&lt;span&gt;This research analyzed the quality of National Examination questions on Natural science subjects in elementary schools. The sampling technique used was simple random sampling. Response data were obtained from 250 grade VI elementary school students who responded on the tryout questions. This study was a descriptive study with a quantitative approach to describe the quality of the elementary school science test try-out items. The quality of this question is described quantitatively which includes an index of difficulty level and discriminatory power of questions. The data was collected using a test technique using a test instrument consisting of 30 multiple-choice questions. The analysis was carried out using the BILOG-MG version 4 application to obtain the parameters of distinguishing power and grain difficulty level. Based on the model fit analysis, it was found that the most appropriate model to use for the analysis of the science tryout questions for elementary schools was item response theory (IRT) with the 2PL model. The study concluded that the National Examination questions on science subjects in elementary schools had met the criteria for the level of difficulty and distinguishing power so that they could be said to be in a good category.&lt;/span&gt;

ASSESSMENT OF MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS TEST ITEM QUALITY AFTER POST EXAM ITEM ANALYSIS

Item analysis is the collection, summarization and utilizing information from students' responses to assess the quality of test items. The item statistics can distinguish between good items and those that need improvement or deletion from question bank. Our aim is to assess the quality of the summative Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) for all courses of the M.B.B.Ch program before and after staff awareness campaign, College of Medicine, Taibah University, KSA, 2020. This study is a Quasi-experimental pre-post test study design and was conducted in 4 stages, collection of the MCQ exams, conduction of Awareness campaign on how to benet the post-exam item analysis, Re-collection and analysis of the post-exam item analysis and Finally, the results of the post exam item analysis of both academic years were compared to detect any changes in the items quality. showed that there were marked improvement of good quality items after awareness campaign especially in the Pre-clinicalResults courses than clinical ones IN Item analysis when regularly incorporated can help to develop a very useful, valid and a reliable questionConclusion bank by changing awed items either by rectied or deleted from the question bank

En bloc resection of bladder tumors: challenges and unmet needs in 2022

Non-muscle invasive bladder cancer accounts for the majority of new bladder cancer diagnoses, and endoscopic transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT) represents the standard-of-care. Although a relatively safe and common procedure, TURBT is often hampered by the questionable quality of resection. The evolution of surgical techniques has brought en bloc resection of bladder tumor (ERBT) to the forefront. ERBT has emerged as an alternative to conventional TURBT, incorporating a more delicate en bloc sculpting and tumor excision, in contrast to 'piecemeal'resection by conventional TURBT. ERBT appears safe, feasible and effective with demonstrably higher rates of detrusor muscle in the pathologic specimen, all while providing better staging and obviating the need for a re-TURBT in selected patients. However, the method's adoption in the field is still limited. This review summarizes the recent evidence relevant to ERBT while further highlighting the technique's limitations and unmet needs.

ANALYSIS OF THE DIFFICULTY OF EXAM QUESTIONS AT STATE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

The study aims to analyze level of difficulty of the exam questions for Class VII and VIII at junior high school Negeri 05 Bengkulu City. This study used a qualitative descriptive research design. The instrument used in this study was the text of the science exam questions for junior high school and equivalent. Higher order thinking skills are not only formed in the cognitive aspect but are able to improve the skills and effective aspects of students. One of them is the collected data is analyzed using the Difficulty Index formula. Data analysis used descriptive percentage. Calculate the individual value of each student in class VIII A of junior high school Negeri 05 Bengkulu City. The results showed that the analysis of the difficulty level of science exam questions for class VIII and VII Junior high schools Negeri 05 Bengkulu City for the 2020/2021 academic year had a difficult question category in class VII of only 30%, the easy question category was 70%, as well as class VIII. difficult category questions,30% of easy category questions, 30% moderate questions 40%. This shows that the quality of the exam questions is very good. A good measuring instrument test will produce good data, the teacher can know the student's ability correctly if the measuring instrument used is a good measuring instrument. Questions have very good/very good discriminating power. Matter of material, construction and some parts of the language need to be improved. Data collection tools used are through note takers and interview guides.

Distribution of the F129L mutation conferring resistance to strobilurins in Alternaria solani populations in Serbia

AbstractAlternaria solani is a fungal pathogen that causes early blight, an economically important disease of potatoes worldwide. The application of fungicides differing in mode of action are the most important control measure for early blight management. However, frequent use of fungicides may cause fungal pathogen populations to be selected for mutations conferring fungicide resistance, resulting in significant losses of fungicide efficacy. Repeated use of QoI fungicides may generate a selection pressure on A. solani populations that promotes resistant genotypes, this quality in question being because of amino acid substitutions in the cytochrome b gene. During a four‐year survey, isolates of A. solani were collected from the primary potato production regions in Serbia. The cytochrome b gene region of each isolate was evaluated for the presence of the F129L substitution known to historically confer QoI resistance. Sequence analysis revealed two genotypes similar to those reported elsewhere in the world with a diverse geographic distribution in Serbia. Genotype I was dominant in the south of Serbia, genotype II was prevalent in north Serbia, and in central Serbia both genotypes were represented equally. The F129L mutation was detected in both genotypes, with a progressive shift from the wild type to mutated A. solani across years. A. solani isolates containing the F129L mutation were collected from the northern and the central Serbia in 2016 without any mutated isolates in the southern Serbia. In 2019, in all surveyed regions, a predominance of isolates with the F129L mutation was observed. The presence of two cytochrome b genotypes among A. solani isolates and significant presence of F129L mutations indicates a change in the genetic structure of this pathogens populations in potato fields nationwide, which could have a significant impact on control of early blight disease.

Are finasteride-related penile curvature/Peyronie's disease Adverse Event Reports worthy of further clinical investigation? Disproportionality analysis based on both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) pharmacovigilance databases.

A limited number of studies have described patients on finasteride showing findings which were consistent with Peyronie's disease (PD). We aimed to detect a pharmacovigilance signal of possible association between finasteride and PD-related clinical features. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) database was queried to identify the ten drugs which were associated the most with the adverse drug reactions (ADRs) recorded as "penile curvature" and/or "Peyronie's disease". A similar analysis, including the same drugs, was carried out for the EMA (European Medicines Agency) EudraVigilance (EV) database. Descriptive data have been analyzed, and Proportional Reporting Ratios (PRRs) have been computed against the other nine drugs of the database. Overall, 860 reports of "penile curvature" and/or "Peyronie's disease", were identified in the FAERS database, 214 of which (24.9%) were associated with finasteride. Most reports (56.9%) were submitted by healthcare professionals. Where a treatment-indication was stated, the vast majority of reports (176/210; 83.8%) were associated with androgenetic alopecia. The outcome of most ADRs was "serious" (82.2%), with 96 ADRs resulting in levels of permanent disability. For 97/214 individual cases, penile curvature/PD reports were not part of a syndromic cluster suggestive of post-finasteride syndrome (PFS). The PRR resulted 6.6 (95% CI: 5.6-7.8) and 11.8 (95% CI: 9.08-15.33), respectively, in the FAERS and in the EV databases. Notwithstanding the related limitations and biasing factors of pharmacovigilance studies based on spontaneous reporting, the PRR values here identified should be interpreted as strong signals of disproportionality. These findings, per se, are however not useful to confirm any causal association. Clinical studies are needed to investigate on the possible role for finasteride in causing PD-related clinical features, an hypothesis which remains highly speculative due to the very questionable quality of present data.

Automatic question generation with various difficulty levels based on knowledge ontology using a query template

Ontology is a concepts and relationships that can be used to support the question-generation process. However, until now, the ontology models and question templates commonly used to support the question-generation process have remained domain-specific, allowing three weaknesses to persist. First, the role of experts is dominant in the process of ontology generation. Second, the process needs adjustment if it is to be used for other domains. Third, question templates are formed based on the vocabulary of ontology, so they cannot be used to generate questions in other domains. In response to these problems, this research focused on forming an ontology generation model and a template model for generating questions that are not domain-specific. We used a combination of two types of ontology — namely, taxonomy ontology and sentence ontology to form ontology models and question templates that were not domain-specific. We labeled this combination as “knowledge ontology”. We used template queries to retrieve information on the ontology and then translated the results of the query template into questions in natural language. The ratios from our experiments demonstrated that the proposed method was effective for generating questions. Moreover, the method produced good question quality, as evidenced by its high accuracy rate of 90.71%. This research can be applied to help e-learning developers represent information in the form of ontology without involving experts. Furthermore, this research can also help teachers to generate questions automatically with consistent question quality.