Statistical Difference In Performance Research Articles

Performance and Return to Play After Surgery for Thoracic Outlet Syndrome in Professional Baseball Players: A Matched Cohort Analysis

Background: Thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) remains a rare diagnosis but is being recognized as a cause of upper extremity dysfunction in professional baseball players. Purpose/Hypothesis: The purpose was to determine performance and return-to-play (RTP) outcomes in professional baseball players after surgical treatment of TOS. The hypothesis was that there would be a high RTP rate in professional baseball players after TOS surgery with no statistical differences in performance between pitchers who had TOS surgery and matched controls. Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: All professional baseball players who underwent surgical treatment of TOS between 2010 and 2017 were identified using the Major League Baseball Health and Injury Tracking System database. Demographic and performance data (before and after surgery) for each player were recorded. Performance variables were then compared between players who underwent TOS surgery and matched controls. The matching criteria were no history of previous surgeries on affected arm, age at time of surgery, throwing side, level of play (Major or Minor League Baseball), and years of experience playing professional baseball. Results: Overall, 52 players underwent surgery for TOS, of whom 46 (88%) were pitchers. The type of TOS was neurogenic in 69% and venous in 29%. One player had arterial TOS. After TOS surgery, 79% of players returned to play at the same or higher level (RTSP) by 9.5 months and played ≥3 years after surgery. No differences were found in RTSP rate based on the type of TOS. No statistical difference was found in RTP rates between major and minor league players. Pitchers had a 76% RTSP, which was similar to the natural attrition for control pitchers (P = .874). After TOS surgery, pitchers saw a decline in several performance metrics, but these declines were not different from those of control pitchers, indicating that the decline in performance after TOS surgery was no faster than is seen in healthy professional pitchers as they age. Conclusion: The rate of RTSP after surgery for TOS in professional baseball players was 79%. There was no difference in RTP based on the type of TOS. Pitchers who underwent surgery for TOS had no significant differences in pitching performance metrics after surgery compared with matched controls.

ChatGPT Earns American Board Certification in Hand Surgery

PurposeArtificial Intelligence (AI), and specifically ChatGPT, has shown potential in healthcare, yet its performance in specialized medical examinations such as the Orthopaedic Surgery In-Training Examination and European Board Hand Surgery diploma has been inconsistent. This study aims to evaluate the capability of ChatGPT-4 to pass the American Hand Surgery Certifying Examination. MethodsChatGPT-4 was tested on the 2019 American Society for Surgery of the Hand (ASSH) Self-Assessment Exam. All 200 questions available online (https://onlinecme.assh.org) were retrieved. All media-containing questions were flagged and carefully reviewed. Eight media-containing questions were excluded as they either relied purely on videos or could not be rationalized from the presented information. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the performance (% correct) of ChatGPT-4. The ASSH report was used to compare ChatGPT-4’s performance to that of the 322 physicians who completed the 2019 ASSH self-assessment. ResultsChatGPT-4 answered 192 questions with an overall score of 61.98%. Performance on media-containing questions was 55.56%, while on non-media questions it was 65.83%, with no statistical difference in performance based on media inclusion. Despite scoring below the average physician’s performance, ChatGPT-4 outperformed in the ‘vascular’ section with 81.82%. Its performance was lower in the ‘bone and joint’ (48.54%) and ‘neuromuscular’ (56.25%) sections. ConclusionsChatGPT-4 achieved a good overall score of 61.98%. This AI language model demonstrates significant capability in processing and answering specialized medical examination questions, albeit with room for improvement in areas requiring complex clinical judgment and nuanced interpretation. ChatGPT-4’s proficiency is influenced by the structure and language of the examination, with no replacement for the depth of trained medical specialists. This study underscores the supportive role of AI in medical education and clinical decision-making while highlighting the current limitations in nuanced fields such as hand surgery.

Development and Validation of Contrast-Enhanced CT-Based Deep Transfer Learning and Combined Clinical-Radiomics Model to Discriminate Thymomas and Thymic Cysts: A Multicenter Study

This study aims to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of deep transfer learning (DTL) and clinical-radiomics in differentiating thymoma from thymic cysts. Clinical and imaging data of 196 patients pathologically diagnosed with thymoma and thymic cysts were retrospectively collected from center 1. (training cohort: n=137; internal validation cohort: n=59). An independent external validation cohort comprised 68 thymoma and thymic cyst patients from center 2. Region of interest (ROI) delineation was performed on contrast-enhanced chest computed tomography (CT) images, and eight DTLmodelsincluding Densenet 169, Mobilenet V2, Resnet 101, Resnet 18, Resnet 34, Resnet 50, Vgg 13, Vgg 16 were constructed. Radiomics features were extracted from the ROI on the CT images of thymoma and thymic cyst patients, and feature selection was performed using intra-observer correlation coefficient (ICC), Spearman correlation analysis, and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) algorithm. Univariate analysis and multivariable logistic regression (LR) were used to select clinical-radiological features. Six machine learning classifiers, including LR, support vector machine (SVM), k-nearest neighbors (KNN), Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LightGBM), Adaptive Boosting (AdaBoost), and Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), were used to construct Radiomics and Clinico-radiologic models. The selected features from the Radiomics and Clinico-radiologic models were fused to build a Combined model. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC), calibration curve, and decision curve analysis (DCA) were used to evaluate the discrimination, calibration, and clinical utility of the models, respectively. The Delong test was used to compare the AUC between different models. K-means clustering was used to subdivide the lesions of thymomas or thymic cysts into subregions, and traditional radiomics methods were used to extract features and compare the ability of Radiomics and DTL models to reflect intratumoral heterogeneity using correlation analysis. The Densenet 169 based on DTL performed the best, with AUC of 0.933 (95% CI: 0.875-0.991) in the internal validation cohort and 0.962 (95% CI: 0.923-1.000) in the external validation cohort. The AdaBoost classifier achieved AUC of 0.965 (95% CI: 0.923-1.000) and 0.959 (95% CI: 0.919-1.000) in the internal and external validation cohorts, respectively, for the Radiomics model. The LightGBM classifier achieved AUC of 0.805 (95% CI: 0.690-0.920) and 0.839 (95% CI: 0.736-0.943) in the Clinico-radiologic model. The AUC of the Combined model in the internal and external validation cohorts was0.933 (95% CI: 0.866-1.000) and 0.945 (95% CI: 0.897-0.994), respectively. The results of the Delong test showed that the Radiomics model, DTL model, and Combined model outperformed the Clinico-radiologic model in both internal and external validation cohorts (p-values were 0.002, 0.004, and 0.033 in the internal validation cohort, while in the external validation cohort, the p-values were 0.014, 0.006, and 0.015, respectively). But there was no statistical difference in performance among the three models (all p-values <0.05). Correlation analysis showed that radiomics performed better than DTL in quantifying intratumoral heterogeneity differences between thymoma and thymic cysts. The developed DTL model and the Combined model based on radiomics and clinical-radiologic features achieved excellent diagnostic performance in differentiating thymic cysts from thymoma. They can serve as potential tools to assist clinical decision-making, particularly when endoscopic biopsy carries a high risk.

Validation of MELD 3.0 scoring system in East Asian patients with cirrhosis awaiting liver transplantation.

Recently, a new predictive model that jointly considers the Model of End-stage Liver Disease (MELD) 3.0 and albumin has been proposed. This study investigated the performance of the MELD 3.0 score in predicting the 3-month survival of East Asian patients with cirrhosis compared with the other MELD-based scores. Validation was performed with the retrospective data of 2153 patients in South Korea who were listed for liver transplantation (LT). Discrimination and calibration analyses were performed using the MELD-based scores as an independent variable. On average, patients had the original MELD score of 18.70 ± 9.65. Alcohol (39.99%) and chronic HBV (38.55%) were the 2 main etiologies. The MELD 3.0 with albumin showed slightly better discrimination [c-index = 0.738, incremental AUC (iAUC) = 0.719] compared with the MELD 3.0 without albumin (c-index = 0.737, iAUC = 0.715), MELD-Na (c-index = 0.730, iAUC = 0.707), or the original MELD (c-index = 0.718, iAUC = 0.687) for predicting 3-month survival but not significantly different compared with prior models. Likewise, in the stratified analysis according to the strata of MELD, although the performance of MELD 3.0 was better throughout all the MELD strata than MELD original, there was no statistical difference in performance. The MELD 3.0 with albumin reclassified 22.61% of cases classified by the original MELD to higher MELD score categories, and there was no significant difference in the reclassification rate between males and females. The predictive power of the MELD-based system is lower in Asian populations than in western countries. Nonetheless, the MELD 3.0 score with albumin was significantly better in predicting the short-term prognosis of East Asian patients on the LT waitlist than the current allocation system, original MELD.

TREINAMENTO DE APTIDÃO FÍSICA PARA JOGADORES DE FUTEBOL UNIVERSITÁRIO

ABSTRACT Introduction: Physical fitness is an essential factor affecting soccer in China, and its high-level results from the overlapping training effects of various factors on the soccer athlete. Objective: This study aims to analyze the relationship between practical fitness training and performance in college soccer players. Methods: College soccer players volunteered for a fitness training session. Mathematical statistics were used to analyze volunteers’ fitness and competition performance before and after training. The impact of soccer fitness training on the athletes’ physical quality was also considered. Results: After eight weeks of fitness training, improvement in the performance of college soccer players was noticed. There was a statistical difference in performance and physical quality after physical training (P&lt;0.01). Conclusion: College soccer players improved performance after fitness training. Such training can improve the physical fitness of college soccer players. Level of evidence II; Therapeutic studies - investigation of treatment outcomes.

National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF): Analyzing Performance of Top 50 Management Schools

The present study aims to examine the statistical differences in performance across different categories of management schools in India against the five major NIRF performance parameter heads viz., Teaching, Learning & Resources (TLR); Research and Professional Practices (RP); Graduation Outcomes (GO); Outreach and Inclusivity (OI); Peer Perception (PR); and Total Ranking Score (TRS). NIRF announced first ranking results in the year 2016 on the data of 2014-15. We have used the available NIRF ranking results of the top 50 ranked management schools for each of the six announcing years from 2016 to 2021. The study divided management schools into four categories as per their regulatory identity in India. Based on the relative performance and standing of four categories of management schools across five parameters of NIRF, the schools can strategize their efforts to retain and enhance their performance for achieving a higher NIRF ranking in the future. The findings are also pertinent to those management schools which are not ranked by NIRF for taking actionable decisions. This study claims its uniqueness as assessing the relative performance of institutions in the higher education sector in India. The theoretical underpinning of rankings can be a relevant addition to the existing literature of ranking systems for higher educational institutions.

Sound Localization in Unilateral Cochlear Implant Users

Purpose: Sound is localized by two ears. People with bilaterally severe-to-profound hearing loss may struggle to identify the direction of a sound if their hearing device delivers sound only one ear due to the loss of binaural advantage. The purpose of this study was to systematically investigate the sound localization performance of people with unilateral cochlear implant users. Methods: Ten unilateral cochlear implant users and 10 normal hearing adults participated in this study. Sound localization tests were conducted using five stimuli (speech, speech with noise, 500 Hz warble tone, 1 kHz warble tone, and 4 kHz warble tone) presented from eight loud-speakers. Correct responses and root- mean-square errors were obtained to investigate the localization performances and error patterns. Additional factors including the Korean-Speech Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Questionnaire were also analyzed. Results: Localization performance was significantly poor in the unilateral cochlear implant group showing polar patterns toward their hearing side. While the normal hearing group showed better localization for speech in quiet conditions compared to 500 Hz warble tone, the cochlear implant group did not show any statistical difference in performance across the stimuli due to their very poor performance. The Korean-Speech Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Questionnaire was associated with localization performance in limited conditions. Conclusion: The present study revealed that unilateral cochlear implant users correctly localize a sound at nearly chance levels. The Korean-Speech Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Questionnaire predict localization performance for unilateral cochlear implant users only for particular conditions.

Influence of Successors’ Socio-demographic Characteristics on Performance of Family-Owned Small and Medium Enterprises in Tanzania

This study examined the influence of successors’ socio-demographic characteristics on the performance of family-owned Small and Medium Enterprises. Probability sampling technique was employed to obtain sample of 219 successors. The hierarchical regression model and independent samples t-test were employed to test the study hypotheses. The findings of this study indicate that successors’ socio-demographic characteristics, that is, education and business experience have influence on performance of family-owned Small and Medium Enterprises and there is no statistical difference in performance in terms of profit between male and female successors. It was concluded that for performance of family-owned SMEs successor’s sex should not be a factor for consideration in selecting a successor in family-owned SMEs. For good performance of family business, successors’ socio-demographic characteristics mainly education and business experience should be given priority in succession plan. The paper recommends that, to reduce the reported high failure rate, family business founders should strengthen their successors’ socio-demographic characteristics, mainly education and business experience instead of building on sex as the only criteria for successors’ selection.

PSIV-18 Effects on performance and market weight of DNA 600 Duroc sired pigs when fed diets with a blend of phytonutrients (Lean Fuel) in combination with Narasin (Skycis)

Abstract The objective was to determine effects on performance from using Narasin (Skycis, Elanco) or a phytonutrient blend (Lean Fuel, Furst-McNess Company), or used in combination. 856 pigs (40.7±3.1 kg BW) were used in the experiment and pens were blocked by nursery feeding program within block to 1 of 4 treatments in a 2x2 factorial arrangement with 8 pens per treatment: 1) Basal Diet met NRC2012 requirements (C), 2) Basal diet + 13.6 g/ton of Narasin throughout the study (Nar), 3) Basal diet + 1.25 kg of Lean Fuel from day 50 of the study to market (LF) and 4) Basal diet + 13.6 g/ton Narasin throughout the study + 1.25 kg of Lean Fuel from day 50 of the study to market (LF+Nar). Carcass data were collected by 3 market cuts (d 78, 92 and 106 of study) shipping 1/3 of pigs from every pen on each cut. Data were analyzed using the MIXED procedure of SAS (SAS Institute, Inc., Cray, NC) from Day 0 to 50, and as a 2x2 factorial arrangement from Day 50 to market and initial BW was used as covariate. No statistical differences in performance from Day 0 to 50. No difference in mortality: 1.34%, 1.32%, 1.36% and 0% of C, Nar, LF and Nar+LF, respectively. From Day 50 to market, main effect of Narasin improved ADG (1043 g/d vs 1025 g/d, P=0.02), and there was a trend for an interaction with LF (P=0.076), where LF+Nar had the greatest ADG 1055 g/d. Numerical increase in carcass weight for LF (94.92 vs 94.29 kg, P=0.19). Nar and Nar+LF had greater carcass weight for Cut 1 (P=0.072) and Cut 2 (P=0.01) as compared to the other treatments with no difference for Cut 3 and the results are given in Table 1. The results of this trial show improved performance from feeding Nar, and interactive effects on ADG and additive effects on carcass weight when using Nar and LF in combination.

Comparing performance and resistance of two broilers breeds challenged by Eimeria acervulina

The proposal on the ban of anticoccidials drugs from poultry feed highlights the importance of broiler breeders resistance to Eimeria as a criteria for animal genetic selection. The aim of this study was to compare the resistance between two commercial broiler breeds to Eimeria acervulina. Eight hundred male chicks from two commercial breeds (400 animals each) were housed from 1–42 days of age and randomly divided into 4 treatments with 8 replicates of 25 birds each. Following a factorial design, the treatments were AU, BU (breed A and B, unchallenged), AC and BC (breed A and B, challenged at 14 days of age by gavage with 1 × 106 oocysts of a field strain of E. acervulina). From 1–42 days, feed intake, body weight gain (BWG), feed conversion ratio (FCR), feed efficiency and mean weight (MW) were weekly measured. For the clinical evaluation, feces were sampled from 18 to 24 days for the counting of excreted oocysts and twenty birds per treatment were euthanized at 20 days of age for the scoring of macroscopic lesions in the gut. The breeds did not show statistical differences in performance after the Eimeria challenge in all phases. Breed A presented a higher increase in FCR from 21 to 45 days in comparison to the breed B, which presented a deeper reduction in FI, BWG and MW at all periods post-infection when compared to the breed A. Despite of the challenge, breed A presented better performance indexes (P < 0.05) up to the 28 days of age in comparison to the breed B, however, no significant difference in performance was detected between the breeds at the final age of 42 days. Regardless of the breed, the challenged birds presented significant worsens in all performance parameters from 14 to 42 days of age. The breed B presented a higher (P < 0.05) fecal count of oocysts from 19 to 21 days and higher (P < 0.05) score of macroscopic lesions in the gut at 21 days in comparison to the breed A. The clinical evaluation pointed out a lower resistance of the breed B to the E. acervulina challenge, which could result in significant impacts on the performance in field production conditions.

Interference screws are more likely to perform better than cortical button and cross-pin fixation for hamstring autograft in ACL reconstruction: a Bayesian network meta-analysis.

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction is widely accepted as the first choice of treatment for ACL injury, but there is disagreement in the literature regarding the optimal femoral fixation method. This meta-analysis assesses the evidence surrounding three common femoral fixation methods: cortical button (CB), cross-pin (CP) and interference screws (IS). A systematic search was conducted in Medline, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library to identify studies with evidence level I or II that compared at least two femoral fixation methods with hamstring autograft for ACL reconstruction. Ten primary outcomes were collected. Risk of bias was assessed following the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Standardized mean differences (SMD) were estimated using random-effects network meta-analysis in a Bayesian framework. Probability of ranking best (ProBest) and surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) were used to rank all treatments. Funnel plots were used to identify publication bias and small-study effects. Sixteen clinical trials were included for analysis out of 2536 retrieved studies. Bayesian network meta-analysis showed no significant differences among the three fixation methods for the ten primary outcome measures. Based on the 10 outcome measures, the IS, CB and CP had the highest ProBest in 5, 5 and 0 outcomes, and the highest SUCRA values in 5, 4 and 1 outcomes, respectively. No substantial inconsistency between direct and indirect evidence, or publication bias was detected in the outcomes. There were no statistical differences in performance among the CP, CB and IS femoral fixation methods with hamstring autograft in ACL reconstruction, although the IS was more likely to perform better than CB and CP based on the analysis of outcome measures from the included studies. 1.

1201 Performance Evaluation Of A Novel Contactless Breathing Monitor And Machine Learning Algorithm For Sleep Stage Classification In A Healthy Population

Abstract Introduction Although polysomnography (PSG) remains the gold standard for sleep assessment in a lab setting, non-EEG signals such as respiration and motion are directly affected by sleep stages and can be used for sleep stage prediction. Importantly, these signals can be obtained in a low-cost and unobtrusive manner, allowing for large scale and longitudinal data collection in a home environment. The Circadia C100 System (FDA 510(k) clearance expected Q1 2020) is a novel ‘nearable’ device that uses radar for contactless monitoring of respiration and motion. The current study aims to validate the performance of the associated sleep analysis algorithm. Methods A total of 41 nights of sleep data were recorded from 33 healthy participants using the device, alongside PSG. Data were recorded both in a sleep lab and home environment. PSG data were scored by RPSGT-certified technicians. Respiration and movement features were extracted, and machine learning algorithms were developed to perform sleep stage classification and predict sleep metrics. Algorithms were trained and validated on PSG data using cross-validation. Results An epoch-by-epoch true positive rate of 56.2%, 79.4%, 55.5% and 72.6% was found for ‘Wake’, ‘REM’, ‘Light’ and ‘Deep’ respectively. No statistical differences in performance were found between home-recorded and lab-recorded contactless data. Mean absolute error of total sleep time (TST), wake after sleep onset (WASO), and sleep efficiency (SE) was 13.2 minutes, 11.3 minutes and 3%, respectively. The contactless monitor was found to outperform both medical grade and clinical grade actigraphy based devices: The Philips Actiwatch Spectrum Plus and the Fitbit Alta HR. Conclusion Current results are encouraging and suggest that the contactless monitor could be used for long-term sleep assessment and continuous evaluation of sleep therapy outcomes. Further clinical validation work is ongoing in subjects diagnosed with sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea. Support -

Performance trends in Paralympic athletes in sprint, middle-distance and endurance events

In recent decades the participation in Paralympic sports has grown exponentially, with an increasing number of countries and athletes attending to these events. However, despite the tremendous growth, only a few studies involving the performance of Paralympic athletes have been published to date. We aimed to investigate and compare the performance trends of men and women in category T54 from sprint, middle-distance and endurance events in Paralympic international events held from 2009 to 2018. Data were extracted from the publicly available IPC database (https://www.paralympic.org/). The male and female athletes in the Paralympic category T54 of the sprints, middle distance and endurance made up the sample. Final analysis included a total of 2097 men and 940 women (n = 3037). The comparison between men and women showed statistical differences in performance with men being faster in all sprint and middle-distance events (p < 0.05). For the endurance events, men are faster in 5000 m, half marathon and marathon (p < 0.05), but there is no statistical difference between men and women in the 10,000 m event (p > 0.05). Linear regression showed differences between men and women in the performance trends from 2009 to 2018 in the sprint, middle-distance and endurance events (p < 0.05). In conclusion, men are faster than women in sprint, middle-distance and endurance Paralympic athletics events. In spite of performance has not improved over the last decade, the performance is distinctly correlated with age in the sprint and middle-distance events (younger and faster) and endurance events (older and faster).

A comparison of faculty led, mentorship program and peer mentoring on nursing students wound dressing clinical skills

BackgroundThe promotion of clinical nursing education requires using modern educational methods to develop students' knowledge and skills. There are however many different models by which education can be delivered with a wealth of literature supporting varying approaches. This is of particular relevance to clinical education where to date no singular approach has been identified as being the most appropriate. ObjectivesThis study aimed to compare and investigate the effect of a peer education method, a mentor-led education method versus a traditional faculty-led method for instruction regarding surgical wound care skills among nursing students. DesignThis study used an experimental three-group pre- and post-test design. SettingsThe research was conducted within two surgical wards of a university-affiliated hospital in the west of Iran. ParticipantsA total of 102 nursing students (first and second year) were assigned to three groups; peer-led learning group (n = 34), mentorship-led group (n = 34) or a faculty-led control group (n = 34). MethodsTo ascertain performance in surgical dressing skill, data was collected in each group before and after the respective educational intervention. Data was collected using a surgical dressing skills checklist made by the research team which was piloted prior to the study. All statistical analysis was performed using SPSS v.22.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). ResultsBased on findings, after the intervention, the mean (SD) scores of surgical dressing and wound care skills were 28.24 (4.63), 31.76 (4.89), and 29.12 (5.33) for the peer-led, mentor-led and faculty-led groups, respectively. There was no significant difference between mentor group and faculty group or between peer group and faculty group (P > 0.05). However, the findings did demonstrate statistical difference in performance in surgical dressings and wound care techniques in the mentorship group method compared to the peer method (P = 0.006). ConclusionsAlthough participants in the mentor group performed best of all groups, our findings demonstrate that those in the peer method group performed as well as those in the faculty-led group in surgical dressing performance. Therefore, it is recommended that peer and mentor learning methods are given consideration by curriculum planners in for use in the development of student nurse clinical skill and competence in surgical wound care.

Modification of the Bio-Rad iQ-Check Listeria spp. Kit for the Detection of Listeria Species in Environmental Surfaces.

The Bio-Rad iQ-Check Listeria spp. Kit uses real-time PCR technology for detection of Listeria species in select food matrixes and environmental surfaces. The iQ-Check Listeria spp. method was modified to reduce the enrichment medium volume for environmental sponges from 225 and 100 to 60 mL and to reduce the enrichment time for sponges and swabs from 25 ± 1 to as short as 18 h. The modified method was validated with stainless steel, polystyrene plastic, and sealed concrete using sponges or swabs with two different neutralizing buffers (Letheen Broth and HiCap™ Neutralizing Broth). In addition, the Bio-Rad Free DNA Removal Solution was used for all environmental samples. The iQ-Check Listeria spp. modified method was compared with the reference culture method in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service Microbiology Laboratory Guidebook Chapter 8.10 using an unpaired study design. In the method comparison study, the iQ-Check Listeria spp. modified method demonstrated no statistical difference in performance between candidate and reference method results or between presumptive and confirmed results for all environmental surfaces analyzed using HiCap Neutralizing Broth (World Bioproducts LLC) and Letheen broth. The modified iQ-Check Listeria spp. method is an effective method for the detection of Listeria species in environmental surfaces using both types of neutralizing buffer. The method modification was granted based on the data collected.

Cold comfort: A post-completion evaluation of internal temperatures and thermal comfort in 6-Homestar dwellings

A minimum internal temperature of 18 °C is recommended by the World Health Organisation to prevent the poor health outcomes that have been associated with cold and damp homes. Green building councils advise that the use of their green building rating tools will achieve this guideline and provide a warmer, drier internal environment compared to code compliant dwellings, usually through the provision of increased insulation levels from code requirements.This study monitors the internal temperatures of 29 dwellings in the autumn and winter in Auckland, New Zealand. The recorded data is used to determine the amount of time three categories of dwellings (old, new and green certified) spent below the minimum temperature threshold of 18 °C, as well as the predicted thermal comfort of the occupants.Whilst the results confirm that certified green dwellings (6-Homestar) spend the least amount of time below 18 °C, there was no statistical difference in performance between the green certified and new code compliant dwellings. Instead both categories of newer housing stock provided a significantly warmer interior environment when compared to the older housing stock.This study provides unique insights into the actual performance of certified residential green dwellings and determines that policymakers may need to consider incorporating thermal comfort metrics, in addition to minimum temperature thresholds, in standards and rating tools.

Yeast extract could be used as a partial substitute for spray-dried porcine plasma in diets for weaned pigs

The previous study has been identified that yeast extract (YE) could be a potential substitute for spray-dried porcine plasma (SDPP) as a superior protein ingredient in diets for pigs in terms of the available energy and AA digestibility. This experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that YE as a partial substitute for SDPP in diet could stimulate the immune responses and improve the performance and nutrient digestibility in weaned pigs. A total of 90 healthy pigs weaned at 28 d of age (8.5 ± 1.2 kg) were assigned into 3 treatments according to sex and weight in a randomized complete block design. The dietary treatments consisted of a negative control diet without YE and SDPP supplementation (NCD), NCD supplemented with 40 g/kg SDPP at the expense of soybean meal (SDPPD) or SDPPD supplemented with 20 g/kg YE at the expense of SDPP (YED). During the 28-d experimental periods, pigs fed YED and SDPPD improved average daily gain (P < 0.05) and feed efficiency (P < 0.05) compared with pigs fed NCD. No statistical differences in performance were observed between YED and SDPPD. The apparent total tract digestibility of crude protein was greater in pigs fed SDPPD and YED than those fed NCD (P < 0.05). Compared with pigs fed NCD, pigs fed YED decreased (P < 0.05) or tended to decrease (P = 0.09) urea nitrogen and diamine oxidase contents in serum. The serum IgG and IgM content was greater in pigs fed SDPPD and YED than those fed NCD (P < 0.05). The SDPPD and YED decreased serum tumor necrosis factor-α in comparison with NCD (P < 0.05). The YED decreased serum interleukin-6 (P < 0.05), and SDPPD increased serum interleukin-10 compared with NCD (P < 0.05). No statistical differences in small intestinal morphology or hindgut volatile fatty acids were detected among the treatments. Accordingly, YE could be a partial substitute for SDPP in diets for weaned pigs in terms of positive growth performance and immune function.

The positive effects of tDCS on sustained attention performance under sleep deprivation conditions are consistent and repeatable

Cognitive performance decrements resulting from sleep deprivation are well-documented and sources of human error for many occupations such as transportation, medicine, and the military. Sustained attention or vigilance is one of those cognitive skills that rapidly declines as fatigue increases. One potentially promising fatigue countermeasure is transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a form of non-invasive brain stimulation. Previous studies show positive benefits of tDCS for fatigue, the question of how repeatable and reliable such findings are has been somewhat unclear. Utilizing data from two of our own laboratory studies that used the Mackworth Clock Test vigilance task, we examined the across-study repeatability and the reliability of using tDCS as a fatigue countermeasure. Both studies had the same experimental design of 3 groups, each group with an n-size of 10-12 participants. Group 1 received 30 minutes of anodal left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex stimulation (lDLPFC) at 1800 hours, Group 2 received 30 minutes of anodal lDLPFC at 0400 hours, and Group 3 received sham stimulation at 1800 and 0400 hours. The reference electrode was placed on the contralateral upper bicep. The ANOVAs show no statistical difference in performance between the same groups for the two studies. Correlations indicate that the comparisons between these two studies for the same groups are high (1800 stim r=0.91, 0400 stim r=0.94, sham r=0.94). These results, across two studies with similar structure but different participants, provides compelling evidence that the positive effects of tDCS on attentional decrements due to sleep deprivation stress are indeed reliable and repeatable. We have found in both studies that when compared to sham, tDCS can provide up to 6 hours of attentional performance enhancement after a single 30-minute session of tDCS regardless of when the stimulation is administered. Therefore, tDCS can be a powerful fatigue countermeasure for combating performance-related attentional deficits.

Towards O-Level Students’ Performance in Mathematics: Do Teaching and Learning Environment factors matter?

Purpose: This paper is aimed at assessing the possible factors which impacted the mass failure in O-Level mathematics examinations for the year 2012 in Tanzania. Methodology: The paper benefited from the secondary data collected from the Open Data Portal hosted by the Government of Tanzania. Common factors which determine the students‟ performance such as class-size, teacher-students ratio, number of mathematics textbooks and learning environment were examined in different secondary schools across 7 zones in Tanzania to see how much they might have contributed to this poor performance in mathematics. Using ttest statistics, the results show that neither of these common factors had a statistically significant impact in a concerned students‟ performance in mathematics. To test whether the year 2012 students‟ performance in mathematics was statistically significantly different from other neighbouring years, t-statistics was employed to test statistical difference of the mathematics results between 2012 and 2013 and that between 2013 and 2014. Results: The results show that there is a strong significant statistical difference in performance between 2012 and 2013. However, the difference in performance between 2013 and 2014 is reported to be statistically insignificant. These findings propose the possible effect of grading system change between 2012 and 2013 which was an outcry all over country by the education stakeholders. It is thought that change in grading system from division system to GPA system had its large contribution in the poor performance of mathematics in 2012. Recommendation: Following the wide-spread complaints from educational stakeholders that the process of changing the grading system lacked transparency and no clear justification was provided in lowering the pass benchmarks, this paper recommends the education policy makers to involve all key education stakeholders in changing any education policy which might affect the education standards in the country.

Insights Into LSTM Fully Convolutional Networks for Time Series Classification

Long Short Term Memory Fully Convolutional Neural Networks (LSTM-FCN) and Attention LSTM-FCN (ALSTM-FCN) have shown to achieve state-of-the-art performance on the task of classifying time series signals on the old University of California-Riverside (UCR) time series repository. However, there has been no study on why LSTM-FCN and ALSTM-FCN perform well. In this paper, we perform a series of ablation tests (3627 experiments) on LSTM-FCN and ALSTM-FCN to provide a better understanding of the model and each of its sub-module. Results from the ablation tests on ALSTM-FCN and LSTM-FCN show that the LSTM and the FCN blocks perform better when applied in a conjoined manner. Two z-normalizing techniques, z-normalizing each sample independently and z-normalizing the whole dataset, are compared using a Wilcoxson signed-rank test to show a statistical difference in performance. In addition, we provide an understanding of the impact dimension shuffle has on LSTM-FCN by comparing its performance with LSTM-FCN when no dimension shuffle is applied. Finally, we demonstrate the performance of the LSTM-FCN when the LSTM block is replaced by a GRU, basic RNN, and Dense Block.