Summation Of Ratings Research Articles

Responders and nonresponders to topical capsaicin display distinct temporal summation of pain profiles.

Topical application of capsaicin can produce an ongoing pain state in healthy participants. However, approximately one-third report no pain response (ie, nonresponders), and the reasons for this are poorly understood. In this study, we investigated temporal summation of pain (TSP) profiles, pain ratings and secondary hyperalgesia responses in responders and nonresponders to 1% topical capsaicin cream. Assessments were made at baseline and then during an early (ie, 15 minutes) and late (ie, 45 minutes) time points post-capsaicin in 37 healthy participants. Participants reporting a visual analogue scale (VAS) rating of >50 were defined as responders (n = 24) and those with <50 VAS rating were defined as nonresponders (n = 13). There was a facilitation of TSP during the transition from an early to the late time point post-capsaicin (P<0.001) and the development of secondary hyperalgesia (P<0.05) in the responder group. Nonresponders showed no changes in TSP or secondary hyperalgesia during the early and late time points. There was an association between baseline TSP scores and the later development of a responder or nonresponder phenotype (r = 0.36; P = 0.03). Receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed that baseline TSP works as a good response predictor at an individual level (area under the curve = 0.75). These data suggest that responders and nonresponders have different facilitatory pain mechanisms. The assessment of TSP may help to identify participants with stronger endogenous pain facilitation who may be more likely to respond to topical capsaicin.

I Care, If You Care: A Customizable Methodology for Eliciting Task Criticality Ratings to Guide Critical Task Analysis

In this practitioner paper, we present a customizable multi-domain methodology for eliciting task criticality ratings to determine if a Critical Task Analysis (CTA) is required to analyze safety-critical tasks undertaken by personnel conducting uranium mining and processing. This evidence-based methodology builds upon previous methodologies by integrating empirical findings from the risk and job analysis literature. Tasks are rated against five critical criteria: Impact on Environmental/Social License, Mission Effectiveness, Impact on Human Health/Safety, Cost, and Impact on Equipment/Infrastructure. The relative importance of each criterion can be customized through pre-determined weightings. Based on the summation of ratings against each criterion, a task criticality rating is derived using a custom flowchart. This allows for wide applicability to projects and industries, whose weighting against each criterion will differ, and is a step towards creating a validated, standardized CTA methodology that can be applied by practitioners across a broad range of safety critical domains.

Sustainable Development Assessment in Underground Coal mining by Developing a Novel Index

A novel index is presented in this paper to evaluate sustainable development in underground coal mining. Eleven parameters were chosen as impacting factors that define three aspects of sustainable development, including environmental, economic, and social. Fuzzy Delphi Analytical Hierarchy Process (FDAHP) was used to develop a new rating system in the form of a classification system. Subsequently, a sustainable development index (SDi) was defined as a simple summation of ratings for all parameters to classify the sustainability level of underground coal mining qualitatively. Applicability of the new index was examined through applying it to a case study, and the results were compared with a benchmark model. The results indicate that SDi possesses a higher performance in sustainable development evaluation in the actual case when compared to common models. This performance is because it is developed for underground coal mining, especially in a scientific manner that considers three aspects of sustainable development together.

Analisis Kualitas Ikan Bada Terbaik Menggunakan Metode Simple Additive Weighting

Mandeh area of the south coast of west Sumatra there are many business units selling bada fish. The business unit uses the invisible way of distinguishing good ikan bada for sale, in that way many customers complain because there are still many bada ikan that are not good mixed when purchased by customers. To solve it using a decision support system with a simple additive Weighting (SAW) method, this SAW method looks for Weighting summation of performance ratings of various alternatives that can be distinguished from several criteria. In determining good quality bada ikan then the criteria are distinguished into 5 criteria in terms of color, texture, taste, shape and smell.

A Probabilistic Model to Determine Main Caving Span by Evaluating Cavability of Immediate Roof Strata in Longwall Mining

Caving process is a complex dynamic phenomenon influences safety and productivity of coal longwall mining. It improves safety due to reduction of load on support, face convergence and abutment stresses. Proper caving with respect to the quality and time of occurrence ensures continuity of operation and subsequently, the productivity of coal extraction. Therefore, a reliable prediction of strata behaviour and its caving potential are imperative in design of longwall projects. This paper presents a hybrid probabilistically qualitative–quantitative model to evaluate cavability of immediate roof and to estimate main caving span in longwall mining by combining empirical model and numerical solution. For this purpose, numerical simulation was incorporated to Roof Strata Cavability index (RSCi) as summation of ratings for nine significant parameters. Distinct element code was used to simulate numerically main caving span corresponding to various RSCi classes probabilistically. The newly proposed model was verified against actual field data collected from different longwall panels around the world. The results of proposed model agreed well with those of collected data.

A New Roof Strata Cavability Index (RSCi) for Longwall Mining Incorporating New Rating System

This paper presents a new index to assess caving potential of roof strata above longwall panels. Nine inherent parameters were chosen as significant affecting factors in three categories, including roof strata characteristics, roof discontinuities properties and local features. Fuzzy hybrid multi criteria decision making was used by combining fuzzy analytic network process technique and fuzzy decision making trial and evaluation laboratory method to develop a new rating system. Subsequently, roof strata cavability index (RSCi) was defined as a simple summation of ratings for all parameters, indicating the cavability level qualitatively. The RSCi was applied to determine the cavability of various actual cases of worldwide longwall panels. In addition, the correlation between RSCi and span of main caving was examined where reliable performance of the new index was noted. It was concluded that RSCi is a simple and efficient tool to assess the cavability of immediate roof and evaluation of caving intervals in longwall mining.

Novel method for assessing age-related differences in the temporal summation of pain.

Temporal summation (TS) of pain protocols typically involve the delivery of brief repetitive noxious stimuli held at a constant intensity and measuring the consequent increase in the perceived intensity of pain sensations. To date, no studies have examined the effect of a TS protocol on the perceived spatial dimensions of the pain experience and its interaction with age. This study used a new TS protocol that examined changes in the perceived size of the painful area in 22 younger adults and 20 older adults. Four trials of ten brief heat pulses delivered at a constant intensity were administered on the volar forearm. Interpulse intervals (IPIs) were 2.5 seconds or 3.5 seconds. Subjects rated the peak pain intensity (trials 1 and 3) or the size of the painful area (trials 2 and 4) after each pulse on a 0–100 scale. The magnitude of summation was calculated for each trial. Three seconds and 6 seconds after delivering the last heat pulse, the subjects rated the intensity or the size of any remaining pain (aftersensations). The results indicated that older adults compared to younger adults exhibited significantly greater summation of size ratings for the 2.5-second and 3.5-second IPI trials and size of pain aftersensations at 3 seconds following the 2.5-second IPI TS trial. These results suggest that aging is associated with enhanced endogenous facilitation of the perceived size of pain. The potential clinical and mechanistic implications of enhanced TS of size of pain remain unknown and warrant further investigation.

Subjective ratings of whole-body vibration for single- and multi-axis motion

Real-world whole-body vibration exposures comprise motion in fore-aft, lateral, and vertical directions simultaneously. There can also be components of roll, pitch, and yaw. If evaluating vibration with respect to human response, most investigators will use methods defined in ISO 2631-1. This uses frequency weightings that were originally derived from laboratory studies of the subjective responses to vibration in one direction at a time. This paper describes experiments that were carried out using a 6 degree-of-freedom vibration simulator to validate the applicability of ISO 2631-1 in multi-axis environments. Fifteen subjects were exposed to 87 stimuli comprising single-axis, dual-axis, and tri-axial random vibration, to which they were required to produce subjective ratings. It is shown that in this study the root-sum-of-squares method of summation of subjective ratings in individual axes was an adequate technique for prediction of subjective rating of multi-axis vibration. Better agreement between objective and subjective measures of vibration was obtained for unweighted vibration than for frequency weighted signals. The best agreement for this study was achieved when axis multiplying factors were set at 2.2 and 2.4 for x- and y-axis vibration, respectively. Different values could be appropriate for other postures, seats, and vibration conditions and should be determined in future studies.

Brain dynamics of scalp evoked potentials and current source densities to repetitive (5-pulse train) painful stimulation of skin and muscle: central correlate of temporal summation.

Temporal summation is a potent central somatosensory mechanism and may be a major mechanism involved in e.g. neuropathic pain. This study assessed the long-latency somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) in response to trains of repeated painful electrical stimulation of human skin and muscle in order to investigate the cerebral representation of temporal summation. Forty series of stimuli were delivered at stimulus intensities corresponding to moderate pain levels in 20 young men. Each series consisted of a five-burst-pulses (1 ms) train delivered at 2 Hz, known to activate temporal summation, i.e. increased pain intensity during the series of stimuli. Grand mean averaged waveforms (31 ch. EEG) were obtained in response to the skin and muscle stimulation. In the "train" SEPs, the wave morphology was characterized by four peak components after the first stimulus (100 to 450 ms) and by three components after the fifth stimulus (2100-2145 ms). The latency was significantly prolonged for muscle stimulation only. The 3D topographic maps at the peak activation time (100, 140, 250, and 450 ms) showed clear reduction in the amplitudes and their spatial extent (P4/P100-Fc2/N100, POz/P140-Fc2/N140, Cz/P250, Cz/N460) betweenthe first and the fifth stimulus. The current source density (CSD) topology exhibited markedly differential patterns changing from the first to the fifth stimulus. For the skin stimulation, the fifth stimulus was associated with a distinct emergence of the frontal negativity source at Fc2 right frontal cortex. This was consistent across the 100,140, 250, and 450 peak components but was not even visible in the first stimulus. In the muscle, the fifth stimulus was associated with a marked reduction of the frontal positivity at contralateral F4 site in the early stages at 100 and 140 ms, and with a total disappearance of positive source at Cz. In summary, this study demonstrated a clear temporal summation of psychophysical ratings, reduction of the peak amplitudes in the last of the first stimuli, dissociation from simple amplitude increase of the cerebral responses to pain, and a concurrent transformation of the CSD patterns. This change in "rapid cortical dynamics" of short-term plasticity could be an important mechanism for wind-up and pain processing in the brain.

The detection and correction of bias in student ratings of instruction

With the use of surveys of instructional effectiveness that use Likert rating scales, bias is a potential threat to the validity of interpretations. Simple summation of ratings or the use of larger samples are not methods for removing bias. In this study, a new model for scaling ratings is examined. The method both identifies and corrects for bias. Working with a database of student ratings of college instruction, the model was tested in terms of a variety of criteria. Results indicated that bias was detected and that it was large enough to warrant our concern. The statistical corrections were significant both in terms of order and magnitude of class means. Implications for future studies include the specification of more potential sources of bias, the interaction of some of these factors, and the development of more systematic evidence supporting the need to be attentive to bias. The many-faceted Rasch model used in this study needs more evaluation before we are convinced of its utility to study and correct for bias, but preliminary evidence is encouraging. Recommendations were offered for a theoretical rationale for studying bias in student ratings of instructional effectiveness and a program of research leading to the use of this model for reporting results for use in improving instruction and for promotion, tenure, and merit decisions.

Sensory and affective predictors of overall pain and emotions associated with affective pain.

Psychological scaling techniques consistently produce separate ratings for sensory and affective components of pain. This study examines the relative contributions of these components to pain as a whole and the contributions of different emotions to the affective component of pain. The design was correlational. Visual analogue scales were used to quantify overall pain, sensory pain, affective pain, and individual emotions. These data lent themselves to regression techniques for expressing pain as a function of sensation and affect as a function of emotion types. Data were collected at the Pain Clinic within the Department of Physical Medicine at the Ohio State University. Subjects were 40 chronic pain sufferers admitted to an inpatient pain management program. Ratings of overall pain were not a simple summation of sensory and affective ratings, but a linearly additive function of both component ratings each with a unique weighting. The affective component of pain was a function of three differentially weighted sets of emotions, anger, fear, and sadness being most salient. Implications arise for the broader assessment of chronic pain and the treatment of specific emotions that may be particularly associated with the pain.