OBJECTIVES To investigate the learning curve of percutaneous nephrolithotomy under total ultrasound guidance. METHODS One hundred and twenty consecutive PCNL operations under total ultrasound guidance performed by a novice surgeon in a tertiary referral center were studied. Operations were analyzed in cohorts of 15 to determine when a plateau was reached for the variables such as operation du...

Purpose: To determine whether learning curves can be observed with deliberate practice when the goal is to apply a consistent rate of force at 5 N/second during pressure pain threshold (PPT) testing in healthy volunteers. Methods: In this prospective study, 17 clinician participants completed PPT targeted rate-of-application testing with healthy volunteers using three different feedback paradig...

We examine the learning-curve sampling method, an approach for applying machinelearning algorithms to large data sets. The approach is based on the observation that the computational cost of learning a model increases as a function of the sample size of the training data, whereas the accuracy of a model has diminishing improvements as a function of sample size. Thus, the learning-curve sampling...

The learning curve has been an important tool in the management of manufacturing operations since mid-century. Considerable empirical evidence documents the existence of learning curves in a variety of firms and industries. The efficiency gains captured by the learning curve are generally considered to stem from, in part, from technology improvements. However, research into the dynamics of the ...

Despite the popularity of the ``learning'' curve, it should be called the ``forecasting'' curve. Given an industrial process, the traditional learning curve forecasts how costs are expected to decline (or other performance measures improve) in the future. Forecasting is certainly very useful. Nevertheless, the previous literature is notably mute on how the improvement or learning occurs. Withou...

There is a trend for the increased adoption of minimally invasive techniques of radical prostatectomy (RP) laparoscopic (LRP) and robotic assisted (RARP) from the traditional open radical retropubic prostatectomy (ORP), popularised by Partin et al. Recently there has been a dramatic expansion in the rates of RARP being performed, and there have been many early reports postulating that the learn...