How do state economic development agencies view performance measures and the use of those measures in policy and budget decision-making in the states? This paper extends prior work on performance measurement in state and local governments to the area of economic development. State economic development agencies have frequently been assessed using macro-level measures of economic performance and ...

Pain, and particularly chronic pain, is a difficult outcome to measure due to its subjective and multidimensional nature. The Institute of Medicine estimates that 100 million Americans have chronic pain with a cost exceeding half a trillion dollars per year. There is a pressing need to identify appropriate outcome measures to better select and evaluate treatment modalities for these patients. I...

This paper reviews the role of public libraries in bridging the digital divide in Delta State. It calls for the adoption of appropriate infrastructure and other innovative measures like introduction of appropriate computer related programmes in schools, encouraging citizenry to pick up carrier in the area of science and technology, embanking on enlightenment and awareness programmes and setting...

Treatment of dyslipidemia with moderate-dose statins leads to improved outcomes for patients with diabetes mellitus and high to moderate cardiovascular risk.Previous performance measures focused on attainment of low-density lipid levels rather than appropriate treatment with statins. Such performance measures could lead to overtreatment with high-dose statins.Use of a performance measure that c...

One of crucial tasks in machine learning is the evaluation of the quality of attributes. For that purpose a number of measures have been developed that estimate the usefulness of the attribute for predicting the target variable. We describe separately measures for classification (which are appropriate also for relational problems) and for regression. Most of the measures estimate the quality of...

T he rapid pace of technological development has brought a wealth of diagnostic and therapeutic options to the care of patients. These new diagnostic and therapeutic tools have dramatically altered medical care but have come with a steep price tag, and it is not clear that the improvement in the quality of care is proportional to the cost of the medical system. In recognition of the fact that t...

In dealing with outbreaks of communicable diseases, the medical profession should work with public health authorities to promote the use of interventions that achieve desired public health outcomes with minimal infringement upon individual liberties. This article endeavors to help physicians manage their dual responsibilities to their patients and to their communities when participating in appr...