An exact probabilities method is proposed for computing the confidence limits of medical binomial parameters obtained based on the 2x2 contingency table. The developed algorithm was described and assessed for the difference between two binomial proportions (a bidimensional parameter). The behavior of the proposed method was analyzed and compared to four previously defined methods: Wald and Wils...

OBJECTIVES The aim of the study was the assessment of SLE prevalence in an adult population. The study was performed on a sample of more than 30,000 patients over 18 resident in the Florence sub-area of Scandicci-Le Signe (Italy) on the basis of the register of general practitioners (GPs). METHODS Twenty GPs gave the Lupus Screening Questionnaire (LQS) to their patients. The LQS has been comp...

Responsiveness to inhaled methacholine was compared before and 40-60 minutes after a challenge with ultrasonically nebulised water (UNH2O) in 16 asthmatic patients. The sensitivity to methacholine increased after UNH2O challenge (p less than 0.001). The mean dose of methacholine producing a 20% fall in forced expiratory volume in one second was 0.4 (95% confidence limits 0.2, 0.8) mumol, compar...

The quantal responses for somatic movement, and spontaneous and provoked lower oesophageal contractions (motility) were noted at the time of incision in 72 patients aged 40-65 yr, receiving varying concentrations of isoflurane. Probit analysis of the alveolar concentration of isoflurane required to prevent somatic movement revealed an MAC or EC50 (95% confidence limits) of 1.00 (0.82-1.17)% and...

Despite the importance of selection against deleterious mutations in natural populations, reliable estimates of the genomic numbers of mutant alleles in wild populations are scarce. We found that, in wild-caught bluefin killifish Lucania goodei (Fundulidae) and wild-caught zebrafish Danio rerio (Cyprinidae), the average numbers of recessive lethal alleles per individual are 1.9 (95% confidence ...

Neuropsychologists often need to estimate the abnormality of an individual patient's test score, or test score discrepancies, when the normative or control sample against which the patient is compared is modest in size. Crawford and Howell [The Clinical Neuropsychologist 12 (1998) 482] and Crawford et al. [Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology 20 (1998) 898] presented methods for...

This atlas of diatomic-molecular vibration frequencies parallels the previously offered Atlas of Internuclear Separations. The Atlas was produced by mining the data from Huber and Herzberg and training neural network software to forecast new data. New protocols were employed with the powerful software, which was originally designed for forecasting the financial markets. The Atlas presents 1920 ...

OBJECTIVE The objective of our study was to evaluate repeatability and reproducibility of lung nodule volume measurements using volumetric nodule-sizing software. MATERIALS AND METHODS Fifty nodules, less than 20 mm in diameter, in 29 patients were scanned with 1.25-mm collimation using MDCT (time 1 = T1). During the same session, two additional scans, using identical technique, were obtained...

This paper attempts to provide an additional insight into properties of exceedances and placement statistics described in Bairamov and Eryılmaz (2000). The importance of these concepts in construction of non-parametric tests of equality (identity) of distributions has been demonstrated by Katzenbeisser (1985), (1986), Matveychuk and Petunin (1990), Johnson and Kotz (1991), (1994), Wesolowsky an...