OBJECTIVE To assess the sensitivity and specificity of flow-volume curves in detecting central airway obstruction (CAO), and to determine whether their quantitative and qualitative criteria are associated with the location, type and degree of obstruction. METHODS Over a four-month period, we consecutively evaluated patients with bronchoscopy indicated. Over a one-week period, all patients und...

Preferences between different alternatives (products, decisions, agreements etc.) are often based on multiple criteria. Qualitative Preference Systems (QPS) is a formal framework for the representation of qualitative multi-criteria preferences in which a criterion’s preference is defined based on the values of attributes or by combining multiple subcriteria in a cardinality-based or lexicograph...

The existing vast literature on credit risk assessment and default prediction provides models building mostly in quantitative indicators. We present the results of a survey carried out of experts from the main banks in Portugal, conveying evidence on the dominant procedures undertaken by the Portuguese banking system. Our analysis concludes on the relevance of qualitative criteria, particularly...

Qualitative research aims to address questions concerned with developing an understanding of the meaning and experience dimensions of humans' lives and social worlds. Central to good qualitative research is whether the research participants' subjective meanings, actions and social contexts, as understood by them, are illuminated. This paper aims to provide beginning researchers, and those unfam...

Material selection is one of the major problems in manufacturing environments since the improper selected material may lead to fail in the production processes and result in customer dissatisfaction and cost inefficiency. Every material has different properties which should be considered as major criteria during the material selection procedure. Selection criteria could be quantitative or quali...

Background. Lumbopelvic stability (LPS) is regarded as important for injury prevention, yet there are few reliable or valid tests that can be used in the clinical assessment of LPS. Three dynamic functional tests were identified that assess LPS in multiple planes of motion: dip test (DT), single leg squat (SLS), and runner pose test (RPT). Existing rating criteria for SLS have limited reliabili...

DEXi is an educational Multi Criteria Decision Aid (MCDA) computer program aimed at interactive development of qualitative multi-criteria and hierarchical decision models and the evaluation of options. XMCDA is an emerging data standard which enables the representation of Multi Criteria Decision Aid data elements in XML according to a clearly defined grammar. In this paper we investigate the me...

This paper explores the utility of in-depth interviews for understanding how individuals and communities socially construct the risks (degree of threat) from environmental hazards (phenomena which threaten), and describes some challenges for guarding against threats to trustworthiness (qualitative rigor). The paper involves the interface between a case study of the social construction of enviro...

Abstract: The paper presents an example of qualitative and quantitative application of a method for assessing component importance of a reliability structure in the case of a complex technical system based on the example of the subsystem of a marine power plant, that is, a lube oil system for sealing a stern tube. An example of the importance of the analysis considered in terms of not only reli...