BACKGROUND The aims of this study were to evaluate the contribution of mobile mammography units to participation rate and to compare their performance to fixed screening centres within the organized mammography screening program of Quebec, Canada. METHODS The study is based on all screening mammograms carried out in women aged 50-69 who participated in the Québec program from 2002 to 2010. Pe...

Machine-learning methods can be used for virtual screening by analysing the structural characteristics of molecules of known (in)activity, and we here discuss the use of kernel discrimination and naive Bayesian classifier (NBC) methods for this purpose. We report a kernel method that allows the processing of molecules represented by binary, integer and real-valued descriptors, and show that it ...

introduction: acute coronary syndrome accounts for more than 15% of the chest pains. recently, hess et al. developed north american chest pain rule (nacpr) to identify very low-risk patients who can be safely discharged from emergency department (ed). the present study aimed to validate this rule in eds of two academic hospitals. methods: a prospective diagnostic accuracy study was conducted on...

design models of multi- stage, axial flow compressor are developed for gas turbine engines. axial flow compressor is one of the most important parts of gas turbine units. therefore, its design and performance prediction are very important. one-dimensional modeling is a simple, fast and accurate method for performance prediction of any type of compressors with different geometries. in this appro...

BACKGROUND Although systems strategies are effective in improving health care delivery, little is known about their use for cancer screening in U.S. primary care practice. METHODS We assessed primary care physicians' (N = 2,475) use of systems strategies for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer (CRC) screening in a national survey conducted in 2007. Systems strategies included patient and ...

The performance characteristics of a rapid immunochromatographic-screening test, SD Bioline HIV-1/2 3.0 (Standard Diagnostics Inc., Kyonggi-do, South Korea) on 23,754 sera and 30 plasma samples are reported. The sensitivity and specificity for the assay on serum samples are 100% and 99.4%, respectively. The assay detected antibodies in individuals infected with human immunodeficiency virus type...

BACKGROUND Although interpretive performance varies substantially among radiologists, such variation has not been examined among mammography facilities. Understanding sources of facility variation could become a foundation for improving interpretive performance. METHODS In this cross-sectional study conducted between 1996 and 2002, we surveyed 53 facilities to evaluate associations between fa...

BACKGROUND Colorectal cancer (CRC) fulfills the World Health Organization criteria for mass screening, but screening uptake is low in most countries. CRC screening is resource intensive, and it is unclear if an optimal strategy exists. The objective of this study was to perform an economic evaluation of CRC screening in average risk North American individuals considering all relevant screening ...

The primary goal of colorectal cancer screening and prevention is the detection and removal of advanced neoplasia. Computerized tomography (CT) colonography is now well established as an effective screening test. Areas of greater uncertainty include the performance characteristics of CT colonography for detecting small (6-9 mm), diminutive (< or =5 mm), and flat (nonpolypoid) lesions. However, ...