STUDY DESIGN Prospective study of patients with chronic back pain from lumbar spine disorders. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the degree of interchangeability of a 100-mm visual analog scale (VAS) and a 5-point verbal rating scale (VRS) for the assessment of pain intensity. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA The fact that VAS and Likert scales are highly intercorrelated does not mean that both types of scal...

The operation process of the Chinese provincial industrial system consists four stages, namely production (P) stage, wastewater treatment (WWT) solid waste (SWT) and sulfur dioxide (SDT) stage. Based on this structure, a four-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) model is developed to evaluate eco-efficiency, efficiency, efficiency systems in China, considering undesirable output variable retur...

this research identifies returns to scale (rts) of efficient decision making units (dmus) with desirable (good) and undesirable (bad) inputs and outputs by presenting a new dea (data envelopment analysis) approach. in this study, we first introduce a new input-output oriented model to determine efficient dmus in the presence of undesirable factors and then, returns to scale of these dmus are es...

The traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) model can evaluate the relative efficiencies of a set of decision making units (DMUs) with ratio scale inputs and outputs, but it cannot handle interval scale data. This study develop an approach to efficiency analysis to deal with both interval-scale data and ratio scale data. This approach introduces a measure of inefficiency and identifies effi...

Background. Hip fracture patients represent a challenge to pain rating due to the high prevalence of cognitive impairment. Methods. Patients prospectively rated pain on the VRS. Furthermore, patients described the changes in pain after raising their leg, with one of five descriptors. Agreement between paired measures on the VRS at rest and by passive straight leg raise with a one-minute interva...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the normal data of pain-related evoked potentials (PREP) elicited with a concentric surface electrode among normal, healthy adults and the relationship between PREP and pain intensity. METHODS Sixty healthy volunteers (22 men and 38 women; aged 36.4±10.7 years; height, 165.4±7.8 cm) were enrolled. Routine nerve conduction study (NCS) was done to measure PREP following...

Background: Using subjective tools for pain assessment is essential, but may confuse healthcare professionals in some clinical situations. It is also useful to assess pain severity objectively. Several observational pain scales have been developed, but they are mostly for intensive care units and not for the emergency department (ED). Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to compare ...