PURPOSE To evaluate infrared thermometer (IRT) accuracy compared to standard digital thermometer in measuring kidney temperature during arterial clamping with and without renal cooling. MATERIALS AND METHODS 20 pigs weighting 20Kg underwent selective right renal arterial clamping, 10 with (Group 1 - Cold Ischemia with ice slush) and 10 without renal cooling (Group 2 - Warm Ischemia). Arterial...

BACKGROUND Recently, a growing number of Item-Response Theory (IRT) models has been published, which allow estimation of a common latent variable from data derived by different Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs). When using data from different PROs, direct estimation of the latent variable has some advantages over the use of sum score conversion tables. It requires substantial proficiency in the ...

[Purpose] To evaluate the efficacy of pre-exercise on immobilization and subsequent recovery of white gastrocnemius (WG) and soleus (SOL) muscles of female rats. [Subjects and Methods] Thirty, 8-month-old, female Wistar rats were randomly and evenly allocated to six groups: sedentary (S); immobilized sedentary (IS); immobilized/rehabilitated sedentary (IRS); trained (T); immobilized trained (IT...

Multiple genes and transcription factors are involved in the uptake and translocation of iron in plants from soil. The sequence information about iron uptake and translocation related genes is largely unknown in lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.). This study was designed to develop iron metabolism related molecular markers for Ferritin-1, BHLH-1 (Basic helix loop helix), or FER-like transcription f...

BACKGROUND impairment of functional abilities represents a crucial component of dementia diagnosis. Current functional measures rely on the traditional aggregate method of summing raw scores. While this summary score provides a quick representation of a person's ability, it disregards useful information on the item level. OBJECTIVE to use item response theory (IRT) methods to increase the int...

BACKGROUND IRT has been demonstrated as an effective treatment for severe, refractory OCD. METHODS Consecutive IRT subjects were ascertained over a 12 month period (female N=26, male N=35). Psychometric measures were completed at admission and discharge from the McLean/MGH OCD Institute IRT, including the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the ...

BACKGROUND This study aims at analyzing Health related quality of life (HRQoL) data on the French general population between 1995 and 2003 using an Item Response Theory (IRT) model. METHODS Data concerned 26388 individuals having responded to the SF36 questionnaire in 1995 or in 2003. General Health, Mental Health and Physical Functioning dimensions have been analyzed using a latent regressio...

We apply collaborative filtering (CF) to dichotomously scored student response data (right, wrong, or no interaction), finding optimal parameters for each student and item based on cross-validated prediction accuracy. The approach is naturally suited to comparing different models, both unidimensional and multidimensional in ability, including a widely used subset of Item Response Theory (IRT) m...

This study examined various model combinations and calibration procedures for mixed format tests under different item response theory (IRT) models and calibration methods. Using real data sets that consist of both dichotomous and polytomous items, nine possibly applicable IRT model mixtures and two calibration procedures were compared based on traditional and alternative goodnessof-fit statisti...