130,735 research outputs found
Experience collecting interim data on mortality: an example from the RALES study.
No full textINTRODUCTION: The Randomized Aldactone Evaluation Study (RALES) randomized 822 patients to receive 25 mg spironolactone daily and 841 to receive placebo. The primary endpoint was death from all causes. Randomization began on March 24, 1995; recruitment was completed on December 31, 1996; follow-up was scheduled to continue through December 31, 1999. Evidence of a sizeable benefit on mortality emerged early in the RALES. The RALES data safety monitoring board (DSMB), which met semiannually throughout the trial, used a prespecified statistical guideline to recommend stopping for efficacy. At the DSMB's request, its meetings were preceded by an 'endpoint sweep', that is, a census of all participants to confirm their vital status. METHODS: We used computer simulation to evaluate the effect of the sweeps. RESULTS: The sweeps led to an estimated 5 to 8% increase in the number of reported deaths at the fourth and fifth interim analyses. The data crossed the statistical boundary at the fifth interim analysis. If investigators had reported all deaths within the protocol-required 24-h window, the DSMB might have recommended stopping after the fourth interim analysis. DISCUSSION: Although endpoint sweeps can cause practical problems at the clinical centers, sweeps are very useful if the intervals between patient visits or contact are long or if endpoints require adjudication by committee, reading center, or central laboratory. CONCLUSION: We recommend that trials with interim analyses institute active reporting of the primary endpoints and endpoint sweeps
MeSH term explosion and author rank improve expert recommendations
No full textInformation overload is an often-cited phenomenon that reduces the productivity, efficiency and efficacy of scientists. One challenge for scientists is to find appropriate collaborators in their research. The literature describes various solutions to the problem of expertise location, but most current approaches do not appear to be very suitable for expert recommendations in biomedical research. In this study, we present the development and initial evaluation of a vector space model-based algorithm to calculate researcher similarity using four inputs: 1) MeSH terms of publications; 2) MeSH terms and author rank; 3) exploded MeSH terms; and 4) exploded MeSH terms and author rank. We developed and evaluated the algorithm using a data set of 17,525 authors and their 22,542 papers. On average, our algorithms correctly predicted 2.5 of the top 5/10 coauthors of individual scientists. Exploded MeSH and author rank outperformed all other algorithms in accuracy, followed closely by MeSH and author rank. Our results show that the accuracy of MeSH term-based matching can be enhanced with other metadata such as author rank
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
"Closing the R&D Gap, Evaluating the Sources of R&D Spending"
No full textBoth spending and tax policies have been implemented in the United States with the goal of stimulating private sector research and development (R&D). Karier questions whether current R&D policy, especially the research and experimentation tax credit, can contribute to closing the gap between nondefense expenditures on R&D in the United States and such expenditures in other countries, such as Japan and Germany. He also explores possible changes to our current R&D policy to make it more effective.
D
No full textThe Mu3e experiment searches for a rare lepton flavor violating μ+→e+e+e− decay and it aims at reaching an ultimate sensitivity of 10−16 on the branching fraction of the μ+→e+e+e− decay, four orders of magnitude better than the current limit B(μ+→e+e+e−)<10−12. The experiment will be hosted at the Paul Scherrer Institute (Villigen, Switzerland) which delivers the most intense low momentum continuous muon beam in the world (up to few ×108μ/s). In order to achieve this unprecedent sensitivity new detector R&D have been performed. We will report about the Scintillating Fiber (SciFi) detector R&D aiming at a detector able to measure minimum ionizing particles with a highest as possible detection efficiency (>95%), timing resolutions well below 1 ns and spatial resolution of ≈100μm. The main challenge to address such a requirements is to keep the detector as thin as possible, to minimize the multiple scattering. Then the thickness of the detector must be below 0.4% of radiation length X0. It implies that the requirements listed above will be extracted measuring just a relative low number of photoelectrons. The results of several beam tests are given, proving that the requirements for the experiment has been addressed. These studies have been supported with detailed Monte Carlo simulations from the fiber through the photosensors up to the electronics and the data acquisitio
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
No full textWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Scholarly Communication and Publishing Lunch and Learn Talk #11: The ULS Open Access Author Fee Fund
No full textAt the May 2014 talk, you will learn about the ULS Open Access Author Fee Fund--what it is, why we do it, how it works, and how the program is going so far
Rincones sevillanos
No full textFor piano. --- The composer's op. 5. --- Cover title. --- Imprint date [1924] inferred from Eschig's absorption of the E. Demets catalog and citaitons in the advertising matter. See Devriès and Lesure, Dictionnaire des éditeurs de musique français, volume II, page 139. --- Copyright statement names E. Demets. --- Printed from E. Demets plates. Plate numbers: E.1587.D.--E.1590.D. --- 1. Soir d'été sur la terrasse -- 2. Rondes d'enfants -- 3. Danses de "Seises" dans la cathèdrale -- 4. A los toros
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