We present a novel approach to transcranial B-mode sonography for Parkinson's disease (PD) diagnosis by using 3-D ultrasound (3-DUS). We reconstructed bilateral 3-DUS volumes of the midbrain and ...substantia nigra echogenicities (SNE) and report results of a more objective abnormality detection in (PD). For classification, we analyzed volumetric measurements of midbrain and SNE in subjects with PD and healthy controls (HC). After blinded segmentation of these structures in 22/23 subjects (11 PD, 11 HC) and by two observers with varying prior experience in this technique, the classification algorithm yielded up to 91% sensitivity and 64% specificity using the larger volume of both SNE as a single-dimensional features and up to 90.9% sensitivity and 72.7% specificity using a multidimensional feature set with midbrain and both SNE volumes. This pilot study indicates that our TC-3-D-US approach is technically feasible and less dependent on the investigator's experience and good bone windows. Our pilot study yielded a fairly high sensitivity and specificity in differentiating between subjects with PD and HC.
Purpose: Students in the marketing discipline have been reported to struggle with quantitative methods. This paper aims to focus on whether it is possible to increase student confidence and reduce ...anxiety with quantitative data analysis even when limited teaching resources are available. It reports on two half-day initiatives to teach quantitative methods that followed the principles of integration of method into a substantive course (as opposed to stand-alone course) and hands-on approach (as opposed to using a theoretical and hands-off approach). Design/methodology/approach: Over the course of three semesters, 92 students that took part of the sessions answered a survey where they reported their basic understanding, confidence, practical abilities and anxiety with quantitative methods. Findings: The results indicate significant improvements in self-reported basic understanding, confidence, practical abilities and anxiety. Further analysis indicated that neither gender nor previous statistical background had an impact on perceived benefit with the initiative. Practical implications: In all, the study indicates that integration and hands-on approaches may be beneficial to reduce anxiety and increase confidence with quantitative data analysis, even when this initiative is limited in time and resources. Originality/value: The study presents an approach to reducing anxiety and increasing confidence with quantitative data analysis. Teaching initiatives like this may be beneficial in situations when students experience high levels of statistics anxiety.
The globalization processes put a number of regional languages on the verge of extinction, therefore, they have raised awareness of protecting and maintaining the minority languages among a great ...number of foreign and Russian scholars. The paper deals with Irish that is under protection of the European Charter for regional and Minority Languages in UK and is an official language of Ireland. The research is aimed at comparing the Irish language position in both regions: Ireland and Northern Ireland. Reviewing the quantitative data in the regions under the study allows us to see clearly the language situation, monitor development, and relying on the achieved results, assess the current state and predict the future of Irish in both regions. The research results are considered to be of practical use for further language planning, improving the efficiency of language policies.
The background is given as to how statistical analysis is used by quantitative social scientists. Developing statistical analyses requires substantial effort, yet there are important limitations in ...current practice. This has motivated the authors to create a more systematic and effective methodology with supporting tools. The approach to modelling quantitative data analysis in the social sciences is presented. Analysis scripts are treated abstractly as mathematical functions and concretely as web services. This allows individual scripts to be combined into high-level workflows. A comprehensive set of tools allows workflows to be defined, automatically validated and verified, and automatically implemented. The workflows expose opportunities for parallel execution, can define support for proper fault handling, and can be realised by non-technical users. Services, workflows and datasets can also be readily shared. The approach is illustrated with a realistic case study that analyses occupational position in relation to health.
Collagens are the most abundant proteins in vertebrate tissues and constitute significant moieties of the extracellular matrix (ECM). The determination of the collagen content is of relevance not ...only in the field of native tissue research, but also regarding the quality assessment of bioengineered tissues. Here, we describe a quantitative method to assess small amounts of collagen based on MALDI-TOF (matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight) mass spectrometry (MS) subsequent to digestion of collagen with clostridial collagenase (clostridiopeptidase A) in order to obtain characteristic oligopeptides. Among the resulting peptides, Gly-Pro-Hyp, which is highly indicative of collagen, has been used to assess the amount of collagen by comparing the Gly-Pro-Hyp peak intensities with the intensities of a spiked tripeptide (Arg-Gly-Asp). The approach presented herein is both simple and convenient and allows the determination of collagen in microgram quantities. In tissue samples such as cartilage, the actual collagen content has additionally been determined for comparative purposes by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy subsequent to acidic hydrolysis. Both methods give consistent data within an experimental error of ±10%. Although the differentiation of the different collagen types cannot be achieved by this approach, the overall collagen contents of tissues can be easily determined.
With a growing number of shared mobility options, choosing not to own a car may become a new norm in the future. Shared mobility offers users a flexible range of low or zero-emission alternatives, ...potentially reducing the use of private cars, as well as noise and air pollution. However, to date, there is little evidence of shared mobility acting as an alternative to private car use. Indeed, recent research suggests that shared vehicles not only substitute trips by private car, but also trips by active travel and public transport, thus not resulting in emission savings. Therefore, as part of the eHUBS project focusing on shared electric mobility hubs, the mode substitution patterns of 602 self-reported shared mobility users across Europe were investigated. More specifically, respondents of an online survey were asked to recall their last trip using shared mobility and to report on both their chosen and substituted travel mode in addition to common trip characteristics including trip distance and frequency. Chosen shared modes considered were both conventional or electric alternatives including cars, bicycles, cargobikes, and scooters. Overall, the results suggested that shared vehicles were about as or more likely to substitute public transport, cycling and walking, as private car trips, thus providing a mixed picture with respect to their potential contribution to reducing private car use and associated carbon emissions. Local authorities and policy makers are urged to actively continue to improve active travel facilities and to be proactive in better integration of shared mobility and public transport services.
•Shared mobility modes primarily replace active travel and public transport.•An estimated one in five shared mobility trips replace a trip by private car.•Shared mobility users tend to be younger and more affluent than non-users.•Most shared mobility trips are infrequent and follow a round-trip pattern.•Shared mobility is gaining in importance as an integral part of users’ daily travel.
Most of the academic literature on violence in Nigeria is qualitative. It rarely relies on quantitative data because police crime statistics are not reliable, or not available, or not even published. ...Moreover, the training of Nigerian social scientists often focuses on qualitative, cultural, and political issues. There is thus a need to bridge the qualitative and quantitative approaches of conflict studies. This book represents an innovation and fills a gap in this regard. It is the first to introduce a discussion on such issues in a coherent manner, relying on a database that fills the lacunae in data from the security forces. The authors underline the necessity of a trend analysis to decipher the patterns and the complexity of violence in very different fields: from oil production to cattle breeding, radical Islam to motor accidents, land conflicts to witchcraft, and so on. In addition, they argue for empirical investigation and a complementary approach using both qualitative and quantitative data. The book is therefore organized into two parts, with a focus first on statistical studies, then on fieldwork.
Let
L
be a lattice. A function
f
:
L
→
R
(usually called evaluation) is submodular if
f
(
x
∧
y
)
+
f
(
x
∨
y
)
≤
f
(
x
)
+
f
(
y
)
, supermodular if
f
(
x
∧
y
)
+
f
(
x
∨
y
)
≥
f
(
x
)
+
f
(
y
)
, ...and modular if it is both submodular and supermodular. Modular functions on a finite lattice form a finite dimensional vector space. For finite distributive lattices, we compute this (modular) dimension. This turns out to be another characterization of distributivity (
Theorem 3.9). We also present a correspondence between isotone submodular evaluations and closure operators on finite lattices (
Theorem 5.5). This interplay between closure operators and evaluations should be understood as building a bridge between qualitative and quantitative data analysis.
Lyzeli: a tool for identifying the clues in survey research data Rodrigues, João Pedro; Mendonça, Nabor; Machado, Ivan
Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering, Proceedings of the XXXV Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering,
09/2021
Conference Proceeding
Survey research is one of the most used empirical research methods, and it is a means to contribute to theory development. A survey can be exploratory, descriptive, or explanatory. Whatever the ...objective, it will generate data that may support the construction of a theory or validate it. However, researchers must carefully evaluate data so they can transform them into useful information for science. Little is said about how complex and susceptible to human failures this process can be. We note that all the data analysis work is still highly manual and exhausting for the researcher, who is not always qualified to perform data analysis and, sometimes, can make mistakes in this process, inserting wrong numbers or calculating something wrong. Some existing tools can support this process but do not specifically focus on analyzing survey responses, combining valuable qualitative and quantitative analysis of responses. In this study, we introduce Lyzeli, a tool designed to assist researchers in analyzing and correlating survey responses. The proposed tool aims to deliver automatic detection of question types, sentiment analysis of responses, data filtering, word cloud, word count, graphics, codification for open-based questions answers.
Tool Demonstration: https://youtu.be/e2w4TfhlxBY
PDF
