Macromolecular crystallography is now a mature and widely used technique that is essential in the understanding of biology and medicine. Increases in computing power combined with robotics have not ...only enabled large numbers of samples to be screened and characterized but have also enabled better decisions to be taken on data collection itself. This led to the development of MASSIF‐1 at the ESRF, the first beamline in the world to run fully automatically while making intelligent decisions taking user requirements into account. Since opening in late 2014, the beamline has processed over 42 000 samples. Improvements have been made to the speed of the sample‐handling robotics and error management within the software routines. The workflows initially put into place, while highly innovative at the time, have been expanded to include increased complexity and additional intelligence using the information gathered during characterization; this includes adapting the beam diameter dynamically to match the diffraction volume within the crystal. Complex multi‐position and multi‐crystal data collections have now also been integrated into the selection of experiments available. This has led to increased data quality and throughput, allowing even the most challenging samples to be treated automatically.
Significant improvements to the sample‐location, characterization and data‐collection algorithms on the autonomous ESRF beamline MASSIF‐1 are described. The workflows now include dynamic beam‐diameter adjustment and multi‐position and multi‐crystal data collections.
Correlation in the broadest sense is a measure of an association between variables. In correlated data, the change in the magnitude of 1 variable is associated with a change in the magnitude of ...another variable, either in the same (positive correlation) or in the opposite (negative correlation) direction. Most often, the term correlation is used in the context of a linear relationship between 2 continuous variables and expressed as Pearson product-moment correlation. The Pearson correlation coefficient is typically used for jointly normally distributed data (data that follow a bivariate normal distribution). For nonnormally distributed continuous data, for ordinal data, or for data with relevant outliers, a Spearman rank correlation can be used as a measure of a monotonic association. Both correlation coefficients are scaled such that they range from -1 to +1, where 0 indicates that there is no linear or monotonic association, and the relationship gets stronger and ultimately approaches a straight line (Pearson correlation) or a constantly increasing or decreasing curve (Spearman correlation) as the coefficient approaches an absolute value of 1. Hypothesis tests and confidence intervals can be used to address the statistical significance of the results and to estimate the strength of the relationship in the population from which the data were sampled. The aim of this tutorial is to guide researchers and clinicians in the appropriate use and interpretation of correlation coefficients.
The traditional epidemiologic modes of data collection, including paper-and-pencil questionnaires and interviews, have several limitations, such as decreasing response rates over the last decades and ...high costs in large study populations. The use of Web-based questionnaires may be an attractive alternative but is still scarce in epidemiologic research because of major concerns about selective nonresponse and reliability of the data obtained. The authors discuss advantages and disadvantages of Web-based questionnaires and current developments in this area. In addition, they focus on some practical issues and safety concerns involved in the application of Web-based questionnaires in epidemiologic research. They conclude that many problems related to the use of Web-based questionnaires have been solved or will most likely be solved in the near future and that this mode of data collection offers serious benefits. However, questionnaire design issues may have a major impact on response and completion rates and on reliability of the data. Theoretically, Web-based questionnaires could be considered an alternative or complementary mode in the range of epidemiologic methods of data collection. Practice and comparisons with the traditional survey techniques should reveal whether they can fulfill their expectations.
Background: Operating room recording, via video, audio and sensor-based recordings, is increasingly common. Yet, surgical data science is a new field without clear guidelines. The purpose of this ...study is to examine existing published studies of surgical recording modalities to determine which are available for use in the operating room, as a first step toward developing unified standards for this field. Medline, Embase, Central and PubMed databases were systematically searched for articles describing modalities of data collection in the operating room. Search terms included "video-audio media," "bio-sensing techniques," "sound," "movement," "operating rooms" and others. Title, abstract and full-text screening were completed to identify relevant articles. Methods: Descriptive statistical analysis was performed for included studies. Of 3756 citations, 91 studies met the inclusion criteria. These studies described 10 unique data collection modalities for 17 different purposes in the operating room. Data modalities included video, audio, kinematic and eye-tracking, among others. Data collection purposes described included surgical trainee assessment, surgical error, surgical team communication and operating room efficiency. Results: Effective data collection and utilization in the operating room are imperative for the provision of superior surgical care. The future operating room landscape undoubtedly includes multiple modalities of data collection for a plethora of purposes. Conclusion: This review acts as a foundation for employing operating room data in a way that leads to meaningful benefit for patient care.
High-quality data are accurate, relevant, and timely. Large national health surveys have always balanced the implementation of these quality dimensions to meet the needs of diverse users. The ...COVID-19 pandemic shifted these balances, with both disrupted survey operations and a critical need for relevant and timely health data for decision-making. The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) responded to these challenges with several operational changes to continue production in 2020. However, data files from the 2020 NHIS were not expected to be publicly available until fall 2021. To fill the gap, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) turned to 2 online data collection platforms-the Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey (HPS) and the NCHS Research and Development Survey (RANDS)-to collect COVID-19‒related data more quickly. This article describes the adaptations of NHIS and the use of HPS and RANDS during the pandemic in the context of the recently released Framework for Data Quality from the Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology. (
. 2021;111(12):2167-2175. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306516).
Amazon.com's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) website provides a data collection platform with quick and inexpensive access to diverse samples. Numerous reports have lauded MTurk as capturing high-quality ...data with an epidemiological sample that is more representative of the U.S. population than traditional in-person convenience samples (e.g., undergraduate subject pools). This benefit, in combination with the ease and low-cost of data collection, has led to a remarkable increase in studies using MTurk to investigate phenomena across a wide range of psychological disciplines. Multiple reports have now examined the demographic characteristics of MTurk samples. One key gap remains, however, in that relatively little is known about individual differences in clinical symptoms among MTurk participants. This paper discusses the importance of assessing clinical phenomena in MTurk samples and supports its assertions through an empirical investigation of a large sample (N = 1,098) of MTurk participants. Results revealed that MTurk participants endorse clinical symptoms to a substantially greater degree than traditional nonclinical samples. This distinction was most striking for depression and social anxiety symptoms, which were endorsed at levels comparable with individuals with clinically diagnosed mood and anxiety symptoms. Participants' symptoms of physiological anxiety, hoarding, and eating pathology fell within the subclinical range. Overall, the number of individuals exceeding validated clinical cutoffs was between 3 and 19 times the estimated 12-month prevalence rates. Based on the current findings, it is argued that MTurk participants differ from the general population in meaningful ways, and researchers should consider this when referring to this sample as truly representative.
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