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Clinical symptom‐based diagnosis and therapy play a crucial role in personalized medicine and drug discovery. The syndromes, distinctive groups of clinical symptoms summarized by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theories and clinical experiences, are used as the core diagnostic criteria and therapeutic guidance in TCM. However, there is still a lack of standardized data, information, and intrinsic molecular basis to help TCM syndromes better classify diseases and guide tailored medications. To address this problem, we built the first integrated web platform, SoFDA (http://www.tcmip.cn/Syndrome/front/), with a curated ontology of 319 TCM syndromes, 8045 diseases, and 1359 TCM herbal formulas and their relationships with genes, diseases, and formulas. This platform proposed an association measurement by calculating Jaccard/Cosine similarities between TCM syndromes and their related biomedical entities with case and control validations. On this basis, the SoFDA platform enables biomedical and pharmaceutical scientists to rank and filter the most promising associations for disease diagnosis and tailored interventions. Conversely, the targeted gene sets and symptom sets can also be associated with TCM syndromes, formulas, and diseases for function illustration. Notably, SoFDA explores the multi‐way associations among diseases, TCM syndromes, symptom genes, herbal formulas, drug targets, and pathways in heterogeneous biomedical networks with lots of customization. The protocol here implements all the analyses above using the SoFDA platform. Collectively, SoFDA may provide insights into the biological basis of disease‐specific TCM syndromes and the underlying molecular mechanisms, as well as a tailored treatment for single or multiple symptoms within a syndrome. SoFDA is the first integrated web platform, SoFDA (http://www.tcmip.cn/Syndrome/front/), with a curated ontology of 319 traditional Chinese medicine syndromes and their relationships with genes, diseases, and formulas. This platform enables biomedical and pharmaceutical scientists to rank and filter the most promising associations for disease diagnosis and tailored interventions. Highlights SoFDA is the first manually curated public traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome annotation database. SoFDA explores the multiway associations among diseases, symptoms, genes, herbal formulas, drug targets, and pathways in heterogeneous biomedical networks with lots of customizations. A similarity‐based association measurement was used to evaluate the association levels of disease–TCM syndrome, TCM syndrome–TCM syndrome and formula–TCM syndrome, and disease–TCM syndrome–formula by calculating the Jaccard/Cosine similarities.

This book is a collection of papers on math achievement ... Topics are wide ranging. From a historical perspective, some authors examine what the international community has learned from four decades of international assessments and the differences between various international testing regimes. Others examine mathematics curricula: how the U.S. mathematics curriculum compares overseas, what have been curriculum reforms here, and how algebra is taught in the United States and abroad. Other authors examine student achievement: whether the relationship between achievement and school size holds up internationally, what is the link between technology and math achievement, and how student and classroom level factors over time relate to achievement. (DIPF/Orig.).

Although chronic low back pain (CLBP) has profound effects on patients, society, and economy, its causes are difficult to identify. Psychogenic effects or social stress is known to affect CLBP; hence, investigation of its underlying causes requires a multifactorial approach. We determined the factors associated with CLBP by using an Internet-based survey. To prevent CLBP, we need to understand its cause and background. A total of 1000 participants either with (+) or without (-) CLBP answered the Japanese Orthopaedic Association Back Pain Evaluation Questionnaire (JOABPEQ), which assesses five domains of CLBP: low back pain, lumbar function, walking ability, social life function and mental health. We also administered a new questionnaire for participants, that comprised five different domains: Body, Lifestyle, Emotion, Diet, and Social. To evaluate psychogenic effects on CLBP, we added two original factors, namely outshout and , which have not yet been studied. is a traditional concept (sense) of \"feeling cold\" or \"chilly.\" All participants completed both questionnaires. Multivariate logistic regression analysis extracted four factors (sleep, room temperature, outshout, and ) that were associated with CLBP. The mental health domain was assessed using the JOABPEQ for each of these factors. The factors outshout and differed between CLBP (+) and CLBP (-) patients. CLBP (-) participants also showed a difference in Sleep and factors. Among psychogenic effects, Emotion was common to all the four extracted factors. There was no common physical divisor. Therefore, we hypothesized that acute low back pain might develop into CLBP in the presence of psychological stress or other emotional factors such as outshout or . Hence, we need to consider both physical and psychogenic effects in the prevention and treatment of CLBP. Furthermore, appropriate evaluation and treatment of psychological stress may be effective in reducing CLBP.

'The Road to Results: Designing and Conducting Effective Development Evaluations' presents concepts and procedures for evaluation in a development context. It provides procedures and examples on how to set up a monitoring and evaluation system, how to conduct participatory evaluations and do social mapping, and how to construct a \"rigorous\" quasi-experimental design to answer an impact question. The text begins with the context of development evaluation and how it arrived where it is today. It then discusses current issues driving development evaluation, such as the Millennium Development Goals and the move from simple project evaluations to the broader understandings of complex evaluations. The topics of implementing 'Results-based Measurement and Evaluation' and constructing a 'Theory of Change' are emphasized throughout the text. Next, the authors take the reader down 'the road to results,' presenting procedures for evaluating projects, programs, and policies by using a 'Design Matrix' to help map the process. This road includes: determining the overall approach, formulating questions, selecting designs, developing data collection instruments, choosing a sampling strategy, and planning data analysis for qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method evaluations. The book also includes discussions on conducting complex evaluations, how to manage evaluations, how to present results, and ethical behavior--including principles, standards, and guidelines. The final chapter discusses the future of development evaluation. This comprehensive text is an essential tool for those involved in development evaluation.

Abstract National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) provides guidelines to assess the performance of Positron Emission Tomography (PET). A PET/CT scanner, Discovery IQ, GE Medical systems, Milwaukee, USA was installed in our department which has high a sensitivity PET component. We have performed the NEMA NU-2 2012 quality control tests to evaluate this system on site before clinical use. Performance measurements of the PET scanner were made using the NEMA NU2-2012 procedures for spatial resolution, scatter fraction, sensitivity, count rate loss and random coincidence estimation, Noise Equivalent Count Rate (NECR) and image quality. As per NU2 2012, spatial resolution was measured at 1 cm, 10 cm and 20 cm vertically from the centre and at each of these points resolution was measured at tangential, radial and axial directions. Sensitivity was measured at centre and 10 cm off center vertically from the center. The system sensitivity is reported as an average of the two measured values. Scatter fraction and NECR measurements, Image quality test was also performed. The tangential, radial and axial FWHM were 4.99 mm, 4.20 mm and 4.79 mm at 1 cm off centre, 5.49 mm, 4.69 mm and 4.81 mm at 10 cm off centre and 7.99 mm, 5.07 mm and 4.95 mm at 20 cm off centre respectively. The absolute sensitivity of this scanner was found to be 20.1 cps/kBq. The scatter fraction calculated from the decay method was 37.94% and NECR was 125 kcps. The peak NECR was achieved at activity concentration of 8.7 KBq/ml and the count loss below the peak NECR was found to be 0.68%. Image quality test for, contrast recovery, background variability and lung error residual mean met all specifications. Overall PET performance of Discovery IQ whole-body scanner was satisfactory and the scanner met all the performance specifications required by NEMA 2012.

Quality is playing an increasingly important role following recent developments in European Higher Education. The inclusion of quality assurance within the framework of the Bologna process, a new trend of competition and stratification of the European Higher Education Area, the increasing emergence of the markets as instruments of public policy and the loss of trust in institutions as a consequence of the progressive adoption of New Public Management have changed the traditional relationship between higher education institutions and society and governments and the role and objectives of quality assurance systems. It is in this fast changing context that the detailed analysis of the Institution Evaluation Programme (IEP) of the European University Association (EUA) becomes a very interesting case study due to the special characteristics of IEP which probably is the only durable European example of ‘supportive peer review’. The IEP is a special example due to its unique methodology that aims at supporting universities in their efforts to improve their quality management mechanisms and adapt to change. This methodology also makes IEP extremely flexible, being easily adaptable to different levels of evaluation (whole institutions, special services, single specialised faculties, regions and even whole systems). The book includes a number of research based papers with stronger theoretical content and chapters that describe aspects of IEP. EUA, seat in Brussels, is the result of a merger in 2001 between the Association of European Universities (CRE, founded 1959 in France) and the Confederation of European Union Rectors’ Conferences. EUA has conducted evaluations in more than 250 universities in 46 countries during the past 14 years (mainly in Europe but also in Latin America and South Africa).

Background Movements and lifestyle habits common in Japanese daily life are similar to those in Turkish culture. Therefore, the aim of this study was to adapt the Japanese Orthopedic Association Hip Disease Evaluation Questionnaire (JHEQ), developed by the Japanese Hip Society for hip joint diseases, to the Turkish population and to examine its reliability and validity. Methods The study included 134 patients with hip disorders. Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) and Cronbach’s alpha were evaluated for reliability. For construct validity, the relationship between JHEQ and Oxford Hip Score (OHS), International Hip Outcome Tool-12 (IHOT-12) and Short Form-36 (SF-36) was examined by Spearman correlation analysis. Results The ICC of the total JHEQ score was 0.951 and Cronbach’s α was 0.975. The Bland-Altman plot graph revealed good test-retest reliability for the JHEQ. Spearman correlation analysis including the OHS, IHOT-12, and SF-36 subscales showed good correlations with OHS (-0.618), IHOT-12 (0.621), physical function (0.682), social functioning (0.453), bodily pain (0.550), and general health perception (0.424). The value of Minimal Detectable Change (11.64) was higher than the value of Standard Error Measurement (4.20), indicating that the JHEQ has adequate responsiveness. Conclusion The Turkish adaptation of the JHEQ has proven to be a dependable and accurate instrument for assessing hip disease-related outcomes in clinical practice.

This issue coincides with the 10th anniversary of the American Evaluation Association's (AEA's) Graduate Education Diversity Internship (GEDI) program. It emphasize core decisions and developments of the GEDI program and feature key participants who have participated in and contributed to the development and implementation of the program. Together, the chapters focus on: Factors that contributed to the design and organization of the program Critical components and aspects of the program that guide its implementation, characterized by the leadership training, mentorship and professional socialization, and the practical project placements Lessons learned, which reveal the opportunities and challenges of expanding pipelines and pathways of diversity and social justice through professional associations. This is the 143rd issue in the New Directions for Evaluation series from Jossey-Bass. It is an official publication of the American Evaluation Association.

This issue coincides with the 10th anniversary of the American Evaluation Association's (AEA's) Graduate Education Diversity Internship (GEDI) program. It emphasize core decisions and developments of the GEDI program and feature key participants who have participated in and contributed to the development and implementation of the program. Together, the chapters focus on: Factors that contributed to the design and organization of the program Critical components and aspects of the program that guide its implementation, characterized by the leadership training, mentorship and professional socialization, and the practical project placements Lessons learned, which reveal the opportunities and challenges of expanding pipelines and pathways of diversity and social justice through professional associations. This is the 143rd issue in the New Directions for Evaluation series from Jossey-Bass. It is an official publication of the American Evaluation Association.

The accurate cup placement is still crucial for total hip arthroplasty (THA). However, achieving adequate registration accuracy is difficult in the initial cases, which leads surgeons to discontinue the use of CT-based navigation. The objective of this study was to evaluate its learning curve using a cumulative summation (CUSUM) analysis of the absolute registration error for cup orientation. A retrospective review was performed on 75 consecutive patients who underwent minimally invasive THA, allowing the calculation of the difference in cup anteversion and inclination between the intraoperative values shown on the navigation system and postoperative values measured by postoperative CT. We reviewed those absolute registration errors and the patient reported outcomes (PROMs) one-year postoperatively. We plotted the CUSUM values of the absolute registration error in chronological order and added subgroup analysis regarding body mass index (BMI). CUSUM analysis revealed that performing THA using CT-based navigation was associated with a learning curve in 7 cases for cup inclination and anteversion. There were no significant differences in the absolute registration error of cup orientation between high and low BMI groups, or in the mean PROMs at one-year postoperatively, regardless of time sequence or BMI. In conclusion, CT-based navigation assisted acetabular cup placement was associated with a learning curve of 7 cases for achieving suitable registration accuracy. These findings are important, as orthopedic surgeons often discontinue CT-based navigation surgery early in the initial cases, despite its benefits in severe cases. Therefore, careful use of CT-based navigation is critical particularly within the first 7 cases.