Materials and Method. Our hypothesis was put to test by comparing the performance of raters using the current holistic criteria with that of raters who used criteria drawn up following Xxxx'x assertion that "rating scales need to be as clear and as usable as possible..." The two ways he proposes to accomplish a clear, usable scale are to refine the forms of “the stimulus variable" and of "the response variable" (Wolf, 1990: 496). The new criteria refined the presently used holistic criteria by adding descriptors for each level of performance and a scale of points. The new criteria were focused holistic criteria. The authors reviewed the guidelines published by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and the British English Speaking Union, as well as the rating criteria used by the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate, the Educational Testing Service and the University of Michigan's English Language Institute. The criteria of the Instituto Xxxxxxxxx/Universidad de Salamanca and the Junta Qualificadora de Coneixements xx Xxxxxxxx were also taken into account.
Materials and Method. No Issues in a Centralized Marketplace 1 Platform users are concerned about privacy, personal information misuse, and product quality [8],[9].
Materials and Method. 85 Medical records of the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), University of London were 86 retrospectively reviewed for dogs that underwent MR imaging leading to a presumptive 87 diagnosis of either ANNPE or IM, between November 2009 and December 2013. Electronic 88 clinical records were searched for the diagnoses “ischemic myelopathy”, “fibrocartilaginous 89 embolism”, “acute noncompressive nucleus pulposus extrusion”, “traumatic intervertebral disk 90 extrusion” and “high velocity low volume disk extrusion”. Information retrieved from medical 91 records included breed, age, gender, clinical history, general physical examination and 92 neurological examination findings. 93 Inclusion criteria for the study were as follows: dogs with an acute onset myelopathy that was 94 nondeteriorating after 24 hours, and MRI performed at the RVC leading to a diagnosis of either 95 IM or ANNPE. Exclusion criteria were as follows: incomplete or inadequate quality MRI 96 sequences, incomplete clinical history, and concurrent spinal disease (fractures, Xxxxxx Type 97 I disk disease). 98 Magnetic resonance imaging studies for all dogs were anonymized using image analysis 99 freeware (Osirix Dicom viewer, Osirix Foundation v5.5.2, Geneva, Switzerland) and 100 randomized using a random number generator (Microsoft Excel for Mac 2011 v14, Microsoft 101 Corporation, Redmond, WA). Sixty studies were duplicated and added to the original studies 102 in a randomized order to facilitate analysis of intraobserver agreement. The anonymized MRI 103 studies were then given to one board-certified veterinary neurologist (Assessor 1) and one 104 board-certified veterinary radiologist (Assessor 2) for independent assessment. The assessors 105 were provided with written instructions and specific criteria to use in making a presumptive 106 diagnosis of IM, ANNPE, or “other” for each study (full questionnaire available on request 107 from the corresponding author). 108 The assessors were first asked to identify and record the vertebral level of the lesion. They were 109 asked to assess the presence of an intramedullary T2W hyperintense lesion (present or not, with 110 intensity defined as compared to normal spinal cord parenchyma), any lateralisation of this 111 lesion (left, right or symmetrical), whether the lesion affected predominantly grey matter, white 112 matter or both, and if the lesion was overlying an intervertebral disk space, vertebral body or 113 both. The length of the lesion as a rati...
Materials and Method. This study is part of the Bologna West First Episode Psychosis project (Bo-FEP) based in Northern Italy. As described in our previous work (Xxxxxxxxx et al, 2012), Bo-FEP is a naturalistic incidence study that included all patients aged between 18 and 64 years, at their first episode of psychosis, who had a contact with one of the three Community Mental Health Centres (CMHCs) of the West Bologna area (CMHC “Nani”, “Tiarini” and “Scalo”) from January 2002 to December 2009. The Bologna West CMHC runs the Bo-First Episode Program for optimal management of first onset psychosis patients within the general outpatient mental health service. The inclusion criteria are based on those used in the WHO study (Xxxxxxxxx et al, 1992): i.e., presence of hallucinations, delusions, thought disorders, bizarre or disturbed behaviors, negative symptoms, mania, or clinical suspicion of psychosis; absence of an organic cause or profound learning disability; and no previous contact with psychiatric services for psychotic symptoms. Case notes were used to complete the Item Group Checklist (IGC), part of the SCAN (Schedule for Clinical Assessment of Neuropsychiatry, Version 2.1, World Health Organization- Division of Mental Health, Geneva 1998), to collect symptom-related data at the time of presentation and one month later to ensure that cases met ICD-10 criteria for psychotic disorders. Diagnoses were allocated by consensus agreement from a panel of psychiatrists at each study centre and the clinical researcher who completed the ICG-SCAN. We considered 4 diagnostic groups: 1) affective psychoses (ICD F30-F33), 2) non-affective psychoses (ICD10 F20-29), 3) schizophrenia (ICD10 F20, including schizoaffective disorder F25), and 4) substance-induced psychoses (SIPs) (ICD10 F10-F19). Age of onset was collected by asking the patients and/or key informants about when s/he experienced the first psychotic symptoms as defined above. Date of first contact with services was defined as the date when he/she was referred for the first time to Bologna West CMHC for his/her first episode of psychosis. For each participant, use of drugs was systematically derived from clinical charts and the psychiatrists responsible for the patients. The frequency of cannabis use and other drugs were recorded using the categories available from the Cannabis Experience Questionnaire’s (CEQ) items (Xxxxxx et al., 2006; Di Forti et al, 2009). Subjects who used drugs “few times each month” or more frequently in the...
