Comparison of diagnostic validity of two autism rating scales for suspected autism in a large Chinese sample

BACKGROUND Autism is the most common clinical developmental disorder in children.The childhood autism rating scale(CARS)and autistic autism behavior checklist(ABC)are the most commonly used assessment scales for diagnosing autism.However,the diagnostic validations and the corresponding cutoffs for CARS and ABC in individuals with suspected autism spectrum disorder(ASD)remain unclear.Furthermore,for suspected ASD in China,it remains unclear whether CARS is a better diagnostic tool than ABC.Also unclear is whether the current cutoff points for ABC and CARS are suitable for the accurate diagnosis of ASD.AIM To investigate the diagnostic validity of CARS and ABC based on a large Chinese sample.METHODS A total of 591 outpatient children from the ASD Unit at Beijing Children’s Hospital between June and November 2019 were identified.First,the Clancy autism behavior scale(CABS)was used to screen out suspected autism from these children.Then,each suspected ASD was evaluated by CARS and ABC.Receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve analysis was used to compare diagnostic validations.We also calculated the area under the curve(AUC)for both CARS and ABC.RESULTS We found that the Cronbach alpha coefficients of CARS and ABC were 0.772 and 0.426,respectively.Therefore,the reliability of the CARS was higher than that of the ABC.In addition,we found that the correlation between CARS and CABS was 0.732.Next,we performed ROC curve analysis for CARS and ABC,which yielded AUC values of 0.846 and 0.768,respectively.The cutoff value,which is associated with the maximum Youden index,is usually applied as a decision threshold.We found that the cutoff values of CARS and ABC were 34 and 67,respectively.CONCLUSION This result indicated that CARS is superior to ABC in the Chinese population with suspected ASD.

Using dementia rating scales in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease

Objective： To study the significance of dementia rating scales in the diagnosis of Alzheimer＇ s disease（AD）. Methods： Probable AD patients（118 cases） diagnosed according to NINCDS-ADRDA criteria and the normal controls（100 cases） were examined with a battery of neuropsychological tests and the dementia severity of AD patients was determined with clinical dementia rating （CDR）. Changed neuropsychological characteristics of different AD dementia severities were analyzed. The discriminant analysis and ROC curve analysis were perfomed to analyze the specificity, the sensitivity, and the general accuracy of various dementia rating scales in the diagnosis of AD, and the area under the ROC curve. Results： The total cognition function in mild （CDR = 1 ）, moderate（CDR = 2） and severe stages（CDR=3） of AD had an obvious trend of continuous decline, with the MMSE values 17.44±2.64, 13.90±4.32, and 5.50 ± 3.90 respectively. The trend of decline of the verbal fluency function in AD was same as that of total cognition function. The visuospatial function was reduced in early stage of AD （CDR = 1 ） and completely lost in moderate and severe AD. Delay memory function began to show decline in the early stage of AD, and the decline turned apparent in moderate and severe AD. Immediate memory function showed unchanged in early stage of AD, while showed decline in moderate AD, and the decline became very quick in severe AD. The impairment of daily living ability and social activity function developed with the severity degree of AD. But the decline of social activity function was very quick in moderate stage of AD. In general, the leading scale to diagnose AD was FOM, followed by RVR, POD, MMSE, BD,ADL and DS. When MMSE was combined with one or more of FOM, RVR, BD, DS, the general accuracy in distinguishing AD from the normal controls was improved. Conclusion： Neuropsychological test is useful in the diagnosis of AD, especially in the early stage. The validity is improved when dementia rating scales are combined correctly.

Effect of Rating Scales and Test Parts of Body on the Evaluation Results of Fabric-evoked Prickle

The effect of rating scales and test parts of body on the fabric-evoked prickle evaluation results are studied by carrying out subjective evaluation tests under controlled environment conditions （24 4±1）℃, （65 =l= 5） %RH. Ten college female students aged about 20 were chosen as the subjects, who have participated a preliminary training on subjective prickle evaluation. The prickle of a range of 9 light-weight worsted woven wool and wool blend fabrics and a cotton fabric were tested by using a 1 - 5 rating scale and using a 0 - 10 rating scale respectively at different test parts of body respectively such as forearm, upper arm ball and neck back. The test results were statistically analyzed. It is found that there is a significant correlation coefficient between the evaluation results of using the 1 - 5 rating scale and of using the 0- 10 rating scale. It is also found that there are highly significant correlation coefficients between the evaluation results of using the forearm prickle test and the neck back prickle test, between the evaluation results of using the neck back prickle test and the upper arm ball prickle test, and between the evaluation results of using the forearm prickle test and the upper arm ball prickle test. It is suggested that the forearm prickle test is preferable in evaluating fabric-evoked prickle for its convenience and sensitivity.

围绝经期评定量表Menopause Rating Scale(MRS)中文版信度及效度分析

[目的]测定围绝经期评定量表(MRS)中文版的信度和效度。[方法]应用MRS中文版对126例围绝经期女性进行测量,对测定结果进行信度和效度分析。[结果]MRS中文版总的Cronbach′sα系数为0.890,3个维度的Cronbach′sα系数为0.731～0.868;总问卷的重测信度为0.887,3个维度的重测信度为0.661～0.883;探索性因子分析表明MRS中文版包括3个因子,共11个条目;3个因子可以解释总方差的73.68%;验证性因子分析显示数据拟合良好(χ2/df为1.170,近似误差均方根(RMSEA)为0.050,规范拟合指数(NFI)为0.894。[结论]MRS中文版具有良好的信度和效度,适合测量中国围绝经期妇女的生活质量。

Effect of Heating Rates on the Formable Oxide Scale on a C-Steel Surface

Oxide scale formation on a C-steel surface has been investigated using linear heating rates ranging from 0.1℃/min to 10℃/min at high temperatures. The studies on the oxide scale formation at high temperature (650℃) at slower heating rate (0.1℃/min) shows that the kinetic regime is linear. X-ray diffraction measurements revealed that the scale constituents are significantly influenced by the heating rate. The adherence of the scale was improved by using slower heating rate (0.1℃/min-≤650℃), while above such degree the scale was susceptible to cracking and flaking out of the alloy surface. In fact, the development of oxide growth stresses can cause considerable scale cracking. As well, variation of the crystallite sizes under the aforementioned conditions might affect the scale stacking to the alloy surface. The secondary electron detector images of the oxide scale shows that the scale was imperfectly smooth and there were a number of voids and defects in the scale skin, especially at fast heating rate. This observation could be attributed to defects of the as-received alloy. In general, slower heating rate reduced the defects of the scale and improved its adherence.

Single-Channel Speech Enhancement Using Critical-Band Rate Scale Based Improved Multi-Band Spectral Subtraction

This paper addresses the problem of single-channel speech enhancement in the adverse environment. The critical-band rate scale based on improved multi-band spectral subtraction is investigated in this study for enhancement of single-channel speech. In this work, the whole speech spectrum is divided into different non-uniformly spaced frequency bands in accordance with the critical-band rate scale of the psycho-acoustic model and the spectral over-subtraction is carried-out separately in each band. In addition, for the estimation of the noise from each band, the adaptive noise estimation approach is used and does not require explicit speech silence detection. The noise is estimated and updated by adaptively smoothing the noisy signal power in each band. The smoothing parameter is controlled by a-posteriori signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). For the performance analysis of the proposed algorithm, the objective measures, such as, SNR, segmental SNR, and perceptual evaluations of the speech quality are conducted for the variety of noises at different levels of SNRs. The speech spectrogram and objective evaluations of the proposed algorithm are compared with other standard speech enhancement algorithms and proved that the musical structure of the remnant noise and background noise is better suppressed by the proposed algorithm.

Assessment of Stress Cognitive Control and Executive Function with Stress Control Rating Scale (ECOSTRESS) and Low Resolution Brain Electromagnetic Tomography (LORETA) (In Portuguese People in Situations of Unemployment and Economic Insufficiency)

This article reviews the constructs of stress, appraisal, coping, according to a transactional perspective, and executive function, and presents a stress control rating scale (ECOSTRESS), which design is founded in these constructs. This psychometric tool is useful in the assessment of cognitive control of stress, correlated with the function of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. It has been validated for its use in the assessment of Portuguese people in situations of stress related to unemployment and economic insufficiency. Also, within the context of the cognitive control of stress, it is highlighted the usefulness of low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (LORETA).

Image Tamper Detection and Multi-Scale Self-Recovery Using Reference Embedding with Multi-Rate Data Protection

This paper proposes a multi-scale self-recovery(MSSR)approach to protect images against content forgery.The main idea is to provide more resistance against image tampering while enabling the recovery process in a multi-scale quality manner.In the proposed approach,the reference data composed of several parts and each part is protected by a channel coding rate according to its importance.The first part,which is used to reconstruct a rough approximation of the original image,is highly protected in order to resist against higher tampering rates.Other parts are protected with lower rates according to their importance leading to lower tolerable tampering rate(TTR),but the higher quality of the recovered images.The proposed MSSR approach is an efficient solution for the main disadvantage of the current methods,which either recover a tampered image in low tampering rates or fails when tampering rate is above the TTR value.The simulation results on 10000 test images represent the efficiency of the multi-scale self-recovery feature of the proposed approach in comparison with the existing methods.

Application of the Childhood Autism Rating Scale to Grasp Autistic Characteristics of the Trainees with Intellectual Disabilities in Agricultural Vocational Training

The purpose of this study was to propose indicators for grasping autistic characteristics of people with intellectual disabilities who were going to engage in agricultural vocational training. We analyzed the data of the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) of 44 students at the high school course of a special needs education school who participated in agricultural vocational training. The data were divided into two groups according to the scores of “General Impressions”, one of 15 question items of the CARS: one was the group whose score was 1 (usual), and the other was the group whose scores were 1.5 to 4 (unusual). The results of the Mann-Whitney U test showed significant differences between two groups in eight items including “Relating to People” (p Relating to People” with six other items. As a result, “Relating to People” was considered to be the most effective item to know the participant’s autistic characteristics at a very early stage of training. Eventually, adding two items, “Body Use” and “Imitation” which are necessary to master agricultural tasks, to “Relating to People”, we proposed three indicators.

Modified Multiple Scale/Segment Entropy （MMPE） Analysis of Heart Rate Variability of NHH, CHF ＆ AF Subjects

Nonlinear analysis of heart rate variability （HRV） has become important as heart behaves as a complex system. In this work, the approximate entropy （ApEn） has been used as a nonlinear measure. A new concept of estimating the ApEn in different segments of long length of the recorded data called modified multiple scale （segment） entropy （MMPE） is introduced. The idea of estimating the approximate entropy in different segments is useful to detect the nonlinear dynamics of the heart present in the entire length of data. The present work has been carried out for three cases namely the normal healthy heart （NHH） data, congestive heart failure （CHF） data and Atrial fibrillation （AF） data and the data are analyzed using MMPE techniques. It is observed that the mean value of ApEn for NHH data is much higher than the mean values for CHF data and AF data. The ApEn profiles of CHF, AF and NHH data for different segments obtained using MPE profiles measures the heart dynamism for the three different cases. Also the power spectral density is obtained using fast fourier transform （FFT） analysis and the ratio of LF/HF （low frequency/high frequency） power are computed on multiple scales/segments namely MPLH （multiple scale low frequency to high frequency） for the NHH data, CHF data and AF data and analyzed using MPLH techniques. The results are presented and discussed in the paper.

The laparoscopic rating scale for the evaluation of working conditions for surgical treatment of super-obesity

In this technical note,a novel rating scale(abdominal integral index)was introduced for assessing the conditions of the working laparoscopic space based on linear measurements to select the optimal one or two-stage surgical treatment for super-obesity.Patients with the same height and similar BMI values had different rating scale scores,reflecting different conditions of laparoscopic bariatric surgery.The rating scale helps surgeons and patients make a safe option for surgery,depending on the experience of the surgeon and technical laparoscopic conditions.

Introduction to cognitive assessment scales in screening for mild cognitive impairment after stroke: A review

Objective:In order to improve the quality of life of patients more effectively,this paper introduces the types and usages of scales for screening mild cognitive dysfunction after stroke and provides a basis for early identification of mild cognitive impairment.Methods:Read,analyze,summarize,and sort out relevant literature.Results:The mild cognitive impairment assessment scales are broadly divided into two categories:the comprehensive rating scales and the special assessment scales.There are 7 comprehensive assessment scales for the comprehensive rating scales,among which the Mini-mental State of Examination and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale are the most widely used.The special assessment scales are mainly evaluated by the symptoms of cognitive dysfunction and can be divided into five types.Conclusion:Early diagnosis and intervention in patients with cognitive dysfunction will help improve the prognosis of patients.Each assessment scale has its advantages and limitations in both sensitivity and discrimination.Effective use of appropriate scales to diagnose cognitive dysfunction and to screen early,to prevent early,to treat early can effectively improve the quality of life of elderly patients.

A Glimpse into a Potential Influencing Factor of China’s Exchange Rate: Social Financing Scale

The indicator of social financing scale(SFS)has become a new intermediate target for China’s socioeconomic regulation since 2011,which has a better tracking performance on important economic indicators such as CPI and is also the new intermediate target of monetary policy used by China’s central bank to replace M2 at present.So,is there an impact of the social financing scale on another important economic indicator,the RMB exchange rate?This paper conducted an OLS regression analysis of the time series data of social financing scale and the nominal effective exchange rate(NEER)of RMB for a total of 61 months from October 2016 to October 2021 and find that SFS has a significant positive impact on the exchange rate of RMB.This result means that the expansion of SFS will lead to the appreciation of RMB.In addition,the paper fills the research gap on the combination of SFS and RMB exchange rate,and suggests that mechanisms such as monetary policy or domestic interest rates may be responsible for this correlation at the theoretical level.

Experimental investigation and theoretical modeling on scale behaviors of high salinity wastewater in zero liquid discharge process of coal chemical industry

Zero liquid discharge(ZLD)treatment and reuse equipment of high salinity wastewater in coal-chemical industry often occur in various types of blockage problems because of high salt content,affecting the long-term stability of the device.In this study,the effects of solution temperature,steel,reaction time and wall roughness on fouling were investigated.The changes in the contents of fouling and fouling substances were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed by XRD and EDS respectively,and the formation of scale was observed by SEM.The results show that with temperature increasing,Q235 steel is the most difficult to scale.Scaling rate of all salt scales reaches a maximum after 12 h,and the fouling rate decreases significantly from 12 to 48 h.It gradually stabilizes at 48 to 96 h.With the roughness increasing,the thickness of fouling layer increases,and a linear relationship is presented for 1 to 10 h.By comparing actual and simulated wastewater scaling rates,the relationship between actual and simulated wastewater scaling rates is y=ax-0.494.The composition of the scale was analyzed,calcium carbonate is the main product and increases with fouling time.Based on the above-mentioned results combining literatures,the hybrid prediction model with calcium carbonate as the main product is put forward.It is discussed microscopically that calcium carbonate is converted from aragonite and vaterite in a thermodynamically metastable state to calcite in a thermodynamically stable state.

Predictive Model for Corrosion Rate of Oil Tubes in CO_2/H_2S Coexistent Environment Part Ⅰ: Building of Model

Based on an analysis of the existing models of CO 2 corrosion in literatures and the autoclave simulative experiments, a predictive model of corrosion rate (r corr) in CO 2/H 2S corrosion for oil tubes has been established, in which r corr is expressed as a function of pH, temperature (T), pressure of CO 2 (P CO 2) and pressure of H 2S (P H 2S). The model has been verified by experimental data obtained on N80 steel. The improved features of the predictive model include the following aspects: (1) The influence of temperature on the protectiveness of corrosion film is taken into consideration for establishment of predictive model of the r corr in CO 2/H 2S corrosion. The Equations of scale temperature and scale factor are put forward, and they fit the experimental result very well. (2) The linear relationship still exists between ln r corr and ln P CO 2 in CO 2/H 2S corrosion (as same as that in CO 2 corrosion). Therefore, a correction factor as a function of P H 2S has been introduced into the predictive model in CO 2/H 2S corrosion. (3) The model is compatible with the main existing models.

Parameterization of Sheared Entrainment in a Well-developed CBL.PartⅡ:A Simple Model for Predicting the Growth Rate of the CBL

Following the parameterization of sheared entrainment obtained in the companion paper, Liu et al. （2016）, the present study aims to further investigate the characteristics of entrainment, and develop a simple model for predicting the growth rate of a well-developed and sheared CBL. The relative stratification, defined as the ratio of the stratification in the free atmosphere to that in the entrainment zone, is found to be a function of entrainment flux ratio （Ae）. This leads to a simple expression of the entrainment rate, in which Ae needs to be parameterized. According to the results in Liu et al. （2016）, Ae can be simply expressed as the ratio of the convective velocity scale in the sheared CBL to that in the shear-free CBL. The parameterization of the convective velocity scale in the sheared CBL is obtained by analytically solving the bulk model with several assumptions and approximations. Results indicate that the entrainment process is influenced by the dynamic effect, the interaction between mean shear and environmental stratification, and one other term that includes the Coriolis effect. These three parameterizations constitute a simple model for predicting the growth rate of a well-developed and sheared CBL. This model is validated by outputs of LESs, and the results show that it performs satisfactorily. Compared with bulk models, this model does not need to solve a set of equations for the CBL. It is more convenient to apply in numerical models.

Changes in Heart Rate Variability and Effects on POMS by Whether or Not Soil Observation Was Performed

Introduction: The effects of performing soil observation on autonomic nerve function (ANS) and the profile of mood states (POMS) particularly for upsurge of sentiment were studied table. Methods: The subjects were divided into two groups: Group A with soil observation, and Group B without it. Soil observation was performed by smelling soil, touching the soil and other ways. Evaluation was made using heart rate change variability, POMS and visual analog scale (VAS). Results: Group A showed an increase in high frequency (HF) and the LF (low frequency)/HF ratio and a decrease in heart rate, leading to activating the functions of the parasympathetic nervous system. VAS values for “not comforted at all” indicated that the scale was lower in Group A than in Group B. In POMS, a factor of “vigor” became lower in Group B than in Group A. Discussion: It was suggested that soil observation was effective in bringing people to a state of physiological and mental relaxation and reducing stress because it raised the degree of being comforted, increased HF, decreased the heart rate and activated the parasympathetic nervous system. Conclusions: By performing soil observation, the heart rate decreased, HF increased and an upsurge sentiment became normalized.

Detecting dynamical complexity changes in time series using the base-scale entropy

Timely detection of dynamical complexity changes in natural and man-made systems has deep scientific and practical meanings. We introduce a complexity measure for time series： the base-scale entropy. The definition directly applies to arbitrary real-word data. We illustrate our method on a practical speech signal and in a theoretical chaotic system. The results show that the simple and easily calculated measure of base-scale entropy can be effectively used to detect qualitative and quantitative dynamical changes.

Revisiting the Curie-Von Schweidler Law for Dielectric Relaxation and Derivation of Distribution Function for Relaxation Rates as Zipf’s Power Law and Manifestation of Fractional Differential Equation for Capacitor

The classical power law relaxation, i.e. relaxation of current with inverse of power of time for a step-voltage excitation to dielectric—as popularly known as Curie-von Schweidler law is empirically derived and is observed in several relaxation experiments on various dielectrics studies since late 19th Century. This relaxation law is also regarded as “universal-law” for dielectric relaxations;and is also termed as power law. This empirical Curie-von Schewidler relaxation law is then used to derive fractional differential equations describing constituent expression for capacitor. In this paper, we give simple mathematical treatment to derive the distribution of relaxation rates of this Curie-von Schweidler law, and show that the relaxation rate follows Zipf’s power law distribution. We also show the method developed here give Zipfian power law distribution for relaxing time constants. Then we will show however mathematically correct this may be, but physical interpretation from the obtained time constants distribution are contradictory to the Zipfian rate relaxation distribution. In this paper, we develop possible explanation that as to why Zipfian distribution of relaxation rates appears for Curie-von Schweidler Law, and relate this law to time variant rate of relaxation. In this paper, we derive appearance of fractional derivative while using Zipfian power law distribution that gives notion of scale dependent relaxation rate function for Curie-von Schweidler relaxation phenomena. This paper gives analytical approach to get insight of a non-Debye relaxation and gives a new treatment to especially much used empirical Curie-von Schweidler (universal) relaxation law.

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF MEASUREMENT FOR DISSIPATION RATE SCALING EXPONENT IN HEATED WALL TURBULENCE

Experimental investigations have been devoted to the study of scaling law of coarse-grained dissipation rate structure function for velocity and temperature fluctuation of non-isotropic and inhomogeneous turbulent flows at moderate Reynolds number. Much attention has been paid to the case of turbulent boundary layer, which is typically the non-istropic and inhomogeneous trubulence because of the dynamically important existence of organized coherent structure burst process in the near wall region . Longitudinal velocity and temperature have been measured at different vertical positions in turbulent boundary layer over a heated and unheated flat plate in a wind tunnel using hot wire anemometer. The influence of non-isotropy and inhomogeneity and heating the wall on the scaling law of the dissipation rate structure function is studied because of the existence of organized coherent structure burst process in the near wall region . The scaling law of coarse-grained dissipation rate structure function is foun