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Project description:Olfaction is an important aspect of quality of life, beyond simply smelling food and recognizing danger. Recently, research has focused on its association with various diseases, such as neurodegenerative diseases or viral infections. The evaluation of olfactory function must take into consideration the cultural experience of the target group. A new Korean culturefriendly olfactory function test, the YSK olfactory function test (YOF test, Kimex Co.), uses safe odorants, such as phenyl-ethyl alcohol (PEA) (not n-butanol), for the threshold test. Furthermore, odorants in the YOF identification test reflect each of eight major chemical functional groups. The diagnostic cut-off for anosmia was a Threshold Discrimination Identification (TDI) score of ≤14.5 and that for hyposmia was 14.5<TDI≤21.0. The YOF test showed relevant diagnostic validity for olfactory dysfunction when compared with the Korean version of the Sniffin' Stick-II test. In this review, we share our experiences developing a new Korean-friendly olfactory function test.
| S-EPMC11540245 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe seesaw test consists of flexion and extension of the thumb metacarpal on the trapezium, with continuous axial pressure to keep the metacarpal base reduced in the carpometacarpal (CMC) joint. We aim to evaluate this maneuver compared with the grind test.MethodsWe prospectively enrolled 80 participants from March 2017 to March 2018 at a single institution, excluding those who had previous thumb surgery or pathology. Each participant underwent both seesaw and grind tests by 2 independent examiners. We included 24 patients with a mean age of 73 years in the CMC osteoarthritis group (Eaton stages 2-4) and 44 patients with a mean age of 66 years in the control group (Eaton stages 0 and 1). We calculated the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and multirater κ measure.ResultsThe seesaw test had a higher sensitivity than the grind test (42%-71% vs 13%-17%), but a lower specificity (82%-86% vs 91%-98%). The PPV was more consistent between examiners for the seesaw test (63%-68% vs 42%-80%), and the NPV was higher (73%-84% vs 66%-68%). There was a slight agreement between the attending surgeon and the fellow performing the grind test (κ = 0.08) and a moderate agreement between the attending surgeon and the fellow performing the seesaw test (κ = 0.59).ConclusionsThe seesaw test is superior to the grind test, with a much higher sensitivity, slightly lower specificity, more consistent PPV, and slightly higher NPV. Therefore, the seesaw test could be a valuable addition or even replacement for the grind test, and we recommend considering it in daily practice.
| S-EPMC9274880 | biostudies-literature
Project description: Not available
2020-03-23 | MSV000071696 | MassIVE
Project description:ObjectivesThe aim was to assess the content validity of a new field test on general and soccer-specific motor skills before return to play.MethodsThe RONDO-TEST was assessed by a Delphi panel for its content validity. It included a survey to evaluate 16 items related to the test consisting of four 10 m lines which cross over at their mid-point, resulting in eight 5 m sectors that include locomotor skills (speeding, moving sideways, side cutting, and jumping) and soccer-specific technical skills (dribbling, slalom course, and kicking/passing). The content validity was calculated with the Aiken's V coefficient of acceptance at 0.69 and 95% of confidence interval.ResultsEight experts participated in the Delphi and agreed on the administration procedures after three rounds of suggestions. Major changes included the order of execution and the descriptions of the sectors. The results showed consensus (V = 1, maximum acceptance) for the clarity of instructions, the relevance of the skills to be evaluated, the order of execution, the materials and the relevance of measuring total and partial sector times.ConclusionsThe RONDO-TEST may be feasible and simple to administer and evaluate technical functional skills (actions) and condition-related abilities (e.g., the ability to repeat the test, fatigue curve, etc.), which are relevant aspects for return to play under optimum conditions.
| S-EPMC11755452 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Evidence from clinical research suggests that in the first two waves of COVID-19, the virus spread rapidly through a large number of undocumented asymptomatic infections. These 'silent' infections camouflaged the actual incidence of the disease, leading to downward biases in the rates of transmission, disease prevalence, and fatality. These, in turn, had implications for how people and policymakers responded to changing infection prevalence. This paper posits that in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a considerable number of SARS-CoV-2 infections spread through asymptomatic infected individuals who lacked economic incentives to test and isolate adequately. The decision to undertake testing and the subsequent possibility of isolation entails a calculus of benefits and costs for an individual. Given that the perceived net benefit of such actions is correlated with the observed risk of infection, the likelihood of an asymptomatic individual choosing to undergo testing increases with the existing infection prevalence rate. This behavior, in turn, influenced disease transmission and mortality dynamics. This study presents an analytical framework that integrates prevalence-dependent testing behavior into a traditional epidemiological model. The model's predictions provide critical policy insights. It reveals that failing to account for testing and isolation behavior results in underestimation of the infection propagation and fatality rates when reported disease prevalence is low, thereby, skewing the containment strategies in the initial and late stages of a pandemic. The findings underscore the necessity of enhancing testing capacity as a crucial countermeasure for future contagions like COVID-19.
| S-EPMC11651578 | biostudies-literature
Project description:PurposeTo describe a novel algorithm (MEDTEG) for dynamically adding new test locations to a perimetric grid-to provide a more personalized/comprehensive visual field (VF) assessment.MethodsMEDTEG operates by finding the most informative new test location. First, Voronoi tessellation is used to construct a list of candidate locations (i.e., points that lie in between the current test locations, even when the current grid is sparse or irregular). Next, each candidate's probability mass function is computed using natural neighbor interpolation. Finally, the most informative candidate is determined by computing the expected reduction in entropy (after trial t + 1) and then multiplying this value by the area of its Voronoi cell, to estimate the overall volume of expected information gain. Optional weighting coefficients can be applied to encourage/restrict testing to particular spatial locations (e.g., to avoid the midline, target the macula, or prioritize regions exhibiting structural damage).ResultsUsing a combination of mathematics, graphics, and MATLAB code, we describe the algorithm and simulate possible use cases. These include ways of providing more detailed evaluations of small scotomas ("enhanced perimetry"), more efficiently assessing patients with extensive loss ("personalized perimetry"), or maximizing VF information in patients with limited attention spans ("indeterminate duration perimetry").ConclusionsSimulations of perimetric data indicate that MEDTEG provides a logical and flexible way of automatically adding test locations to an existing perimetric test grid, or of constructing entirely novel grids based on a handful of seed locations.Translational relevanceMEDTEG may facilitate more informative VF assessments or allow testing in challenging populations.
| S-EPMC11881782 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The Spurling test, although a highly specific provocative test of the cervical spine in cervical radiculopathy (CR), has low to moderate sensitivity. Thus, we introduced the neck tornado test (NTT) to examine the neck and the cervical spine in CR.The aim of this study was to introduce a new provocative test, the NTT, and compare the diagnostic accuracy with a widely accepted provocative test, the Spurling test.Retrospective study.Medical records of 135 subjects with neck pain (CR, n = 67; without CR, n = 68) who had undergone cervical spine magnetic resonance imaging and been referred to the pain clinic between September 2014 and August 2015 were reviewed. Both the Spurling test and NTT were performed in all patients by expert examiners. Sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were compared for both the Spurling test and the NTT.The sensitivity of the Spurling test and the NTT was 55.22% and 85.07% (P < 0.0001); specificity, 98.53% and 86.76% (P = 0.0026); accuracy, 77.04% and 85.93% (P = 0.0423), respectively.The NTT is more sensitive with superior diagnostic accuracy for CR diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging than the Spurling test.
| S-EPMC5562117 | biostudies-other
Project description:An important aspect of the perceived quality of vocal music is the degree to which the vocalist sings in tune. Although most listeners seem sensitive to vocal mistuning, little is known about the development of this perceptual ability or how it differs between listeners. Motivated by a lack of suitable preexisting measures, we introduce in this article an adaptive and ecologically valid test of mistuning perception ability. The stimulus material consisted of short excerpts (6 to 12 s in length) from pop music performances (obtained from MedleyDB; Bittner et al., 2014) for which the vocal track was pitch-shifted relative to the instrumental tracks. In a first experiment, 333 listeners were tested on a two-alternative forced choice task that tested discrimination between a pitch-shifted and an unaltered version of the same audio clip. Explanatory item response modeling was then used to calibrate an adaptive version of the test. A subsequent validation experiment applied this adaptive test to 66 participants with a broad range of musical expertise, producing evidence of the test's reliability, convergent validity, and divergent validity. The test is ready to be deployed as an experimental tool and should make an important contribution to our understanding of the human ability to judge mistuning.
| S-EPMC6478636 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Cartilage metabolism-both the synthesis and breakdown of cartilage constituents and architecture-is influenced by its mechanical loading. Therefore, physical activity is often recommended to maintain cartilage health and to treat or slow the progression of osteoarthritis, a debilitating joint disease causing cartilage degeneration. However, the appropriate exercise frequency, intensity, and duration cannot be prescribed because direct in vivo evaluation of cartilage following exercise has not yet been performed. To address this gap in knowledge, we developed a cartilage stress test to measure the in vivo strain response of healthy human subjects' tibial cartilage to walking exercise. We varied both walk duration and speed in a dose-dependent manner to quantify how these variables affect cartilage strain. We found a nonlinear relationship between walk duration and in vivo compressive strain, with compressive strain initially increasing with increasing duration, then leveling off with longer durations. This work provides innovative measurements of cartilage creep behavior (which has been well-documented in vitro but not in vivo) during walking. This study showed that compressive strain increased with increasing walking speed for the speeds tested in this study (0.9-2.0 m/s). Furthermore, our data provide novel measurements of the in vivo strain response of tibial cartilage to various doses of walking as a mechanical stimulus, with maximal strains of 5.0% observed after 60 minutes of walking. These data describe physiological benchmarks for healthy articular cartilage behavior during walking and provide a much-needed baseline for studies investigating the effect of exercise on cartilage health.
| S-EPMC6381136 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We introduce a new Dutch receptive vocabulary test, the Dutch auditory & image vocabulary test (DAIVT). The test is multiple choice and assesses vocabulary knowledge for spoken words. The measure has an online (available at https://tpsurvey.ugent.be/limesurvey315/index.php/923234?lang=nl) format, has free access, and allows easy data collection. The test was developed with the intent to enable testing for research purposes with university students. This paper describes the test construction. We cover three phases: 1) collecting stimulus materials and developing the test's first version, 2) an exploratory item-analysis on the first draft (n = 93), and 3) validating the test (both the second and the final version) by comparing it to two existing tests (n = 270, n = 157). The results indicate that the test is reliable and correlates well with existing Dutch receptive vocabulary tests (convergent validity). The final version of the DAIVT comprises 90 test items and 1 practice item. It can be used freely for research purposes.
| S-EPMC7824982 | biostudies-literature